Culture of Chicago
Encyclopedia
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, is particularly known for various forms of performing arts, such as improvisational comedy, and music, such as Chicago blues
Chicago blues
The Chicago blues is a form of blues music that developed in Chicago, Illinois, by taking the basic acoustic guitar and harmonica-based Delta blues, making the harmonica louder with a microphone and an instrument amplifier, and adding electrically amplified guitar, amplified bass guitar, drums,...
and soul
Chicago soul
Chicago soul is a style of soul music that arose during the 1960s in Chicago. Along with Detroit, the home of Motown, and Memphis, with its hard-edged, gritty performers , Chicago and the Chicago soul style helped spur the album-oriented soul revolution of the early 1970s.The sound of Chicago...
. The city continues to cultivate a strong classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
, popular music, dance and performing arts tradition, rooted in Western civilization, as well as other traditions carried forward by its American, African, Asian, European, and Hispanic citizens. Chicago is known for a robust and vigorous tradition of surrealist, funky figurative paintings and art, such as the famous Chicago Imagist group
Chicago Imagists
The Chicago Imagists is the name of a group of representational artists associated with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago who exhibited at the Hyde Park Art Center in the late 1960s. Their work was known for grotesquerie, surrealism and complete uninvolvement with New York art world trends...
. The city is additionally known for various popular culinary dishes, notably the deep-dish pizza
Chicago-style pizza
Chicago-style pizza is a deep-dish pizza style developed in Chicago. Chicago-style pizza has a buttery crust up to three inches tall at the edge, slightly higher than the large amounts of cheese and chunky tomato sauce, acting as a large bowl. The term also refers to "stuffed" pizza, another...
, the Chicago-style hot dog
Chicago-style hot dog
A Chicago-style hot dog, or Chicago Dog, is a steamed or water-simmered all-beef frankfurter on a poppy seed bun, originating from the city of Chicago, Illinois...
and the Chicago-style Italian beef
Italian beef
An Italian beef is a sandwich of thin slices of seasoned roast beef, dripping with meat juices, on a dense, long Italian-style roll, believed to have originated in Chicago, where its history dates back at least to the 1930s...
sandwich.
Performing arts
Chicago is a major center for theater, and is the birthplace of modern improvisational comedy. The city is home to two renowned comedy troupes: The Second CityThe Second City
The Second City is a improvisational comedy enterprise which originated in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood.The Second City Theatre opened on December 16, 1959 and has since expanded its presence to several other cities, including Toronto and Los Angeles...
and I.O.
I.O.
iO, or iO Chicago, is a theater located at 3541 N. Clark St., in Chicago, Illinois, one-half block south of Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs baseball team. The theater both has performances of, and teaches improvisational comedy. It was founded in the 1980s by Del Close and Charna Halpern...
The form itself was invented at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
in the 1960s by an undergraduate performance group called the Compass Players
Compass Players
The Compass Players was a 1950s cabaret revue show started by alumni, dropouts and hangers-on from the University of Chicago. The troupe was active from 1955-1958 in Chicago and St. Louis...
, whose members went on to found Second City. It is also home to one of the longest running plays in the country—the Neo-Futurarium's Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind
Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind
Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind: 30 Plays in 60 Minutes is the longest running show in Chicago and the only open-run Off-Off-Broadway show in New York. Starting in 1988, the show has run 50 weekends of the year since then...
, an ensemble of 30 plays in 60 minutes. Many world-famous actors and comedians are Chicagoans or came to study in the area, particularly at Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
in Evanston
Evanston, Illinois
Evanston is a suburban municipality in Cook County, Illinois 12 miles north of downtown Chicago, bordering Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, and Wilmette to the north, with an estimated population of 74,360 as of 2003. It is one of the North Shore communities that adjoin Lake Michigan...
.
Since their foundings in 1925 and 1974, Goodman Theatre
Goodman Theatre
The Goodman Theatre is a professional theater company located in Chicago's Loop. A major part of Chicago theatre, it is the city's oldest currently active nonprofit theater organization...
, downtown, and Steppenwolf Theatre Company
Steppenwolf Theatre Company
Steppenwolf Theatre Company is a Tony Award-winning Chicago theatre company founded in 1974 by Gary Sinise, Terry Kinney and Jeff Perry in the basement of a church in Highland Park, Illinois. It has since relocated to Chicago's Halsted Street, in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. Its name comes from...
on the city's north side have nurtured generations of actors, directors, and playwrights. They have grown into internationally renowned companies of artists. Many other theatres, from nearly 100 black box performances spaces like the Strawdog Theatre Company
Strawdog Theatre Company
-Mission:The whole wide world in a little black box.Strawdog Theatre Company is committed to ensemble acting and an immersive design approach, offering Chicago the premiere storefront theatre experience. Strawdog develops new work, re-imagines classic plays, explores new fusions of music and...
in the Lakeview
Lakeview, Chicago
Lake View, or Lakeview, is one of the 77 community area of the Chicago, Illinois, located in the city's North Side. It is bordered by West Diversey Parkway on the south, West Irving Park Road on the north, North Ravenswood Avenue on the west, and the shore of Lake Michigan on the east...
area to landmark downtown houses like the Chicago Theatre
Chicago Theatre
The Chicago Theatre, originally known as the Balaban and Katz Chicago Theatre, is a landmark theater located on North State Street in the Loop area of Chicago, Illinois. Built in 1921, the Chicago Theatre was the flagship for the Balaban and Katz group of theaters run by A. J. Balaban, his brother...
on State and Lake Streets, present a wide variety of plays
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
and musicals
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
, including touring shows and original works such as the premiere in December 2004 of Spamalot
Spamalot
Monty Python's Spamalot is a musical comedy "lovingly ripped off from" the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Like the film, it is a highly irreverent parody of the Arthurian Legend, but it differs from the film in many ways, especially in its parodies of Broadway theatre...
. The Chicago Shakespeare Theater
Chicago Shakespeare Theater
Chicago Shakespeare Theater is a non-profit, professional theater company located at Navy Pier in Chicago, Illinois. Its more than six hundred annual performances performed 48 weeks of the year include its critically acclaimed Shakespeare series, its World's Stage touring productions, and youth...
and the Victory Gardens Theater
Victory Gardens Theater
Victory Gardens Theater is a theater in Chicago, Illinois dedicated to the development and production of new plays and playwrights. The theater was founded in 1974 when seven Chicago artists, Warren Casey, Cordis Heard, Roberta Maguire, Mac McGuinnes, Cecil O'Neal, June Pyskaček, and David Rasche...
have won regional Tony Awards
Regional Theatre Tony Award
The Regional Theatre Tony Award is a special non-competitive Tony Award given annually to a regional theatre company in the United States. Initially presented in 1948 to Robert Porterfield of the Virginia Barter Theatre for their Contribution To Development Of Regional Theatre, the Regional Theatre...
, along with Goodman and Steppenwolf. Broadway In Chicago
Broadway In Chicago
Broadway In Chicago is a theatrical production company. It was formed in July 2000 by the Nederlander Organization to present touring Broadway productions in Chicago and to operate four theaters in downtown Chicago.-Theaters:...
, created in July 2000, hosts touring productions and Broadway musical previews at: Bank of America Theatre, Cadillac Palace Theatre
Cadillac Palace Theatre
The Cadillac Palace Theatre is operated by Broadway In Chicago, a Nederlander Presentation. It is located at 151 West Randolph Street in the Chicago Loop area downtown.-History:...
, Ford Center for the Performing Arts Oriental Theatre. Broadway In Chicago provides over 7,500 jobs and an economic impact of over $635 million dollars. Polish language
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
productions for Chicago's large Polish speaking population
Poles in Chicago
Chicago Polonia, refers to both immigrant Poles and Americans of Polish heritage living in Chicago, Illinois. They are a part of worldwide Polonia, the proper term for the Polish Diaspora outside of Poland. Poles in Chicago have contributed to the economic, social and cultural well-being of Chicago...
can be seen at the historic Gateway Theatre
Gateway Theatre (Chicago)
The Gateway Theatre is a 2,000-seat former movie palace that is now part of the Copernicus Cultural and Civic Center in the Jefferson Park community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is located at 5216 W...
in Jefferson Park
Jefferson Park, Chicago
Jefferson Park is one of Chicago's 77 well-defined community areas located on the city's Northwest Side. The neighborhood of Jefferson Park occupies a larger swath of territory than the community area by including within it land of adjacent community areas...
