A New Urban Legend
Rubbing the Belly
The most beloved new restaurant in Chicago right now? Urbanbelly (3053 N. California Ave.; 773-583-0500), Bill Kim’s noodle-and-dumpling BYO in Avondale. On The Huffington Post, Steve Dolinsky called it “the best first-day opening of any restaurant in Chicago,” and approximately a zillion Yelpers, LTHers, and other species of foodies have already weighed in with praise. A pair of trusted FODs who live in the neighborhood went nuts for the...
Housing Bulletin—One Chicago Seller’s Limited-Time Offer
To save money on commissions to real-estate agents, Rachel and Mark Bickenbach have been trying to sell their Clybourn Avenue loft themselves this summer. They put it on craigslist.com and advertised it in the Chicago Tribune and the Reader—but all they heard was...
Swimming With Sharks
Ever hear of Eileen and Tom Lonergan? They were a couple from Baton Rouge who went scuba diving off the coast of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia in 1998, and accidentally got left behind due to a faulty head count taken by the boat crew. No one noticed they were gone until their bags were found in the boat two days later. A vast search followed, but they were gone. Eventually their empty wet suits, tanks, and dive jackets washed ashore. Most likely they met a shark or...
Accessories Boutique in Lincoln Park
A Little Something Special
New Lincoln Park accessories boutique Aberle (1101 W. Webster Ave.; 773-477-1101) carries all the elements to complete an outfit: jewelry, shoes, and handbags. Co-owners Kira Price and Joy Koziol have chosen luxury accessories, filling the store with “brands we love and can never...
The Last Hurrah
Last week was The Fiancé's rite-of-passage dudefest commonly known as the Vegas bachelor party. Before his trip, I laid down one simple rule: No touching strippers in inappropriate places. That's it. One rule. I didn't ask him not to go to strip clubs; I didn't remind him not to gamble away our life savings (he knows better). But maybe there should have been two simple rules. On our first weekend apart since getting engaged, it might have been nice for...
Sale of the Week—Traded Again in Southeast Ravenswood
List Price: $2.399 million
Sale Price: $2.25 million
The Property: So far in its short life, this 14-room house, built in 2002, has been sold four times, most recently on August 11th. Those sellers had owned the place for just 11 months...
Sealed with a Kiss
Puppet Government
Puppets have always helped out with difficult lessons: Bert and Ernie taught the importance of tooth brushing; Kermit served as poster boy for the power of positive thinking. Now it’s time to take the...
No Bull: The scoop on Bull & Bear; plus, a new bar alert and celeb spotting
Luke Stoioff—along with fellow Stone Lotus partners David Rekhson and Brandon Zisman—has been working on Bull & Bear (431 N. Wells St.), a high-end sports bar for Loopers and traders, for more that a year. Although the place isn’t slated to open until mid-October, the trio already has a slew of other projects in the pipeline, including...
On The Market—Prairie Glass in Oak Park
List Price: $990,000
The Property: Eben Ezra Roberts, who designed some 200 buildings in Oak Park, was the architect of this 100-year-old residence (known as the Charles Schwerin House), as well as its neighbor (the Charles F. Lorenzen House). Roberts fronted this house with a broad, shading porch and...
When You Wish Upon A Sushi Bar
Yeah, I Wish for 10,000 Hamachi Rolls
Andy Park was the executive chef of Blu Coral (1265 N. Milwaukee Ave.; 773-252-2020) when one of his longtime customers told him he was building a mall. Turns out the guy was Mike Jaffe, the developer of The Arboretum, a soon-to-open 600,000-square-foot open-air lifestyle center in South Barrington. Next thing you know...
Housing Bulletin—Good News for Chicago Condos
With all the reports (including many from Deal Estate) about a vast inventory of unsold condos, it’s a surprise to learn that urban condos are the best-performing part of Chicago’s six-county real-estate market. In the latest release of local market information by the Illinois Association of Realtors (IAR), the median price of a home dropped in five counties and stayed flat in Cook County. The declines ranged from 1.9 percent in Lake County to...
More Than Meets the Eye
The cover for the August issue features a colorful image of famous Chicago architectural landmarks. At first glance, it looks like a collage of photos or illustrations of the buildings. Little do you know, that's a set of miniature paper models made from the Build Your Own Chicago postcards, by local designer Matt Bergstrom.
For those of us who don't read the cover photo credits (on page 10 of the August issue), this...
Flex Time
Good parenting, as anyone will tell you, is all about flexibility. And bribery. And Cheerios. Yes, that's it: flexibility, bribery, and Cheerios. Am I forgetting anything here? Oh, yeah, mindless repetition. If you haven't the ability to listen to the same mind-numbing song, read the same stupid Elmo book, or feed the baby the same icky goop over and over again without...
Glamorama Time
Girls Just Want to Have Fun
Tickets are still available for Glamorama at The Chicago Theatre (175 N. State St.; 312-902-1500) on Aug. 22nd at 8 p.m. The ‘80s-themed show, called Pop Candy Arcade, features performances by Cyndi Lauper and the rapper M.C. Hammer (back from bankruptcy)—so bust out the purple eye shadow and tease up those rooster bangs. The runway fashion show features Marc Jacobs, Donna Karan Collection, CNC Costume National, Just Cavalli, SportMax, Tibi, and Tommy Hilfiger, among others. The after-party—as always on the 7th floor of Macy’s (111 State St.)—will feature music videos from...
Ten Things Men Should Know About Women
The wedding is about a month away, and I haven't had an unaided night of sleep in weeks. My friends and my doctor have told me it's perfectly normal to develop irrational anxieties before a wedding, as long as the panic has nothing to do with the decision to get married. Although I don't have a single doubt about spending the rest of my life with The Fiancé, I've been a little apprehensive about the living together part—especially right now, when the two of us are still in a condo built for one...
Sale of the Week—A Robin’s Nest on Lake Shore Drive
List Price: $3.199 million
Sale Price: $2.75 million
The Property: In the late 1960s, when the construction executive Albert Robin developed The Carlyle, the 40-story condo building at 1040 North Lake Shore Drive, he set aside a two-story aerie for himself and his family. Robin—a benefactor of Roosevelt University, which named its Schaumburg campus after him—died in...
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