We sat down with Forsythe at the Winter Brew last week and talked about homebrewing, upcoming beer events and why he thinks Lincoln Square is the most exciting neighborhood in Chicago for beer. more ›

More than five hundred people filled the DANK Haus German-American Cultural Center on Saturday night for Winter Brew. The event was sold out, but we got in to bring you the details. more ›

Tickets are now going for as high as $60/pair on Craigslist. more ›

For a simple brunch in Lincoln Square with both sweet and spicy dishes, Cinnamon Café on Lawrence is your best bet. more ›

This morning the Old Town School of Folk Music debuted its fancy new digs across the street from its other Lincoln Square location, and it started its 55-day celebration of the institution's 55-year anniversary. more ›

Today in restaurant news: Goosefoot, a new fine-dining spot, has been quietly open in Lincoln Square for a few weeks, Acadia opens in the south loop and Cyrano's bistro is revamping for 2012. more ›

Apple Fest: the most straightforward festival ever? No surprises here folks, this fest we told you about last week was all about those fruits of fall. more ›

Cushioned in a northern corner of Lincoln Square is a truly unique restaurant, Jibek Jolu, where the menu highlights Krygyz cuisine and takes diners on a culinary tour of Central Asia. more ›

We stopped into Fork last week to try some bites and beers, snapping pictures along the way to give you a view of their offerings. more ›

You won't have to travel all the way to Daley plaza for a Christkindl market this weekend. Lincoln Square is hosting their third annual Christkindl market tonight through Sunday. Stroll Lincoln Avenue and be amazed at ice sculptures and decorations, or take a break from the cold in a heated tent at Lincoln and Leland and enjoy a hot mug of gluhwein and German food. There's also a "Kids Korner" where they can decorate cookies, ornaments and wreaths. Shoppers looking for unique holiday gifts can find some here, as well. more ›

Saturday marked the annual German-American Fest in North Center/Lincoln Square as well as the annual Von Steuben Parade. A few readers snapped some great photos of the event and shared with us. more ›

Via our hyperlocal homepieces at the Center Square Journal comes this similarly specific yup-hop jam by The Pawns about the neighborhood some of us call home. In the tradition of "Straight Outta Compton," "Empire State of Mind," Wesley Willis' "Rock and Roll McDonalds"* and other seminal jams about locations comes "Rollin' in the 2-5." The 2-5 refers to the 60625 area code of the Lincoln Square neighborhood and is apparently known for strollers, yuppies, German bars and being the home of the Blagojevich family, all of which are referenced in this instant classic for the Rockwell Gardens set. more ›

Nobody can say that they don't know how to party in Lincoln Square. The first of two beerfests hosted in the neighborhood went full-steam this weekend: Mayfest (or as the Germans prefer, Maifest). The event was billed as a celebration of the neighborhood's Germanic culturural roots with an array of appropriate food items (we are particularly fond of the pretzels, pickled herring sandwiches and thuringer sausages...mmmm....) and a shocking number of people sporting lederhosen (what do you do with leather shorts and suspenders for the rest of the year people?), but the vast majority of the event's crowd made their way to the area to stand around on the blocked-off street and chug beer from massive plastic beer steins. Despite the immense amount of Hofbrauhaus and PBR consumed, Mayfest wass a surprisingly family-friendly event with strollers maneuvering easily through the throngs. Saturday's crowd was comfortable due to the threat of rain, though in previous years the event has grown to quite the mob scene. more ›

At the end of this Monday's podcast, you might have heard Chuck and I discussing Beers of the Week based around some of the astounding selections around town during the week of the Craft Beer Conference, as well as some other ones that weren't highlighted during the fest. This is that BotW. The beers at Gene's Sausage Shop might not have gotten the press that the invading brewers received, but they might be even a little more rare - and potent. more ›

We must have walked past Café Selmarie 100 times during trips to Lincoln Square. Without fail, we always looked in, said "oh, isn't that pretty. We must go to eat there sometime," and walked on by, intent on our business. Gosh, do we feel stupid now. We've missed out on years of tasty food! more ›

Portland, Oregon writer Kevin Sampsell has a knack for naming his books. Their titles inhabit the twilight zone between titillating, creepy, and whimsical. Just peruse his bibliography and you'll see what we mean. Creamy Bullets. Beautiful Blemish. How to Lose Your Mind with the Lights On. Head. more ›

