The listed events were chosen by the editors of Chicagoist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla. Welcome Back Last week, HotHouse opened a new chapter in its history, partnering with the Viaduct Theatre to produce shows in its well-worn, comfortable space at 3111 N. Western. Just seeing HotHouse back in operation again, and the wide range of musical programming it can offer, can only benefit the city's cultural landscape. Tribune jazz......

The listed events were chosen by the editors of Chicagoist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla. Music Gypsy jazz guitarist Alfonso Ponticelli and his band, Swing Gitan, are one of the go-to acts to fill in at the Green Mill whenever Kurt Elling is out of town for his regular Wednesday engagement. Ponticelli's faithful recreations of old Hot Club of Paris numbers, complemented with original compositions, are fresh and accessible without......

The listed events were chosen by the editors of Chicagoist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla. Food and Wine Meet one of Santa Barbara’s hottest winemakers as Joey Tensley of Tensley Wines personally showcases his current vintages this evening at Custom House. Guests can savor six of Tensley's favorite selections and enjoy small bites from Chef de Cuisine Richard Camarota in the restaurant’s beautifully appointed private dining room. 500 S. Dearborn,......

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......

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......

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. There's a single malt......

The week in CTA has started off in typical fashion: sad and disappointing. The traffic report we heard on the radio spoke of an "accident" on the Red Line at Wilson. We thought it was interesting to hear the CTA mentioned in a traffic report, but we know accident is code for suicide. Chicagoist hates to hear about that. Whatever inconvenience that might be for a commute, we are always reminded that the human lives......

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......

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.......

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......

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......

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." Damn right there isn't! And that goes double for apple martinis. There once was a time when Chicagoist felt that anyone who insisted on pressing the issue should have had a real martini - and we're talking about gin, here - forced......

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......

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......

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......

Focus on Green Mill...

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......