Results tagged “windycity”

Ah, late February in Chicago. Cubs tickets go on sale today, there's a forecast for a high temperature above 35 degrees next week, and thousands of indie rock kids around Chicago will soon be shedding their parkas for high-priced hoodies bought from Wicker Park boutiques (tip: ours cost us $12 at Target!) for several worthwhile shows around the Chicago area. Lots of tickets go on sale this weekend. So, despite this crappy weather, there is, in the words of Spoon, "something to look forward to."

Belle Diablo, Windy City Roller

We find that after doing scads of last-minute shopping, the best way to ensure "Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward Men" is to avoid the general public altogether. So one of our favorite parts of Christmastime involves shutting ourselves off from the outside world and gorging on movies. This time of year there's plenty of stuff to watch on Ye Old Yule Tube. TCM is getting into the Santa act by presenting "Sweet Home Chicago," a lineup of five films that starts airing tonight.

Sure, you may be hungry like the wolf for the Duran Duran show tonight (get it? Hungry like the wolf? Duran Duran? No? Nothing?), but the big show we're excited about this weekend is taking place at The Metro Saturday night. Hip-hop legends The Wu-Tang Clan hit the stage in support of their new record, The 8 Diagrams, their first record since 2001's Iron Flag and since the 2004 death of ubiquitous member Ol' Dirty Bastard (RIP).

Interview: The Movie Queens

Every last Friday of the month, the bartenders and servers at Kuma's Corner donate their night's tips to a worthy cause. Tonight, it's all going to Windy City Roller Tahira "Tequila Mockingbird" Johnson, who's still recovering from her injury over the summer. If you find yourself gorging on the "Hatebeak" or "Goblin Cock" this evening, please tip better than you usually do. Just in time for Hanukkah, local food writer Leah Zeldes will give a...

We mentioned last week that Pinot Days hits Navy Pier this weekend. There are some auxiliary events in conjunction with the grand festival, running from 1 - 4 p.m. tomorrow. 312 Chicago is hosting a winemakers dinner this evening from 7 - 11 p.m. The $120 price tag allows diners access to sample 18 different award winning pinots, including a four-course meal (each course paired with two different pinots) and the chance to ask burning...

That last hour on Fridays always seems to take forever. At least there's plenty of cool stuff cooking this weekend:

Two Ugandan boxers and one Armenian boxer have disappeared from the AIBA World Boxing Championships. Phillip Adyaku, 25, and Sharif Bogere, 19, of Uganda were reported missing yesterday morning, and Vachagan Avagyan, 25, has been missing since Wednesday night. Also missing? Their luggage. Police don't consider them missing persons because there's no evidence of foul play. Ready to drop the d-bomb? It's possible the athletes have defected, and it wouldn't be the first time...

Not a single Chicago restaurant made it onto Esquire's list of the best new restaurants of 2007, chosen by Esquire Food Critic John Mariani in the magazine's November issue. MenuPages suggests that Mariani has a thing against Illinois restaurants and that's why he didn't choose any Windy City restaurants either this year or last. Time Out Chicago critic Heather Shouse takes it a step further and essentially accuses him of being unethical in how he...

Google's controversial Street View feature is officially live for the Windy City, igniting renewed concerns about privacy. It's also rolling out in Pittsburgh, Philly, Portland, Phoenix and Tucson today. Privacy has been an issue since Street View launched last spring, though not so much a legal question as a personal one. Google captures the images by having a van with cameras on top of it cruise around; technically, that's no different than standing on...

*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...

With the optimism of a glass half-full, the American Gladiator LIVES! And the spirit of the American Gladiator can now live within you. But we can’t grab the Funions and park on the sofa in front of the TV just yet. In 2008, NBC will bring back the weekly series, originally aired from 1989 to 1996. Episodes still run in syndication on ESPN Classic. If you want to channel a Gladiator, NBC will host a...

SHOOTING: Two homeless men shot in a 24 hour span in Uptown -- they appear to be unrelated. In more shooting news (why is there so much?!): Police have two "persons of interest" in custody Sunday morning after two teenagers were shot in a playlot on the South Side in the Woodlawn neighborhood, blocks from the University of Chicago campus. TRAINS: Our dear friend warns us: This is why you NEVER put headphones in...

Calling all bad girls. If you want to knock around girls on roller skates, then the Windy City Rollers are looking for you. Storming into Chicago in 2004, the WCR became Chicago’s first all-female flat track roller derby team. WCR consists of four league teams, and one all-star team that plays in competition with other leagues. They are a member of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association. And aside from putting on a good, sporty...

Poor Didier Durand. The chef/owner of Cyrano's Bistrot was visited by the Health Department Wednesday on suspicion of selling foie gras, only to be shut down with a cockroach infestation. A Health Department spokesperson told Crain's that the infestation was "pretty severe," encompassing both the kitchen and a basement food prep area. Durand said the pest control company he uses thinks the roaches were a result of ongoing condo renovations above the restaurant. Unless he...

