Chicago. - Page 3

Tamarind is really really good. Also a "new Indian" kind of place and not the most traditional. The lobster tikka masala is

My Indian bff loves Tamarind.

This past summer my fiancee and about a dozen other people stood next to a crime scene with a dead body on the ground while waiting for the bus by Hyde Park Boulevard. A few months before that, someone was stabbed to death behind our building--arguably the nicest and safest in the area. In the past six months there have been at least a half-dozen gang shootings two blocks behind the law school. A university grad student was randomly shot dead near the campus book store this winter. These are just a handful of incidents that I am directly connected to that occured within a short span of time. You would be a fool to walk around Hyde Park by yourself after midnight--there are few that would disagree with me.


My friend bought a townhouse with about 1500 square feet for $250k in the West Loop. It's not the ritziest area, but it's clean and safe. You cannot find anything in Manhattan, nonetheless a townhouse, for close to that price. The same thing would cost you at least $1.5m.

You missed what I said about having a doorman and lobby. Gold Coast is one of the most expensive parts of the city and your friend lives in a high rise. If he's not getting serious ammenities with that price, he's getting seriously ripped off. So, you rented a one-bedroom for $2k a month by the lake? Excellent point. Now why don't you check what rent would be for a same-size apartment by Central Park. Also I somehow doubt you were paying $2k a month for a no-frills, walk-up.


You seem to have missed the point. But then, people with chips on their shoulders often do. To clarify, the point was not that I have necessarily been to more, nicer restaurants than you (although, this is possible), but that it would be logically impermissive to justify a conclusion through an unsupported assertion. Essentially, you are saying: "you're wrong because you're wrong." When I made unfounded assertions about your culinary (in)experience in order to debase your opinion, I pointedly did so to demonstrate this bad form. Of course, rather than engage intellectually with this notion, here you are talking about whipping out your dick. I've noticed that this desperate need to look between other posters' legs to feel better about yourself taints many of your posts.


Eli's is excellent. Rich, creamy, and pungent. Makes most other American-style cheesecakes taste like chalk. Don't f*ck with Eli's.

Perhaps you should have gone to a safer school...like the University of Phoenix. By the way, the grad student death shocked the entire campus and the last time a student had died was in 1977. Also 2006 statistics now for columbia's morningside heights campus: rape (5), robbery (32), burglary (135), aggravated assault (16), arson (2), weapons arrests (1). Why don't you compare that to hyde park? How about I save you the trouble: forcible sex offense (7), robbery (25), burglary (75), aggravated assault (7), arson (1). Most students walked around late night on campus. I guess they were all fools. Except for you. Because you're sheltered. West loop. What a joke. I don't have to check what rent would be for an apartment by central park because I live by there right now. FYI, not too many apartments for rent by central park so it's not comparable (there are some like eliot spitzer's building). The whole area is filled with co-ops. My one bedroom in lincoln park, with the lake view (not comparable to central park at all), had a part-time office that took packages until 3. That was it. The elevators sucked and i had to walk a few times up all the flights. Average rent in chicago is 1000. Average rent in NYC is 1600. While there is a substantial premium, it's not a large multiple. Also, you really need to have better cheesecake if you think Eli's is the best. But since I'm such a kind soul, even though you're rather foul, here is their website so that you can order from there when you move to NY http://www.elicheesecake.com/. But be careful when you move here and don't take the subway, because I hear there is crime!!!

I had an Eli's Creme Cheesecake in the business cabin of United--it was rather good.

mafoo...

I think you need to chill with the Hyde Park fear mongering... UChicago is like the biggest year round dork festival in the United States. The neurotic parents who rear them would never let them go to school in south chicago if it was so bad. Random acts of violence are quite few and far between unless you live in fucking somalia or something. I actually come from a place where you really have to be careful walking around at night. That part of Chicago certainly isn't one of them... it's something jewish mothers with intermittent anxiety attacks tell their kids so they go to princeton instead.

Nothing surpasses Alinea in Chicago.
1. Alinea
Naha is under rated and the best burger I've ever had anywhere.
Joe's surpasses for steak and seafood.
Tru is good for the pastries. You can go for the late hour 3 course.
*yum*

I agree steak is over-rated in Chicago. Gibsons and Carmines being the most overrated heap of average I've ever tasted. I've never finished any of Gibson's steaks. Joe's bone-in always has me picking at the bone to get every last bit. Stone crab is their speciality. Every item is just consisently excellent.


Chicago is all downtwon and Northside. Southside has 2 great things: 1. University of Chicago and 2. University of Chicago Hospital.
University of Chicago is known for having a high percentage of dorks: highly analytical but socially 'dorks'. And they do tend to live up to that on a regular basis

The chinese food is not as good as it should be. Globe, I'll take any suggestions you want to offer.

You can get some pretty good Greek in Chicago and yes, Flash Taco is the bomb for late night, cheap eats mexican.

