Best of the South Side 2013

SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

Theof Best the south side The thinnest crust, the highest peak, the smokiest fish, the funkiest beats, & everything else that makes our side of the skyline

SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

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SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

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SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY The South Side Weekly is a student-run publication out of the University of Chicago, formerly known as the Chicago Weekly. The paper is published across the South Side each Wednesday of the academic year.

Editor-in-Chief: Harrison Smith Managing Editor: Hannah Nyhart Photo Editor: Lydia Gorham Online Editor: Gabi Bernard Editors: John Gamino, Zach Goldhammer, Katryce Lassle, Patrick Leow, Bea Malsky, Meaghan Murphy, Christopher Riehle, Claire Withycombe

hi s year’s Best of the South Side, our first as the South Side Weekly,

aims to map out those parts of the South Side that make this place what it is: a home for more than a million, a place that—were it an independent municipality, from Roosevelt Road down south to 138th Street—would be the tenth largest city in the country. Here are the restaurants, intersections, bars, parks, churches, and landmarks that make this city a “side,” unite us as a community and renew our love for this place we call home. It’s here, on Cottage and King, 18th and Stony, that Sandburg’s City of the Big Shoulders lives and works, and indeed storms and brawls. There are problems, to be sure, but come and show us another place with lifted head singing, so proud to be alive.

Neighborhood Captains: Dove Barbanel, Chris Deakin, Amelia Dmowska, Bonnie Fan, Gabe Friedman, Lauren Gurley, Josh Kovensky, Sean Maher, Jack Nuelle, Stephen Urchick Photographers: Camden Bauchner, Jonah Rabb, Zoe Kauder Nalebuff

SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

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SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

IN THIS ISSUE Pilsen 16

Bridgeport 28

Bronzeville 10

Chinatown

13

Hyde Park

Back of the Yards 32

6

South Shore & Greater Grand Crossing 39

Washington Park & Woodlawn 41

South Loop 8

Chatham 18

Auburn Gresham 24

Far Southwest Side 20 Beverly 26

Far Southeast Side 36

SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

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How do we build the future from the remnants of the past? For the past century, Hyde Park has been a proving ground for this question.

The Columbian Exposition brought many of the wonders of the late-nineteenth century world to the Midway Plaisance. At that time, the future looked very much like ancient Rome, an imperial city bloated with cultural acquisitions. Just a few years later, the University of Chicago brought its own transformative forces to the neighborhood, attempting to reimagine Hyde Park as a Neo-Gothic fortress for scholarly pursuits. Come the roaring twenties, neighboring Kenwood played host to Indian Village, a cluster of Art Deco–style apartments which took their names from Native American tribes like the Algonquin and the Powhatan. The penchant for nostalgic futures could only last so long: in the mid century, the UofC redrew the neighborhood in the image of modernism and urban renewal, seeking a clean and effective future, free of jazz clubs and other unpredictable corners and full of sturdy, rectangular homes.

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SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

The future of today, according to real estate development on 53rd Street, is bright and gleaming glass, and the University is once again the benefactor. Harper Court, Hyde Park’s newest shopping center, takes its name from the University of Chicago’s first president. Some say the street’s development holds just as much hope for change in the neighborhood as Hyde Park’s famous president-in-residence held for the country in 2008. It announces blooming wealth of town and gown, offering an upscale and all-encompassing commercial experience. People are already snapping up employment information from outside its storefronts, lining up around the block for a blockbuster sale on sneakers, and enjoying coffee in a hulking glass Starbucks, just where full color window ads promised they would. This, apparently, is the future. And if it doesn’t pan out, somebody can probably build another.

Chris Deakin

Camden Bauchner

Hyde Park

BEST REASON TO INVEST IN A RECORD PLAYER

Hyde Park Records

It may seem that the digital age has established a firm monopoly over the ears of even the purest music lovers, but a step inside Hyde Park Records will inspire customers to rise up and fight for the smell of musty record sleeves and the sweet sound of the needle hitting vinyl.

Beyond the stash of $1 CDs and DVDs is a vast selection of records, new and old, that could satisfy the seeker of even the most esoteric funk and Chicago soul recordings from the seventies or eighties.

Of late, Hyde Park Records is going beyond the business of selling records and hosting more events, including a string of DJ sets through its all-vinyl in-store series. Close that GrooveShark tab, and go get the good stuff. Hyde Park Records, 1377 E. 53rd Street. Daily, 11am-8pm.

(773)288-6588. hydeparkrecords.com (Bess Cohen)

HYDE PARK

BEST NATURE RETREAT

BEST LATE NIGHT VEGETABLE

Osaka Japanese Garden

Open Produce

When you first make your way down to Osaka Garden, the din of the buses on the street and the splattering of goose poop on the grass may make you question whether this little garden is really worth the walk. If you’ve never ventured behind the Museum of Science and Industry, though, you’ve never seen one of the best natural refuges Chicago has to offer. Wooded Island is great for a stroll or jog through the trees, but follow the calligraphy signs to the tiny botanical garden on its northern tip for a true sense of seclusion. A red pebble path guides you across a miniature “Moon Bridge” and around a Japanese pavilion. Herons stand sentinel over a stone waterfall, where koi fish snatch at bubbles and dragonflies flutter between lily pads. The Jackson Park Advisory Council describes the garden’s theme as “peace—between humans and nature, within people, with the spiritual realm, and between peoples.” So if the empty lawns of the Midway Plaisance aren’t your idea of an escape from urbanity, make the trek to this miniature safe haven for a real breath of fresh air. Osaka Japanese Garden, Jackson Park, east of E. 60th St. and S. Stony Island Ave. friendsofthejapanesegarden.org (Claire Wilson)

BEST BRUNCH

SECOND BEST BRUNCH

Valois

Mellow Yellow

Valois serves up camaraderie for breakfast, but not the cozy or comfortable kind.

Don’t expect a waitress to call you “hun,” and don’t plan on any raucous conversation with your friends; scholars and local types alike are here for a simple, substantial and inexpensive breakfast. Don’t sit there and contemplate your meal: choose from a menu of “President Obama’s Favorites.” Exchange a few words with one of the gruff men cooking behind the counter, and after a three-minute process of ordering and receiving food at the front counter, feel free to eat at one of a small sea of tables, without too much chatter. CNN fills out the noise and the pleasantly painted Hyde Park wall-mural covers the walls and your peripheral vision. You can also simplify the process and do what I do: just order an all-veg white omelette, packed with mushroom, tomato, spinach, and onion, with a load of hash browns and a side of toast, all for $5.75. Leave quickly and satisfied. Come back soon. Valois Restaurant, 1518 E. 53rd St. Monday-Sunday, 5:30am-10 pm.

(773)667-0647. valoisrestaurant.com (Jon Brozdowski)

For some, the best part of a Hyde Park night is the next morning, when friends gather for an indulgent Debrief Brunch.

Your Debrief location ought to be lowkey, high-calorie, and in a cozy space where you can dish details of the night before without offending any post-church moms seated nearby. That’s where Mellow Yellow—neighbor to Hyde Park’s default breakfast destination, Valois— distinguishes itself. Mellow Yellow’s tables comfortably fit large groups, and the friendly staff is eager to help when you can’t decide between sweet and savory.

Appropriately, the crown jewel of Mellow Yellow’s menu is chicken and waffles, which you can pair with the restaurant’s drink specials (tip: on weekdays, mimosas are cheaper than plain orange juice).

If booze before noon isn’t your style, spring for the Intelligentsia coffee or espresso. Bottom line: if you’d like a leisurely sit-down experience, rather than a “cafeteria-style” meal, Mellow Yellow provides the essentials for a weekly treat and retreat with friends. Mellow Yellow, 1508 E. 53rd St. Monday-Thursday, 8am9pm; Friday-Saturday, 8am-11pm; Sunday, 8am-10pm. (773)667-2000. mellowyellowrestaurant.com (Sam Karas)

The colorful and copious displays of veg and fruit are the first thing you see when you enter Open Produce, the coziest grocery store in Hyde Park. But the unassuming brown coffee bags resting beside the shelves of produce bear the store’s true meaning.

On their plain burlap exterior, beneath the Fair Trade and Organic labels, the coffee proclaims a mission: “Justice in Every Step”. Open Produce preaches Justice in everything, with its free-range eggs, its locally grown, humanely raised meats, and its plethora of organic fruits and veggies. The store espouses Justice for all, even for the lowliest rutabaga. There is no greater way to deal Justice than to enable the snacking habits of those night owls that crave fresh greens at two in the morning. I know I would have kicked my late-night bell pepper cravings months ago if it wasn’t for this damn delightful place. Open Produce, 1635 E 55th St. Daily, 8am-2am. (773)496-4327. openproduce.org (Alex Gura)

BEST CHOLE IN THE WALL

The Falcon Inn and Cholie’s Pizza

The Falcon Inn is Hyde Park’s most unfortunately overlooked dive. While the bar itself is so dim that it might be better described as just plain dark, its $7 pitchers, Monday night karaoke, and the service from some of the friendliest bartenders around more than make up for the lack of proper lighting. Online reviewers will advise you to stay away from the dive so they can keep it to themselves.

The Falcon’s secret weapon is “The Chole Hole,” a physical window in the north wall which leads directly into neighboring Cholie’s Pizza. Can’t decide between a gyro sandwich and a pizza? Cholie’s has the answer: gyro meat pizza. What about ribs, chicken, or spaghetti? Cholie’s has a ribs and chicken combo, spaghetti side included. The Cholie’s special is a solidly delicious deviation from Chicago’s obsession with deep-dish, offering both stuffed and regular (called “thin,” but not actually that thin) crust varieties. Cholie’s next-door location does delivery too, for those under twenty-one and looking to avoid the reminder. Falcon Inn, 1601 E. 53rd St. Monday-Friday, 10am-2am; Saturday, 11am-3am; Sunday, noon-2am.

21+. (Claire Wilson)

BEST PLACE TO BECOME A HOOLIGAN

LDR Skate

Boarders rejoice! The mecca of South Side skating beckons. Skate toward it, shamble through its open front door.

LDR Skate, which just opened this past year, is the only skate shop on the South Side. It is the spitting image of your weird cousin’s basement, a well-designed mix of home and grunge. It’s a small storefront lined with racks of apparel and skateboard decks. There’s a rail setup in the corner, and there’s Chance the Rapper’s signature on the wall, in pink chalk.

The Leaders1354 brand of streetwear was founded on 53rd, and they’ve returned to their proving ground with wild success in their resume, ready to nurture skateboarders young and old. Everything is chill: they will tune you up and dress you right. Don’t worry. Rest yourself in our one skate refuge, and witness what is sure to be a revolution. LDR can see the future of South Side skateboarding, and it ain’t no mirage. LDR Skate, 1013 E. 53rd St. Monday-Saturday, noon-7pm; Sunday, noon-5pm. (773)675-8303. ldrskate.com (Chris Deakin)

SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

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Bea Malsky

South Loop There is a spot on Roosevelt Road, near the northwestern edge of the South Loop, where you can see the buildings of the Loop in the distance and a tangle of train tracks in the foreground. Turning to the south reveals a dispersed array of towering residential complexes. This panorama encapsulates both the history and current identity of the South Loop, a relatively small neighborhood with a lot of potential but few defining characteristics.

The lingering train tracks recall the days of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when freight and passenger trains dominated the area’s industrial landscape. The remote Loop skyscrapers symbolize a fundamental disconnect: the South Loop is not quite part of the city center, and despite its various classifications, not quite part of the traditional South Side. When asked about what area his business caters to, the owner of the Printers Row Wine Shop said “South City”—a term that only adds to the region’s vague character.

The residential buildings represent the South Loop’s current makeup to some extent, but point even more to the future.

It isn’t hard to understand why—apartment buildings can be found on almost every street, and proximity to the businesses of the Loop make the South Loop a perennially attractive place to live. The story that is more difficult to recognize is that the 2008 housing market crash hit the South Loop hard; virtually all development screeched to a halt. Fortunately, things are finally looking up again. Over

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the past year or so, the South Loop has experienced the city’s biggest gains in property values. Plans to build the first massive condo complex since the housing bubble are in the works, and the construction of a new Cermak Green Line station is underway, signaling a desire to attract visitors to McCormick Place and transform the area between the Roosevelt and 35th Street stations.

As people move into an area, restaurants, entertainment venues, and other amenities that give neighborhoods character inevitably follow. In his 2008 book “Who’s Your City,” Richard Florida argues that place still matters and globalization is exaggerated. In other words, people still need to move into exciting, vibrant places to realize their potential.

If the South Loop is going to continue to attract new residents into its many apartments and condos, concrete developments will have to keep popping up.

That should make for an exciting future, and hopefully the beginnings of a truly great neighborhood with its own distinct character.

Gabe Friedman

SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

SOUTH LOOP

BEST WINE DISPENSER SYSTEM

Square One

Just seconds from City Tavern is Square One, the South Loop’s best bar for cocktails. It is tempting to call it “the bar of the future” as well, because of its innovative layout and mechanical wine dispenser system. The wine machine, which holds various bottles of whites and reds behind glass panes, is embedded into a wall near one of the entrances. Patrons can request “wine cards,” which are the size of a credit card and contain fifty dollars of spending credit. The cards fit neatly into a slot on the red or white side, and wine is dispensed at the touch of a button. The experience is reminiscent of the outlandish technological amenities offered in science fiction, but maintains an approachable simplicity. Even if bar culture seems to be headed in this direction, for now, Square One is still a one-of-a-kind experience, especially in the sports-bar dominated South Loop.

