Moved back to Bmore 3 weeks ago and am just hanging out and traveling for a few months before starting grad school in DC at the end of July.

Anyway, I have a bunch of recommendations for Chicago. I’ll just post a few for now. I can’t recommend anything as glorious as a Faidley’s crabcake, but there’s still some good stuff. Metromix.com is a great resource with more details.

My favorite restaurant is Nacional 27, in the River North neighborhood (I forget the exact intersection). The 27 stands for the number of Latin cuisines the food represents. A bit pricey but definitely worth it. Also great drinks and live music a couple nights a week. They clear out the center for salsa dancing on Saturday nights.

My favorite bar is a place a few blocks east called Blue Frog (Lasalle and Huron). It is a hole in the wall that does karaoke most nights. The crowd gets very fired up, so you see lots of crazy drunk singing and dancing. It helps to be drunk before you get there.

As Stacey mentioned, the Gold Coast area is pretty touristy but still a good time, esp around Rush Street. It is also known as the VT, or Viagra Triangle, because Rush and State Streets form a little triangle shaped park, and the bars around there are notorious for rich old men hitting on pretty young things. In that area, I am a fan of Whiskey Bar and Luxbar.

The Hangge Uppe is on Elm just west of State. It is one of the places where the drunker you are, the more fun it is. The basement is all 80s music and mainstream old rock songs like AC/DC where people go nutty (lots of bachelorette parties). A pretty long line forms early on the weekends.

Piece is in Bucktown (North and Damen) and has great New Haven-style pizza (yes, there is such a thing) and pretty good microbrews. They don’t take reservations, so either go early for dinner or expect to wait a long time.

I used to live right by Second City, which is a famous comedy theater on North and Wells (Old Town neighborhood). It’s like triple A for SNL and other big-time comedy gigs. Steve Carrell, Stephen Colbert, Chris Farley, etc did stints there. Adobo Grill is right next door and serves the best guacamole I’ve ever had (they make it in front of you). Great for a pre or post-show meal.

If you want late night drunk food, the most notorious place is Wiener Circle in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, on Clark a block or two south of Diversey. You can get a true Chicago hot dog there and deathly greasy cheese fries. A female ex-con supposedly started it in one of the whitest parts of town (one of the things that really bothered me about Chicago is how segregated it is- the North side is virtually all white and middle-upper class). She hires mostly ex-cons, and the whole appeal of the place is that the workers hurl insults where nothing is out of bounds. Of course, all the drunk fools yell shit back, and it can get pretty vulgar and entertaining. The most memorable thing you can do is order a chocolate milkshake from a female worker. She’ll pull down her shirt and squeeze her tittes for you.

If you plan to see a baseball game, there ain’t a damn thing to do around the Cell. The exact opposite is true of Wrigley. There are bars all around the stadium, esp on Clark Street. Even when there’s no game, Clark Street is packed on weekend nights with mostly people a few yeras out of college, if that’s your thing. Take the red line on the El to get to both (Sox-35th and Addison stops respectively).

Finally, Millenium Park is very touristy, but you have to go and see the now-famous Bean sculpture. Bring your camera and amuse yourself endlessly.