.
The Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago is one of the leading opera companies in the United States. It was founded in Chicago in 1952, under the name 'Lyric Theatre of Chicago' by Carol Fox, Nicolà Rescigno and Lawrence Kelly, with a season that included Maria Callas's American debut in Norma...
, founded in 1954, performs in the Civic Opera House. The Civic Opera House was built in 1929 on the east bank of the Chicago River
Chicago River
The Chicago River is a system of rivers and canals with a combined length of that runs through the city of the same name, including its center . Though not especially long, the river is notable for being the reason why Chicago became an important location, as the link between the Great Lakes and...
and is the second-largest opera auditorium in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
with 3,563 seats. The Lyric Opera purchased the Civic Opera House from the building's owner in 1993. The company has reported an average of 100% sales for the past 16 years and approximately 34,000 subscribers for its six-month season.
The Lithuanian Opera Company of Chicago
Lithuanian Opera Company of Chicago
The Lithuanian Opera Company of Chicago was founded by Lithuanian emigrants in 1956, and presents operas in Lithuanian. It celebrated fifty years of existence in 2006, and operates as a not-for-profit organization...
was founded by Lithuanian Chicagoans
Lithuanians in Chicago
Lithuanians in Chicago and the nearby metropolitan area are a prominent group within the "Windy City" whose presence goes back over a hundred years. Today Chicago possesses the largest Lithuanian community outside Lithuania, who have dubbed the city as Little Lithuania, and many...
in 1956, and presents
Performance
A performance, in performing arts, generally comprises an event in which a performer or group of performers behave in a particular way for another group of people, the audience. Choral music and ballet are examples. Usually the performers participate in rehearsals beforehand. Afterwards audience...
opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
s in Lithuanian
Lithuanian language
Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they...
. It celebrated fifty years of existence in 2006, and operates as a not-for-profit organization. It is noteworthy for performing
Performance
A performance, in performing arts, generally comprises an event in which a performer or group of performers behave in a particular way for another group of people, the audience. Choral music and ballet are examples. Usually the performers participate in rehearsals beforehand. Afterwards audience...
the rarely-staged Rossini's
Gioacchino Rossini
Gioachino Antonio Rossini was an Italian composer who wrote 39 operas as well as sacred music, chamber music, songs, and some instrumental and piano pieces...
William Tell
William Tell (opera)
Guillaume Tell is an opera in four acts by Gioachino Rossini to a French libretto by Etienne de Jouy and Hippolyte Bis, based on Friedrich Schiller's play Wilhelm Tell. Based on the legend of William Tell, this opera was Rossini's last, even though the composer lived for nearly forty more years...
(1986) and Ponchielli's
Amilcare Ponchielli
Amilcare Ponchielli was an Italian composer, largely of operas.-Biography:Born in Paderno Fasolaro, now Paderno Ponchielli, near Cremona, Ponchielli won a scholarship at the age of nine to study music at the Milan Conservatory, writing his first symphony by the time he was ten years old.Two years...
I Lituani
I Lituani
I Lituani is an opera consisting of a prologue and three acts by Amilcare Ponchielli to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on the historical poem Konrad Wallenrod written by Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz...
(1981, 1983 and 1991), and also for contributing experienced chorus
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
singers to the Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago is one of the leading opera companies in the United States. It was founded in Chicago in 1952, under the name 'Lyric Theatre of Chicago' by Carol Fox, Nicolà Rescigno and Lawrence Kelly, with a season that included Maria Callas's American debut in Norma...
.