Square One, 1400 S. Michigan Ave. Monday, 4pm-midnight; Tuesday-Wednesday, 4pm-1am; Thursday-Friday, 4pm-2am; Saturday, 4pm-3am. (847)414-3699. squareonechicago.com (Gabe Friedman)

BEST SELECTION OF UNIQUE ALCOHOL

Printers Row Wine Shop

The beautiful walls of the Printers Row Wine Shop are lined with over a hundred bottles of wine, and the shelves in the middle of the store show off dozens of unique beers and spirits. This makes the fact that the shop’s two owners individually sample every single label that they sell all the more amazing. Founded just under ten years ago, the shop—which has a newer sister location in University Village—has cultivated a happy customer base thanks to these meticulous standards. The shop’s support of local producers and its free wine tastings on Fridays throughout the entire year (except for January: in one owner’s words, “no one does anything in Chicago in January”) have helped spread the word and undoubtedly contributed to its success.

Prices vary and can be expensive, but the wide selection of more reasonably priced vintages makes the shop a great destination for just about every type of wine lover. Printers Row Wine Shop, 719 S. Dearborn St. Monday-Wednesday, 11am-10pm; Thursday-Saturday, 11am-11pm; Sunday, noon-8pm. (312)663-9314. printersrowwine.com (Gabe Friedman)

BEST EMBLEM OF PRINTER’S ROW

Sandmeyer’s Bookstore

It is only fitting that Printer’s Row is home to the South Loop’s best bookstore. The neighborhood was once the printing center of the Midwest, but the former printers’ buildings have steadily turned into residential complexes since the 1970s. However, one building is a ghostly reminder of the printing era that was. The words “M.A. Donohue & Co. Book Publishers” remain on the front of the iconic Donohue building on Dearborn Street, casting a literary shadow over the surrounding blocks. The tangible bearer of this bookish spirit is Sandmeyer’s Bookstore, a family-owned independent shop that has thrived across the street from the ghostly Donohue building for over thirty years. For a relatively small space, the store carries a large variety of books, from the latest intellectual fiction to children’s books and travel guides. The large sale section in the back corner offers great deals on choice books in perfect condition. Visit for these reasons—or maybe just for the old book smell that permeates the store in a neighborhood so steeped in literary history. Sandmeyer’s Bookstore, 714 S. Dearborn St. Monday-Wednesday, 11am-6:30pm; Thursday, 11am-8pm; Friday, 11am-6:30pm; Saturday, 11am-5pm; Sunday, 11am-4pm. (312)922-2104. sandmeyersbookstore.com (Gabe Friedman)

BEST ROCK MUSIC HANGOUT

Record Breakers

This is a store straight out of a Hollywood movie set, a rock music–lover’s dream. After twenty-five years in business, six in this location, Record Breakers’ dimly lit walls are well covered in collages and posters. Exotic rock memorabilia such as masks and blimps hang from the ceiling, and a floor conquered by crates of records, CDs, and VHS tapes makes linear travel a bit difficult. A polite and knowledgeable staff handles obscure record requests and guides inebriated patrons and hopeful band members (those seeking always-invisible booking agents) around the store. The majority of its selection is rock music, but it has a surprisingly large and well-curated classical section, culled primarily from the estate sales of the recently deceased. Browse the store late at night to hear live music vibrating through the floor from Reggies’s downstairs music club. And as you make your purchase, say hello to the red-gold sun canary squawking from its cage behind the counter, because why not? Record Breakers, 2105 S. State St. Daily, 11am-midnight. (312)949-0125. reggieslive.com (Dove Barbanel)

BEST AFFORDABLE FANCY DATE RESTAURANT

City Tavern

Although the South Loop is not exactly overflowing with upscale restaurants, City Tavern is one of the area’s most underappreciated places to eat. Aside from the food, one of the best sensations that patrons experience is the very first one: walking inside the rustic, eighteent-century-style dining room and being greeted by bright chandeliers, a stunning mirrored bar, and a beautiful, meticulously crafted earthy color scheme that pervades every nook and cranny of the lower floor.

Once you sit down, the menu boasts an interesting array of appetizers and side dishes, or “bites,” that can easily be used to construct a good meal. The cocktails are creative and the wine and beer list is extensive as well. However, City Tavern’s biggest advantage over other chic eateries in the South Loop, such as the often-cited Acadia, is that it can fill you up for less than twenty-five dollars. No miniature-sized portions—just interesting food at a good price. City Tavern, 1416 S. Michigan Ave. Monday-Thursday, 4pm-midnight; Friday, 4pm-1am; Saturday, 9:30am-1am; Sunday, 9:30am-midnight. (312)663-1278. citytavernchicago. com (Gabe Friedman)

BEST RAILROAD REBIRTH

Jazz Showcase

Rail travel and jazz clubs concurrently faded in Chicago during the latter half of the twentieth century, but relics of each have come to cohabitate in the redeveloped Printer’s Row neighborhood.

The Jazz Showcase has been “Where Jazz Lives in Chicago” since 1947, but its move to Dearborn Station is recent.

Inside, the club is dark (a good start), and a three-sided bar and an elevated stage anchor either side of the large room. The space between is filled with tables, chairs, and couches—room for 170 guests— that face the stage. (Note that the dive down to retrieve items swallowed by the couches may bring up some unexpected discoveries from the club’s history.) The bar offers a range of choices for all tastes, though the “specialty drinks” are sweet enough to make a sorority sister cringe and should be avoided. During weekends the club hosts better-known acts at a cost of $20-$45. The week, however, brings performers more humble as well as eager amateurs, who participate in open jam sessions for $10, $5 for students.

Jazz Showcase, 806 S. Plymouth Ct. Monday-Saturday, 8pm-2am; Sunday, 4pm2am. (312)360-0234. jazzshowcase.com (Tyler Kolle)

SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

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Stephen Urchick

Bronzeville In the early twentieth century, when Chicago’s discriminatory housing policies were still in place, Bronzeville was the black downtown, a sort of mirror image of the Loop.

The neighborhood provided its own shopping centers and banks, theaters and clubs, doctors’, dentists’, and lawyers’ offices, all owned and operated by black residents who were barred from working downtown. While the neighborhood suffered from massive overcrowding and high crime rates throughout the first half of the twentieth century, it was also a vital commercial and cultural center for African Americans nationally, on par with New York’s Harlem.

Following the end of legal segregation in Chicago, middle-class black residents chose to move elsewhere, citing riots, high crime, and the pressures of de-industrialization. Meanwhile, the working-class black community became increasingly concentrated in high-rise housing projects like the Robert Taylor Homes. In the difficult decades that followed, Bronzeville’s population rapidly decreased, empty apartment buildings and theaters were bulldozed or converted, and local businesses struggled. Yet to concentrate only on the bad would mean to obscure Bronzeville’s role as a vital commercial and cultural center for African Americans. King Drive’s churches were among the city’s most integral black institutions, 47th Street bustled with shopping and nightlife, the Chicago Defender continued to publish the voice of

a people that the rest of the city largely ignored.

Today, Bronzeville’s history and symbolic importance for African-Americans has become a source of major appeal for the optimistic new residents and businesses entering the area. Many historic structures, complete with beautiful stonework and artifacts, are still standing or have been repurposed. Statues and murals commemorating Bronzeville’s golden age are everywhere, alongside art galleries and gleaming apartment complexes.

Bronzeville’s long tradition as a hub for African-American businesses continues. Black entrepreneurs continue to flock to the area because of its historical resonance, bringing with them newer restaurants and venues such as Room 43, Norman’s Bistro, Chicago’s Home of Chicken & Waffles, and more. Culturally, Bronzeville also remains vitally important. 2013 saw a citywide recognition of Bronzeville as the “birthplace of gospel music,” with the wildly successful Chicago Gospel Music Festival held partially in Ellis Park. Yet even with this influx of new business, Modern Bronzeville remains a neighborhood in the midst of continual rebirth, constantly looking toward its storied past for the building blocks of its future.

Dove Barbanel

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SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

BRONZEVILLE

BEST PROCESSED MEAT PRODUCTS

BEST LONE SURVIVOR OF URBAN RENEWAL

H-Dogs

Maxey–Boyd House

BEST STAND-UP COMEDY EXPERIENCE

BEST BLAST FROM THE PAST

Bronzeville Comedy Showcase

The Forum

Give the hot dog a chance! So often considered the lowliest of snack foods, the hamburger’s shady, bowel-gluing cousin, hot dogs have undergone a glorious gourmet reinvention in Chicago. H-Dogs, situated in the commercial heart of Bronzeville, is the next major player in the never-ending hot dog revolution. Numerous types of dogs and sausages are available, with an extravagant selection of toppings above and beyond the classic Depression-era do—from turkey chili and cheddar cheese on their signature H-Dog, to blue cheese dressing and bacon on the extremely adventurous Turducken Cobb Dog. If processed meat product is not your hobby, try the salmon burger or the Healthy Hound, a grilled veggie-dog topped with peppers, onions, and cucumbers. The restaurant itself is large enough, well-lit, sparkling clean and modern.

Plus, it’s only one block away from the Green Line station on 47th. Go with an open mind and a clear pyloric valve. H-Dogs, 4655 S. King Dr. Monday-Thursday, 7:30am7pm; Friday-Saturday, 7:30am-8pm. (773)633-2978. hdogschicago.com (Dove Barbanel)

Brian Babylon’s Bronzeville Comedy Showcase delivers all the gut-busting laughter that a Chicago comedy venue should. Babylon, the self-proclaimed “Prince of Bronzeville,” is a comedian himself, in addition to being the host of Vocalo’s “Morning AMp” radio show and a regular panelist on Chicago Public Media’s “Wait Wait…

Don’t Tell Me!” The Comedy Showcase is his way of bringing all types of Chicagoans and performers together in the “entertainment desert” that he calls the southern half of Bronzeville—outside of the pricier Jokes and Notes club a few blocks away, the area doesn’t offer much else. Inside, the crowd is diverse and sociable. Babylon starts each free event off with a short set and continues to perform in his casual but sincere style of comedy in between the other acts. The first few acts are less experienced than the soon-to-be stars that close out the night, some of whom have been on Comedy Central or in popular TV shows, but laughter is a constant. Blanc Gallery, 4445 S. King Dr. Every other Wednesday, 7pm. Early July through late August. (773)-952-4394.

(Gabe Friedman)

In the early twentieth century, Prairie Avenue was lined with elegant mansions that were home to Chicago’s business elite. After the influx of African Americans to Bronzeville, most wealthy families left the area for the Gold Coast, and most of the houses were abandoned or subdivided into smaller apartments. Into the scene came Alva Maxey-Boyd and Charles Boyd, a young black couple who bought a house on the street in 1948 during an era when home ownership for blacks was rare. Partly as a result of their peculiar status, the house became a meeting point for young black intellectuals. In the fifties and sixties, all of the nearby houses were demolished in a series of urban renewal projects, and Alva and Charles had to single-handedly battle the law courts in order to keep their home, finally earning a stay of demolition from the elder Daley administration. Today, the ornate structure—which is now surrounded on all sides by empty lots—stands as a lonely reminder of the area’s former opulence. The Maxey–Boyd House, 2801 S. Prairie Ave. (Ben Boyajian)

The fortunes of this majestic redbrick hall called the Forum have ebbed and flowed in tandem with the wider neighborhood, an emblem of Bronzeville’s storied past and present-day challenges. A magnet for entertainment and retail since the 1890s, the Forum has played host to ballroom dances, Communist party meetings, and scores of music legends from Nat King Cole to Milt Hinton. Just down the block from the 43rd Street Green Line station, the building sits empty but no longer abandoned. A local developer bought the formerly derelict structure two years ago to save it from city-mandated demolition. The building’s ongoing renovation is a centerpiece effort for the area’s revitalization as a whole. The Forum proudly advertises its rediscovered role as a community hub—billboards paying homage to Bronzeville’s history cover its walls. On one wall, a large chalkboard asks passers-by to fill in the blanks to the statement: “I wish 43rd Street was...” The answer to that question is hard to imagine without first considering the soon to be reborn Forum. The Forum, 328 E. 43rd St. (773)285-5000. facebook.com/TheForumBronzeville (Dove Barbanel)

SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

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SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

Zoe Kauder Nalebuff

Chinatown

Chinatown ostensibly retooled itself for tourism in the early nineties, with the opening of the two-story outdoor Chinatown Square over what used to be the Santa Fe rail. And with fresh blacktop being steamrolled onto Archer and Cermak and those shiny, new Red Line renovations optimistically nearing completion, the rush of visitors doesn’t seem likely to ebb anytime soon. Yet don’t let this fool you: the tourist is tangential.

Respect the gift shops, the grocery stores, the former laundries, now the hip bubble tea joints. Historically, these ventures catalyzed an era of transnational migration. They even saved lives, keeping Chicago’s Chinese community off the meatpacking “killing floors.” They kept management within families and regulation between workers. Once shelter from overt discrimination, today they represent jobs amidst lingering economic insecurity.

Strong residential ties continue to preserve this century-old enclave. Behind the sponsored events are community

celebrations; above the storefronts gather youth programs, ESL classes, and professional educators. From the first traditional banquet honoring volunteer Baptist catechists, to the annual Dragon Boat Race for Literacy, Chinatown has welcomed its neighbors with unflagging assertions of its own cultural autonomy.

Turn onto Wentworth from any business or eatery, and you’ll get a good sense of Chinatown’s niche. The twin Pui Tak pagodas stand solidly against a gauzy Sears Tower—happily complementary, but unmistakably in the foreground, comfortably apart.

BEST “BUILDING EVER ERECTED IN AMERICA

BY THE CHINESE”

Pui Tak Center

Or at least, these were the ostensibly kind words written by the Chicago Tribune when plans for the former On Leong Merchants Association Building were revealed in the summer of 1926. Curiously commissioned to the Swedish firm Michaelson and Rognstad, the design wedded the verticality of Taishanese fortress-houses to fond memories of the Columbian Exposition’s famed Joss House. The building’s twin towers, roofed in custom-made terracotta, stand as proud contributions to the distant downtown skyline. Confucian motifs and intricate vine-like ceramics hem the windows and columns, while a delicate three-story loggia opens the building onto Wentworth’s west side. Historically the home and headquarters for its titular community organization, the 30,000-square-foot building also provided low-rent storefronts for family friends and favored entrepreneurs. An FBI racketeering raid in 1988 briefly shuttered the complex before its acquisition and restoration by the Chinese Christian Union Church. Now the Pui Tak Center, the structure continues in its role as a community nexus, conducting youth programs, ESL courses, religious services, and even the occasional tour. Pui Tak Center, 2216 S. Wentworth Ave. Monday-Friday, 8am-7pm; Saturday, 8am-12:30pm. (312)328-1188. puitak.org (Stephen Urchick)

Stephen Urchick SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

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SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 13

CHINATOWN

BEST RELIGIOUS ART

St. Therese Chinese Catholic Mission

Most people come to Chinatown seeking smoothies or boba tea. Few come as pilgrims.

Yet take a turn off Wentworth’s drag and you’ll learn that Chinatown Catholics keep up with the long-standing papal preference for architectural shock and awe. The St. Therese mission has retained much of its Romanesque flair in the hundred-plus years since its construction under a fledgling Italian parish. Two colonnades—hewn from a polished marble struck with creamy, coppery colors—enclose the pews. A vaulted ceiling arcs upwards, melting into pale blue frescos; the intricate chandeliers suspended from every arch seemingly refract divinity’s light. Stained glass saints on high smile with sunny benignity. Recent renovations have gilded the space with glowing Chinese script. Our Lady of China hobnobs with the Madonna, and the ancestors share God’s house. Avoid the knot of craning tourists out on the street. Try to call ahead and check before visiting, or perhaps even consider attending a service yourself. St. Therese Chinese Catholic Mission, 218 W. Alexander St. (312)842-6777. sttheresechinatown.org (Stephen Urchick)

BEST CHANCE AT EMPTYING YOUR SINUSES

Lao Ma La

Step into the sleek interior of Lao Ma La on a Friday night and you’ll find an eclectic crowd of diners who share one ordinarily unnoticeable quality: a passion for mouth-numbingly, tear-wrenchingly spicy Asian cuisine. At this outpost of Tony Hu’s restaurant empire, the mala sauce and ice water flow freely. The oily, fiery red sauce—popular in soups, stews, and stir-frys—is a sadistic blend of the most punishing peppercorns, chili peppers, and spices found in China’s Szechuan province. Their hot and spicy pots, perfect for communal dining, come in three grades of heat but are still recommended for only the most intrepid palettes. For the more cautious, the cauliflower Hot Mini Wok, YuShiang Chicken, and Ma Po Tofu dishes—each garnished lightly with peppercorns and cilantro—are potent yet manageable adventures. A postprandial trip to nearby Saint’s Alp Teahouse for a boba tea or soothing smoothie ought to be considered mandatory. Lao Ma La, 2017 S. Wells St. Sunday-Thursday, 11am10pm; Friday-Saturday, 11am-10:30pm.

(312)225-8989. tonygourmetgroup.com (Lauren Gurley)

BEST DIM SUM DIVE

China Café Seafood Restaurant

Chrome carts and spotless bow ties be damned! If you’re looking to dodge the swankier Cai, or escape the snares of other ostensible tourist traps, China Café will shroud you in a cloud of loud Chinese conversation and humid kitchen vapors. Your fellow patrons will most likely be Chinatown residents grabbing a quick breakfast or luxuriating in good food and matching company. Don’t expect too much help with your decisions, or even a table on busier Sunday mornings. Be patient, and then choose boldly. Intuit your way to springy shrimp and delightfully greasy dumplings. Arrive before ten for the hottest and freshest morning spread.

There’s an impressive carry-out counter up front if you haven’t the time to sit down. China Café Seafood Restaurant, 2300 S. Wentworth Ave. Daily, 8am-midnight. (312)808-0202. (Stephen Urchick)

BEST RED BEAN PASTE BUN

Tasty Place Bakery and Café

Wentworth’s bakeries typically incarnate the red bean paste bun as a fist-sized pillow of chewy, egg-washed dough. Its center ambushes you with an inner mass of satisfyingly sweet mash, made from azuki beans, sugar, and the occasional touch of lard.

Too often, however, the surprise is lost: the paste shifts in the baking and the bagging and the consumer is left with sad, empty, bready bites. At Tasty Place, however, the croissant meets its Chinese second cousin. By braiding the dough and working thin layers of paste between the folds, Tasty Place reimagines this prolific treat so as to satisfy at every mouthful. Although the paste itself leans on the crumbly side—arguably standard, losing some moisture to the oven—it remains neither overly sweet nor headily fruity, artfully smoothed of chunky bean solids. It might be slightly messier to eat than the Chinatown standard, but you won’t have to worry about the center getting squished out in your backpack, making it an ideal desert to cart back home.

Tasty Place Bakery and Café, 2306 S. Wentworth Ave. Daily, 7:30am-10pm. (312)8428802. (Stephen Urchick)

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CHINATOWN

Zoe Kauder Nalebuff

BEST FUN YOU’LL EVER HAVE WATCHING FOOD BOIL

BEST BET

Mandarin Kitchen

Saint’s Alp Teahouse

Chinatown offers opportunities for even the shoddiest cooks to shine. Mandarin Kitchen, otherwise known as “Little Fat Lamb” (a rough translation of its Chinese name), is perhaps the most hands-on. As a hot pot restaurant, Mandarin Kitchen allows patrons to craft a menu of raw ingredients from an extensive list of offerings, then boils them to perfection in the steamy soup broth on their tabletop stoves. If you don’t mind a little heat, opt for the Kitchen’s spicy broth over the regular chicken variety—it bathes each bite in just enough tongue-tingling flavor, and complements nearly anything you can order. Ease the pain with the beverage of your choice; Mandarin Kitchen is BYOB. But vegetarians and pescetarians beware! Both broths are based on chicken stock and the cuttlefish balls conceal a ground pork filling. Despite this and a wealth of other meaty entrees, Mandarin Kitchen still offers a broad range of creative vegetable options. The menu features numerous off beat favorites, including winter melon, frozen tofu, and the peculiarly textured wood ear. It may not be your cheapest dinner option, but $19.95 a head gets you all you can eat within two hours’ time.

An interactive menu and large, communal tables ensure you’ll leave engorged and entertained. Mandarin Kitchen, 2143 S. Archer Ave. Monday-Thursday, 11am-10:30pm; Friday-Sunday, 11am-11:30pm. (312)328-0228. (Emily Hatch)

Whether you’re stuck appeasing some conservative eaters, or just completely drained of all culinary ambition, the menu is huge enough to both meet the bold and tempt the timid. There’s no shame here in ordering the orange chicken amongst more adventurous companions—it’s brilliantly breaded, thickly sauced, stewed with zest, and even thoughtfully plated with actual citrus slices. Their hot drinks are as seemingly thick and substantial as their cool milk ones, served in classy ceramic ware and unapologetically flavored. Something as even apparently plain as the green apple variety will have you asking for a second pot. You won’t drain your first teacup before lunch is ready, and service remains impressively swift even on busy Saturday nights. And you won’t feel bad at all about sacrificing savings on some refreshing, tapioca goodness.

Saint’s Alp Teahouse, 2131 S. Archer Ave. Sunday, 11am-midnight; Monday-Saturday, 11am-1am. (312)842-1886. (Stephen Urchick)

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Zoe Kauder Nalebuff

Pilsen

On Saturday, September 14, 18th Street is covered in the colors of Mexico. It’s almost Independence Day, and Pilsen is wearing its heart on its sleeve. Flags wave from second-story apartments and car roofs. Glittering tassels, alternating pennants, and tissue-paper flowers boast red, green, and white. On the temporary stage at Paulina Street, a singer sways in an equally blooming dress, crooning Mexican tunes for an eager crowd at the Mercaditos en el Zócalo. At Racine, music floats from empty doorways, and in the late afternoon, the sidewalk begins to fill with a scattering of neighborhood cookouts.

The night before, the neighborhood hosted a more frequent celebration: the still young Second Fridays, monthly nights of art and commerce led by the Chicago Arts District. A new vintage boutique and barbershop welcomed a fashionable throng, while a DJ spun old-school Latin tracks at Modern Cooperative, a newly re-opened furniture store in the landmark Thalia Hall. The store will soon be joined by a series of sleek, muchhyped projects led by successful North Side entrepreneur Bruce Finkelman. That Pilsen is going the way of Wicker Park has been a refrain here for years, but the Thalia Hall development, with an upstairs restaurant that plans to feature twenty-four beers on tap when it opens Friday night, and a basement punch bar boasting a glowing fish tank, has the feel of an outpost from the Kennedy branch of the Blue Line.

It is too easy to fall into an image of two Pilsens: that of the working-class Latino family, and that of the younger, probably whiter, transplant—the gentrifier. One could categorize each element on sight, the jingling paleta cart vs. the sleek fixed16 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

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gear bike. The vintage boutique’s painstakingly arranged finds vs. the dollar store’s crowded racks. The dim pool hall and the craggy-faced men lingering outside vs. the pinball-themed Simone’s—or the revamped Thalia Hall.

But beyond a first glance, no street is so easily sorted, and no narrative of neighborhood change so tidy. Built by Bohemian hands in 1889, the landmark Thalia Hall pre-dates not just the newest wave of the young and the hip, but the generations of immigrants before that. One of its new tenants is a board member of the Pilsen Community Market, a co-sponsor of Saturday’s display of Mexican pride. The rapid, controversial demolition of the local Whittier Elementary School fieldhouse drew protesters of all ages and colors, a crowd as diverse as the one found on a Wednesday night at Harbee’s or Friday rush at Nuevo Leon. Declaring two Pilsens would be like viewing one of the neighborhood’s famous murals in black and white. You could do it, but you’d miss a lot of color.

Hannah Nyhart

BEST URBAN RUIN

The Sanctuary

The Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church at 19th and Peoria hasn’t housed a congregation for more than thirty years. Behind barred windows and a door padlocked from the inside, a sunken courtyard fills foundations originally laid in 1880. The church initially hosted German immigrants, whose inscription on the front tower has survived the 1979 fire that destroyed much of the structure. The developer who bought the lot restored the tower, with plans to build artists’ lofts behind it, but those never materialized. Instead, you’ll find an open-air chapel colloquially dubbed “The Sanctuary.” Truncated stone columns mingle with young trees. A small well stands dry, its insides painted the cheerful blue of a backyard pool. A charred crucifix watches from the inner wall of the facade, the only side of the church that remains. Today the sanctuary’s only flock is sparrows; iron gates have replaced three walls, and entrance, whether to worship or to wander, is restricted. The South Side Weekly does not endorse fence-hopping, even in good faith. The Sanctuary, W. 19th St. and S. Peoria St. (Hannah Nyhart)

PILSEN

BEST SECOND FRIDAY BEST BIKE OASIS

Working Bikes

Working Bikes co-founder Lee Ravenscroft is quick to tell you that the Southwest Side is a “bike desert,” and walking into their warehouse, it looks like the shop is trying to stock every block south to 91st. Bike parts are splayed across every surface of the massive room: bins of gears, neatly hung frames and stacked wheels, boxes of helmets. For-sale models, ranging from as-is clunkers to spiffy road bikes, stand in neat rows, ready for a test-ride in the alley to the side of the building. As a straight bike shop, it would be hard to beat. But the nonprofit’s aims extend beyond fitting local customers with the perfect ride. While a team of paid mechanics refurbishes bikes for sale, volunteers fix up others to be distributed to local organizations. Another set of bikes, their handlebars and pedals removed and strapped to their frames for tighter packing, have destinations farther afield: Working Bikes sends thirteen shipments of bikes every year to developing countries across the world. It sounds like the hippest cause since Toms Shoes, but the model seems to work: 38,000 bikes in, they’re still going strong. Working Bikes, 2434 S. Western Ave. Wednesday-Thursday, noon-7pm; Friday-Saturday, noon-5pm. (773)847-5440. workingbikes.org (Hannah Nyhart)

BEST WEEKEND WAIT

BEST BACON CANDY

Don Pedro Carnitas

Honky Tonk BBQ

Across the city, weekend brunch is almost synonymous with a wait time, but at Don Pedro Carnitas, that wait is made sharper and more pleasurable by a multi-sensory onslaught that will have your stomach grumbling and your mouth watering. On weekends, Don Pedro’s menu centers on build-your-own carnitas. Platters of carved pork are wheeled to the front window on carts, with smoke wisping off. A mound of crisped pigskins, still to be shattered into pieces for the table, is carried aloft, its crackle audible over the mostly Spanish chatter.

