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Chicago Recommendations

pcaggie

2nd Team
Gold Member
Dec 18, 2001
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The wife and I are going there for a three day anniversary weekend in July. I have never been, and am just looking for ideas of where to stay, what to see, what to eat, and where to drink from those in the know. Any input is appreciated.
 
Stay downtown. The Drake is my favorite but focus on downtown.

There are a ton of bars. I like the Public House.

Food.
Pizza Giadornos, Lou Malnatis

Skip Bayless brother's place, Frontera/Tompolo

Jimmy's in Oak Park has the best Italian. Take the green line.

Chicago is a great city!
 
Agree on the advice to stay downtown. We buy CTA cards and use the trains and buses for all transportation.

For pizza we like Giordanos the best. The Italian beef at Portillos is great. Our go to bar is Three Dots and a dash...it's a Tiki Bar in a basement and it's really close to the Rick Bayless restaurants if you're going to eat there.

Depending on your interests we really liked the CAF Architecture boat tour. Really good history on Chicago and amazing buildings. On kind of a fluke we did a jet boat tour right at dusk from Navy Pier and it was great. You get to see the Chicago skyline from the lake at night really a cool experience. We also generally try to catch a game at Wrigley.

Hope you all have a great time. Chicago is my favorite city.
 
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The wife and I are going there for a three day anniversary weekend in July. I have never been, and am just looking for ideas of where to stay, what to see, what to eat, and where to drink from those in the know. Any input is appreciated.
There's so many possibilities that it's impossible to give general what-to-do advice. All depends on what you're most interested in. But of the main 'touristy' things, the architecture boat tour is probably worth it. Navy Pier is good for the view but that's really it. Deep dish pizza is gross but Lou Malnatis is the best of that genre by far (in terms of the chains). Portillos has a good beef (although I haven't been there since they went corporate), but of course there's better at smaller joints in the neighborhoods.

Gotta get out of the Loop to really say you visited 'Chicago.' Tons of breweries in Ravenswood and adjacent neighborhoods. The best food is in Albany Park, Little Village, and Chinatown. Hipster/artisinal food and dining in Logan Square. Bayless has a new brewery and Oaxaca-style place in the West Loop, amidst all the other big name trendy chef spots. Arts Institute and Chicago History Museum are worth it. Museum of Science and Industry is OK only if you have kids. I go back-and-forth on the Field. Hancock has better views than Willis (ex-Sears Tower) if you're into that kind of stuff, but meh. Loop hotel availability and price in summer is impacted by Cubs schedule and any major conventions, so check the calendar.

Can offer fuller suggestions about above, or based on your interests.
 
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I've only been to Chicago once and I thought it was incredible. My only recommendation is to visit Goose Island brewery for a tour if you like beer. The tour was very well done and the facility was really incredible. You also get to see the first whiskey barrels to age beer. Very cool.

And if you want a little danger/excitement go for a job on the southside towards the evening.
 
I've only been to Chicago once and I thought it was incredible. My only recommendation is to visit Goose Island brewery for a tour if you like beer. The tour was very well done and the facility was really incredible. You also get to see the first whiskey barrels to age beer. Very cool.

And if you want a little danger/excitement go for a job on the southside towards the evening.
I would say drive down Cicero after 8PM.
 
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I would say drive down Cicero after 8PM.
Cicero even on the South Side isn't too awful. Now, S. Pulaski in the 2000-5000 blocks I have stories about (used to commute between NW Side and 7500 S Pulaski, would take the surface streets route to break the 90/94 to 55 monotony, which it certainly did).
 
I've only been to Chicago once and I thought it was incredible. My only recommendation is to visit Goose Island brewery for a tour if you like beer. The tour was very well done and the facility was really incredible. You also get to see the first whiskey barrels to age beer. Very cool.

And if you want a little danger/excitement go for a job on the southside towards the evening.

Skip Budweiser-owned Goose Island (even the original Clybourn location), in favor of Revolution, Half Acre, etc. Even better, take a behind the scenes tour of The Plant, a 90,000 sq foot self-sustaining vertical farm housed in a former meat processing plant at the former Stockyards. It includes a brewery and tap room now, focusing on barrel-aged funk. Southside!
 
