CHICAGO NEIGHBORHOOD NEWS – PORTAGE PARK, LOOP, GOLD COAST, LAKEVIEW, OAK PARK
PORTAGE PARK
On Wednesday, February 29, at Mayfair Public
Library starting at 6pm RSVP for a spot to learn more about Chicago
Bungalow Initiative. If you've ever wondered
about the history of your house or been curious about the development of your
neighborhood, join Carla Bruni, Architectural Historian and Historic
Preservation consultant, to get the tools necessary to uncover the history of
the places that matter to you. You will also learn what it takes to be listed
on the National Register of Historic Places, and the benefits associated with
that distinction.
LOOP
RPM Italian - a glamorous hotbed of
pasta and Negronis - is a new location from Style Network stars Bill and
Giuliana Rancic and an assorted cast of Melman siblings. After passing the big spotlights under the
awning, you'll look around approvingly. Handsome, yet understated - as you'd
expect when one of the principals is a red-carpet reporter. There's a private
"Board Room" decked out with a crystal chandelier ready for your next wrap
party. If you're keeping the evening
light, we suggest hanging with chief mixologist Paul McGee (late of the
Whistler) shaking your Lower Door (his gin-soaked spin on the Corpse Reviver). And the entire menu of lobster caprese, prime
beef meatballs and duck agnolotti will be at your disposal.
GOLD COAST
Enjoy Allium at the Four Seasons, the
plush, romantic successor to Seasons in the Four Seasons hotel, which opened
last Wednesday. Basically, it's still
the Four Seasons you know and respect, but it's loosened its tie a bit.
Contemporary furniture. Sleek lines. Cheetah-print sofas in front of a roaring
fire. The dining room is standing by to
be whatever you need it to be. A place for after-work Wagyu sliders and beer:
grab a cushy sofa in the corner. Treating clients to the Chicago steakhouse
experience: order the 23-ounce bone-in rib eye in the menu's "From the Meat
Locker" section.
LAKEVIEW
Time to check out Big Bricks,
a massively scaled pizza/ribs/beer joint recently opened. There's a basement smoker so massive, they
needed to cut a hole in the first floor and build the rest of the place around
it. It can handle 200 slabs of tangy ribs, or smoke a duck for quesadillas, or
just the bacon and ham for The Ditka - a huge pizza loaded with every kind of
meat in the house. This location is a
newer, bigger, smokier version of the Lincoln Park original and keeps the pizza
menu substantially the same.
OAK PARK
The Oak Park Village Board voted unanimously Tuesday to expand
the current boundaries of the Frank
Lloyd Wright-Prairie School of Architecture Historic District. The designation should go into effect
immediately but should take a few days to catch up on lists and maps. The Historic District was first designated in
1972 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
CATHY MALLERS &
DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO
