All around Chicago, simple pleasures are waiting to be discovered. But bar popcorn? How plebian, you may think. Fine, maybe bar popcorn isn't the pinnacle of culinary achievement. This drinking staple snack comes in all varieties, both good and bad. Sometimes it's stale, sometimes it's too salty, and sometimes it's self-serve and you see someone fail to wash their hands in the bathroom so you just avoid it altogether. But sometimes it's great, and hot, and it adds to your bar-going experience. We recently decided to try the popcorn at West Town's Lush Wine & Spirits, and it falls into the “spectacular bar snack” camp. more ›

Wonderful news from the Madina Lake camp: Matthew Leone is set to rejoin Madina Lake on stage for the first time since suffering a horrendous beating coming to the aid of a battered woman. more ›

Have to admit, watching Rahm Emanuel flit about town like a dervish on his "Tell It Like It Is" listening tour is reaping some unexpected dividends. He must be glad to be back in campaign mode, even as he gets earfuls he didn't expect from Chatham residents at Izola's and Pilsen residents at Nuevo Leon. Which is probably why he decided to put Ricobene's on 26th Street on his itinerary yesterday, which he declared was a "good sandwich." Whether he was endorsing the breaded steak, Italian beef or the combo, we don't know. Having personal experience in navigating Ricobene's during lunch, he probably found a good crowd of supporters instead of the folks who turned out Monday to take him up on his listening tour slogan. more ›

If you haven't yet reached your saturation point for block parties and street fests, the West Town Chamber of Commerce is introducing one more, this time celebrating all things aesthetically pleasing in the world of home design. Now that the stretch along Grand Ave in West Town is becoming increasingly known as the “Design District,” it’s only fitting that the site will play host to the inaugural Design Harvest Festival (which looks as if it might be ever-so-slightly breaking the mold of the city's typical neighborhood fests). For two days this weekend between Damen and Wood, the festival will feature pop-up shops from local stores like Salvage One, Grand St. Gardens and co-presenter, POST 27, plus a musical lineup curated by the Hideout. more ›

West Town was the seen of a grisly double murder-suicide yesterday afternoon as a man apparently shot and killed his two sons before turning the gun on himself. Arturo Bahena, (age 72 according to the Trib but 76 according to the S-T), allegedly shot his sons Romeo, 44, and Rodolfo Bahena, 42, just before noon yesterday before then killing himself. The shootings took place at a property owned by Arturo, in the 1700 block of West Erie St., which was at the center of a bitter divorce battle between Bahena and his wife but police have not yet revealed any sort of motive behind the killings. more ›

This week we encountered the heavenly concoctions of a humble West Town bakery known as La Farine. Owner Rida Shahin has been inconspicuously supplying some of Chicago’s most beloved restaurants for years. This October he finally opened up his modest Chicago Avenue storefront to the public. more ›

Some say Chicago has offered much in the way of green initiatives, and others are scathing critics of our city's lack of environmental concern. There's plenty of room for improvement and some has arrived, in the form of Chicago's first green neighborhood festival, Green Music Fest, taking place this Saturday and Sunday at Eckhart Park in West Town. more ›

2009 marks the 100th birthday of Nelson Algren, the quintessential Chicago author. Long before the word "hipster" had even been coined, he chronicled the bleak existence of society's misfits, living on the fringe in West Town and Wicker Park. His best known books are The Man with the Golden Arm, Chicago: City on the Make and Never Come Morning, which no less than Hemingway declared "the best book to come out of Chicago." They describe a Chicago so different from our city today that they almost read like science fiction, yet when Algren lived here he often hung out at the Rainbo Club and the Gold Star. more ›

The New York Times Home and Garden section (yes, we sometimes read the Home & Garden section) checked in yesterday on the West Town home of two Art Institute faculty members, Frances Whitehead and James Elniski, whose West Town home is starting to turn heads. According to the article (which is accompanied with a nice slide show), the couple has approached their home like a conceptual art project, and in so doing, they've pretty much set a new standard for sustainable urban design. more ›

Chicago has more cozy neighborhood joints than any other city we’ve ever lived in. Even better, some of those places have absolutely amazing food. Every hardcore foodie we know has been raving to us for months and months about Drew and Susan Goss' West Town Tavern, but we only got around to going last week. And then we liked it so much, we went again just six days later. more ›

Last week’s free McSkillet burritos spoiled us. All we had to do was purchase one little drink and we got a free breakfast? Suddenly paying for meals seemed like a sham. It got us thinking - where else can we score some free grub in this town? Well, seek and ye shall find: more ›

This is not a lie – we rock at Scrabble. We even played Scrabble using French words once; kind of a pretentious pursuit, but fun nonetheless. Here in Chicago, you can still get your Scrabble on even if you don’t own the game; lots of bars and coffee shops have Scrabble and other board games on their shelves, available for play. And in our opinion, there is no better way to impress a girl on a date than whipping her ass in Scrabble (or Connect Four, or Battleship). more ›

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Ah, the smoking ban. Home to lots of hearty discussions. Since January, proprietors and patrons have been either meekly complying with or blatantly ignoring the ban, while some just snicker at the smokers miserably standing outside in the cold.
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This was a good year to be a large cultural institution. If cuts in state arts funding and unstable financial markets made a dent in Chicago’s largest museums, they sure weren’t letting on. The Art Institute remained one of the city’s prime attractions, attracting hordes of frugal visitors on free Thursday nights to piece together Richard Misrach’s disorienting beach photography and William Pope.L’s naïvely charming travelogue, or to enjoy Jeff Wall’s mind-bending photography — his mid-career retrospective was the year’s most breathtaking exhibit. more ›

