Girl & the Goat might be one of the toughest tables to land in town, but you don’t need to be a VIP to get a taste of Top Chef. Season 4 winner, Chef Stephanie Izard will hold a free cooking demonstration and book signing at the Standard Market on March 30 from 10 a.m. – noon.
Izard, partner and Executive Chef of Chicago’s Girl & the Goat and Little Goat Diner, will sample dishes from her retail collection of marinades and rubs. “The Flavor” collection includes a marinade, kimchi dressing, sauté sauce, and two rubs. Izard will also be signing copies of her book, Girl in the Kitchen: How a Top Chef Cooks, Thinks, Shops, Eats and Drinks.
Green was the theme of the Chicago Green Music Festival, held near Wicker Park on June 23 and 24. Along with street festival fun and a music lineup programmed by Subterranean, the Green Music Fest aims to promote environmental sustainability and introduce Chicagoans to eco-conscious products, companies, and ideas.
Children’s Memorial Hospital is getting a new home in Chicago next month. As with any move there’s much to be done, but it’s astonishing to consider the innumerable details involved in planning, building, and relocating an organization of this scale. I recently had the opportunity to tour the new Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital facility and it’s clear that amid all the preparations the kids truly come first.
Standing 23 stories above Chicago’s Streeterville neighborhood, Lurie Children’s is the tallest hospital in the world. The new hospital has been named in honor of Anne Lurie, a local philanthropist and former nurse at Children’s, who pledged $100 million to the project. There are many benefits to the new 1.25 million square feet space, but what struck me most was the inspiring and supportive environment that permeated the hospital.
Alongside the space age medical technology, a Children’s Advisory Board of current and former patients weighed in on elements that would make the hospital experience less intimidating to patients and their families. This includes art along the hallways leading to operating rooms as well as inside the rooms.
Each floor of the hospital is named after a different Chicago community partner and decorated to match. On the first two floors, visitors are greeted by Shedd aquarium whales and a living fish tank. Interestingly, the emergency room is located on the second floor with access via an enclosed ambulance bay and special elevators for ER patients.
The scariness of surgery is lessened with a submarine CT scan and a safari surgery waiting room.
Brightly colored hospital units flood with natural light and exquisite views.
The Lurie Children’s facility will give the hospital the long-overdue space it needs to serve its patients as well as room to grow. This includes 288 private rooms equipped with accommodations for families with the capacity to expand to 313 rooms. Each inpatient room has a pull-out couch for those who want to sleep near their child. Additionally, there are lounges and sibling play areas nearby so families can relax only steps away.
The hospital’s new location on the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine campus will strengthen research opportunities. It will also be attached via walkway to the adjacent Prentice Women’s Hospital to allow for the quick transfer of newborns in critical condition, while allowing the mother to visit without having to discharge from Prentice.
Lurie Children’s will be home to an old fashioned Walgreens soda shop and pharmacy, modeled after its first locations. Walgreens will provide at-home and even hospital bedside delivery, allowing families to remain with their children. An in-unit hotel for inpatient families will be serviced by Affinia.
An incredible degree of thoughtfulness is evident in the stimulating details around every corner at Lurie Children’s. For example, each night a child will be selected to program the color and frequency of the Children’s LED hand logo on the building’s exterior using a flat screen TV in their room. Every patient elevator features an activity like pressing buttons to hearing different city traffic sounds. Themed display boxes provide an interesting distraction as patients are wheeled throughout their unit, and on the Adler Planetarium-sponsored floor an astrology wall will light up constellations on command.
The Museum of Science & Industry’s interactive butterfly wall already had already won some fans during its first public outing.
One entire floor is devoted to fun activities away from all of the medical devices. Featuring a salon, meditation room, and teen lounge, among other things, patients can enjoy time away in a less intimidating hospital setting.
A chapel will be open at all times, providing a space of solace and reflection.
A piece of the Children’s Memorial Hospital’s Lincoln Park heritage is proudly showcased in the Founder’s Tree House. Made of a preserved Lincoln Park tree dating back to the 1896 World’s Fair, the tree house connects patients to the garden below, which they are unable to enter.
Visitors can interact in an actual former Chicago Fire Department truck. Nearby, an installation by Jaume Plensa dazzles. Plensa is also the designer behind Millennium Park’s Crown Fountain.
The 5,000 sq. ft. Crown Sky Garden offers a stunning green space of renewal.
Lurie Children’s is making medical history in Chicago and in the world. Aside from the miracles accomplished by its devoted staff every day, this engaging and compassionate space itself is a wonder to behold.
While the official opening is not until June, Lurie Children’s welcomes the Chicago community to tour its new facility this weekend. Tour this incredible institution this Saturday, May 12 between 10am – 5pm. Click here to RSVP or for more information.
If you would like to make a donation to the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital you may do so here.
If you still need motivation, check out this promotional song featuring hospital employees and Chicago celebs including Children’s patient and YouTube sensation Keenan Cahill.
Don’t worry gents, I’m still on the market. Yet you don’t need to be a bride to blush at BHLDN, the dreamy new bridal boutique from the Anthropologie family. BHLDN recently celebrated its one-year anniversary by opening its second retail location, and Chicago was treated to a romantic reception.