When you think of the nation’s top tourist destinations, family favorite Orlando, Fla., and adult playground Las Vegas, Nev., might spring to mind. But our own Windy City? Depends on who you ask…. In June, tourism officials from the city and state proclaimed that the number of domestic visitors journeying to our fair city had increased by nearly ten percent, from 40.2 million in 2005 to 44.6 million in 2006 — a significant achievement, to...

The dropping temperature and pouring rain didn't stop us from getting excited when we read that three new frozen yogurt places will be opening up in Chicago in the near future. Frozen yogurt? Like TCBY? Yes, but better. This isn't just any fro-yo, as Chicagoist likes to call it. We're talking about Pinkberry (A.K.A Crackberry), which is either the best thing since sliced bread, or a huge crock of marketing shit. Our coastal friends...

In news that will surely give fodder to the Macy's h8rs in the house, the city closed down the lower level food court at the flagship Macy's yesterday after they found "a fruit fly infestation, water backing up from a clogged drain, a leaking sink, and grease and food debris on the walls and floor around the inside trash can." The Health Department was there in the first place because a customer called them after...

You might know it as Bags, Baggo, Corn Toss or Cornhole, but whatever you call it you better have your game on a week from Saturday for the First Annual Windy City Cornhole Classic. Bag tossers from across the city will meet up at Soldier Field to find the best cornholer in town.

Chicago History Books?

If you happened to be dining at any one of a number of Chicago’s top restaurants last Monday evening and peeked your head into the kitchen, odds are you wouldn’t have found the executive chefs there. But that doesn’t mean they weren’t working. Instead, over 30 of the city’s best chefs and 20 United States Bartenders’ Guild members were donating their time and skills to Share Our Strength’s “Taste of the Nation Chicago,” just...

Thanks for your help, Rod. Blagojevich wants to get rid of the "gift card grinch." It's a loophole that lets your gift card lose its value over time. Police on the Northwest Side have issued a community alert for a suspect in two attempted sexual assaults -- One on a 16-year-old girl, in the 3100 block of north Sawyer about 11 p.m. Sunday; the other a 23-year-old woman near the 3000 block of north...

If you don't already feel like you have been violated by the wind today, just wait, there is more. This is a "winter-intensity, large-scale storm in a hot, humid, energy-rich summer environment" (Skilling's words not ours, and we found him to be pretty accurate). Overnight we could see winds in the area of 90 mph, which according to the Fujita scale that Bill Paxton taught us about, that is the same as an F1 tornado....

The Stew is reporting that River North restaurant Graze is closing after a mere six months of business. We are sad to say goodbye to Graze because we generally thought Chef Bob Zrenner was a likable person with an interesting vision of fine dining for what was essentially three blocks off the Mag Mile. When we interviewed him in January he told us, "Small plates bring that high level of cuisine to people on a...

The major stories this week are the opening of Crust, the continuing saga of David Hammond, bug eater, and how — if Hammond decides to head to Beverly in the near future — he might have a Tippi Hedren moment fighting with the seagulls who've been dining al fresco on cicadas. There are still plenty of events happening in the next seven days. Here are a few of note. - This weekend would be a...

We’re getting another year older. In fact, if you measure our age in dog years, we’re about to celebrate our 21st birthday! Yee-haw! In plain old human years, we’re turning three, even though it seems like only yesterday that the city that never sleeps met the Windy City. Chicago has been good to us, showing us good times, and providing us with killer content, but the best part about being Chicagoist is knowing we have...

Well, we've been hearing about Looptopia for awhile. A big overnight festival held in the Loop, blah blah. We didn't think too much about it. We pretty much dismiss the Loop after 5 p.m. and give it up for lost on the weekends. Looptopia is obviously working hard to change all that. It's going on this Friday through early Saturday morning and since we're going to be down there, we decided to check out the...

Chicago "chef/consultant" Dale Levitski (formerly of Trio Atelier, La Tache and Orange — Levitski has also spent some time at Stone Lotus) will be Chicago's only representative on season three of Bravo's "Top Chef," a vast improvement from season two, which didn't feature anyone from the Windy City. The self-taught chef uses something called "'flavor math,' where the right number of spices can bring the perfect flavor and taste." He calls it flavor math, we...

It's springtime and Chicago theatre is blooming again like the tulips on Ashland. For the last few years, in part because of Mayor Daley's plans to make downtown Chicago a major player in the theatre scene, many of the biggest and brightest shows leaving the Big Apple have made their way to the Windy City. The now-sitting Wicked proves the formula can be successful. It outperformed the New York version and is still going strong....