late 20's couple from Houston looking for cool things you can only do in Chicago.
Best casual place to eat? "No Hot Dogs", Pizza OK!
Best Nice/Unique/Cool/Good Food place to eat?
Where to go Saturday night?
What to do all day Sunday?
Open to anything. "No Sears Tower"
2006-09-22 14:04:41 · 12 answers · asked by Jackal 2 in Dining Out ➔ United States ➔ Chicago
"I MEANT THE WEEKEND OF OCTOBER 14TH" Thanks everyone for all the great answers! I'm taking plenty of notes.
2006-09-25 11:33:14 · update #1
Best casual place to eat:
Piece Brewery and Pizza -- one of a few local breweries; great pizza in the wonderful Bucktown neighborhood (lots of great restaurants, boutiques, clubs, bars)
http://www.piecechicago.com/
Best nice place to eat:
North Pond Cafe
Expensive, but great food in a historic Mission-style building in the middle of one of Chicago's largest parks. Gorgeous setting!
http://www.northpondrestaurant.com/
Best unique place to eat:
Kitsch'n on Roscoe
There's nothing else quite like it. Campy fun and comfort food. http://www.kitschn.com/
Also, Orange, 3231 N. Clark, one of the best brunches in town and home of frushi, seasonal fresh fruit rolled like sushi in fruit juice-infused rice. Yum!
Best cool place to eat (see & be seen):
Fancy: Moto is hipster central. Describing it doesn't do it justice; you'd just have to go. They even talk about Moto in NYC (and Bon Appetit just wrote it up again). http://www.motorestaurant.com
Casual: Minnie's, 1969 N. Halsted St., in trendy Lincoln Park (great boutique shopping nearby on Armitage)
http://www.centerstage.net/restaurants/minnie.html
Best good food:
mk: http://www.mkchicago.com/
Meritage: http://www.meritagecafe.com/home.html (very romantic)
Lao Sze Chuan in Chinatown (well worth the trip south): http://www.laoszechuan.com/ I dream about all the different ways they prepare green beans and Japanese eggplant.
Where to go Saturday?
Check listings in the Reader: http://www.chicagoreader.com for music, galleries, films, performance, etc.
Stop at Hot Tix for discount theatre tickets: http://www.hottix.org/ Each Friday, Hot Tix announces ticket availability for the whole weekend.
Blue Man Group, 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee or Second City are all outstanding choices.
http://www.blueman.com/
http://www.spellingbeethemusical.com/
http://www.secondcity.com/
What to do Sunday?
If you didn't see theatre on Saturday, do that.
Go to Lincoln Park Zoo: it's fun, it's small, it's free, and it recently completed a major renovation. The polar bears may play "peek-a-boo" with you; viewing windows allow you to get up close with lots of animals. http://www.lpzoo.com/index2.html
Take a tour with the Chicago Architecture Foundation: http://www.architecture.org/tours.aspx
I love the free Loop train tour. Walking tours (cheap) and the boat tour (not so cheap) along the Chicago River are great, too.
If you're into films, the Music Box Theatre is something to see. Once a grand movie palace, now a somewhat dilapidated one. But they show a great slate of independent films and put real butter on the popcorn. Sunday mornings they usually have at least one show where there's a live organist playing before the movies start. Great midnight movies on Fridays & Saturdays, often, too. http://www.musicboxtheatre.com/
Have fun!
2006-09-23 17:29:00 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
For the casual dining, go over to Greektown, short cab ride, several really good and fun restaurants there.
Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian Barbecue, is an absolute must if you have never been to one. It is a little pricey, but it is all you can eat. The give you a coaster - red and green sides. Servers dressed in gaucho outfits wander the restaurant with all kinds of skewered meats. You want more turn up the green side of the coaster. STAY AWAY from the salad bar!!! It is phenomenal but you get started there and don't have room for the wonderful meats. You best call for reservations (pull up there website for the phone number.
We saw Dustin Hoffman there last year.
Saturday night - House of Blues - get reservations there, too.
Sunday - take in the museums around Grants Park - The Art Institute, Shed Aquarium, Field Museum, Millennium Park - or shop farther north on the Magnificent Miles (Michigan Ave).
2006-09-23 02:42:03 · answer #2 · answered by pskomorn 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
For a casual place that is unique to Chicago, you have to try the Billy Goat Tavern. This is the place where John Belushi came up with that skit on S.N.L. "Cheezbooga, Cheezbooga". Good eats, don't ask for fries!
For Chicago style deep dish pizza, it's gotta be Lou Malnati's.
