In today's listings, the final clambake of the summer at Fulton's on the River happens today. more ›

Most Monday night's Patricia Barber holds down the fort at Green Mill. But Barber is on tour and filling in for her tonight and next Monday is none other than Yoko Noge's Jazz Me Blues. We're biased about Yoko and the pairing of her long-running band of jazz raconteurs with Chicago's most romanticized jazz club are a match made in heaven. You might even see some swing dancers in attendance, since the dance floor will be open. more ›

These days Kurt Elling is an internationally renowned jazz vocalist. His proving ground was his longtime Wednesday residency at Green Mill, where he worked constantly on perfecting his brand of vocalese. It could be tedious at times, thrilling at others. But never boring. more ›

Moving forward on this Green Mill theme we've got planned for "One for the Road" this week, we bring you the Deep Blue Organ Trio. The combo of guitarist Bobby Broom, B3 organist Chris Foreman and drummer Greg Rockingham is, like all good bands, greater than the sum of its parts. more ›

Classical music is a funny thing, and we're not even referring to the ambiguous nature of the term "classical music" (like the Supreme Court and pornography, we know it when we see it). The role of a professional symphony orchestra has largely become that of a curator, producing a unique, exciting, or technically perfect - ideally, all three - interpretation of an established piece of music. To be fair, orchestras do program new music - just last weekend the Chicago Symphony Orchestra played a piece by one of their new composers-in-residence, 33-year-old Mason Bates - but they also have to pay attention to their bottom lines, and the classics put butts in seats. Point is, there's an aspect of classical music that's old news. more ›

Craft Brewers Conference kicked off yesterday, capped by an opening reception at the Field Museum. But it was the after parties and later events where the big surprises were sprung on people throughout the city. One such reception at Green Mill hosted by New Holland Brewing found owner/"beervangelist" Fred Bueltmann putting a formidable hand on my shoulder and stating, "we've got some new stuff for you to sample.". New Holland's spirits more than meet the standards of high quality of their beers. But owner and distiller Brett VanderKamp may have exceeded even his expectations with a spirit he calls "hopquila." VanderKamp described it thus:"I distilled some barley grain and then added a lot of hops." more ›

Here at Chicagoist, our motto's always been "When it's right, it's right." This then raises the question: Why wait until the middle of the cold, dark night? That's the thinking of two Chicagoist faves, Anaphora and Third Coast Percussion, each of whom has scheduled some afternoon delight for this Sunday's day o' love. more ›

What do you get when you cross an A.V. Club head writer, a short, liberal, Irish-Catholic from Joliet, an ape, and a slam poet? Funny Ha-Ha. more ›

Local ensemble Anaphora has put together another can't-miss mix of new music by local and big name contemporary composers for the final concert of this season's Contemporary Series. more ›

Marc Kelly Smith, founder of the slam poetry movement is featured today in a New York Times article on the evolution of the art form. more ›

Food & Wine magazine released its "Cocktails 2009" guide this week. Listed in the guide's contents are the top 100 bars in America. Chicago charted five bars on that list, which will only reinforce the belief of some that Our Town's moment in the culinary zeitgeist is over. more ›

Back in the day we closed down Green Mill (4802 N. Broadway, 773-878-5552) more times than we care to remember. Few things are as perfectly matched as 3 a.m. creeping on sunrise, a perfect martini in front of you, someone from out of town looking for an "authentic Chicago experience" and the Sabertooth Hammond organ combo providing a fitting soundtrack to a night that ends with salty diner coffee, runny eggs and the Sunday Sun-Times. It almost makes one long for the smoking ban to be lifted for only a few hours. Almost. more ›

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We pause from our wall-to-wall coverage of Pitchfork to focus on a musical destination of a different kind: Uptown's Green Mill. Whenever people come in from town, there is a short list of places we like to take 'em. One constant is a trip to the Mill - not only for the bad-ass Manhattans and the live jazz, but for the sense of history, aged grit and old-world charm that the Mill practically bleeds. The... more ›

Last year, we were lamenting the news that Puffer's, long the bar with Bridgeport's best beer selection, was being sold and renamed Mitchell's Tap. Recently, we've started going back to Mitchell's. One reason is that legendary bartender Al Moran - he was one of Dave Jemilo's old partners in Green Mill and Déjà Vu - holds court there on Tuesday nights. Another reason is that they still have a damn fine beer selection. They have some bottles not listed on the site's menu and aren't afraid to switch taps on a moment's notice. more ›

