An oversize vellum menu has its charms, but it can be hard to read in dim light, and we’ve seen more than one go up in flames when held too close to a candle. So we’re happy to read QR menus on our phones, a contactless innovation that began early in the pandemic and has stuck around. Added bonus: We can check the Cubs score, and no one is the wiser.
Best Dining InnovationLynette Smithon July 27, 2021 at 1:00 pm Read More »
Comedian Angie McMahon started this virtual game show last May, determined to throw the best house party. The premise: Writers create the setups, comedians compete to deliver the funniest punch lines — with occasional pop-ins from celebrity guests like Jay Mohr — and the audience rediscovers joy. (Sommer Austin’s suggestion for a new Ben & Jerry’s flavor? De-yummm the Police.) Soon Wisecrackin’ could get a bigger platform: McMahon and her team are in the middle of producing a TV pilot with comedy impresario Barry Katz. wisecrackin.com
Best Virtual Live Comedy ExperienceLynette Smithon July 27, 2021 at 1:00 pm Read More »
One pandemic silver lining: Restaurants started selling high-quality ingredients — meats, pastas, tinned seafood — directly to customers to juice revenue and appeal to home gourmets. Two of the best have become permanent fixtures. The retail display at El Che looks like one of those cases in an old-timey diner that sold Chiclets and cigarettes. Except here it’s John Manion’s world of Argentine steak cookery. Look! Here are bone-cut short ribs and footlong tomahawk chops. Here is Manion’s “beef whip” (a.k.a. seasoned tallow) to slather on the meat as it grills, and chimichurri to dollop on after it hits your plate. Why stop there? Upgrade your game with a Town Cutler cleaver. Buy the guide Manion wrote with local writer Maggie Hennessy on how to pit-cook beef at home. Pick up some wine, and you’ll feel like a backyard gaucho in no time. If your tastes run more to flora, then check out Daisies Market. Frillman Farms produce is the star, but don’t overlook the fresh pastas this restaurant is known for and a nicely curated selection of dry goods. El Che, 845 W. Washington Blvd., West Loop; Daisies, 2523 N. Milwaukee Ave., Logan Square
Best In-Restaurant MarketsLynette Smithon July 27, 2021 at 1:00 pm Read More »
Best of the New Chicago
The 58 people, places, foods, and finds that emerged from the darkness of the pandemic to make our reopened city even better than before
July 27, 2021, 8:01 am
Best of the New ChicagoLynette Smithon July 27, 2021 at 1:01 pm Read More »
What started out as a play area for the Schaumburg host’s children, then became a sleeper hit of an Airbnb in 2012, emerged during the COVID era as a bona fide blockbuster. The one-room 170-square-footer (plus a tepee) sleeps four and starts at $235 a night.
1. Take in the woodsy view from the deck — sized to fit you, a companion, and a toilet in a tent — but don’t be alarmed if you sway. “If it’s really windy, you can really feel it,” says the host. “Most people really like it.”
2. Fire up the tiny fireplace and settle in for a movie night, and the Keurig and toaster will have you covered in the morning. There’s a full-size bed on the first level and twin beds in the loft; for an extra $100, a couple of kids can spend the night in a tepee just below.
3. Chill by the koi pond, and feel the “magic” — the most commonly used word in reviews. “The landscaping and the lights give the illusion of being in an exotic location,” the host says. “Even though it’s in my backyard in Schaumburg.”
Best Pandemic EscapeLynette Smithon July 27, 2021 at 1:00 pm Read More »
Kate Reavey’s Chicago Vintage Weddings may have had a slow season, but the event planner wasn’t about to sit COVID out. Instead, she leased a Bucktown storefront for a pop-up, loaded it with all the flatware and tablescape finds she keeps in storage for her glorious nuptial vignettes, and gave the people what they wanted: a high-style home-decor shop with a distinctly Parisian POV. Weddings are back on, but so are dinner parties, so snag her retro crystal, silver, and china — now available online — while it lasts. shopcapucine.com
Best Retail PivotLynette Smithon July 27, 2021 at 1:00 pm Read More »
The 92-year-old movie house on Southport Avenue has long been celebrated for its two completely different screening rooms: a palatial, 700-seat main theater under an artificial night sky and a 13-foot-high box that can accommodate a few dozen. COVID unexpectedly unearthed a third: a fenced-in concrete lot out back where you can take in Who Framed Roger Rabbit or Carrie under an actual night sky. The “garden” is open for the spring and summer only, but blessedly it’s not consigned to a single pandemic season. 3733 N. Southport Ave., Lake View
Best Outdoor Theater That’s Not a Drive-InLynette Smithon July 27, 2021 at 1:00 pm Read More »
Derrick Rose is a free agent this offseason at the perfect time the Chicago Bulls are in desperate need of a star-studded point guard to lead their team.
“Such uncertainty is why secondary targets such as Derrick Rose can’t be ruled out. In fact, internal conversations on the viability and fit of the former Bull and former most valuable player have occurred, just as they have with all candidates,” according to Bulls insider K.C Johnson.