Sucks monkey balls!
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Skip Budweiser-owned Goose Island (even the original Clybourn location), in favor of Revolution, Half Acre, etc. Even better, take a behind the scenes tour of The Plant, a 90,000 sq foot self-sustaining vertical farm housed in a former meat processing plant at the former Stockyards. It includes a brewery and tap room now, focusing on barrel-aged funk. Southside!
Just because Budweiser owns it now doesn't mean that they don't make good beer and that they weren't important to the craft beer scene. It's still a cool place. Although your recommendations sound good. I'll remember those after I win the Chicago Marathon in October.
 
Quality, variety, and creativity has dipped at Clybourn since full Bud ownership. Correlation doesn't equal causation, but the GI apprentice talent has probably declined. Still come out with good taproom small batches, just not the previously consistently awesome level. Production-wise, GI had to recall several batches
 
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Skip the deep dish pizza and hot dogs. Go get a breaded steak sandwich from Ricobene's. Get a hamburger at Kuma's. Go check out a show at Reggie's (I liked their hot beef better than Portillo's and Al's too). Hopleaf if it is still around was the perfect beer nerd bar with some good hard to find brews.
 
Skip the deep dish pizza and hot dogs. Go get a breaded steak sandwich from Ricobene's. Get a hamburger at Kuma's. Go check out a show at Reggie's (I liked their hot beef better than Portillo's and Al's too). Hopleaf if it is still around was the perfect beer nerd bar with some good hard to find brews.
Now we're getting warmer. Although Kuma's (Belmont original) is a shadow of its early self---still a good burger and a good experience especially if you like metal. Chicago sucks for live music, for many reasons, with Reggie's being one of the exceptions. Hopleaf is nirvana, my favorite bar ever, all that is right in the beer universe--it's celebrating 25 years (of buying and re-imagining a dive bar) and the owners are doing a nice job looking back. Get the mussels and/or the Montreal brisket sandwich.
 
If you like jazz go to Buddy Guys. Buddy is there a lot.
Really good electric blues, regional and national acts most nights. Buddy only plays a couple of weekends per year these days, and that's a tough ticket. Maybe he does some random surprise sit-ins but I'm not sure. Trending towards tourist trap. A unique live music experience is the Green Mill in Uptown, for jazz and some kinda blues stuff. Go in the off-hours, order a stiff drink, and sit in Capone's favorite booth. I'm writing a book about Uptown. AMA.
 
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Really good electric blues, regional and national acts most nights. Buddy only plays a couple of weekends per year these days, and that's a tough ticket. Maybe he does some random surprise sit-ins but I'm not sure. Trending towards tourist trap. A unique live music experience is the Green Mill in Uptown, for jazz and some kinda blues stuff. Go in the off-hours, order a stiff drink, and sit in Capone's favorite booth. I'm writing a book about Uptown. AMA.
I went to the Green Mill during the day so it was pretty dead but I'd love to go back when there's music, especially jazz. So cool
 
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I went to the Green Mill during the day so it was pretty dead but I'd love to go back when there's music, especially jazz. So cool
Yeah it's just a random joint during the day (but a good opportunity to get a good look at the place), gets going on the weekends around midnight and very packed. NPR's "Paper Machete" is taped there. The poetry slam concept was pioneered there, still a good place to catch it occasionally.
 
Now we're getting warmer. Although Kuma's (Belmont original) is a shadow of its early self---still a good burger and a good experience especially if you like metal. Chicago sucks for live music, for many reasons, with Reggie's being one of the exceptions. Hopleaf is nirvana, my favorite bar ever, all that is right in the beer universe--it's celebrating 25 years (of buying and re-imagining a dive bar) and the owners are doing a nice job looking back. Get the mussels and/or the Montreal brisket sandwich.

I've actually moved on to lockdown the last two times I have been in Chicago, but it's pretty far away from downtown so I didn't figure they'd venture out there.
 
If you like BBQ, some friends of ours took us to Green Street Smoked Meats a couple years ago and we really liked it. Of course a Cubs game is a must if they're in town.
 
Thanks to everyone for the input! Some great ideas I will share with the Mrs.!
 
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