There was a time when a perfect night out for Chicagoist consisted of last call at the Green Mill, a cigar, and a dram of good single malt scotch. We don't get to the Green Mill as near as we'd like - because we don't stay out until sunrise anymore - and we stopped smoking cigars years ago. Thankfully, we can still enjoy a good single malt without the other two. more ›

The week in CTA has started off in typical fashion: sad and disappointing. more ›

Hold onto your lunch money - recess is in session tonight at the Green Mill with the return of Mortified, a live comedy production based almost entirely on the forgotten artifacts of disaffected youth. Sometimes truth is stranger (and a heck of a lot funnier) than fiction, and the overwrought journal excerpts, angsty poems, and unrequited love letters culled from the performers’ teenage years make for a hilarious reminder that it’s totally awesome to be... more ›

Whenever Chicago gets overcast skies, our mind drifts to highfalutin' aspirations and rainy afternoons spent cuddled in an old bookstore like After-words or a creepy museum like The International Museum of Surgical Science. Here are a couple of places we'll be shedding off our rainy day blues this weekend. Chicagoist really wants more tattoos. Even if we can't afford them right now, we can drool over Mitch O'Connell's aptly named new book Mitch O'Connell's Tattoos.... more ›

Last Saturday the Green Mill was packed with family, friends, and fans of Evan Garfinkel, who passed away November 3rd, 2006. Blues fans will know Garfinkel as the drummer for Vini and the Demons and a friend of Bo Diddley. Foodies, members and voyeurs of LTHForum knew him by the name "hungryrabbi", where he wrote laugh-out-loud funny, insightful, and never boring accounts of restaurants and food. A friend of Chicagoist attended Garfinkel's memorial and shared... more ›

Today is the first day of October and that means it is the start of World Vegetarian Day. According to Wikipedia, the day was established in 1977 by the North American Vegetarian Society. We plan on taking the opportunity to try out one of the many vegetarian friendly restaurants we haven't been to today, and you should to. Today is the final day of The 36th Annual Pilsen East Artists' Open House . The open... more ›

A thread started at Metafilter last week generated a rash of discussion among seasoned drinkers. The thread's title was one that Chicagoist certainly appreciates: "There is no such thing as a chocolate martini." more ›

Any best-of list is subject to extreme reactions – those of total agreement, as well as complete disapproval. But, in Esquire’s June issue, its list of the Best Bars in the Midwest included a handful from Chicago. And, our reaction? A resounding “Yeah, OK, why not” and a shrug of the shoulders. Certainly, some of the picks seemed more worthy of “best” status than others, but nothing was so off-the-charts wrong that we needed to cry, “Outrage!” more ›

We haven’t been to the Green Mill in ages. Not because we don’t like the Green Mill, but because at this late stage in our life-game, we cannot bear to stand in line, to stand inside a club, full of people standing. Also, Sunday night is show tunes night at Sidetrack, and we can usually snag a seat when someone gets up to sing “I’m Still Here” The thing we miss most at the Green... more ›

Chicagoist was reminded yet again of the filmic lip service given to our city when we were viewing the first season of The Bob Newhart Show on DVD recently. Excited to get a glimpse of Chicago in the 1970s, our hopes were dashed after the opening credits. Sure, you see Bob making that long walk from his office to the Ravenswood El as he journeys to what appears to be the only Cabrini-Green housing project with Lake Shore Drive-condo style interior. But after that: nothin’. The Bob Newhart sculpture has now spent more time being filmed downtown than the Newhart crew ever did. The whole experience had us rushing for our DVD library to remind ourselves how good Chicago can look on film. more ›

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Michael Mann’s skill for finding the noir-ish Los Angeles of In A Lonely Place and Chinatown among the fake tits and fake friends of modern-day L.A. remains his calling card. But before hitting the L.A. streets, Mann flexed his muscles on the urban landscape of Chicago with the television show Crime Story and the movie Thief. Hallmarks of Mann’s films can be found in both works: the career criminal pulling one last job; the hunter... more ›