The food is served family style, and clans spanning several generations crowd the room. Eating in or ordering out, the wait is twenty minutes or so, but once seated a brief counsel with a friendly waitress will have a pile of meat, warm tortillas, tart salsa verde, and onions and cilantro splayed across the table quicker than it takes to fetch a couple large horchatas from the vendor outside. $5 or less buys a full stomach that will root you to your chair, even as you remember the hungry line behind you. Don Pedro Carnitas, 1113 W. 18th St. Monday-Thursday, 6am-6pm; Friday, 5am-6pm; Saturday, 5am-5pm; Sunday, 5am-3pm. Cash only.

(312)829-4757. (Hannah Nyhart)

From the prominent oak bar to the prolific oil landscapes on the walls, Honky Tonk BBQ is so committed to the western saloon look that you half expect to find spittoons on the floor. Its selection of smoked meats—savory brisket, tender spare ribs, and succulent hot links, among others—all pair excellently with the rich cornbread and crisp slaw. But the candied bacon is the stand out.

Thick, chewy, and sweetly salty, this treat could be the love child of jerky and churros. Eight bucks will get you enough to share with a friend, if you’re feeling generous. Wash it down with the craft beer on tap or the barrel-aged Manhattan, and make sure to stay for the live music (on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays), which ranges from bluegrass to jazz to western swing.

If you catch Brahms playing on the banjo, you might just have the perfect cure for your food coma. Honky Tonk BBQ, 1800 S. Racine Ave. Tuesday-Friday, 4pm-2am; Saturday, 4pm-3am; Sunday, 4pm-2am. Kitchen closes at 11pm.

(312)226-7427. honkytonkbbqchicago.com (Janet Xu)

Second Fridays at the Chicago Arts District

On the second Friday of every month, the self-proclaimed Chicago Arts District opens its doors along Halsted Street to welcome after-dark visitors into storefront galleries, artists’ lofts, and a smattering of boutiques. A map picked up at the info center at 1821 S. Halsted will steer you well: artists fill windows with performance art and open their loft studios to the public, evidence of home life is tucked away, and work stands proudly for the buying. The night is organized by Podmajersky Inc., a family-owned real estate company whose properties make up most of the art district, or “Pilsen East.” Don’t let the map keep you from straying west, though: businesses along 18th Street celebrate their own second Fridays, and the cluster of well-stocked thrift stores just past Ashland joins with the neighboring bars to offer food and drink and special late hours. Mobile art and food trucks bring the night further into the streets, and there is usually live music to be found somewhere along the stretch. Go get your art on! Chicago Arts District, 1821 S. Halsted St. Friday, October 11, 4pm-10pm.

Also on the second Fridays of ensuing months. (312)738-8000x108. chicagoartsdistrict.org (Hannah Nyhart)

BEST BILINGUAL KARAOKE

BEST CHANCE TO HELP YOURSELF

Harbee Liquors Librería Girón The neon, bicolored “Libros en Español” & Tavern sign in the window of Librería Girón on Harbee’s is a bar. From the street, Harbee’s looks like a dive. It’s not. First of all, they have a coat check. Beyond that, the drinks are good, and they have more than a hundred different bottled beers and rotating craft beers on draft. The interior is clean and sparsely decorated, with round booths that leave a little to be desired in the leg-room department. The drinks and decor are enough to make Harbee’s a good bar, but one thing bumps it up to spectacular: the karaoke. Every Thursday is karaoke night, and for no extra cost— it’s billed as “NO COVER/NO LAPTOPS”—anyone can butcher popular songs in front of a crowd, or just watch an assortment of people drunkenly mangle classic tunes in English and Spanish.

The selection of artists runs the gamut from South Side native R. Kelly to the Talking Heads, and the DJ is more than happy to download music that’s not in his library. Have a few drinks and see just how similar slurred English and Spanish really are. Harbee Liquors and & Tavern, 1345 W. 18th St. Monday-Friday, noon2am; Saturday, noon-3am; Sunday, noon2am. (312)733-0333. harbees.com (Kalil Smith-Nuevelle)

18th Street is an apt beacon. With another location in Little Village and an extensive online wholesale operation, Girón Books is the largest provider of Spanish literature in the city of Chicago.

The store offers a swath of books aimed at teaching both Spanish and English, and the selection is broad enough to suit students and teachers of either language. The traveller looking to cast off from Google Translate can find several language dictionaries. But bilingualism is just one of the self-improvement projects Girón’s offerings support. Beyond a substantial fiction section that carries everything from Spanish classics to translations of the full “Twilight” series, the store is stocked with texts on how to eat better, learn better, date better, earn better. “We tend to carry books that leave you with a message,” says one clerk. Sí se puede. Librería Girón, 1443 W. 18th St. Little Village location at 3547 W. 26th St. Monday-Saturday, 9am-8pm. (312)2262086. gironbooks.com (Hannah Nyhart)

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Chatham

Bea Malsky

When Michael Cherry takes a break from frying chicken wings and flipping burgers at Luversia’s, he and his brother Anthony’s new soul food restaurant, he likes to walk along 79th Street—the commercial heart of Chatham—and look into the windows of hair salons, clothing stores, food markets, and diners.

These days Chathamites never take anything for granted.

Since the recession, half-century old neighborhood staples like Army & Lou’s, a soul food diner, are suddenly hitting financial bottom, and new businesses like Garrett Popcorn and Flecks Coffee are moving into boarded-up buildings.

Geographically, Chatham is a jagged little piece of the South Side that runs between 79th and 95th Streets, bordered by the Illinois Central Railroad to the east and the Dan Ryan to the west. Since the turn of the century the neighborhood has been a stronghold for the South Side’s upwardly mobile middle class due to its well-regarded schools, strict property codes, and community organization. Early in the century, Italian stonemasons and Hungarian and Irish railway workers called Chatham home. Like many other South Side neighborhoods, Chatham experienced a period of white flight in the fifties, when the neighborhood transitioned from being ninety-nine percent white to ninety-nine percent black, and Chatham soon became home to some of the most successful black businesses in the

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country. Today, however, the chairs at Bull’s Eye Barbershop are often empty, as are owner “Mother” Wade’s booths at Captain’s Hard Time Diner.

In efforts to keep Chatham a middle-class neighborhood, its residents have long espoused a strict set of values. There are unspoken rules: don’t loiter on 79th Street; don’t wash your car in the front driveway; keep your lawn clean. For decades this is what has set Chatham apart from surrounding neighborhoods facing high rates of crime and poverty. But 2013 is a period of flux—financial hardship and a wave of younger residents moving in from outside neighborhoods are changing the face of retail on 79th Street, as well as Chatham’s quiet and tidy bungalow-lined residential streets. The good news is that Chatham remains full of people like Michael Cherry, who look after the neighborhood, the businesses, the schools, the houses, the children—tracking change in prosperous and difficult times.

Lauren Gurley

BEST TWENTY-FOUR-HOUR SUGAR FIX

Dat Donut

South Siders, North Siders, West Siders, and even out-of-towners are making the pilgrimage to 83rd and Cottage Grove for Darryl Townson’s warm and flakey handmade donuts. Sandwiched between a barbecue joint and ice-cream/hot-dog stand, Dat Donut lives behind a small bulletproof window and a modestly sized pastry display case. But don’t be fooled: the rotating forty-eight flavors of donut—including buttermilk cake, chocolate cake, strawberry jelly, coconut, apple fritter, and the notorious glazed—are in no way meager in size or substance. Dat Donut bakers are at it twenty-four hours a day and six days a week, ensuring that there is always a fresh hunk of sweet and buttery perfection awaiting a hungry customer. Bonus points (and pounds) for trying the “Big Dat,” a donut the size of a birthday cake. Dat Donut, 8249 S. Cottage Grove Ave. Monday, 4am-Saturday, 10pm. (773)723-1002. (Lauren Gurley)

CHATHAM

BEST PUBLIC HANGOUT

80th St. & Ellis Avenue

80th Street and Ellis Avenue—a quiet crossroads lined with brick apartment buildings and big leafy trees—is a popular hangout on evenings for working Chathamites of all backgrounds. From here the city feels a hundred miles away. Some say it’s the place where people gather to unwind and catch up with friends, now that many of the popular bars and restaurants that have shut down. Others say it’s a meeting grounds for twentysomethings.

One young woman was quick to call it her favorite spot in Chatham. “This is the ghetto,” she said. “Some people are trying to get out of here. Others are just trying to make ends meet. But one thing that everyone like to do is come here and hang out.” (Lauren Gurley)

Bea Malsky

BEST SOUL FOOD RENAISSANCE

BEST BAG OF SHRIMP

Luversia’s Soul Food Diner

Haire’s Gulf Shrimp

For seventy-one good years, Izola’s restaurant on 79th Street provided a hub for African-American politicians, artists, and community organizers on the South Side.

Harold Washington announced that he was running for mayor over one of Izola’s hearty southern-style dishes. Muhammad Ali proposed to his future wife in one of the dining booths. But at the height of the recent recession, Izola White—like many other Chatham business owners—closed the restaurant’s doors, and lifelong customers lamented the end of an era. This year brothers Anthony and Michael Cherry, nephews of the legendary Izola, reopened the establishment under the name Luversia’s. Hot plates of smothered turkey chops, baked macaroni and cheese, sweet yams, and battered chicken are back on the storied tables, and old-timers have made their homecoming. The first Sunday of every month promises good gospel and an $18 allyou-can-eat buffet. A weathered relic of the “Izola days” still hangs on the wall. Summing things up appropriately in essence if not in name, it reads: “If your wife is a bum cook, don’t get an attitude. Eat at Izola’s.” Luversia’s Soul Food Diner, 522 E. 79th St. Monday-Thursday, 8am-8pm; Friday, 8am-11pm; Saturday, noon-11pm; Sunday, noon7pm. (773)994-3123. facebook.com/LuversiasSoulFoodRestaurant (Lauren Gurley)

Plucking a shrimp from a Haire’s “Bomb Bag” feels like a lot of other good bad decisions. The warm paper bag and rising steam say that the breaded spiral is too hot to eat, but the smell wafting up is irresistible. Don’t even try: it’s too late. Grease coats your fingers and the just-barely-peppered breading is glistening, too sturdy to fall apart. The straight-from-the-fryer heat prompts a string of accidental vowels as your tongue plays hot potato. The second one will scald less, as bulging white meat yields under teeth with a burst of flavor that fills every part of the mouth. There’s nothing in the bag but a dozen or so shrimp, a fork and napkin, and two sauces—hot and cocktail. Either lends a perfect kick. The bag comes out five minutes after ordering, battered and fried and drained in the small kitchen behind the bulletproof order window. A few dollars more buys some fries, spaghetti or slaw, but with shrimp this good, a side just takes up space. The end of the bag comes too soon, but the taste of peppery crustacean lingers with the grease on your lips. Damn. Haire’s Gulf Shrimp, 8112 S. Vincennes Ave. Monday, 11am-8pm; Tuesday, 11am-9pm; Wednesday-Saturday, 11am11pm; Sunday, 11am-10pm. Take-out. Cash only. (773)783-1818. (Hannah Nyhart)

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Camden Bauchner

Far Southwest Side

To the casual observer, the Far Southwest Side is nothing but bungalows and fast food joints. It has streets like runways, people and cars blurred into one another, sublimated into peripherals, into what might be seen through the windows of planes coming in to land at Midway Airport. It is nothing but urban sprawl, Chicago’s outskirts, flyover country.

Entering its streets, which stretch themselves languorously from the Stevenson Expressway in the west, this casual observation shifts. It’s sly, and not dramatic, but from the rows of houses and swaths of airport property the landscape becomes more interesting. Here pokes a colorful storefront, exclamations in Spanish; there waft the smells of Poland, Silesia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic. Visible snatches of a Chicago past and present rise too: discount stores of all types; mom and pop businesses; pizza, crusts thin and thick. To the northeast, the skyline rises, a visual reminder that even at this far outpost, Chicago is still a sum of all its cultural identities.

In essence, this Southwest Side is a focus of cultural conver-

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gence and turnover, as much as anywhere else in Chicago. Yet it doesn’t wear this reality openly. It’s hidden in plain sight, perched on a front porch, behind screen doors, wearing many faces and a blue collar. The melding of American and foreign is encapsulated here.

