If you’re looking for food with a view, try The Signature Room at the John Hancock Centre. With better views than the building’s observation deck, this is Chicago’s brunch centre. The prices are reasonable and you’re guaranteed to wow your colleagues/clients. The service can be a little variable – it took the waitress 15 minutes to find me a fork – but the weekend live jazz more than makes up for the occasional shoddiness.

The Signature Room at the 95th® 875 N. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60611 Tel: 312.787.9596
signatureroom.com

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For something completely different, try X/O in Boys Town. This ultra cool spot dishes a delightful variety of creative eclectic small plates – including tapas with a twist – and offers some of the city’s best cocktails. The champagne concoctions and martinis are as spectacular as the atmosphere – fuelled by a DJ with a Hoxton haircut at weekends. If you can, try to sit on the patio.

3441 N Halsted Street Chicago, IL 60613 Tel:(773) 348-9696

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Fancy a boogie? Sound Bar and Enclave are your passes to the best late-night hedonism Chicago has to offer. The former has two levels and is invariably packed: downstairs plays hip-hop music and upstairs grooves to an unrelenting house beat. You can engineer your very own oasis of calm, though, by booking a table in the VIP room. The drinks are phenomenally cheap, you get waitress service and the chance to retreat if the music becomes too much or the people too raucous. Not the best club in the world, but a good laugh nonetheless. Altogether better is Enclave. This upscale location has undergone a full year of renovation: new floors, new (clean) bathrooms, new furnishings, impeccably styled bar areas, etc. And it’s been worth it. This is now the premier dance spot in Illinois, with beautiful people to match. Get a table in the circular, curtain-swathed VIP area and forget all about work.

Sound Bar
226 W. Ontario, Chicago, IL 60610, Tel: 312.787.4480 sound-bar.com
Enclave: enclavechicago.com

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Soak up the atmosphere before a Cubs game at historic Wrigley Field with brunch at Uncommon Ground, a continental style cafe-bistro on a tree-lined avenue. Renowned as much for its contemporary local art and live music, as for the fantastic food (do try the omlettes) all made with local, organic ingredients.

3800 N. Clark Street, Chicago,
Nearest CTA station, Addison (Red-line).

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One of the city's least-know jewels, despite being housed in the grandest piece of classical architecture on one of the busiest stretches of Michigan Avenue. An unusual thing in America, the whole place is free to the public.

It is primarily a museum and performance space, with a busy schedule of exhibits and performances. On Saturdays, they often have midday dance classes for young and old (great fun, even if you just watch).

The Chicago Symphony and Opera both offer free performances in the opulent Preston Bradley Hall, covered in glass mosaic, beneath the world's largest Tiffany dome.

On Michigan Avenue, at Randolph. Half a block away from the Loop trains, served by several buses and underground garages;
www.ci.chi.il.us/Tourism/CultureCenterTour/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Cultural_Center

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