Some criminals learned this lesson the hard way recently and wound up ditching their attempted loot because the safe they tried to swipe was too heavy. Police were called late last night to a Lincoln Square office building (5653 N. Lincoln Ave.) and found the front door of the business busted open and the office "ransacked." But, 40 feet away, the office's safe lay unopened on sidewalk. Fox 32 has the details: more ›

A Lincoln Square bar owner was found severely beaten in the alley behind his bar early Sunday morning. According to the Chicago Tribune, bar owner Robert Gonzales, 69, stayed behind at O'Lanagan's - located at 2335 W. Montrose Ave. - after closing time at 3:00 a.m. to clean up. Police found him in the alley less than two hours later after the burglar alarm at the business had been tripped. Gonzales was brought to the hospital, where he died Sunday evening after suffering severe lacerations to his head. more ›

It's been a while since we've read a good, old fashioned anti-government manifesto. Luckily for us, reader Katie Scully was kind enough to share these pics, displaying a lengthy anti-Daley/Parking Meter/Taxes/2016 Olympics manifesto posted earlier this month in the front window of String A Strand in Lincoln Square. At first, we were going to have a little fun, but then we realized the rant could easily double for anything either we or our pals over at the Reader have written in the last six months. more ›

Street festivals are in full effect this weekend, but May Fest is always on our mind. The Lincoln Square event celebrates ten years in 2009, featuring the same lively mix of local entertainment and the consumption of bunches of beer out of giant novelty plastic beer steins. (The gargantuan cups are great for watering your plants during the year, or nursing particularly spicy hangovers.) more ›

We were at Cardinal Wine & Spirits last night in advance of a BYOBfest at hidden gem Pizza Art Cafe on Rockwell, when we found what has to be the best deal, penny-per-ounce, of alcohol we've ever seen. more ›

Lincoln Square is one of our favorite shopping neighborhoods in the city. It’s filled with independent businesses of all shapes and sizes and has two coffee shops that we love. Last Saturday, we realized that we’d never really ventured beyond the “main drag” of Lincoln Square – the area between the big gates – and decided to walk around a bit. It’s a good thing too, or we’d never have discovered Provenance Food and Wine’s Lincoln Square location (2312 W. Leland, 773-784-2314). The sister store to Provenance's Logan Square location has been open for a year. more ›

The family of Joseph Zeman, better known as the Pigeon Man, filed a wrongful-death suit Tuesday against Isaac Fadida, the driver of the van that struck and killed the Lincoln Square icon late last year. more ›

As you might have gathered from our Pasta obsession, we’re very picky about our Italian food. “Modern” Italian fails to impress, more often than not, and it’s been a while since we’ve found a new place worth mentioning. So, rather than check the restaurant listings, whenever we get a craving for Italian we always end up heading to Lincoln Square to La Bocca Della Verita. more ›

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What kinds of cars do Chicagoans drive? more ›

We love to read and write, and not just our own posts here on the World Wide Webs. We’ve been working on our first novel for years. It’s a love story involving time-traveling unicorns and so far we have about 850 pages of it written, but we don’t know when we’ll get it published (fingers crossed!). As such, we have a soft spot in our heart for local writers who have been a tad more successful. Luckily we live in a city that gives us a chance to here these talented scribes read! more ›

Today would be an excellent day to take the CTA, if you happen to be planning on driving anywhere from, or to, Lincoln Square or Ravenswood. A water main broke on Montrose under the Montrose Brown Line stop at 1:30 a.m. (or 12:30, if you like to believe the Sun-Times) last night, causing an enormous part of the street to collapse in, and partially submerging several cars. Also causing water to run down Montrose and Wolcott. Also causing the snow from last night to turn into a disgusting brown sludge that runs from Damen past Ravenswood. The street, obviously, is closed for the time being, as workmen attempt to fill the hole with sand. more ›

This Sunday, Old Town School of Folk Music is hosting a hootenanny! Kids are invited to come in their pajamas and tote along their favorite plushie for this twee pre-bedtime show featuring Wiggleworms teachers Lindsay Weinberg, Rob Newhouse, Elaine Moore and others. Chicago Children's Theater promises to bring their own, life-sized Teddy Bear to join in the festivities. Show starts at 5 p.m. at Old Town's Lincoln Square location, and tickets are $11 for members and $12 for everyone else. more ›

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