If you visit the Southwest Side, be prepared to experience Mexican roasted goat right next to deep-dish pizza, and eclectic local record dealers in the same zip code as quinceañera supply stores. Be prepared to rub shoulders with all kinds of people, and, most importantly, if you’re visiting the Southwest Side, be prepared to go back.

Jack Nuelle

FAR SOUTHWEST SIDE

BEST SPOT FOR AN EARFUL ABOUT SOUL MUSIC

Record Dugout

Owned and operated by Steve Batinich, Record Dugout has been peddling records, comics, and memorabilia since 1989. Aptly named, the store seems carved out of the storefront it inhabits. Inside, there is little rhyme or reason, just boxes and boxes of used records, dusty and eclectic. A rack of stacked 45s sits in the center of the store, next to a display of used baseball cards. Yet, amid the clutter, there are hidden gems here that keep the devoted neighborhood regulars coming back: soul deep cuts, fifties rock, classic jazz, and country. Regulars come, some as many as four times a week, to buy vinyl, or even to sell their own records on consignment. With its front desk lorded over by employee and part-time WHPK DJ Bob Miner, Record Dugout is the soundtrack of the Southwest Side, put to vinyl. Record Dugout, 6055 W. 63rd St. (773)586-1206. (Jack Nuelle)

BEST CHEAP WHOLESALE FOOD

Continental Salvage

Sitting in the elbow of 63rd and Cicero, almost catercorner from Midway Airport, Continental Salvage has been a neighborhood staple since 1965. Started by Mickey Rojas and still owned and operated by his son Ron, Continental is a food and home goods mecca for the surrounding community. Receiving goods from manufacturers’ overruns, overstocks, and closeouts, Continental Salvage offers name brands at far cheaper prices than chain supermarkets, as well as a variety of thrift items. Continental Salvage is a mingling spot, a comfortable, standard shop, run by family with a family feel. Better yet, products change daily, so your yield will always be a surprise.

Continental Salvage, 6333 S. Cicero Ave. (773)581-8100. Monday-Friday, 8am-9pm; Saturday, 8am-8pm; Sunday, 9am-7pm. continentalsalvage.com (Jack Nuelle)

BEST SLICE OF POLAND NOT ACTUALLY IN POLAND

Szalas Restaurant

There is no more eager representation of traditional Polish culture in Chicago than Szalas. The place looks like a chalet straight out of the Polish highlands. The ambiance here is as important as the food. Patrons must pull a bell cord to enter the restaurant, costumed musicians can often be seen playing traditional music, and there’s even a replica miller’s waterwheel. This is not to say that the food is overlooked. Owner Maria Szalas and her staff seek to serve traditional highlander fare—hearty plates straight out of the Carpathian Mountains. Expect huge portions of classic Polish dishes, from borscht and pierogies to sausage and potato pancakes, plus a full selection of Polish beers, which the waiters will bring you in their traditional garb. Szalas Restaurant, 5214 S. Archer Ave. Tuesday-Sunday, noon-10pm. Bar open until 2am. (773)582-0300. szalasrestaurant.com (Jack Nuelle)

BEST THIN CRUST

Vito & Nick’s

Family owned and operated for over eighty years, Vito & Nick’s is a South Side institution. Founded in 1923 as a tavern, it grew over the years until it was serving the standard Italian fare and thin-crust pizza that’s made it famous today. The pizza has been pretty much the same since 1946, known for its delectably crispy crust and its Chicago-inspired specialty varieties, including an Italian beef, complete with giardiniera and peppers. Adorned with a uniquely Chicago aesthetic (a wide bar, huge colored glass fixtures, strings of Christmas lights) and brimming with family welcome, Vito & Nick’s serves hometown food for the South Side soul. Vito & Nick’s, 8433 S. Pulaski Rd. Monday-Thursday, 11am-11pm; Friday-Saturday, 11am-1am; Sunday, noon11pm. Cash only. (773)735-2050. vitoandnicks.com (Jack Nuelle)

BEST GOAT

Birrieria Zaragoza

While not the only place in Chicago where birria, a tender Mexican meat stew, is featured on the menu, Birrieria Zaragoza is arguably the most authentic, and unarguably the best. Juan Zaragoza, a former employee of the Chicago Tribune, opened the tiny restaurant as a way to encapsulate and preserve the flavors of his childhood in the Mexican state of Jalisco. He follows a specific and time-honored recipe, taken from his hometown of La Barca. His goat, seasoned only with kosher salt and the family-perfected special mole, then roasted for twelve hours, is delicious. It’s a little leaner than lamb, melting like butter off the bone, and sharp with flavor, especially when paired with the homemade tortillas, salsa, and onions and cilantro. Selling meat by the plate, in tacos and quesadillas, and even directly off the bone, Birrieria Zaragoza does goat, and does goat right. Birrieria Zaragoza, 4852 S. Pulaski Rd. Monday-Friday, 10am-7pm; Saturday, 8am-7pm; Sunday 8am-4pm. (773)523-3700. (Jack Nuelle)

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Camden Bauchner

Auburn Gresham

Auburn Gresham sits on the main artery of Chicago, 79th Street, the busiest bus line in the entire city. Life branches off from this line along the main thoroughfares—Ashland, Racine, Halsted—and their blocks trace the neighborhood’s history.

Tens of thousands of the brick bungalows iconic to Auburn Gresham were laid down city-wide between 1910 and 1930, and still shape the residential streetscape. Lawns are punctuated by parks and the steeples of churches once frequented by the German, Dutch, and Irish immigrants responsible for the rush of construction during the formative twenties. But blocks are also interspersed with physical reminders of decades of disinvestment, as empty lots mark the struggles of local businesses which came and went, as a second influx of move-ins came from African Americans looking to escape the brutal conditions of the Black Belt.

A vision of a redefined Auburn Gresham arose in recent decades, one that sought to move the neighborhood beyond the obvious associations with poverty and high crime. Pillars of 1990s Auburn Gresham pushed for change, from Father Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina’s, still a key voice for the community, to Betty Jo Swanson, president of the 79th and Carpenter Block

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Club, which transformed what Crimewatch deemed “one of the worst blocks in Chicago” by replacing abandoned houses with flower beds and pressuring public officials for improvements.

Today, organizations such as the Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corporation pursue a vision of the neighborhood rooted in its past and its people. From a festival held on the same street as the old Southtown Parade—the original St. Patrick’s Day Parade, moved downtown by Richard J. Daley in 1960—to multiple public–private partnerships bringing back open spaces and diverse businesses such as Salaam Restaurant, the fruits of those pursuits are evident, even in a neighborhood still dogged by crime. But the community’s greatest investment remains in its children. Forty-eight homes in the neighborhood comprise the United States’s first urban SOS Children’s Village, a development for foster families, and countless educational initiatives and community cleanup projects are passing down a vision of an Auburn Gresham renaissance to its future leaders.

Bonnie Fan

AUBURN GRESHAM

BEST PLACE TO FLOAT YOUR LINE

Auburn Lakes

Residents around Auburn Lakes admit that it looks “transplanted from the suburbs,” with its charming white stone bridges peeking out at 79th Street. In the 1890s, the swampy area was transformed into three interconnected fishing lagoons that today spout water from fountains surrounded by planted trees and fishermen hoping to snag a bite. Every three months, the lagoons are replenished by the city with fish ranging from catfish to bluegill. Leaning off the edge of a bridge, you can catch a glimpse of a koi or two. A few hopefuls participate in monthly fishing tournaments with cash prizes, while others come just to stroll along the peaceful Winneconna Parkway that winds along the still waters of the lagoons. Rows of two-flats and several properties saved by the Chicago Troubled Buildings Initiative keep the lakes tucked away from the roar of traffic on 79th. Bordered by S. Fielding and S. Vincennes Aves. between 77th and 79th Sts. (Bonnie Fan)

BEST END OF SUMMER STREET BASH

79th Street Annual Renaissance Festival

The Southtown (St. Patrick’s Day) Parade actually began in the early 1950s in Auburn Gresham, only to be moved by Richard J. Daley in 1960. In the spirit of revival, the Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corporation held the first Renaissance Festival in the beating heat of July 2006 with a handful of vendors on the sidewalks.

The idea, says festival coordinator Pia Shantee, is to “highlight the renaissance taking place on 79th Street—bringing back the sense of community, sense of connectedness, sense of partnership among agencies and families.” The festival now attracts Chicagoans from all over the area, with around 12,000 attendees (including a number of former residents). From Racine to Lowe on 79th, the festival showcases over a hundred vendors of every industry while also bringing in international performances such as practitioners of Kalapriya Indian dance, with even a Ferris wheel for a neighborhood far from Navy Pier. This year, the festival was combined with a Family Jam for Peace, which meant that after celebratory staples like face painting and a free catered senior luncheon, the all-ages festival ended with music for dancing in the streets. 79th Street Renaissance Festival and Family Jam for Peace. Held annually in early September.

(773)483-3696. gagdc.org (Bonnie Fan)

BEST SUNDAY BRUNCH

Three Chefs Restaurant

Three Chefs sits just down the block from the many small churches lining Halsted, its brick building and green awning popping out from the empty grass lots on both sides. Walk in and find cozy wooden tables laden with a mix of sweet and savory allday breakfast items, or heftier entrees such as rib-eye steak or sea bass with fettuccine sauce and bay scallops. A TV plays quietly above the seldom-used bar (regulars prefer sitting face-to-face, hats on). The atmosphere is perfect for unwinding while debating the addition of syrup to three fluffy sweet potato pecan pancakes and turkey sausages, wading through layers of peppers, eggs, potatoes, onions, cheese and salsa in the Mexican skillet, or eyeing the plates of other diners. Chef William Effort, of the original three, comes in daily and sends an unbelievable variety and number of plates out of the kitchen. Three Chefs Restaurant, 8125 S. Halsted St. Tuesday-Sunday, 7am-4pm.

(773)483-8111. (Bonnie Fan)

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Beverly

Quick to balk at the typical outsider’s offhand impression of Beverly as a suburb, the neighborhood is fond of the tagline “Village in the City.” It feels a bit like having your cake and eating it too, a desire to affirm disparate identities as a community unto itself, and one that is still fundamentally of Chicago.

Seated at the southwest edges of the city limits, Beverly most resembles the sort of small-but-not-toosmall town young parents move to in search of good schools and a tree to hang a tire swing on.

This is a neighborhood of two-car garages, where the American dream still looks like a lush lawn, its grass furrowed from a fresh mow. The trees lining the streets west of the Metra tracks are a far cry from the anemic young boughs of the city planner. They cast shade, acorns, seedpods, the occasional pinecone. On the first day of fall, one conscientious resident has already filled a large brown paper bag with fallen leaves. Flags celebrate America, the Navy, the season. Lawn signs say one house is a Proud Union Home. A couple doors down are equally proud Bears fans. Almost every house boasts a basketball hoop, and kids ride bikes or play two-man football, Charlie Brown and Lucy style. The hum of traffic is no longer a constant.

Just like a small town, Beverly could be

lived in with only a rare venture out. The staples—groceries, hardware, a cheap haircut—are offered along Walden Parkway. Western, running parallel, has a mingling of bars, restaurants, and chain stores—quaintness traded for utility.

There, too, are the hallmarks of small town community: a fall spaghetti dinner benefit, a local paper with impassioned letters to the editor and a stricter paywall than The New York Times. Badges of pride include an annual international bike race and a block designed by the same architect who planned the Australian capital.

The shaded streets lend a kind of peace that Chicago’s major thoroughfares and cramped alleys rarely allow. There’s just not a lot to do in this village. But then, that’s what the city’s for.

Hannah Nyhart

Jonah Rabb

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BEVERLY

BEST PLACE TO TASTE THE RAINBOW

Original Rainbow Cone

Amidst near-suburbia, The Original Rainbow Cone shines as a pink-stucco oasis of cold AC and even colder ice cream. Here, at one of Western Avenue’s few non-chains, a “small cone” means heaping layers of chocolate, strawberry, Palmer House, pistachio, and orange sherbet (in that order). A “cake” is all of the above set atop white sponge. Palmer House, the treat’s standout combo of vanilla, cherries, and walnuts, serves to complete the base layers’ Neapolitan theme while also introducing pistachio’s tree-nut notion. Another revered Rainbow Cone favorite is the “heebie-jeebie”—cashier slang for chocolate and peanut butter in a cone, shake, or malt.

Original Rainbow Cone, 9233 S. Western Ave. Sunday-Thursday, noon-9pm; Friday-Saturday, noon-9:30pm (September hours). Closing time changes seasonally.

