Can we be honest with each other? (It’s kind of required for this reading exercise and the book review that’s hidden in here somewhere.) OK. Ready? Neighborhoods in Chicago can be dog whistle terms. It’s all right to admit that many of you are much more interested in a new bar, club, or restaurant opening in one of the Loops (South and West, respectively) than you are in a new bar, club, or restaurant opening in one of the ’woods (Engel, Ravens) or the Parks (Hyde, Garfield, Humboldt, etc.). But what if we redefined those arbitrary borders that make up the different Chicago neighborhoods and often subconsciously drive our choices when it comes to deciding where or where not to visit? 

Enter Abby Pucker and her new community venture, Gertie. Gertie is described as a “sports team for arts and culture,” if you will. Its mission is to build a community of young professionals in Chicago (both transplants and natives) who are ready to engage with the city and each other in new ways. And (A)Part: A Recipe Guide-book to Chicago (if you will) is the companion piece to the new venture—meant to introduce the reader to different restaurants, recipes, neighborhoods, and cultural landmarks through the eyes of 27 different Chicagoans. 

Just to note a few members of the well-rounded cohort of Chicagoans hailing from a variety of sectors, ages, races, and community affiliations, contributors include some names you may know: rapper, actor, and cannabis entrepreneur Vic Mensa; photographer, director, and owner of Monday Coffee Felton Kizer; chef/co-owner of Thattu Margaret Pak; and now, community organizer Abby Pucker. And then there are some you don’t know but will be introduced to. The book is intended for “anyone willing to be curious.” So while more than 40 different traditionally defined neighborhoods are technically represented, all of the cultural maps are drawn without identifying neighborhoods. They’re simply plotted on a grid with guideposts that mark the four “directions” of the city. In Abby’s own words, the book is meant to be “an experiment in retracing and redefining community through aligned cultural interests and passions, rather than ZIP code.”

The book is short and sweet, just like the perfect Chicago day—especially for this time of year, when the sun starts to set earlier and the windchill makes you want to go inside before dark anyway. Also much like Chicago, the book’s layout is inviting, but it makes absolutely no attempt to fit in. Highlighter-pink text matches a bright-fuschia plaid-printed cover, completely destroying any minimalist coffee-table decor plans you may have had for it. It is wire-bound and more akin to a field guide than a recipe book. I’d even recommend a pencil for note-taking, recipe conversions, and Xs to mark spots that hit a specific place in your heart and stomach. 

(A)Part wants you to explore the city, even the parts you may feel a bit hesitant to visit without a chaperone, a cosigner—hell, at least a regular’s go-to menu order. The book has taken into account the reader’s likely trepidation by ignoring it completely. Once you get past the first few pages of contributors, you’re greeted with a foreword that reminds you, “Trust—in institutions, government, and, frankly, each other—is at an all-time low.” That lack of trust often lends to isolationism and encourages people to turn inward, be it into themselves in the form of serial delivery-app orders, or be it inward to faces and places they know best, hyperlocal (and maybe a little exclusionary?) communities where diversity of thought, taste, and opinion are shunned. (A)Part reminds you: “Chicago has some trust issues, and they are warranted, but that doesn’t mean they’re inevitable.” 

So the goal with this recipe book, if you will, is to bring together each contributor’s experiences in this city like different ingredients in a recipe, working together to create something deliciously greater than the sum of their parts. By the end of it, Abby and team hope to impress upon the reader the importance of community through an active exercise of reimagining those mental and geographic borders that keep us (a)part. (See what she did there?)

What secret spots could this book possibly reveal to me that my favorite viral TikTok or Chicago lifestyle site has yet to unearth, you ask? Well, here’s a quick sampling of the recommendations you’ll find in the pages of (A)Part:

• A former Best Buy turned beauty supply store mecca

• The urban ruins of what used to be a legal graffiti art gallery (It is now the back wall of a Target.)

• Intimate details of our very own inner-city chocolate factory (The chocolate cake in a bag recipe is included; the funny man in hat and Oompa Loompas are not.)