I never got to see the amazing double bill that was Foster The People and Grouplove at Schuba’s Backroom on that frustrating night of April 2nd, 2011.
I walked down to the music hall as I did on many other nights, with a beer in my pocket. The same beer that I would drink on my five-block walk to the best concert hall in Chicago. But on this night, there was impending doom.
[embedded content]The PR person I was working with never put me on the guest list, and the show was sold out. I was devastated. I went back and forth with the girl who had the list and she just kept saying, “I don’t see your name on here!”
She wouldn’t let me in. Said there were no tickets left and that they were at capacity. I was so pissed. “Capacity?” I know they could easily fit me inside, but I understand the protocol, and she was just doing her job.
I remember swearing under my breath, turning to the side door, and walking out. On my way out I noticed a really cool poster hanging on the door of the backroom. As a big “Fuck You” to the whole situation, I took this poster off the wall, and, damn, it was a beautiful one. Now it’s become a memory of what I missed, and the reason why I decided to write about the show that got away.
The clerk could’ve let me into the backroom, the PR person could’ve made preparations, and I could’ve bought a ticket, guaranteeing my spot at the show. But that’s all in the past.
Foster The People and Grouplove were making their way through Chicago, together, and I missed it. For a music fan and completionist like myself, that’s hard to let go of. But holding onto this poster doesn’t make sense anymore. That’s why I just sold it on eBay. Enjoy!
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Foster The People & Grouplove @ Schubas Backroom: 04/02/2011on July 27, 2021 at 1:29 pm Read More »
Alvin Ailey and Bill T. Jones may have a generation between them, but the two influential choreographers crossed paths at a few pivotal moments. Ailey was the one who commissioned Jones’ first work, “Fever Swap,” in 1983. A few years later in 1989, at the height of the AIDS epidemic, Jones, then famous in his own right, would create one of his most notable works and a response to the crisis: “D-Man in in the Waters.” It was also the year Ailey died at age 58 of complications from the disease.
So it’s a fateful coincidence that this summer both men are getting the spotlight in two terrific documentaries: “Ailey,” opening nationwide on Aug. 6, and “Can You Bring It: Bill T. Jones and D-Man in the Waters,” which is currently in theaters.
“Ailey” director Jamila Wignot said the project found her in 2017. She’d been a fan of Ailey influential modern dance work and his company, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, but realized she didn’t know much about him beyond that. It may have been intentional on his part: Despite his fame, Ailey was a private person.
The documentary is partially framed around a new staging of a classic Ailey dance from choreographer Rennie Harris, who, like Wignot, is trying to figure out “what made Mr. Ailey Mr. Ailey.” Thankfully, Wingot made a pivotal discovery that helped inch closer to an answer: Revealing audio recordings that he conducted in the last year of his life.
“That really opened up the possibilities for the film,” Wignot said. “He revealed things that certainly were not part of his, you know, public presentation of self.”
Ailey in the recordings talks candidly about his childhood in a segregated, impoverished Texas in the Depression, the deep wounds of a non-existent relationship with his father, the transformative experience of seeing a pioneer like Katherine Dunham dance and his own sexual awakening, which for him was a beautiful experience.
“There’s so few in particular Black institutions that survive their founders and it’s an extraordinary institution in that regard,” Wignot said. “But I wanted people to remember this kind of deeply passionate, vulnerable, sensitive person who is at the heart of it and whose presence you still feel.”
The Bill T. Jones project came about differently. Co-director Rosalynde LeBlanc, who herself had been a member of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, was restaging “D-Man in the Waters” in 2012 and felt that it wasn’t coming alive.
“That question as to why the dance was so elusive was really what fueled the project,” LeBlanc said. “Originally, I wanted to put the piece in its historical context. The idea was to create an immersive experience for the students so they could understand the birth of the piece.”
In 1988, Zane, who was Jones’s co-director and romantic partner, died of AIDS complications. While creating a new dance after the loss, based around water and waves, one of the dancers in the company Demian Acquavella (D-Man) was also diagnosed with AIDS. In this context, the dance took on a different tenor and became about survival in the face of an epidemic.
LeBlanc enlisted noted documentary cinematographer Tom Hurwitz for help creating the piece. But soon they realized their small project had evolved into something bigger and distinct from the other documentaries about Jones.
“I’ve been doing this for a really long time and this was certainly one of the very, very best set of interviews I’ve ever shot in my life,” Hurwitz said. “The dancers, their experience was so rich, their ability to convey it was so rich, the accessibility of their emotions and just their personalities were so vibrant that it really felt to me like this was a big story. The story that they were telling was so much bigger than just this simple dance. It was a story that really talked about the role of art in the human experience and the necessity for art and community in the face of the catastrophes that befall us regularly.”
So they decided to dive in and make a feature, although it took a little longer than either thought at the time.
“He really is one of the most impactful and preeminent artists of our time,” LeBlanc said. “And if that 14-year-old-kid, a young Black boy in a class who loves to move, could see this film one day and be like ‘being a choreographer is an option?’…that would be incredibly gratifying to me.”
