The Harper Theater, shuttered since 2002, is due to reopen this fall. more ›

The University of Chicago's Doc Films Winter calendar is stuffed to the brim with insanely good choices. more ›

We thought there was an awful lot going on at the grand opening of the Southside Hub of Production (SHoP), a brand-new cultural center in Hyde Park, until we saw that the space the organization will be occupying was the Fenn House, a 16-room Victorian mansion across the street from the University of Chicago Campus. With that kind of square footage, there is room to offer something for everybody, which is what SHoP is aiming to do--and from a decidedly local perspective. more ›

An off-the-cuff list of Chicago faves from White House Chef and foodie hero Sam Kass is heavy on eateries South of Madison. Who says the North Side has all the good restaurants? more ›

The French, it seems, can make an art out of almost anything. Perhaps it is the saccharine drawl of the language. Or maybe it’s the intoxicating effect of the wines. Whatever the reason, they seem to be able to infuse everything from their art to their food with an unmistakable joie de vivre. Nowhere is that love of life and the good things more evident than in the delicate art of French pastry. Anyone looking to savor a little of that art for themselves need look no further than Bonjour Bakery Cafe. Its is a little piece of Paris right in the heart of Hyde Park. more ›

Small businesses are wary after a string of robberies this month that took place in the area bordered by 47th and 55th streets and Drexel and Dorchester. "I look up. Next thing I know, I have a gun in my face. I just went numb," Art Chotipradit, a clerk at Windy's Deli, 1013 E. 53rd St., told the Chicago Sun-Times. Chotipradit, 39, said that he gave the gunman $200 to $300 from the cash register before the man and another assailant left his shop. more ›

Hyde Park has always been a bit of an odd duck. Dominated by the University of Chicago, the neighborhood regularly looks for ways to be a staid rebel, thumbing its nose at both the City’s political machine and the academic powerhouse in its midst. Hyde Parkers seem ready to raise a reserved ruckus at the drop of a hat, whether it is over community gardens, alcohol-related zoning, or fair housing. That contrarian stance has helped to make the area what it is: a quiet, vibrant melting pot and perhaps the most boring campus community around. But does it also cost the neighborhood some serious cash? Five thousand U of C undergrads probably think so, every time they hop a bus or train out of the neighborhood in search of fun. more ›

Until a couple years ago, the viaduct at 47th and Lake Park, just on the north edge of Hyde Park, was covered in murals that were more reminiscent of street graffiti than the narrative, community-painted murals we’ve previously covered in Pilsen and Hyde Park. The slightly recessed concrete rectangles formed natural canvasses, and a number of muralists took part in the project (which seems to have been completed in the late 90s or early 00s). Most of the murals boasted a street graffiti style, with spray painted words bleeding off the edges of blackened concrete. Some of the murals were beginning to flake and fade, and some had suffered vulgarities at the hands of late-night passersby with cans of cheap spray paint. more ›

Driving on some Chicago streets is like navigating a mine field. The city is supposed to fix potholes because that's where our taxpayer dollars go. But if you're fearful a city employee won't do their job you can go through a middle man, another city employee. Hyde Park Progress details their experience. more ›

We've written before about the Spirit of Hyde Park, a South Side mural painted in 1973 under the guidance of artist Astrid Fuller. The mural had been crumbling away for years, slowly disappearing behind peeled paint and weather-eaten concrete. So we were thrilled on our last trip to Hyde Park when we saw that the Chicago Public Arts Group had come to the rescue and given Spirit some much-needed attention. more ›

As if Thanksgiving dinner was not enough of a gut buster, we took our annual family visit to Manny’s Deli yesterday. The line out the door was witness to this growing post-turkey tradition in the City. It was a pretty standard visit---corned beef, kreplach soup, knish---with one notable exception: not a single notable politician in the room. more ›

The President used familiar environs to rally the troops Saturday night with a massive rally on the Midway Plaisance in Hyde Park, just a few blocks from his Kenwood home. The event was reminiscent of campaign stops in the lead up to the 2008 election, something that Obama's party hopes will re-energize the base in advance of Tuesday's election. more ›

President Obama is scheduled to be at a rally along Midway Plaisance tomorrow, which means that traffic around the Plaisance and the University of Chicago will be strictly monitored. more ›

We can already hear the cries of the Seminary Co-op Bookstore in Hyde Park. To be fair, it’s probably putting on its best Monty Python voice and saying, “But I’m not dead yet!” But in late 2011 or early 2012, the beloved University of Chicago bookstore will move one block east to what General Manager Jack Cella calls “a dramatically better space.” The firm of Tigerman McCurry Architects (Holocaust Museum, Skokie; The Chicago Bar Association) will design the new store, working closely with Cella and a University of Chicago architect/project manager. more ›

