One hundred years ago poet Carl Sandburg wrote “Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive…” Come to APsaA's annual meeting in Chicago this June and you can sing along. Chicago has something to suit every taste. Here are some personal recommendations.
If you like classical music there's the Chicago Symphony, which will be performing the Shostakovich Fifth. If you like jazz, check out the Jazz Showcase in the south Loop, where Ravi Coltrane (son of John and Alice) will be playing. Another great jazz venue is the Green Mill, where Al Capone used to hang out in the good old days. If you like blues, pay a visit to Buddy Guy's (south Loop), Rosa's Lounge or Kingston Mines (further north).
If you like theater, Chicago Shakespeare Theater will be performing Henry V. There will be productions at the Goodman downtown and by Chicago's famed Steppenwolf Company. Another good bet is Chicago's Court Theater, in Hyde Park, where M. Butterfly will be in the last few days of its run. And you cannot go wrong with Million Dollar Quartet, at the Apollo, which puts you in the recording studio with Elvis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis on the night they played together in Nashville.
If you like to laugh, the Chicago Theater is bringing in England's Eddie Izzard, who will be performing that weekend. But who needs imports? For homegrown talent, there's Chicago's Second City, where generations of SNL performers developed their improv chops. Or on the wilder side of improv, check out the Neo-Futurists at the Neo-Futurarium on the north side, where they attempt to perform 30 plays in 60 minutes in their long running Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind.
If you like modern dance, check out Hubbard Street Dance Company's performance at the Harris Theater in Millennium Park. It is a great vibrant company in a great venue. In June, Chicago's neighborhoods come alive with weekend festivals. Check out the Printers Row Literary Festival, which is considered the largest free outdoor literary event in the Midwest, drawing more than 150,000 book lovers to the two-day showcase. There's also the Swedish-American flavored Midsommarfest in Andersonville on the north side, the Belmont-Sheffield Music Festival in Chicago's Lakeview Neighborhood (local bands, proceed at your own risk) and a tentatively scheduled Turkish Festival at Pioneer Court, where Chicago's founding father Jean Baptiste Point duSable used to live. Note also that while Chicago may no longer be “Hog butcher for the world,” we do have the Ribfest Chicago festival, where you can have your fill of great barbecue from Friday to Sunday up in Chicago's Lincoln Square neighborhood.
Speaking of food we do have a few restaurants. If your tastes run to fine dining, get your reservations for Alinea or the Girl & the Goat. Or for something more pedestrian, wait in line with the other pedestrians for a hot dog at Hot Doug's. If you are a meat eater, indulge yourself with a great steak at Dave Burke's Primehouse, Bavette's, Morton's, Michael Jordan's, Gibson's, Capital Grille, Gene & Georgetti's, the list goes on and on. (If you are not a meat eater, become one, at least for a day).
Neal Spira, M.D., is associate dean of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis and immediate past president of the Chicago Psychoanalytic Society.
But Chicago's real culinary strength lies in its ethnic restaurants, which reflect Chicago's ethnic and cultural diversity. Of course, there is Chicago's oldest restaurant, the German Berghoff, right downtown. It is worth a trip just to sit at the bar, grab a beer, and people watch. Italian, Mexican, Greek, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Ethiopian, Spanish, French, Russian…it's all here. There is Manny's Deli for a great corned beef sandwich. I must also make special mention of our local specialty, Chicago pizza, which is the best in the world. Try Lou Malnati's, Gino's, or Pizzeria Uno where deep dish pizza was invented.
For those who like to be more active—especially after all this eating—grab a Divvy bike (rented by the hour) and take a trip down the Lake Shore bicycle path. Take an architectural walking tour. Or rent a kayak at Urban Kayak and take your own tour down the Chicago River, where you can have a unique experience of the buildings that flank our waterways. Then it is time to relax at one of our riverside outdoor dining establishments with a cool beverage and watch the river flow (Cyrano's is a good spot).
And finally, let me conclude my picks by recommending an outdoor experience that should not be missed, especially if we get some sun and the temperature climbs above 60. If you have not seen Wrigley Field, it is a little bit of heaven in the city. Did I forget to mention that they play baseball there, too? The Cubs face off against the Marlins, and while I do not think this is going to be our year, for those who like betting on long shots, it just does not get any better than this.
You may want to stay an extra week.