March-November. (773)238-7075. rainbowcone.com (Alexa Daugherty)

BEST SUMMIT

Beverly Ridge

Maybe you’re a recent transplant from a rockier region, or a lifelong Midwesterner with a sudden, disconcerting yen for altitude. Either way, the Beverly Ridge has your solution. Strap on your hiking gear and head south, where you’ll find the highest natural point within the city limits. In a car or on foot, the ridge is more obscure than your average mountain, so much so that you may miss it on your first pass. In the low hundreds, slight hills slope west from Longwood Drive. A half-mile west, just south of Leavitt and 104th, the land is flat, and, relatively speaking, high. The street is residential, wide enough to parallel park and make landing. This is the terrain that remains for the modern explorer: searching for coordinates amid smooth pavement and potted plants. Plant your flag in a well-groomed lawn, and tell everyone you know that you just scaled Chicago’s highest peak. The top of Chicago, 41° 42’ 12.5” N, 87° 40’ 37” W. (Hannah Nyhart)

Jonah Rabb

BEST CAPER WITH YOUR COFFEE

Hardboiled Coffee Company Hardboiled Coffee Company’s proudly quirky aesthetic brings a heavy nerd factor on both the coffee and pop-culture fronts. Jazz fills any space not already crammed with film noir knickknacks, from neat vintage detective novels to an abandoned typewriter. The menu boasts pour-over, French press, and coldbrewed coffee options, with beans roasted in small batches on site. Despite the discrepancy between Hardboiled and its more conventional surroundings—a Ross, a Michaels, a Menards—a closer look reveals that this shop is very much a neighborhood fixture, with passersby on the street waving through the glassfront and customers coming in as much for a chat with the owner as for their caffeine. It’s worth a trip, if only to sit in a corner and watch Beverly wake up.

Hardboiled Coffee Company, 9135 S. Western Ave. Monday-Friday, 6am-4pm; Saturday-Sunday, 7am-4pm. (773)238-8360. hardboiledcoffeecompany.com (Theo Rossi)

BEST PUB FOR BANDITS

Horse Thief Hollow

In the nineteenth century, Beverly had a reputation for banditry; its dense forest areas served as enclaves for horses stolen from Missouri. Today, gastropub Horse Thief Hollow plays a sly ode to the neighborhood’s wild southern roots. Its menu offers more than a few items that seem as if they could have been smuggled across the Mason-Dixon line: Louisiana po’ boy sandwiches, Charleston crab cakes, Texas- and Carolina-style barbecue sauce options, and side orders of mac and cheese, sweet potato fries, and cornbread. But Horse Thief serves up more than just imported southern comfort. The pub’s main attraction is its in-house brewery, with all original products.

Order the beer flight and try the owner, Neal Byer’s, unique concoctions, including the Kitchen Sink Pale Ale, a beer that was “born out of friendship and humor,” and the 773 Stout, a cozy, full-bodied brew. Even if you’re not a hops connoisseur, the beer flight is well worth its ticket price. Horse Thief Hollow, 10426 S. Western Ave. Monday-Thursday, 11am-10pm; Friday-Saturday, 11am-midnight. (773)779-2739. horsethiefbrewing.com (Zach Goldhammer)

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Bridgeport There are many ways into Bridgeport as a neighborhood, figuratively and literally.

If you’re not a local, you might step off the Halsted Orange Line, make your way south and come across the sprawling, grass-filled expanse of Palmisano Park.

Or you might come from the Archer 62 bus, down to the Ling Shen Ching Tze Buddhist Temple on West 31st., poke your head in, take off your shoes, and end up with a short lesson on Buddhism.

On another night you might stop in for a drink at Maria’s. Or Bernice’s Tavern. Or Schaller’s Pump.

In a sense, Bridgeport is a portmanteau neighborhood, the kind of place that holds two seeming contradictions and makes them work. It’s not simply a matter of melding the old and the new.

It’s also the Catholic and the Buddhist, the Democratic machine politics and the Progressive, the reputation and the reality.

A phrase that comes up more than a few times in talking about Bridgeport is “community of the future.” It was coined, legend has it, by the artistic cooperative Lumpen, which operates the Co-Prosperity Sphere exhibition space, Maria’s, and Marz Community Brewing. The phrase was originally meant to describe the once nascent, now flourishing artistic and music scene centered around Co-Pro and the Zhou B Art Center. But there’s something else that’s apt about the phrase. Bridgeport is a community that contains bits of the past tucked away in bakeries and bars, in street signs and architectural markers, church renovations, and Democratic headquarters. But it also houses pieces of the future among its art galleries, Buddhist altars, and barroom conversations. And the future looks good.

Meaghan Murphy

BEST DAYTIME WATERING HOLE

Jackalope Coffee & Tea House

On a delirious weekend or groggy workday, Jackalope Coffee & Tea House will surely wake you up—whether that’s thanks to the café’s primary-colored furniture, chipper baristas, or Metropolis coffee is a little less certain. In a morning café scene dominated by breakfast burritos and cronuts, Jackalope stands out as a strictly baked-goods and sandwich spot. Amidst Rishi teas and agave lattes, the most savory morning item offered is a bacon bun, baked fresh at nearby Bridgeport Bakery. What Jackalope lacks in egg-based creations, it makes up for with paninis like the Pixie, the café’s version of a PB&J. Jackalope Coffee & Tea House, 755 W. 32nd St. Monday-Friday, 6:30am-8pm; Saturday 7am-8pm; Sunday 8am-7pm. Craft night Thursdays, 5pm-7pm. (312)888-3468. facebook.com/jackalopecoffeeteahouse (Alexa Daugherty)

Zoe Kauder Nalebuff

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BRIDGEPORT

Zoe Kauder Nalebuff

BEST FOR SANDWICHES

BEST ORGANIC

BEST GOSPEL BRUNCH

BEST PANORAMA

Bruno’s Bakery

Nana

Polo Café

Palmisano Park

When you walk into Bruno’s Bakery on 33rd and Lituanica, you can tell they aren’t in it for the money. They’re in it for the bread, the Polish rye bread. In fact, the store is mostly empty. Just a delightfully weathered cash register, a fridge half-heartedly stocked with Filbert’s soda, and around thirty loaves of the most delicious rye you can get this side of the Baltic. There’s something refreshing about Bruno’s adherence to simplicity. When I asked the cashier, somewhat lamely, “So you just sell bread?” she responded with a smile and a shrug: “Yep, been here sixty years!” Why fix what isn’t broken? This bread is excellent. And if you happen to have some corned beef and sauerkraut lying around at home, you couldn’t wish for a more perfect companion. Just don’t forget the pickles. Bruno’s Bakery, 3341 S. Lituanica Ave. Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm. (773)254-6376.

(Meaghan Murphy)

You know you’re on the right track when your cappuccino is served to you in a cup the size of a small cereal bowl.

Further confirmation is provided when the avocado fries you order are simply fried avocadoes doused in a savory aioli. Bridgeport’s Nana is hip, organic, and very conscious of where its food is sourced from—but not annoyingly so.

It’s the kind of place where you can order a multi-colored cauliflower salad, or a burger and a beer. It’s not exactly a local greasy spoon, but the folks at Nana do have a neighborhood heart, hosting special menus for Bears games and partnering with Benton House to raise funds for the Greater Chicago Food Depository. But above all, Nana is committed to a solid dining experience with a healthy serving of environmental consciousness on the side. Nana, 3267 S. Halsted St. Breakfast and lunch daily, 9am-2:30pm.

Dinner Wednesday-Sunday, 5pm-9:30pm.

(312)929-2486. nanaorganic.com (Meaghan Murphy)

Dave Samber fills many roles. He is chef, owner, and innkeeper of Polo Café, and has been since 1985. But at any given moment, he’d rather be singing. Every Sunday from 10am to 2pm, Samber serves up a gospel brunch. As quaint as a New England bed and breakfast and as delicious as a three-star, Michelin-rated dining room, Samber’s brunch still maintains the spirit of Bridgeport. As the servers will tell you, though, it’s all down to him. He greets every patron like an old friend and constantly thanks his guests (and his electric organist) just for being there. He will thank you doubly for singing along with his rather impressive baritone. Hymnals are generously provided by the church down the block. The crème brûlée French toast with vodka butter sauce, the hearty breakfasts served with “procession” (two candles)—it all lives up to Samber’s oft-repeated motto: “Something different…something wonderful.” Polo Café and Catering, 3322 S. Morgan St. Lunch Monday-Friday, 11am3pm. Dinner Friday-Saturday, 5pm-9pm.

“Bloody Mary” brunch Saturday, 10am2pm. Gospel brunch Sunday, 10am-2pm.

(773)927-7656. polocafe.com (Meaghan Murphy)

Affectionately dubbed “Mount Bridgeport,” Henry Palmisano Park offers perhaps the most telling panoramic of Chicago as a mosaic of neighborhoods: three faint steeples, chipped-tooth industrial facades, schoolhouse chimney stacks, sliced wind echoes from the Stevenson Expressway. Pilsen murmurs in the north, there’s a glimmer of Chinatown roofs to the northeast, and Back of the Yards hides behind a baseball field to the south. Bridgeport residences and businesses peek through peripheral greenery, and in the distance, the glinting jaw of Loop skyline rests above a blotch of trees.

The park’s own history seeps through its quarry walls, dolomitic limestone boulders, and recycled timber boardwalks.

A prehistoric coral reef, the site served as a limestone quarry from 1830 to 1969 and a construction debris landfill for the past few decades before becoming the nature preserve it is today, complete with prairie grasses, yellow wildflowers, and wetlands. Bring a kite, blanket, and/or date. Palmisano Park, 2700 S. Halsted St. (Cindy Ji)

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BRIDGEPORT

BEST AGENCY OF SOCIAL SERVICE

BEST MOM AND POP SHOP

Benton House

Bridgeport Pasty

Benton House is truly the last of its kind. Although Jane Addams and her cohort of twentieth-century benefactors would hardly recognize the Benton House of today, with its live-in co-op and community garden, the organization still works to alleviate the trials of urban poverty in a home-grown way. The settlement movement was dedicated to improving the lives of the urban poor, and in the age of the broadbrimmed Edwardian chapeau it took a maternalistic tone. These days, the folks at Benton House are more focused on their food pantry and youth programming: they run a battery of after-school options from sound engineering to robotics. The organization still operates out of the original house, a grand old brick structure with a couple centuries’ worth of history and more than a few stories within its walls. The building, its occupants say, may be haunted by “Ma Benton,” and has been featured on an episode of “Ghost Hunters.” Benton House, 3052 S. Gratten Ave. (773)927-6420. To inquire about volunteer opportunities, email volunteers@bentonhouse.org or visit bentonhouse.org (Meaghan Murphy)

If you ask Carrie Clark and Jay Sebastian the story behind their food truck—and now their restaurant—the short version is that it just sort of happened. A relative’s academic project on food trucks, a vacation to London, and a knack for eco-friendly auto engineering landed the couple with a four-wheeled, sustainable pasty enterprise.

Due to recent changes in Chicago food truck codes, Clark and Sebastian made the decision to move the baking end of the operation into their home kitchen. And then they decided to open the front door. The pastries are even fresher baked in-house. The Oinkle pie, filled with apple and pork, and the Ginger Chicken are both innovative takes on traditional British recipes. As for the transition from truck to brick-and-mortar, Clark says that it’s been a rewarding and challenging process. But the family has been in the neighborhood for fifteen years already and you get the sense that, booming pasty business or not, Clark and Sebastian are the kind of people who’d open their front door to you—and offer you a pie. Bridgeport Pasty Company, 3142 S. Morgan St. Monday-Saturday, 11am-8pm. (773)254-7441. bridgeportpasty.com (Meaghan Murphy)

63RD & WOODLAWN 773.891.4240 WWW.ROBUSTCOFFEELOUNGE.COM

FREE -WIFI!!

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6AM-8PM MON-FRI 7AM-7PM SAT&SUN

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Jonah Rabb

Back of the Yards

Reminiscent of green lawns and warm summer evenings, the name “Back of the Yards” might evoke the image of a quaint small-town neighborhood.

Rather than neatly-trimmed backyards, however, the neighborhood gets its name from a much grittier—and gorier—history.

From 1865 until 1971, this district was the center of the world’s largest meatpacking center, the Union Stockyards.

Job opportunities in the meat industry attracted thousands of immigrants of diverse nationalities who settled in the Back of the Yards community. Early German and Irish immigrants in the nineteenth century were followed by an assortment of Slavic groups in the 1960s and Mexican immigrants in the 1970s.

Epitomizing the progression of industry, immigrants, and development, Back of the Yards may be the archetypal Chicago neighborhood. As one resident put it, “If someone asked me what neighborhood sums up Chicago in a nutshell, this would be it.”

Recently, a shiny modern high school was opened near 47th and Damen at the price of $91.5 million, boasting newfangled facilities and a public library open to members of the community. Construction of the state-of-the-art high school followed another novel addition to the

yards—a sustainable, “net-zero energy” vertical farm and food production facility called The Plant.

To the blue-collar workers who constantly ebb and flow through the streets, these modern facilities may seem out of place amidst the ever-looming shadow of the stockyards. While the brutal jobs in the stockyards are gone for good, the bars once frequented by these workers still remain. Even though today’s local customers no longer bear the weight of the world’s demand for meat, a lot still seems to hang on their shoulders. The bars aren’t the district’s only link from its present to its past; the ornate cathedrals once built by Polish Catholics still dot the streets, and are open for Mass to the remaining immigrants as well as the new Hispanic community. These new Hispanic residents have made their own significant contributions to the area, with Spanish supermarkets, banks, furniture stores, and countless taquerías that have sprung up over the past few decades.

