Chicago murals may have their spiritual home in Hyde Park and Pilsen, but North Side neighborhoods aren’t slacking. This week we visited Living 2007, the three-year-old bricolage (a multi-media art work) on the viaduct at Bryn Mawr and Lake Shore Drive. more ›

On the subject of hot dog stands, it's the little differences that separate the ones we like from the ones we don't. Growing up on the Northwest side we had the good fortune (although as teenagers we never realized it) of living near some of the best, like Bemo's on Fullerton; the recently closed Toots Drive Thru at Central and Montrose; Duke's, just up the street at Central and Bryn Mawr; and Jimmy's Red Hots on Grand and Pulaski. A visit to Jimmy's over the weekend showed us how much a neighborhood can change in over twenty years: compared to our memories the intersection today could pass as a suburb. But the muffler man at the auto parts store on Grand still lords over all he surveys, and Jimmy's is still doing business the way we remembered. A hot dog stand like Jimmy's doesn't stay in business for fifty-five years by serving up bad red hots. more ›

When we were kids, we used to visit many of the neighborhoods around Chicago as part of our parents endless quest to eat food from as many cultures as possible. Pierogi in Avondale, tortas in Pilsen, souvlaki on Halsted, dhal on Devon, and the biggest polish-with-kraut you ever saw on Maxwell are just a taste of what we've had the good fortune to eat over time. It isn't the food that sticks in our minds... more ›

Besides the random coyote or bunny, we rarely see wildlife roaming free among the streets of Chicago. Nearly everyday we fly (ok, well, mostly crawl) up and down Lake Shore Drive, nary a worry that a deer will make its way across. Honestly, that thought had never crossed our mind until we heard that three deer made a mad dash across Lake Shore Drive Wednesday morning. Unfortunately, two of the three died after being struck... more ›

While Chicagoist loves sushi, we don’t always love the pretension that seems to go hand in hand with excellent, inventive sushi. That’s why we were super excited about our recent visit to Midori Japanese Restaurant. Set among several other Asian restaurants and businesses on Bryn Mawr, Midori sets itself apart with the largest neon sign on the block and its brightly-lit dining room. more ›

We almost didn't go to last night's meeting about the three-track project at CTA headquarters. But we just didn't think it would be right for us to remind you over and over again and not check it out for ourselves. Our only compunction about going was that we knew were going to be fed complete crap all the while being expected to think it was a reasonably good meal. Walking up to the second floor... more ›

There are two main ways that a person discovers a restaurant. The first is through some form of recommendation, be it from a blog, newspaper, television show or friend. The other is simply being hungry at the right place and at the right time. Chicagoist came across Turkish Bakery & Cuisine through the second method. In actuality, we had passed this storefront restaurant at the corner of Bryn Mawr and Clark Streets a number of times. We were always curious about the bright table cloths and decorations that framed the restaurant's windows, but it seemed perpetually closed, and so we always walked on by. Luckily we finally stopped and found a great new place. more ›

These are days of rage for Tribune architecture critics and their readers. Today, Blair Kamen and Patrick T. Reardon released their list of candidates for Ugliest Building in Chicagoland (Outside the Loop) and have asked readers to vote for the region’s all-out fugliest. They admit the list is unscientific and there’s much more bad design to go around. Thanks to masses of commuters, the rickety Roosevelt Road Metra station seemed destined to be the reader... more ›

A sharp-eyed Chicagoist reader named abmarfia spotted a movie being filmed on Wayne Ave. just north of Bryn Mawr and snapped some pictures of it before uploading them to Flickr with a "chicagoist" tag. Before we could start our detective work to figure out what movie it is, another Chicagoist Flickr stream contributor named pantagrapher closed the case. The movie being filmed is called Quebec and stars John C. Reilly, Lili Taylor, Jenna Fischer... more ›

What do you get when one of the world’s most celebrated cellists and one of the world’s most entertaining city governments join forces? Answer: a year-long celebration driven by a truly remarkable cultural exchange. Named for a network of routes from Rome to Japan traversed by explorers for over a millennium, Silk Road Chicago is our hometown showcase of art, music, theater, dance, and delectable dishes from half a world away. As anxiety persists over... more ›

Mayor Daley advised his book club followers yesterday to go forth and read en masse Walter Van Tilburg Clark’s classic 1940 Western saga The Ox-Bow Incident as the eighth in the city’s “One Book, One Chicago” exercise. more ›