The stunning 3,600 square-foot townhouse is a treasure trove of glamorous adornment. Between their place cards and pumps, garters and gowns, BHLDN’s attire and trimmings offer a multi-dimensional special occasion. The pastel swathed showroom of the first floor is bursting with lace, tulle, and chiffon that bridesmaids will be begging to re-wear. Glass cases display vintage-looking accessories with a curatorial air. It’s almost as if earrings and gloves were plucked from a flea market and showcased in a museum, begging to be bought.
Atop the winding staircase, angel wings hover over the whimsy of the second floor. Gorgeous headpieces, shoes, dresses, and baubles command attention, while the lingerie room lures you astray. Another nook allows brides to pull the perfect pinwheels and candlesticks to personalize their decor.
And then there are the gowns. About 45 luxe looks strike a pose in the bridal salon ranging from understated, to sweet, to seriously chic.
Over 300 guests attended BHLDN’s launch, which featured guest hostess Darcy Miller Nussbaum of Martha Stewart Weddings. Judging by Chicago’s response it’s a match made in happily ever after.
Chicago is in the midst of Chef Week, and if you haven’t had the chance to dig in there’s still room to make a rezzie through this Friday, March 23. I’ve just barely had time to digest last month’s Chicago Restaurant Week, but here are my four favorite bites.
Drinks at Chicago q
Chicago q may have had the week’s best menu. Yet while the hominy, smoked corn and black bean salad and slab of St. Louis baby back were as mouth-watering as expected, it was a cocktail that ultimately won me over. Fusing rye, lemon, OJ, and cinnamon-infused simple syrup, the Orange Blossom Martini offers a spicy, citrusy way to enjoy whiskey that’s all-together too drinkable.
Apps at Bistrot Margot Old Town’s Bistrot Margot is a mainstay of all classique French fare with charming décor and très generous portions. Simmered in garlic and butter, the satisfyingly briny escargot had me snatching every crumb off the table to soak it up even after the snails were inhaled.
Main at Blackbird
There’s no wrong way to do Blackbird, but the special five-course Restaurant Week tasting menu ($65 rather than the standard $33 or $44) seemed most fitting for my first visit. Choosing a favorite course at Paul Kahn’s gastronomic powerhouse is like choosing the most flavorful movement of an eloquent symphony (or mashup in a dubstep remix if that’s your thing). If you insist, I’ll favor the pekin duck breast. The savory fowl was aged for a week and its slight saltiness rounded out with fuyu persimmon, red wine braised radishes, black beans and sesame.
Dessert at Tapas Valencia
Tapas Valencia may have had somewhat nontraditional tapas service, but in addition to four-course menu the dessert was accompanied with a complimentary glass of cava. After devouring everything set in front of us, the decadent dessert platter of warm chocolate cake, cheesecake, almond pound cake with pear, strawberries, and ice cream drizzled in caramel seemed daunting. Thankfully we had that cava to wash it down.
Weaving like a gypsy, front woman Yukimi Nagano cast a spell on the Technicolor-clad kids in the crowd with her signature smoky melodies, draped in a scarf and spinning on stage. Although formed in 1996, Little Dragon has been turning heads lately with their third album, Ritual Union, and recent collaborations with Gorillaz, Big Boy, David Sitek, and Raphael Saadiq. Simplistic yet soulful, the yearning title track offered the summer a dream-synth sendoff.
Read the rest of my review and get MP3s at Indieball.com.
Revelers return home after a parade celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Xinhai Chinese Revolution commemorating Chinese Independence. - Chicago, IL
After devoting several summer weekends to music festivals, street fairs, and general merriment one would think we’d be ready for fest season to close. Not so. Thankfully, North Coast Music Festival is back for its second year to give Chicagoans a final fix.
Playing this weekend in Union Park, North Coast features an eclectic electronica and hip-hop focused lineup. While still a newcomer by Chicago fest standards, North Coast’s impressive lineup includes David Guetta, Common, Fatboy Slim, Of Montreal, Bassnectar, Wiz Khalifa, Rusko, and Thievery Corporation.
Go bask in the joy of listening in the sun for hours with thousands of sweaty strangers while you can! After all, it’s “Summer’s Last Stand.”
Sporting bright basics and snappy accessories (check out his cameo brooch & bow tie!), this pair is easily the best dressed duo at the Randolph Street Market.
Storm clouds darkened the sky as the California group took the stage at Lollapalooza, assaulting the audience with a fierce downpour one song into the set. There was scarcely any cover from the pelting torrent, and some poncho swathed festival-goers scurried under trees while others dove headfirst into quickly forming mud bogs. The scene was a surreal contrast to Cosentino’s beachy melodies, but Best Coast was not dampened, playing with intensity that added a harder edge to their doo-wop…
Read the rest of my review and get MP3s at Indieball.com.
Earlier this month, Best Coast released short and extended versions of the music video for the track “Our Deal,” off of 2010′s Crazy for You. Directed by Drew Barrymore for MTV’s Supervideo series, the video features a West Side Story-like teen gang rivalry, with star-crossed lovers, sharply-dressed indie kids, cameos, and breakdance fighting. Check it out below.