Amelia Dmowska

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BACK OF THE YARDS

BEST MURAL

BEST CARNE ASADA

BEST PORTAL TO THE 1920S

Lotería

Paco’s Tacos

Union Stockyards Gate

Spanning 8,500 square feet on a cinderblock wall of the flea market SwapO-Rama, the mural “Lotería” has been a symbol and cornerstone of the Back of the Yards community since 1994. Artists Hector Duarte and Mariah de Forest worked for two years on this massive piece of art. “Lotería” illustrates playing cards swept along a vortex of red and white stripes into a machine that transforms them into spheres. The image not only represents the iconic Mexican card game, but also the symbolic transformation of an immigrant traveling from one country to the next. The detailed artwork seems to pop up from the wall with a three-dimensional quality that is best appreciated when the parking lot is empty from the flea market’s usual bustle.

Wall of Swap-O-Rama, 4200 S. Ashland Ave. (Amelia Dmowska)

It’s the salt. The salt and the freshness and the perfectly balanced kick of the salsa and the lime. In the back of Supermercado La Internacional, this is carne asada as it was intended. None of the frills and superfluous ingredients (cabbage? really?) of a North Side taquería. Just a healthy serving of your chosen meat, onions, cilantro, and two fresh corn tortillas.

These tacos are not for the faint of heart or stomach, but they are dirt cheap—I’ve known more than one eating contest to occur at that counter. Appetite: necessary. Spanish language skills: optional.

Supermercado La Internacional, 4556 S. Ashland Ave. Monday-Saturday, 9am9pm; Sunday, 9am-8pm. (773)523-9745.

Additional locations at 4311 S. Archer Ave. and 6034 S. Pulaski Rd. (Meaghan Murphy)

By the corner of Exchange and Peoria, an austere limestone gate looms over an industrial park, standing tribute to the stockyards that shut down nearly four decades ago.

As chronicled by Upton Sinclair in “The Jungle,” this meatpacking district processed more meat than any place in the world, and employed over 40,000 workers. “My grandfather used to walk through this gate every day to get to work,” says a local.

“When I look at it, I can still imagine the cattle, the sheep, the pigs, and especially the smell.” The gate was officially declared a National Historic Landmark in 1981, and today is one of Chicago’s most significant architectural relics. Whether you’re a history buff, a Sinclair fan, or simply curious about Chicago’s olden days, walking through this gate will make you feel as if you’ve traveled back in time to witness the sights of Chicago’s blood-stained past—thankfully without the authentic smells. Union Stockyards, W. Exchange Ave. and S. Peoria St. (Amelia Dmowska)

Logan Center Family Saturdays MONTHLY BEGINNING OCT 5, 2013 Family-friendly matinees and interactive arts workshops for a variety of ages, all presented in partnership with local artists, arts organizations, student organizations, and academic departments.

OCT 5, 2013 Jupiter Quartet NOV 2, 2013 International Children’s Film Festival: Topsy Turvy Tales JAN 18, 2014 Lee England Jr. FEB 22, 2014 Third Coast Percussion’s “The Color of Sound” MAR 22, 2014 Eth-Noh-Tec MAY 31, 2014 “Fiddlin’ with Stories” with Charlotte Blake Alston & John Blake Jr.

SAVE UP TO 50% on Family Matinees with the

Logan Family Performance Series Pass!

With the family series pass any combination of four children and adults can attend up to five Family Matinees for a discounted rate of $75.

2-4:30 pm / Register for free workshops and purchase family passes or single tickets to matinee performance at ticketsweb.uchicago.edu.

AT THE LOGAN CENTER 915 EAST 60TH STREET AT DREXEL AVENUE

logan.uchicago.edu 773.702.ARTS

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BACK OF THE YARDS

BEST PLACE TO FIND COWBOY BOOTS

Swap-O-Rama

It would be easy to assume Swap-O-Rama was a carnival, with its red and white striped sign, ticket booth, blaring pop music, and hundreds of outdoor stands. Truth be told, you wouldn’t be far off. At this giant indoor–outdoor flea market there is fun to be had and prizes to be won, with vendors selling “literally everything” for seriously low prices. For a small entrance fee, visitors can browse offerings that include wedding dresses, huge tubs of chilies, washing machines, $1 per pound plums, $3 men’s dress shirts, and some of the most impressively long-tipped cowboy boots this side of Texas. Swap-O-Rama, 4200 S. Ashland Ave. Tuesday, 7am-2pm; Thursday, 7am-3pm; Saturday-Sunday, 7am-4pm. Outdoors only on weekdays. (708)344-7300. swap-o-rama. com (Theo Rossi)

BEST CAFÉ CON LECHE

Cafeteria Yesenia

With foaming café con leche and flavorful espressos for under $2, Cafeteria Yesenia would already be a hot spot for its freshly ground coffee. It is more than a just quick coffee fix, however, with exemplary steak sandwiches, an artfully decorated lounge, and free Wi-Fi to keep you coming back. This shop is a hidden oasis for a day of work or study, decorated and scored with a nod to the owners’ Cuban roots. Whether lounging in an armchair or sitting at a table, you’ll feel as if you might be transported to a different country altogether. But there’s no fear of dozing off. If the coffee wasn’t enough to keep you alert, the waiters will also make sure that your table has a steady supply of spicy, tingling Cuban peppers. Cafeteria Yesenia, 4244 S. Ashland Ave. Monday-Saturday, 6am-6pm; Sunday, 8am-4pm. (773)523-8480. facebook.com/cafeyesenia (Amelia Dmowska)

BEST METHOD OF ACQUIRING AN ENTIRE GOAT

Park Packing

One of three remaining slaughterhouses within the city of Chicago, Park Packing is a family-owned meat market and processing center that specializes in pig, lamb, and goat. The owners promise only fresh and safe products, emphasizing the differences between their local wholesale business and the large-scale American meat industry of today. They will even invite passing guests to tour the inside of their slaughterhouse where animal carcasses eerily hang from the ceiling under softly blinking fluorescent lights. The stillness of the chilled room contrasts sharply with the loud and rambunctious meat market—located just outside the slaughterhouse—where residents of the area corral to purchase their products. The swinging carcasses inside might give you a nightmare or two, but at least you’ll have a first-hand, if spine-chilling, look at the way the food on your plate is produced. Park Packing, 4107 S. Ashland Ave. Monday-Friday, 6am-6pm; Saturday, 6am-4pm; Sunday, 6am-2pm. (773)254-0100. parkpacking. com (Amelia Dmowska)

Jonah Rabb

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Far Southeast Side

The Calumet watershed flows low and loamy, a series of lakes, ponds, and swamps connected to the Calumet River and a lake of the same name.

Here, bogs provide homes for birds, fens for foxes. Industrial smoke stacks soar into the sky, bright lights perching at their peaks to warn away wayward helicopters. Throughout the area, great pyramids rise up, built from accumulated decades of Chicago’s waste. PVC pipes drill deep into these mounds, venting miasmic gases that are captured and burned to produce power, Chicago’s garbage giving its last full measure for the city, an economy that would do Philip Armour proud.

Nestled among these patches of gray and brown, blue and green, are a diverse collection of neighborhoods. Directly to the west of Lake Calumet is Pullman.

Here, at the end of the nineteenth century, George Pullman sought to build a paradise for the workers who constructed the sleeper cars bearing his name.

Though this project failed, the neighborhood he built was preserved, one of the few continuous districts of Victorian houses in the city. The grace of these homes has made Pullman a desirable locale. To the west, Roseland, founded by Dutch settlers as an agrarian community called “the high island” for its lofty vantage, was submerged by a tide of industry. A massive Sherwin-Williams plant anchored the neighborhood, turning out cans of paint bearing the image of a

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Dutch Boy, a refugee from an unknown homeland. This brand is perhaps more palatable than the original name of the company: “The National Lead Company”. However, any soil sample marks the second as a more accurate name. Pollution is all that is left of the former factory, and its departure has saddled Roseland with challenges familiar to many Rust Belt cities: unemployment, poverty, and crime.

Lake Calumet and its environs are a long way away from the rest of Chicago, and this has lead to a certain amount of neglect on the part of city services. That includes the police, and during Prohibition, the willingness of local authorities in West Hammond—now called Calumet City—to turn a blind eye to “blind tigers” (speakeasies) transformed the section of State Street running through the suburb into a nationally famous den of inequity called “The Strip.” But the general crackdown on organized crime in the 1960s hit the area hard, and by the 1980s most of these bars were replaced by the industrial parks that dot the area today. The tradition continues in other forms in Hammond today, where various establishments take advantage of laxer laws and lower taxes, providing access to commodities heavily taxed or prohibited in Chicago.

Sean Maher

SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

Sean Maher

FAR SOUTHEAST SIDE

Sean Maher

BEST TASTE OF ANTIQUITY

BEST ECOLOGICAL ARK

Calumet Fisheries

Cooperation Operation

As long as humanity has sought their dinner from the sea, they have smoked their catch to preserve it. Calumet Fisheries is well practiced in this ancient art, smoking nearly 300 pounds of fish every other day. Housed in a literal shack, the smokehouse offers impressive vistas in all directions from its two lone picnic tables. Occasionally, a boat passing by will bid the 95th Street bridge to raise, an impressive sight immortalized by John Landis in 1980 with a leap by the Bluesmobile. The fish is brined overnight before being smoked, and it’s consistently flavorful and moist. There’s a wide variety of offerings, from mainstays like salmon and trout to more unusual catches such as eel and chub, and the Cadillac of the menu: sable. For those willing to work for their supper, the meat gleaned from the heads and collars is particularly delicious.

The fishery also offers a variety of fried seafood: shrimp, scallops, smelts, oysters, and frog legs, which reward the adventurous. All the offerings are kept fresh in a refrigerator and fried to order, meaning that they come out crisp and hot. Vegetarian options are theoretical, vegan dubious. Calumet Fisheries, 3259 E. 95th St. Sunday-Wednesday, 10am-9:45pm; Thursday, 9am-9:30pm; Friday-Saturday, 9am-9:45pm. (773)933-9855. calumetfisheries.com (Sean Maher)

At the western edge of Pullman, on the foundations of a demolished chemical processing facility, heirloom tomatoes are taking root on a former superfund site. They are nestled in raised wooden planters and repurposed speedboats, cared for by volunteers who receive a portion of the harvest in return. Justin Booz, the originator of the project, hopes this urban farm will eventually feed the entire neighborhood and become an oasis in the food desert of the Southeast Side. Construction is ongoing: a greenhouse will extend production into the winter, and a rainwater reservoir will provide a place to raise ducks. Once, Pullman had grand gardens <i>à la mode de</i> Paris, landscaped hedges and verdant greens. But these gardens bore no fruit, and the workers for whom it was built, feeling the pangs of hunger, left the town for greener pastures. Industries have come and gone in Calumet, washed away by the ineluctable torrents of change. If the Co-op Op and local farms like it succeed, high-density feedlots and monoculture might too go the way of the steel mills. Cooperation Operation, 11339 S. St. Lawrence Ave. (773)609-3389. coopop.org (Sean Maher)

SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

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FAR SOUTHEAST SIDE

BEST RECOIL

Deb’s Gun Range

Being a rootless cosmopolitan, I had never held a gun before I discovered Deb’s. Located along a quaint street in Hammond, just outside the jurisdiction of the City of Chicago’s strict rules on firearms, Deb’s Gun Range advertises a basement pistol range. I am surprised to find it located in an ordinary storefront, guns and accessories arranged in ordinary glass cases. The range is downstairs, painted in blacks and lit with fluorescence. On the wall, a golden lab chews on boots, oblivious to the constant gunfire and the thick gunsmoke grime. Television has prepared me thoroughly for this moment. I begin with a Glock chambered in .22, the smallest caliber generally sold, which it shares with children’s rifles advertised in the yellowing pages of Sears Wish Books from Christmases long long ago. I’m therefore surprised by the strength of the recoil, the way it jars my skeleton, the way the muted sound still impacts my chest like dubstep bass. I pocket the shell and fire off the rest of the clip in rapid succession. A word to the wise: Illinois residents require a Firearm Owner Identification card to rent, though not to shoot. Others should check the gun laws of the state which issued their ID. Many, Indiana included, require no special identification. Deb’s Gun Range, 6819 Kennedy Ave., Hammond, IN. Tuesday-Wednesday, 10am-5pm; Thursday-Saturday, 10am-7pm; Sunday, noon-4pm. (219)845-8880. debsgunrange.com (Sean Maher)

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SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

BEST RUINED PALACE

Pullman Historical District

George Pullman built palaces. His “Palace” sleeper cars streaked across the country, lush and luxurious, transforming the soot-black experience of train travel into one of brass and velvet and rich dark wood. George Pullman built palaces in the town bearing his name: a grand administrative building, with a tower reaching skyward; the plush and modern Hotel Florence. For his workers, he built houses stout and respectable, connected them to gaslines, water pipes, and sewers, allowed workers once privy to cold trips to dank outhouses to enjoy indoor baths in brightly lit rooms. But these creature comforts were little solace when the Panic of 1893 left the factory silent, and the coffers of many residents empty. Pullman died in 1897 and his town was annexed

by Chicago. Today, this area is one of the best-preserved historic districts in Chicago. The Historic Pullman Foundation Visitor Center offers guided walking tours of the area on the first Sunday of every month, as well as a walking tour brochure for self-guided exploration. Historic Pullman Foundation Visitor Center, 11141 S. Cottage Grove Ave. Tuesday-Sunday, 11am-3pm. (773)785-9801. pullmanil.org (Sean Maher)

South Shore & Greater Grand Crossing

It seems as though the center couldn’t possible hold in South Shore. In a city where homogeneity within neighborhoods has been the rule for decades, the uneasy marriage between rich and poor, progress and stagnation—at times just a block away from each other—is blatant and inescapable.

is a consistent joy, one of the city’s most under-appreciated stretches.

