The Red Line is going to be jacked this weekend. Southbound trains will be running on the elevated tracks between Cermack and Fullerton stops.[CTA] more ›

Drinking wine can be an experience to savor and that experience is heightened when paired with some great cheeses. BIN 36 offers a nice atmosphere to do both these things. Chicagoist dined at the downtown location and not only enjoyed wine and cheese, but indulged in some of Executive Chef John Caputo’s cooking. more ›

The Chicago Fire have confirmed that Head Coach Juan Carlos Osorio has resigned and is headed to the New York Red Bulls for the 2008 season. Osorio, who joined the Fire mid-season last year, was just the third head coach in the franchise history. Osorio cited "personal, family reasons" that led to his decision to depart the Fire before his contract ended. It had been rumored that his wife was unhappy in Chicago and prefers... more ›

The Red Sox has permeated nearly every facet of Bostonist's lives. When they're not live-blogging the games, waxing poetic about the games, thanking Curt Schilling for his splendid work, or telling Dane Cook to watch his hair, they're watching certain presidential candidates hop on the Red Sox bandwagon (sorry, Gothamist). The Sox are so branded on the local brain that people are using the Series to spice up their sex lives. Speaking of spice, Bostonist... more ›

Gothamist learned about the craziest urban nightmare come true: A huge python found in the bathroom pipes. It was also a nightmare for some Yankees fans, as manger Joe Torre declined to come back and manage the Bronx Bombers. At least the city's attempt to give some direction to subway riders was interesting, pranksters went shirtless at the Fifth Avenue Abercrombie & Fitch and the I Heart Brooklyn Girls calendars came out. And just... more ›

Cyrano's Bistrot is open again, after a week and four inspections to combat a roach infestation caused by condo renovations above the restaurant. Congratulations, Chef Didier. Just don't expect us to visit anytime soon. Gabriel Magliaro of Half Acre Beer Company has been busy. Half Acre and Bloodshot Records have a promotion where Bloodshot is offering a sampler album as a free download to Half Acre fans. Magliaro will also be at Whole Foods... more ›

Only four of the thirteen Major League Soccer teams took advantage of Major League Soccer's new Designated Player Rule, made most famous by the signing of David Beckham by the Los Angeles Galaxy, signing a total of five players. This weekend, arguably the two most impactful designated players, Cuauhtemoc Blanco and Juan Pablo Angel, will match up at Toyota Park. Blanco has played just seven games but has helped the Fire to earn 13 points... more ›

The Chicago Fire continued on a downward spiral last night losing to the New York Red Bulls, their fourth straight loss. Seventeen-year-old Red Bull, Jose Altidore, took a break from his busy high school life, he had prom last Saturday and graduates high school this Saturday, to score the eventual game winner against the Fire. His goal came just over one minute into the game. Juan Pablo Angel did not want to be outdone so... more ›

... that things don't really seem to be as hellish as we thought they'd be for the first week of the "three-track man-we-just-don't-seem-to-do-anything-right operation" at CTA central. We asked you to report in on your first week experiences, and most of you seemed to think things weren't much different than the normal crapola we've dealt with in increasing intensity in the last year. We heard that there were some crowded platforms, some seemingly due... more ›

It's official: The Red Eye is the Wave of the Future (TM)! For all the yada yadas about selling the Trib, reporters having to beg for food on street corners, and the inarguable lack of print news readers, the Red Eye seems to be doing OK — the paper will soon have a Saturday edition. more ›

Remember when there was that big launch last October of (PRODUCT)RED? And Oprah and Bono showed up at the Michigan Avenue Gap and acted like douchebags? Do you remember that? We do. We also remember seeing a litany of celebrities — Steven Speilberg, Christy Turlington, Mary J. Blige, Penelope Cruz — in advertisements wearing the (PRODUCT)RED clothing. And we thought to ourselves, are we really supposed to be feeling good about buying clothes to benefit... more ›

We have been the biggest procrastinators writing about Tuesday’s Red Hot Chili Peppers concert at the Allstate Arena because we’ve had a ton of thoughts about the show. more ›

This Chicagoist has just arrived home from work around 6:30 when we heard sirens get louder and louder, and then saw a number of fire engines pull up in front of our building at 2626 N. Lakeview. We knew something terrible was happening when we continued to hear more sirens. more ›

The Red Cross is asking, who is that someone in your life who can kiss away the pain? Who will stand by the community forever? And who will take our breath away? more ›

Hope you like the illustration at the right. It's the winner of the vehicle sticker contest. Congrats to Monica Rooker, the student artist who won. A 25-year-old Chicago cop was charged with felony drunken driving for an accident last January where a man died and a woman was seriously hurt. A bunch of kids in Edwardsville, IL, were expelled for getting in a big fight that was arranged on MySpace. What do you get when... more ›