• A special family pizza recipe, the most Chicago-style you can get

• A Black- and queer-owned bar in Andersonville where the contributor often runs into north-siders, south-siders, west-siders, out-of-towners, and sometimes even their therapist 

• A Ukrainian eatery and pastry shop with a highly recommended (by the contributor) brunch (and special mention to the tarragon pierogi in a light dijon cream sauce) 

• More monuments, parks, and gardens than you can fit into your schedule before the weather breaks for good, and a variety of theaters, work-from-elsewhere spaces, restaurants, museums, and shops to visit once it does

• A Kenyan-Indian-Canadian-Chicagoan transplant immigrant’s guide to Chicago through their multicultural lens (This includes their mom’s goan prawn curry recipe.)

• An account of Cook County Jail—a place that, in my opinion, every Chicagoan should visit at least once (to volunteer, not by force or order of the court, hopefully)

• A flourless, eggless, sugar- and dairy-free “cookie” recipe from a Chicagoan with GI issues who reflects on his favorite meals that he’s no longer allowed to eat

• A family puff puff recipe and north-side guide to the African grocery and braiding shop, straight from the notes of a self-proclaimed Chigerian 

• Basically, everything from Norwegian open-faced sandwiches to southern red beans and rice

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Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky riffs on the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty, and interviews politicians, activists, journalists and other political know-it-alls. Presented by the Chicago Reader, the show is available by 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays at chicagoreader.com/joravsky—or wherever you get your podcasts. Don’t miss Oh, What a Week!–the Friday feature in which Ben & producer Dennis (aka, Dr. D.) review the week’s top stories. Also, bonus interviews drop on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays. 

Chicago Reader podcasts are recorded on Shure microphones. Learn more at Shure.com.

Chicago Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky discusses the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty on The Ben Joravsky Show.

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Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky riffs on the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty, and interviews politicians, activists, journalists and other political know-it-alls. Presented by the Chicago Reader, the show is available by 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays at chicagoreader.com/joravsky—or wherever you get your podcasts. Don’t miss Oh, What a Week!–the Friday feature in which Ben & producer Dennis (aka, Dr. D.) review the week’s top stories. Also, bonus interviews drop on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays. 

Chicago Reader podcasts are recorded on Shure microphones. Learn more at Shure.com.

Chicago Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky discusses the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty on The Ben Joravsky Show.

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The best thing to happen to and in the City of Chicago on Thursday was night four of Harry Styles’ residency at the United Center. The Chicago sports teams did not have a good night at all.

Both the Chicago Blackhawks and the Chicago Bears suited up for battle in their respective sports on Thursday night.

The Hawks played the second game of three on their season-opening road trip. After getting beaten badly on banner night in Denver, they rolled into the city of luck and tested theirs against the Vegas Golden Knights.

Down Robin Lehner due to injury, the Knights instill their faith in 25-year-old Logan Thompson between the pipes and he pitched a shutout.

The Hawks were 0-2 on the power play and outshot by 10 so they looked exactly as one would expect them to which is horrid.

Max Domi and Patrick Kane led the team in ice time with almost 20 minutes and three shots on goal (all by Kane).

Alex Stalock stood on his head and only allowed one goal on 37 shots. The Hawks’ offense didn’t back him up with good production.

The Chicago Blackhawks weren’t the only failure in Chicago sports on Thursday.

Is any of this feeling similar at all? The Bears hosted the 1-4 Washington Commanders led by quarterback Carson Wentz, who came in 6-0 in his career on Thursday Night Football.

After breaking the six-quarter-long touchdown drought on Amazon Prime, the Bears finally broke through at the end of the third quarter.

The Commanders were the only team to score in the 4th after Velus Jones Jr. muffed a punt again. Washington recovered the fumble and started their touchdown drive on the Chicago 9.

On an absolute mind-boggling call on 4th and 11 from the Washington 43, the snap doesn’t get off in time and they slide back five yards. They went for it again to no avail.

The right move was to punt the ball away, pin the Commanders deep, and count on them to struggle to move the ball as they had been all night.

By some miracle, they forced the Commanders to attempt a field goal but Joey Slye blew it. The offense got back onto the field with 1:49 to go.

The offensive line did their job, Justin Fields got the Bears to the 6-yard line (setting up first and goal) and it looks like the Bears have it made.