Yet a neighborhood cannot improve solely due to the work of jackhammers and ambitious top-down plans, and the sense that its residents are banding together to bring about a better future for their little worlds is palpable. People talk about the neighborhood’s future with evangelical zeal, heard in every fiery “We’re getting so much better!” There’s an obvious pride in where South Shore residents come from and where they’re about to go. An informal community meeting erupts one blazing afternoon in Chef Sara’s Café with a consensus that there need to be more bike racks in the neighborhood, and the South Shore Chamber of Commerce is one of the most energetic and dedicated in the city.

Whisper it softly, but South Shore’s on its way back.

Patrick Leow

The plights of the neighborhood are manifest. The 2,700 housing vouchers in South Shore outpace every neighborhood in the city. There are long stretches of Exchange Avenue lined with closed and boarded storefronts. Shopkeepers seem to sing from the same hymnbook: “We’ve got a long way to go” is their common refrain, and given that South Shore is the neighborhood with the second-highest number of homicides citywide, that assessment is hard to disagree with.

But those somber figures belie the very tangible signs of progress in South Shore and its nearby sister of Greater Grand Crossing. The massive Lakeside development, planned for the old U.S. Steel site, promises to become the new downtown for the South Side; the ornate New Regal Theater has recently been rescued from its slow decay and is under new management; and the section of 75th Street between Cottage Grove and State

Patrick Leow SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

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SOUTH SHORE & GREATER GRAND CROSSING

BEST SHOESHINE EXPERIENCE

Soloman and Soloman Custom Shoe Repair

My poor, shabby boots. A year’s worth of Chicago’s salt, snow, and rain meant deep furrows and creases, which all spoke of how they were much loved, but hopelessly neglected. In stepped Soloman and Soloman. Oh, and I could hear Charlie Parker playing too, so I had to enter. Within were men—at a shoeshine joint, they are invariably men—and next to the men were strewn copies of the day’s Sun-Times on faded blue plush chairs. Though they were strangers, the conversation among them ebbed from the latest indiscretions of “the Jackson cowboys” (“Sandi Jackson walked around so fine in those coats, when she bothered to show up in the ward”) and flowed to how grandchildren were so often absent from their lives (“the kid’s down in Memphis now”). Soloman and Soloman is a blissful twenty minute shine, with Fathead Newman saxophone standards providing the soundtrack to the young man meticulously making his way down the line, taking the utmost care with each individual shoe. My boots glow now, and so do I. Soloman and Soloman Custom Shoe Repair, 349 ½ E. 75th St. Monday-Thursday, 9am-6pm; Friday-Saturday, 9am-7pm. Close at 5pm every other Wednesday. (773)783-8003. (Patrick Leow)

BEST TRIP SOUTH OF THE MASON-DIXON LINE

Southern Kitchen

In a neighborhood dotted with sub stores and other food outlets that pile on the calories, the newly opened Southern Kitchen is a welcome addition, providing a fresh alternative to Polish sausages. Jessica Warfield, the owner of the restaurant, happily recalls her childhood in South Shore, while Le Cordon Bleu– trained chef Carvis Clausell busies himself with my order of fried catfish, okra, and collard greens. “It’s getting better,” Warfield says, speaking of the future of the neighborhood. She points toward the storefront, where eight beautiful paintings hang in support of the South Shore Art Festival, held earlier in the summer.

Business support is going to be critical if the neighborhood’s going to see a revival, and helping that is the quality of Southern Kitchen’s offerings—the okra was succulent and made to perfection, and I haven’t had a better, or lighter, fish fry anywhere in the city. Southern Kitchen, 7167 S. Exchange Ave. Monday-Sunday, 10am-9pm. (773)734-2100. (Patrick Leow)

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BEST VEGAN REFUGE

Yah’s Cuisine

A tall, skinny shack with faded letters, Yah’s is easy to miss if you’re not told to look out for it. The one-room establishment seems strangely out of place in the South Shore community, but the emphatic “Made from scratch, nothing microwaved” signs on the green and blue walls and the warm enthusiasm of Mama, the owner tell you that Yah’s has carved itself a place in the community. An astounding variety of dishes attracts quite a few loyal customers, with the mixed vegetables a crowd favorite.

The stuffing and cornbread are bursting with flavor, and their specialty drinks— shakes, smoothies, and more— are always worth a try, though one should be ready for seeds and other bits. The apple cobbler, however, seems lacking—an honorable mention here goes to another establishment, Tim’s on 87th, whose peach cobbler is customer-professed to be nothing short of “absolutely divine.” Yah’s Cuisine, 2347 E. 75th St. Tuesday-Sunday, 11am-8pm. (773)359-7988. yahscuisine. com (Himabindu Poroori)

SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

BEST MONUMENT TO THE PAST, BEST POSSIBILITIES FOR THE FUTURE

Chicago Lakeside Development

The site itself isn’t much to look at. Waves lap against the shore, and children can be heard at the nearby Rainbow Beach, but Chicago’s much-touted Lakeside development still lies almost completely empty. It’s the city’s largest vacant lot. But the banners which lie around its borders suggest a phoenix-like rebirth, and the city’s hyperbolic plans are remarkable. Plans finalized in 2010 established the desire for soaring skyscrapers to house over 50,000 residents, for its tree-lined avenues to provide the best place to bring up a young family on the South Side within the next couple of decades. It’s been touted as the South Side’s version of the Loop. There’s still a long way to go before these dreams are realized, but this could be the most important thing to happen to South Shore and Greater Grand Crossing in decades. Take advantage of this time to peer at the remaining concrete structures up close, the best monument to this neighborhood’s industrial past before it’s replaced by green and glass. Lakeside, 8555 S. Green Bay Ave. (312)944-3777. chicagolakesidedevelopment.com (Patrick Leow)

BEST QUINTESSENTIALLY SOUTH SIDE SANDWICH

BEST SATIATION OF A SWEET TOOTH

Stony Sub

Brown Sugar Bakery

“No such thing as a small Jim Shoe sub, man! No such thing.” The invariable foundations are simple: a drippy, messy mixture of roast beef, corned beef, and gyro meat topped off with cheese, tomatoes, and iceberg lettuce, then wrapped up in tinfoil and served with fries and can pop. It’s a calorie-heavy cornucopia whose basics the ubiquitous South Side sub shop doesn’t deviate from, and it is the quintessential South Side sandwich.

Stony Sub, the only noticeable commercial establishment for blocks on each side, does it best—topped with fresh giardiniera and succulent meat, the sandwich held up even when I had the second half of my enormous “small” Jim Shoe for dinner the next day. Stony Sub, 8440 S. Stony Island Ave. Monday-Sunday, all hours. (773)978-4000. (Patrick Leow)

Stephanie Hart owns Brown Sugar, and she explains how choosing a hulking slice of cake shows off more refined taste buds in comparison to those who would settle for a cupcake. “It’s all about the ratio,” Hart says. The cake should take pride of place over the sweets slathered on top, and there’s simply more cake in a slice than in a cupcake. And what a cake it is. Her caramel cake has won numerous citywide awards and is what draws most first-time visitors in, but once you’re in Brown Sugar it’s difficult to go wrong.

Everything smells warm, sugary, and of home. A lovingly-made slice of Turtle cake is to die for, and the portions are very generous. Best bakery in the city is a big claim, but considering the tenderness Hart and her team bring to the table, it wouldn’t be a stretch. Brown Sugar Bakery, 328 E. 75th St. Monday-Saturday, 10am-7pm. (773)224-6262. brownsugarbakerychicago.com (Patrick Leow)

Camden Bauchner

Washington Park & Woodlawn

In 2012, hundreds of violent crimes and dozens of murders occurred in Washington Park and Woodlawn. The city reeled and the reputation of these two neighborhoods, once famous for their music, activism, and culture, was threatened by the specter of violence. And yet, in spite of the trauma, the institutions that made these neighborhoods what they are remain as vibrant and powerful as ever.

Evidence of an active and energetic citizenry abounds: The Woodlawn Organization still acts as a staging ground for important conversations in the neighborhood, and R.A.G.E., an Englewood-based community service group, is a particularly vigorous voice for maintaining the neighborhood’s integrity, especially in its latest fight for more stringent pollutant standards in a railyard that spans Englewood and Washington Park.

More historical remains survive today too. Daley’s Diner on 63rd and Cottage Grove has been going since the World’s Fair, serving up sweet tea to centenarians and chicken and waffles to teens. Bishop Byron Brazier, son of the civil rights era evangelist Arthur Brazier and honoree of a proposed street name for Stony Island—the first name change since 1968 and Martin Luther King, Jr.—preaches the gospel at 63rd and Stony, while

underground hip-hop shows make 65th St. an entertainment destination for those in the know. Former cop and current alderman Willie Cochran dominates the political scene in the neighborhood, and is particularly active in issues related to crime and safety. A veterans group at Halsted in Washington Park tends garden, while chicken and lemonade storefronts whet the area’s year-round appetite for soul food.

It’s easy to say that Washington Park and Woodlawn are stalagmites of crime amid a city that has rarely seen more peaceful times. The reality is more complicated and, fortunately, much brighter than that. While the issues cannot be ignored, neither can the area’s abiding dynamism. As Curtis Mayfield said, “Just get on back to living again…right on.”

Josh Kovensky SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

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WASHINGTON PARK & WOODLAWN

BEST WORLD’S FAIR PIT STOP

Daley’s Restaurant

In 1892, when thousands from America and around the world descended on the Midway Plaisance, the World’s Fair was there to entertain them, but somebody also had to feed them. Enter Daley’s Restaurant, the century-old standby of flavored fat and scrumptious sugars on 63rd Street. John Daley, an ironworker contracted to help build the fair, took his job and shoved it onto the taste buds of locals by opening his eponymous restaurant at its current location. Daley’s serves a series of South Side favorites like chicken and waffles, as well as the standard diner fare of sandwiches, steaks, and all-day omelettes. The food is, without exception, cooked in staggering amounts of fat, or dipped in pancreas-freezing portions of sugar. For Woodlawn, Daley’s is a hearty standby, serving the neighborhood with down home cooking. It has mostly stayed a reliable, unchanging fixture in the midst of the neighborhood’s wild upheaval—from World’s Fair to Depression, from white flight to the modern era. The restaurant, 111 years on, is a greasy spoon that should not go unlicked by any Chicagoan. Daley’s Restaurant, 809 E. 63rd St. Monday-Sunday, 6am-7pm. (773)643-6670. daleysrestaurant.com (Josh Kovensky)

BEST SOUL FOOD

Baba’s Famous Steak and Lemonade Washington Park may lack many things, but it’s certainly got soul. One of its greatest spiritual pit stops is Baba’s Famous Steak and Lemonade, a lardy joint of fast food delight located at the corner of 51st and Indiana. Baba’s Famous’ cashiers serve up the Philly cheesesteaks and maraschino cherry–topped lemonade ices that cool the South Side’s churning summers and grease her winter wheels. A line perpetually forms toward the cashier, and a group always mills around outside. The food is fatty, but delicious. While each steak sandwich roughly corresponds to the loss of a single heart chamber, it is delicious enough to risk even death. So if you find yourself hungry and in Washington Park, pray to whatever God you pray to that Baba is near enough to feed your soul. Baba’s Famous Steak and Lemonade, 130 E. 51st St. Monday-Thursday, 10am-midnight; Friday, 10am-2am; Saturday, 10am-midnight; Sunday, 10am-10pm.

(773)548-6288. (Josh Kovensky)

Camden Bauchner

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SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

WASHINGTON PARK & WOODLAWN

BEST STICKY WICKETS

Washington Park Cricket League

Cricket, lovely cricket. If you’re looking for a pastime that combines boredom with regality, irreverence with rage, and catharsis with chauvinism, come to Washington Park any weekend over the summer. There, you will find a gathering unlike any other outside of the Raj; a gaggle of men, dressed all in white, indulging their favorite pastime, cricket. The Washington Park cricketers are primarily South Asian.

The gentlemen of the pitch engage in sledging, the ritualistic berating of the other team. These exchanges range from playful jibes to biting, personal insults (the Purdue Cricket Team is especially known for its ferocity of sledge). And yet, the ref, one Rup Seenarain—a Caribbean immigrant who has been involved in the Washington Park cricket league since the early 1970s—actively supports the practice: “You have to do it!” These men play and sledge each weekend in the summer, from morning till night or until fatigue overtakes them, possible even in a sport which famously stretches for upwards of ten hours a match. Many South Siders have expressed curiosity in the sport, although very few native-born Americans play on Washington Park’s pitch. Perhaps Washington Park’s summer cricket will eventually open up to both local spectators and sportsmen. Washington Park Fieldhouse, 5531 S. King Dr. Sunday mornings. (Josh Kovensky)

SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

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SEPTEMBER 25, 2013