As recently as 24 months ago, there were three baseball franchises whose fans blamed decades of World Series futility on curses. The Red Sox fans blamed the "curse of the Bambino," cast upon their franchise when the team's owner sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees in order to finance a Broadway production. Since the Wilson administration, White Sox fans blamed their lack of a title on the "Black Sox" scandal, in which members of the 1919 team were accused of throwing the World Series. And the Cubs had their "Billy Goat" curse, cast upon the team after Vasili "Billy Goat" Sianis and his actual goat were denied admission to Wrigley Field for Game 4 of the 1945 World Series. more ›

For years now, we’ve been saying that more Thai places need to embrace the Pez Dispenser as a key element of restaurant design. Someone finally listened. 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 ›

No, not that one. Another one. more ›

When Chicagoist headed to The Red Lion Pub (located at 2446 N. Lincoln, off of the Fullerton red line stop) for a midweek meal, we didn't expect to get a helping of confusion along with our pints. Yet after a dinner that included many pub favorites, we were left feeling like the only thing we knew was that we didn't know a thing. Though we finished our meals, we felt unimpressed and let down by... more ›

While our Bean Town siblings warned us about counting our eggs before they hatched, we spent the weekend grilling up some nice chicken dinners in the Chicagoist HQ as the White Sox beat the Red Sox 5-3 Friday afternoon, sweeping the American League Divisional Series. The Red Sox reign is over, only a season after snapping their 86-year curse. A new champion will be crowned. Could it be the White Sox, ending our own... more ›

While Wednesday's game was a lot closer than Tuesday's, the results were ultimately the same as the White Sox took a 2-0 series lead by beating the Red Sox 5-4. more ›

A few years ago we were booking a local club and, as usually happens when booking a local club, we were talking to a local booking agent. He was expounding on how terrific this dude he was representing was. He kept likening the dude to Uncle Tupelo with better vocals. He kept talking about the dude like he was God or something. This is what booking agents do. Usually we would have dismissed all of... more ›

The Sox have spent most of this baseball season in obscurity despite the best record, banished to the depths of flyover country and treated as second class citizen within their own city. So Sox fans have been understandably upset when a Jonny Damon haircut or George Steinbrenner's lunch gets more airtime on SportsCenter than the Sox. more ›

After losing the first game against the Yankees 3-2 on Monday night, the Sox bounced back with an exciting 2-1 victory last night. Jose Contreras, acquired from the Yanks mid-season last year, pitched 7 innings of 3-hit, no-run ball to pick up the victory. Tadahito Iguchi and Paul Konerko each homered to provide the necessary offense. more ›

As Pride Weekend gears up, gay news is spewing forth from Chicago faster than Jerry Falwell can yell "boycott!" A few gay briefs: · A recent poll commissioned by Equality Illinois found that while a majority of your neighbors would reject a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, most don't favor marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples. Even though no amendment is likely to be introduced soon, 67% of those polled would vote no, only... more ›

Yesterday a man looking for the cell phone he'd just dropped was hit in the head by a Red Line train at the Sox/35th Street station. Details are a bit spotty, but apparently at around 10:40 p.m. Monday the man dropped his cell phone on the tracks and bent down to retrieve it when he was knocked unconscious by the train. Holy shit! Did he not look to see if a train was coming before he bent down? That's quite a sucker punch. Fortunately the man was taken to Stroger Hospital where he was in stable condition. He's expected to be released later today. more ›

Next week kicks off The Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Friday Night at the Movies series. Sadly, this does not mean the CSO will be projecting movies onto its back wall and serving brie and wine like some upper-crust Brew and View. Instead, they’ll perform musical scores from some well-known films. A logical starting point for this series would be the silent film era so Charlie Chaplin’s “City Lights” will kick things off on October 15th. The series will continue through the winter with The Golden Age of Film Music on November 19th featuring music from Gone With The Wind and Lawrence of Arabia and A Night On The Red Carpet, an Oscar-themed show on February 25th with selections from The Godfather and Doctor Zhivago. Tickets for these events are pricey but if you’re a student you can get in for only ten bucks. more ›

Gross. So effing gross, holy shit. Alan Keyes's sweat-soaked napkin (we're actually considering barfing right now) isn't cheap�it's already up to $465. Damn, Republicans and sweat fetishists have a lot of cash to burn. That's Gerry McGlothlin at the right (and probably on the right, snap!), who told the Trib "he wiped the sweat from Keyes' brow with a napkin so he would look better for TV news cameras." Um, McGlothlin wiped Keyes's brow for him? And kept the napkin? Somebody's got a crush! more ›