Darnell Mooney and Dante Pettis both dropped their targets leading to 4th and goal on the 4 with 35 seconds on the clock.

In a situation such as this one, a shallow-to-the-goal line doesn’t cut it. If Mooney is farther in the end zone and bobbles like he did but makes the catch, the touchdown counts, and Chicago sports fans are saved.

Unfortunately, like the Blackhawks a few hours later, the Chicago Bears lost the game. It’s gonna be a gruesomely long season for both the Hawks and Bears.

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The Chicago Bears only scored seven points. That is not good at all and will win you almost no games. However, they had a chance to win the game against the Washington Commanders on Thursday Night Football with those seven points.

Again, there were a lot of things that went into their losing but there is one play that sealed the deal on their fate. Velus Jones Jr. was back to receive a punt in the fourth quarter and he fumbled the ball as he attempted to catch it.

The fumble was recovered by the kicking Washington team and they had the ball close to the endzone with only a few yards to go for a score.

Of course, the Washington offense was able to get the short yardage that they needed to get the touchdown. They went for two and succeeded to make it 12-7. That ended up being the final score in favor of the visiting team.

The Chicago Bears were unsuccessful in their attempt to beat Washington.

This is bad news for the Chicago Bears. Velus Jones Jr. was drafted to be a special type of wide receiver for special plays. He was also known to be a great punt returner coming in but he has been awful. This isn’t the first fumble of his extremely short season which is a problem.

The fact that this one led to the game-winning score for the Commanders makes it hurt just a bit worse. Everybody makes mistakes but this is something that is going to need to get corrected. You’d think that by his age, he’d at least have the catching the ball part of his game down easy.

He is only a few games into his career so he can have a break for now but it isn’t something that can’t continue. It isn’t like these dropped punts have been his only mistakes either. Practice should include plenty of reps in this department for him as they try to become a better team in all areas.

The defense was never going to get the stop in that situation. They had to come back on the field after making a big stop and they were backed in the red zone. It was relatively easy for Washington to score and take the lead for good.

It isn’t Velus Jones Jr’s fault that the offense only scored seven points but this turnover literally led to the game-winning score for Washington. You can’t pin the whole game on that one play but it was clearly the biggest reason for the loss.

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The Chicago Bears lost to the Washington Commanders on Thursday night. It was a big-time loss as they had the win in their hands but multiple different things prevented them from pulling it off. It was a frustrating ending to a game that had its pros and cons.

One of the biggest pros is that Justin Fields is starting to take some steps. He still needs to work on some accuracy trouble, his reads, and getting rid of the ball quicker. He doesn’t have enough help around him, however, to make any of those progressions easier.

This game from Fields though did provide one stat that should make people feel a little bit better. It is the total offensive yards that the team had in this game. Despite it only leading to seven points, they had 428 total yards on offense.

190 of those came from Justin Fields as a passer and the rest came on the ground. Fields also had 88 yards using his legs so it was a very productive game for him on the ground.

With the nice mix of David Montgomery and Khalil Herbert on the ground as well, it was a well-balanced rushing attack.

The Chicago Bears had a lot of yards on Thursday but didn’t score enough.

All of those yards certainly need to lead to more points. They turned the ball over in the red zone way too many times. They were aggressive on fourth down when they needed to be but it never worked out for them in point-scoring moments.

They had some near misses in the endzone as well but that doesn’t help you win games. That is an aspect that they need to work on during practice as seven points aren’t going to win you games almost ever.

The fact that they did gain all of those yards is a positive though. That is a good step toward building a good offense. Adding better weapons on that side of the ball will make turning those yards into touchdowns easier. We can only hope that the management team sees this.

It is exciting because Justin Fields had a lot to do with a fair amount of these yards. Between rushing and passing, he had 278 total yards of offense. It’s not star-level stuff yet but it is a big step in the right direction.

Now, this offense will have a bigger test ahead of them. The New England Patriots stand at 2-3 going into the weekend but we all know what a Bill Belichick-coached team can do to a young quarterback. That will be a Monday Night Football matchup on October 24th.

The Bears would love to see Fields take this game against Washington and learn from it enough to keep it going throughout the season. His development is key and getting this offense to become a juggernaut is the goal. The 428 yards is a great stat to build on but they need more points.

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