Is Chicago’s newest food juggernaut massing quietly on the South Side? Since opening in the fall of 2008, the Zaleski & Horvath MarketCafe has gathered a growing army of devotees in Bronzeville and Kenwood. After all, the deli/grocery’s quirky mix of premium foods, outstanding sandwiches, Metropolis coffee and attentive staff are pretty much absent from the area, particularly the barren 47th Street commercial corridor. Hyde Parkers nearby noticed. It is rare for denizens of that leafy hood to look with envy at the nearby neighborhoods, but Z&H fills a niche missing throughout the South Side. Well, folks on 57th Street needn’t fantasize about the “pig on a pretzel” or Clover-brewed coffee drinks any longer---Z&H quietly opened a new outpost right next door to Hyde Park stalwart Medici this week. more ›

It is part of growing up. You get older and you take on more responsibility. It is true for people. It is true for organizations. And, it seems to be true for Wiggleworms… more ›

It is Street Fest season. And with the Taste giving way to a patchwork of neighborhood festivals and block parties throughout the summer, the Trib’s architecture writer Blair Kamin is waxing poetic on the positives of street closures. Can you blame him? Sure, the shifting weekend barriers are yet another driving irritation, but who doesn’t love the respite from traffic, parking, and noise when the fest is in your hood? Why not make those happy feelings permanent in places throughout the city? more ›

Despite the recent excitement over food trucks, the mobile ice cream scene has been thriving for years on the South Side. A fleet of ramshackle trucks glide through the neighborhoods playing nursery rhyme-sounding Christmas songs to engage kids while selling hard frozen popsicles and Good Humor Products. more ›

Laura continues her series on murals of the South Side by focusing on the crumbling The Spirit of Hyde Park. more ›

Our South Side mural series continues this week in Hyde Park, where a series of iconic murals are painted in four panels along the Metra underpass at 56th Street and Stony Island. Children of different racial backgrounds are painted as enormous Venn diagrams, their circular heads overlapping each other in a multiracial celebration. These murals have been there since 1977, and have benefited from two restorations, including one just last year. The murals have been so well restored that the only bit of original paint is a green drip on the sleeve of one of the children's sweaters, which has been carefully painted around during the restorations. more ›

Burned out on the evening singles events at the museums, but want something cultural to celebrate the work week's end? This Friday evening, April 16, the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust will host their monthly Robie House After Hours from 6:00 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. For $35 ($30 for FLWPT members) guests can explore Wright's Hyde Park masterpiece while enjoying cocktails and light hors d’oeuvres. Advance tickets are suggested. more ›

Today we wanted to show you some of our favorite viaduct murals in the city, the ones that run along the 53rd Street underpass in Hyde Park, only to find that they've been mostly covered up. But it’s not all bad news, because the Chicago Public Art Group (CPAG) has installed temporary murals in front of the old ones along the 53rd Street Metra viaduct in Hyde Park. These temporary panels feature large format digital prints by Chicago artists Terry Evans and John Himmelfarb (a total of four artists are represented under the 53rd and 55th Street underpasses). more ›

The first blossoms of Spring mean we’ve reached the time of the year when it’s too warm to spend a free afternoon indoors and too chilly to head for the beach. But it’s perfect weather to explore some of Chicago’s outdoor public art. Over the next few weeks, we’ll take you to street murals from Hyde Park to Pilsen to Edgewater, as well as indoors (the bad weather’s not over yet, folks) to introduce you to art around town. This week, we headed down to Hyde Park, where the Metra viaduct walls provide ample canvas for murals of every persuasion—mirrored mosaics, social critiques from the 1970s, and newly installed temporary art exhibits beneath the tracks. more ›

A judge denied bond to a Joliet man charged with the first-degree murder of an elderly Hyde Park man who was picking up dinner for his waiting family on Christmas Eve, the Sun-Times reports. more ›

Look out Obama's house and Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie house, there's a new landmark coming to in Hyde Park, and it's sure to dwarf the competition. more ›

I'm stepping away from the Chicagoist "we" for a moment, because there's no way I can possibly be objective about True Stories. It's my favorite movie. more ›

CIFF is over but a rich cinematic harvest has only just begun. Feast your eyes: more ›

Are you interested in living next door to Obama’s Hyde Park house? You may be in luck, if you have money that is, because his neighbors officially put their 17-room house on the market yesterday. No price tag has been given just yet, but homes in the area typically go for between $1 million and $2.5 million. more ›

Beggars in Hyde Park are getting a run for their money as police encourage "panhandlng victims" to file complaints, according to Chi-Town Daily News. An increase in solicitations in the South Side neighborhood (and home to President Barack Obama and the University of Chicago) has residents worried. Police have upped their patrolling in the area and tell "merchants and customers not to give panhandlers money or food." more ›

• More developments in the case against Marni Yang.
• The Tribune profiles Settler's Pond, an exotic animal shelter that's facing rough times in the current economy.
• Controversy is swirling at the University of Chicago over a column in the school's paper that was retracted.