Is it just us, or is this one of those weeks that never stops? Looking ahead at our weekend musical calendar, we're realizing we're not going to get any sleep until we fall into a Thanksgiving dinner-induced coma next week. Oh music, we do it all for you. more ›

Dust those cobwebs off your costumes, folks. It’s the Saturday before a hump-day Halloween, so that means tonight is the night to let it all hang out. That is, if your costume is of that genre. Otherwise, check out these Halloween haunts: The Six Corners Monster Movie Festival in Portage Park features seven classic horror movies both today and tomorrow. Tonight: Nightmare on Elm Street at 8 p.m. Internet gossip columnist Perez Hilton hosts his... more ›

Before we go to the listings, we want to bid farewell to the Tribune's Kevin Pang, who's heading over to the Tempo section. But he leaves the food beat with a profile of Peter Engler, the city's foremost expert on mother-in-law sandwiches, street food and other south side cheap eats. Shaw's Crab House concludes this year's edition of their "Royster with the Oyster" festival with their annual tent party at their Hubbard Street location tonight.... more ›

*This post contains spoilers about last night's Top Chef finale. T.S. Eliot wrote, "This is the way the world ends/ Not with a bang but a whimper." Our Top Chef world ended last night with a whimper from Dale, and two big bangs: a huge whoop from Hung as he was named the winner, followed with an explosion of confetti released from the ceiling of the studio. Chicagoist received a invitation to attend the... more ›

If you want to usher in the fall weather with an almost guaranteed good time, bust out your jeans and autumn jackets and head down to Division Street this Saturday and Sunday, where two of West Town's best attraction, the Renegade Craft Fair and Do-Division Street Fest, have joined forces for a weekend of crafty goodness, musical enjoyment, and plenty of hipster-watching. Held on Division from Damen to Wood, Renegade Craft Fair will bring together... more ›

In case you hadn’t noticed, Chicagoist was a little cranky yesterday morning. After our second full day of the Green City Market Localvore Challenge, with our ‘allowed’ food pretty much gone, we were feeling a bit deprived. Once again, the feeling of only wanting what we can’t have was rearing its ugly head. Plus, we couldn’t shake the fact that if we knew how to really cook (sorry mom!) our localvore lives would be a... more ›

Here are some newsworthy items to dwell on while we still wonder why Karl Rove can't leave now. The Mercantile Exchange cuts 380 jobs as it continues its merger with the Board of Trade. St. Sabina's roof is in disrepair, forcing services to their school auditorium. A fire that killed a mother and two children in Naperville this weekend was set by the mother. Lakeshore Athletic Club is closing its 441 N. Wabash location... more ›

Your theme this week, in honor of Earth Day/Week/Month: "Being Green." This is the song that Kermit the Frog made famous, but Ray Charles did a knockout version of it, and our favorite take on the song has to be Van Morrison's version from 1973's Hard Nose the Highway. It's so good, we insist on this song being played while our casket's being lowered to the ground. Let's dive in, shall we? Moo Moo, I... more ›

Chicagoist would have liked to have been a fly on the wall at this particular auction: In a heated bidding war that ended late Wednesday, Ripley's (of "Believe It or Not!" fame) sniped our own Chicago History Museum at the last second. The coveted item? A warped, weather-beaten 119-year-old gallows. Not just any gallows, however ... The five-noose set was built specifically for four of the convicts from the Haymarket Riot of 1886. After that... more ›

For the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois, the answer is simple: put down the blowtorch. This year, two high-profile historic buildings have been destroyed by torch-related accidents. The Pilgrim Baptist Church, a centenarian Adler and Sullivan beauty, smoldered in January, and just a few weeks ago, scrap workers accidentally torched the Wirt Dexter Building using the same tool. The LPC calls for new laws restricting such cutting and welding operations at historic sites. Beyond these... more ›

Famed Chicago chefs Gale Gand, Rick Tramonto and Rick Bayless are among those cooking sample dishes for the 13th annual Bag Hunger Auction. Held on Nov. 15 at the Hyatt Regency Chicago, the silent auction benefits the Greater Chicago Food Depository. Gand and Tramonto co-chair the event, which features more than 25 chefs from notable Chicago restaurants including Tru, Frontera Grill, Topolobampo, West Town Tavern, TIMO, 160 Blue, Ina's and Heaven on Seven. Food and... more ›

How would you like to have an authentic gallows to call your own? The current owner of the old Cook County gallows, Mike Donley of Donley's Wild West Town in northwest-suburban Union, is selling the platform, scaffolding, and hanging beams that helped execute 86 inmates between 1887 and 1927. Donley originally bought the gallows in 1977 when he owned a museum of Chicago artifacts, but lately he has been using them as a prop in... more ›

It's October, which means Chicago’s arts community is once again collaborating with the City to promote its glorious self during Chicago Artists Month. Through Halloween, you may discover (or be reminded) how accessible and downright friendly that community is and, if they have their way, you'll spend the frigid months touring galleries instead of watching shameful TV. There's simply not enough time for us to visit every event in every corner of the city, but we'll try to make time for these: more ›

These are days of rage for Tribune architecture critics and their readers. Today, Blair Kamen and Patrick T. Reardon released their list of candidates for Ugliest Building in Chicagoland (Outside the Loop) and have asked readers to vote for the region’s all-out fugliest. They admit the list is unscientific and there’s much more bad design to go around. Thanks to masses of commuters, the rickety Roosevelt Road Metra station seemed destined to be the reader... more ›