For something nice/cool, you could try Gioco's in the South Loop, an area that is really up and coming or anything in Lincoln Park.
For a nice place that is extremely expensive but unforgettable and truly Chicago, you could go to Charlie Trotter's. My husband and I celebrated an anniversary there and it such an incredible dining experience. The bill came to close to $600 for two (wine and full meal) but it was worth it. If you don't think you'll ever be out in Chicago again, try it.
As far as sightseeing goes, I would strongly recommend the architectural boat tour. It takes you on a cruise through downtown- you can get a really good view of the beautiful architecture.
Have fun. Chicago's a great city.
2006-09-22 18:05:31 · answer #3 · answered by curious 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Welcome to the Windy City!! The area you're staying in is great. You won't have to worry about crime. You will probably see more homeless people at night though. They don't bother anyone, just ask for change. It's not like you're going to be walking all over them either. It's kind of a shock to some people to see homeless folks though. As for a great place to eat and watch a baseball game or something, Jefferson Tap! My cousin owns it. It's on Lake and Jefferson. You can totally cab it. The address is 325 Jefferson Street. They have a website so you can check out their menu. It's very reasonable and they have amazing food! As far as your trip to O'Hare, you're probably going to be better off catching the blue line (the electric train system, or the "el") to O'Hare. Traffic is a nightmare on I-90 during rush hour. I'm not exaggerating either. It's horrendous. I'm in it everyday. Harry Cary's Restaurant is great too. They have a fine dining section that's very fancy, or you can sit at the bar and enjoy some delicous homemade potato chips. They have the ball that Bartman caught. Well, they have what's left of the ball...it's been blown up. They also have a "holy cow" there. Harry always used to say that! HOOOLY COW!!! *sniff, we miss Harry, sniff* Oh, one more word of advice...I would skip out on Navy Pier if you don't have time to see everything. It's not all that everyone thinks it's cracked up to be. There's the big ferris wheel, but that's seriously one of the only fun attractions there. I hate going there b/c it's over crowded with little to do. If you're into architecture, there's several architectural tours along the river. They are the best! I highly recommend them.
2016-03-18 00:11:02 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Casual place--Giordanos Pizza
Unique place--rock n roll McDonalds
Neighborhood: Near North Side, River North
600 N. Clark Street
Chicago, IL 60610 (312) 867-0455
Good food --Chinatown has tons of good restaurants. My favorite is Joy Yee Noodle.
I love the architectural river trip. They have a haunted one too.
Chicago has great museums including the King Tut exhibit at the Field Museum.
How about the House of Blues for Saturday Night.
2006-09-23 09:57:06 · answer #5 · answered by redunicorn 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
You say the weekend of Oct 24th.
Oct 24th is a Tuesday.
If you are going to be there on Sunday Oct 22, be advised that the Chicago Marathon will be held that day.
In addition to screwing up traffic downtown and other places along the route, it causes hotels to fill up. If you haven't booked rooms, I would do so right away.
2006-09-25 07:18:06 · answer #6 · answered by rt11guru 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You have some good answers here..... Billy Goat's has great cheesbergers....Greek Town is a fun place. I guess my favorites are the Parthenon and Greek Island. The Lincoln Park so is fun, so is Millenim Park on Michigan Avenue is beautiful. Also think about going to Navy Pier.
Chicago is a beautiful city, I hope you enjoy it!!
2006-09-25 01:40:28 · answer #7 · answered by Chi_Indy 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
For the best unusual place go to Ed Debevicks. I dont live in chicago,but have driven hours to go there. It a diner theme, with gerat big attitudes. But its a blast. they even dance on the counters. I would also call it a casual place. While your in the city go check out the museams, navy pear, millenium park, the free licnoln park zoo, and dont forget to walk the magnicifent mile on michigan for all your shopping. (ps Ive been to billy goats and it ahd great food too)
2006-09-25 06:54:18 · answer #8 · answered by trix 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
take the bus express from downtown and do the museum hop all day sunday then eat at Morton's steak hopuse on Rush
Saturday night dinner and theatre get tickets in advance and then eat at the palmer house so u can walk to the threatre
Try Pizza Uno
2006-09-25 08:36:04 · answer #9 · answered by nora7142@verizon.net 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Go to Gibsons and get a steak.Its a must.Celebrities freqent this place at night regularly,so keep your eyes open.About 50 bucks per person but well worth it.
2006-09-24 16:59:14 · answer #10 · answered by smurfty@sbcglobal.net 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