Bucktown

Lincoln Park and Old Town favorites and hidden gems

Balena 1633 N. Halsted St. 312-867-3888 Chris Pandel of Bucktown favorite The Bristol channels the simplicity of Italian cooking with roasted meats, wood-fired pizzas and homemade pastas. Ravens 2326 N. Clark St. 773-348-1774 This no-frills tavern...

Tags: Old Town (Chicago, Illinois), Lifestyle and Leisure, Chicago Restaurants, Restaurants, Dining and Drinking

Chicago dog collar designer gets a boost

Celebrities could really be just like us. Stars at the MTV Movie Awards on June 3 will get a chic collar for their canines stashed in the swag bags. Chicagoans can get the same collars for their pooches that Michelle Cleek O'Hollaren, 33, of Bucktown,...

Tags: Awards and Prizes, Bethenny Frankel, Celebrities, MTV Movie Awards (tv program), Tori Spelling

NATO nations no longer populate city of immigrants

There aren't many Greeks living in Greektown anymore. There aren't many Italians in Little Italy. And Pilsen, the neighborhood named after a Czech city? It has been the heart of Chicago's Mexican community for decades. As representatives from the NATO...

Tags: Greektown, NATO, Europe, Little Italy (Chicago, Illinois), Pilsen

Western Avenue: 24 Miles in 24 Watercolors

Western Avenue may not be Chicago's most beautiful street, but local artist and architect Jane Sloss thinks that it is the city's most revealing. That's why the 31-year-old Andersonville-based artist decided to paint 24 watercolor paintings, one to...

Tags: Andersonville, United Nations, Arts and Culture, Lincoln Square (Chicago, Illinois), Pilsen

Chicago farmers market openings

Tags: Columbus Park, Willis Tower, Lincoln Square (Chicago, Illinois), Pilsen, South Shore

If Wicker Park were a cocktail, how would it taste?

If I were to create a cocktail that embodies Wicker Park, the nutty neighborhood I call home, it would be some combination of PBR, musician sweat and tattoo ink, with a splash of expensive beer and an artful garnish of skinny jeans and plaid. Thomas...

Tags: Egg Whites, Unrest, Conflicts and War, Wars and Interventions, Google Inc., Alcoholic Beverages

Chef Grant Achatz reaches settlement with Wilmette-based dentists in tongue-cancer suit

A long road to realizing their pipe dream

Gerrit Lewis and Beejay Oslon spent a long time talking about Pipeworks Brewing. Now, finally, they get to live it. Four years after first envisioning the brewery at an Indiana beer festival, the duo, who barely knew each other at the time of their idea,...

Tags: Lifestyle and Leisure, Kickstarter, Distilling and Brewing Industry, Dining and Drinking, Hermosa

New name, new strategy for longtime builder

Ken Neumann is back building houses in the Chicago area, but he's no longer focused on constructing thousands of homes in subdivisions for entry-level buyers. Instead, he's tearing down homes in long-established communities and building houses for a more...

Tags: Homes, Bankruptcy, Financially Distressed Companies, Economy, Business and Finance, Companies and Corporations

Chicago's CM Punk takes Twitter war with Chris Brown to video

Leave it up to CM Punk to once again say what many of us have been thinking for a long time. The vocal WWE Champion and Bucktown resident – who famously criticized WWE's decision makers on live TV last June and blurred the line between scripted and...

Tags: Social Media, ESPN (tv network), Twitter, Inc., Jay-Z, World Wrestling Entertainment Inc.

Steve Kordek dies at 100; game designer revolutionized pinball

During the Depression, a Chicago man named Steve Kordek got a job as a solderer at Genco Pinball Co. and worked his way up from the production line to the engineering department. When the company's head designer fell ill, Kordek was told to fill in and...

Tags: Theft, Bally, Entertainment, Forestry and Timber, Science and Technology

Remarkable Woman: Erica Daniels

Erica Daniels has a lot of reading to do. Sitting among piles of submitted plays at her Steppenwolf office in Lincoln Park, she carefully places one script at the top of the stack so she remembers to take it home. "Everybody's getting their scripts in...

Tags: New York City, Television, Amy Morton, FBI, Entertainment