Chicago: When to Go, What to See & Do
 

Hi.

Chicago local, blogger, travel enthusiast here.

Chicago is my favorite blogging topic, and I’ve posted a recent series on Visiting Chicago in the Fall.

My recommendations to anyone considering visiting Chicago:

• Fall is the best time of year to visit Chicago
• Head north (take Sheridan Road for the best view) to the Bahá'í House of Worship and the Chicago Botanic Gardens
• Head slightly west to see Pilsen’s street art and murals
• Head south to Hyde Park to see the University of Chicago architecture, Oriental Museum and Frank Lloyd Wright Robie House
• If you’re there during the weekend of October 10, 2014 cheer on the Chicago Marathon runners at North Avenue and Wells Street, while listening to the Elvis Presley impersonator
• If you’re there during Halloween 2014, attend the North Halsted Street Halloween Parade and/or the Sculptural Objects and Functional Art exhibit (and that is the ONLY reason to EVER go to Navy Pier)
• If you’re there during the weekend of November 14, 2014, check-out the Chicago Humanities Festival
• For low-pretense, high-quality, reasonable-priced dining in a comfortable atmosphere, try Mon Ami Gabi, the Pink Pig, Avec, North Pond and Girl and the Goat
• If you want the best hotel, stay at the Waldorf Astoria Chicago (runner-ups: The Trump, The Conrad, The Peninsula and the Park Hyatt)

Enjoy your trip. I’m happy to answer questions or provide additional information on my home town.

I think you mean The Purple Pig. And I disagree with the "low pretense" description of Purple Pig and Avec, given that neither place accepts reservations and it's common to find that the wait for a table can last two hours. Girl & The Goat is great if you remember to make a reservation two or three months in advance.

Yes, I mean the Purple Pig.

You can't have it all. You can't have a great restaurant that accepts reservations that doesn't have a long lead time for reservations and you can't have a great restaurant that accepts walk-ins with a short wait time. A person has to choose for quality establishments: either book far in advance or count on a walk-in wait. Simultaneously criticizing both systems is illogical. You want a great restaurant where you can make reservations with little advance notice and yet get seated quickly as a walk-in? Good luck with that.

I think the restaurants that deserve criticism are Schwa or Alinea where -- if a person can get through -- they need to leave a voicemail with their dining date/time preference, and maybe if they're lucky, they will receive a call-back. THAT's pretentious.

I applaud Girl & the Goat for being listed on Open Table. And I appreciate that Pink/Purple Pig and Avec give everyone a chance of getting in. Both do an excellent job of making people comfortable while they wait. I waited at Pink/Purple Pig last summer for approximately 45 minutes, but I sat outside, had a view of the river, and a server was quick to ensure that my wine glass did not go empty.

So you ended up paying for a few hundred dollars worth of wine before you even got into the restaurant?

FYI Aliena no longer does reservations by phone. They use a pre-paid Internet ticketing system.

We may have to agree to disagree. A random search of restaurants that have availability at 7pm on Thursday (5 days from now) include:
Balena
Balsan
Blackbird
Carriage House
David Burke's
Grace
GT Fish & Oyster
The Lobby
Maude's Liquor Bar
Nightwood
The Publican
Sable
Table 52
Takashi

Now, not all of these meet all of your criteria--you'll pay much more at Grace, for example. And you probably wouldn't describe some of these as "low pretense" (but then again, I'd say the same about soome on your list). But I think you'd be hard-pressed to argue that any of these don't have great food. Two, not coincidentally, are also owned by Paul Kahan & his partners (owners of avec and winner of the 2013 James Beard award for outstanding chef). Grace was probably the single most lauded restaurant opening of 2013 (well, late 2012).

This is Chicago: You can get into some of the city's best restaurants with a relatively short lead time.

A few hundred dollars worth of wine before getting in the restaurant? No, two glasses of sauvignon blanc at about $12 each.