It's the neighborhood Italian food that seems to always surprise me. So many great little neighborhood places that you practically trip over them.

I'd love to know where that $2k 1BR walk-up is.

I marvel at Chicago each time I visit, knowing I haven't even grown the nails the scratch the surface. Typically I buy a suit or some furniture and a quick bite. I remember one precious summer evening when my wife and I ate somewhere off Michigan Ave. and I don't remember the food so much as the calm, warm air and the lucious darkness. It was magical, to me, watching a car stopped across the street with its hazard lights flashing, and for a long time saying nothing, and then flashes of a man opening the passenger's door, a woman dipping her head inside, the sound of the door shutting, solidly in the dense dark air, his hesitation as a car passed before entering his side.

I agree.

I think it is hard to compare Chicago to NYC, just like it is hard to compare LA to NYC.
I would submit that for some (like myself) find Chicago to be comfortable, with enough urban, enough mix, and enough worldliness, but with out some of the cold (social) that comes with it.
Chicago is not the most international, nor the most sophisticated city in the world, but I feel that for being in the Mid-west, it does pretty damn good.

I live in Lake Bluff (next to Lake Forest), and find that to be ideal. Similar communities in CT are not as accessible as the northshore of Chicago is to its downtown.
Hey, to each their own.
NYC is second to none in the U.S., LA just sucks. So for me, Chicago is wonderful.

sorry - while there are resterounts in nyc that offer pretty good food, and may have names that sound vagly indian, they offer indian food in the way that hagendaz is a danish ice cream store.

I actually won't touch chicago style pizza, but I found a reasonable place that offers a jew brooklin style pizza that isn't bad at all.

yeah, chinese is my biggest disapointment - I end up going to Katy's dumplings most of the time, and that is a shlep.

Forgive me if I come across as a little defensive but I can't believe some of the Chicago "bashing" going on here. For the most part I think antirabbit's post is a great summer-upper with johnapril alluding to one of the main differences being that Chicago neighborhoods, in general, are "quiet" after about 6PM or so. It always seems like in NY that there is a persistent commotion and noise from cars, trucks, sirens, etc. that would suck the soul out of me if I lived there. In most Chicago neighborhoods you can relax in relative peace once everyone is home from work. Don't get me wrong, I love NY and like the energy...but can't imagine confining myself indoors all of the time to get a little peace and quiet.

As far as Chicago doesn't have this or that...it's BS. I've lived here for 40+ years and I haven't scratched the surface of what the city has to offer. If you haven't found food you're happy with then you haven't gone to enough places. Just like NY, people from every country in the world end up here and open restaurants. I'm sure it's the same in most big cities where there's a "Chinatown", "Greektown", "Little Italy", etc., etc...it's no different here. I'm not big on Chinese and haven't been to Chinatown in decades but you can always drive 10 minutes west to Oak Park and try Flat Top's. Someone mentioned fusion and there's a lot of that downtown...Roy's comes to mind. Don't get me going on pizza because that was a whole other thread, but my point is that some of the greatest chefs, restaurants and food can be found in this city (even though Smith & Wols is still my favorite steakhouse).

And movie studios, hundreds of theaters, the Symphony Orchestra, the Lyric Opera House, the Joffrey Ballet, the Art Institute, the Field Museum, the Museum of Science and Industry, the Adler Planetarium, the Shedd Aquarium, the Lincoln Park Zoo, the Brookfield Zoo, 7300 acres of parks with 33 beaches, 9 lakefront harbors, etc., etc., etc. Not to mention a burgeoning fashion scene, just about every major designer being represented on the Mag Mile, HSF and Oxxford founded and based here and a renowned tailors like Chris Despos.

I could go on and on and on about all the things that make the city great (and even better than NYC in some ways) but the reality is Chicago doesn't have 20 million people. It doesn't feel the international influence NYC does. It is still a world-class city though (with a kind of small-town feel and sensibilities).

As far as livability, Chicago was built on a master plan that integrated commerce, transportation and recreation. The beauty of the city is that you don't need a car and can get just about anywhere on public transportation. Many people walk to work and from home can often walk to the grocery store, restaurant, coffee shop, bar, to do their shopping or, in many cases, the beach or park. It is my understanding that real estate is about half the price as NYC but it's all relative with the Gold Coast being as expensive as it gets anywhere in the U.S.

As far as safety and crime, Chicago is as safe/violent as any other big city. For the most part, I believe, violent crime is pretty much confined to smaller pockets of concentrated gang activity. Fringe places like Hyde Park (and Oak Park for that matter) will have the occasional random act but it is far and few between. Many areas are totally segregated racially or ethnically while other neighborhoods are melting pots. While there are distinct differences between the more refined North and the more "blue collar" South sides I think Chicagoans all get along pretty well. In general people are friendly and lack pretentiousness.