The opera Jūratė and Kastytis
Jurate and Kastytis
Jūratė and Kastytis is one of the most famous and popular Lithuanian legends and tales. For the first time it was recorded in 1842 in the writings of Liudvikas Adomas Jucevičius. Since then it has been adapted many times for modern poems, ballets, and even rock operas...
by Kazimieras Viktoras Banaitis was presented in Chicago, Illinois
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
in 1996.
The Joffrey Ballet
Joffrey Ballet
The Joffrey Ballet is a dance company in Chicago, Illinois, founded in 1956. From 1995 to 2004, the company was known as The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago. The company regularly performs classical ballets including Romeo & Juliet and The Nutcracker, while balancing those classics with pioneering modern...
makes its home in Chicago. Other ballet, modern and jazz dance troupes that are located in the city include Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago is an American dance company based in Chicago. HSDC performs in downtown Chicago and its metropolitan area and tours nationally and internationally throughout the year....
, River North Chicago Dance Company, Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago, Thodos Dance Chicago, Chicago Festival Ballet
Chicago Festival Ballet
Chicago Festival Ballet is a professional ballet company performing a repertoire of classical, romantic and neoclassical works in venues around the United States. Chicago Festival Ballet is also known as Von Heidecke’s Chicago Festival Ballet...
and The Joel Hall Dancers.
The city's Uptown
Uptown, Chicago
Uptown is one of Chicago’s 77 community areas. Uptown has well defined boundaries. They are: Foster on the north; Lake Michigan on the east; Montrose , and Irving Park on the south; Ravenswood , and Clark on the west. Uptown borders three community areas and Lake Michigan...
neighborhood is reported to be the birthplace of Slam Poetry
Slam poetry
A poetry slam is a competition at which poets read or recite original work. These performances are then judged on a numeric scale by previously selected members of the audience.-History:...
, a style of spoken word poetry that incorporates elements of hip hop culture, drama, jazz and lyricism.
Literature
Early writers associated with Chicago include, Eugene FieldEugene Field
Eugene Field, Sr. was an American writer, best known for his children's poetry and humorous essays.-Biography:...
, Theodore Drieser, Hamlin Garland
Hamlin Garland
Hannibal Hamlin Garland was an American novelist, poet, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his fiction involving hard-working Midwestern farmers.- Biography :...
, Frank Norris
Frank Norris
Benjamin Franklin Norris, Jr. was an American novelist, during the Progressive Era, writing predominantly in the naturalist genre. His notable works include McTeague , The Octopus: A Story of California , and The Pit .-Life:Frank Norris was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1870...
, and Edgar Lee Masters
Edgar Lee Masters
Edgar Lee Masters was an American poet, biographer, and dramatist...
. Poets have included Carl Sandburg
Carl Sandburg
Carl Sandburg was an American writer and editor, best known for his poetry. He won three Pulitzer Prizes, two for his poetry and another for a biography of Abraham Lincoln. H. L. Mencken called Carl Sandburg "indubitably an American in every pulse-beat."-Biography:Sandburg was born in Galesburg,...
and Gwendolyn Brooks
Gwendolyn Brooks
Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks was an American poet. She was appointed Poet Laureate of Illinois in 1968 and Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1985.-Biography:...
. Other writers have included, Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow was a Canadian-born Jewish American writer. For his literary contributions, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts...
, John Dos Passos
John Dos Passos
John Roderigo Dos Passos was an American novelist and artist.-Early life:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Dos Passos was the illegitimate son of John Randolph Dos Passos , a distinguished lawyer of Madeiran Portuguese descent, and Lucy Addison Sprigg Madison of Petersburg, Virginia. The elder Dos Passos...
, Nelson Algren
Nelson Algren
Nelson Algren was an American writer.-Early life:Algren was born Nelson Ahlgren Abraham in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Goldie and Gerson Abraham. At the age of three he moved with his parents to Chicago, Illinois where they lived in a working-class, immigrant neighborhood on the South Side...
, Upton Sinclair
Upton Sinclair
Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. , was an American author who wrote close to one hundred books in many genres. He achieved popularity in the first half of the twentieth century, acquiring particular fame for his classic muckraking novel, The Jungle . It exposed conditions in the U.S...
, Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
, Loraine Hansberry, Sherwood Anderson
Sherwood Anderson
Sherwood Anderson was an American novelist and short story writer. His most enduring work is the short story sequence Winesburg, Ohio. Writers he has influenced include Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, J. D. Salinger, and Amos Oz.-Early life:Anderson was born in Clyde, Ohio,...
and Studs Terkel
Studs Terkel
Louis "Studs" Terkel was an American author, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1985 for The Good War, and is best remembered for his oral histories of common Americans, and for hosting a long-running radio show in Chicago.-Early...
.
Music
Chicago has made many significant pop-cultural contributions. In the field of musicMusic
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, Chicago is known for its Chicago blues
Chicago blues
The Chicago blues is a form of blues music that developed in Chicago, Illinois, by taking the basic acoustic guitar and harmonica-based Delta blues, making the harmonica louder with a microphone and an instrument amplifier, and adding electrically amplified guitar, amplified bass guitar, drums,...
, Chicago soul
Chicago soul
Chicago soul is a style of soul music that arose during the 1960s in Chicago. Along with Detroit, the home of Motown, and Memphis, with its hard-edged, gritty performers , Chicago and the Chicago soul style helped spur the album-oriented soul revolution of the early 1970s.The sound of Chicago...
, Jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, and Gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
. The city is also the birthplace of the House
Chicago house
Chicago house is a style of house music, a genre of electronic dance music which emerged in Chicago in the mid-1980s. Stylistically, Chicago house has no widely accepted definition, but generally includes the first house music productions by Chicago-based artists throughout the 1980s, and any later...
style of music, whose history is related to the development and fostering of the Techno style of music in Detroit, Michigan
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
. The hip hop scene in Chicago
Chicago hip hop
-Gritty/Grimy:Chicago hip hop or Chicago rap music, has no uniform sound or standard style similar to East Coast hip hop. Chicago hip hop often varies between Alternative hip hop, Gangsta rap, and Hardcore rap depending on the area of Chicago the rapper is from....
is also very influential, with major artists including Kanye West
Kanye West
Kanye Omari West is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and...
, Twista
Twista
Carl Terrell Mitchell , better known by his stage name Twista, is an American rapper. He is known for once holding the title of fastest rapper in the world according to Guinness World Records in 1992, being able to pronounce 598 syllables in 55 seconds...
, Common
Common (rapper)
Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr. , better known by his stage name Common , is an American hip-hop artist and actor....
, Lupe Fiasco
Lupe Fiasco
Wasalu Muhammad Jaco , better known by his stage name Lupe Fiasco , is an American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur. As an entrepreneur, Lupe is the CEO of 1st and 15th Entertainment. He rose to fame in 2006 following the success of his critically acclaimed debut album, Lupe Fiasco's Food...
, Da Brat
Da Brat
Shawntae Harris , better known as Da Brat, is an American rapper and actress. Her debut album, Funkdafied, sold one million copies, making her the first female rapper to have a platinum-selling album.-Early life:...
, Shawnna
Shawnna
Rashawnna Guy , better known by her stage name Shawnna is an American rapper. She was the first female artist signed to Def Jam through Ludacris' Disturbing tha Peace Records...
and Rhymefest
Rhymefest
Che Smith , known by the stage name of Rhymefest, is an American hip hop artist from Chicago, Illinois whose first official album, Blue Collar, was released on July 11, 2006. He co-wrote Kanye West's "Jesus Walks", which won a Grammy at the 47th Grammy Awards. In October, 2010, Rhymefest announced...
.
Chicago artists have also played an influential role in the R&B–soul genre. Popular R&B artists to hail from Chicago include R Kelly, Dave Hollister
Dave Hollister
Dave Hollister is an American R&B vocalist who found fame during the 1990s as one quarter of the Platinum-selling R&B quartet Blackstreet before going on to a solo career.-Biography:...
, Jennifer Hudson
Jennifer Hudson
Jennifer Kate Hudson is an American recording artist, actress and spokesperson. She came to prominence in 2004 as one of the finalists on the third season of American Idol coming in seventh place...
and Carl Thomas.
The rock band Chicago
Chicago (band)
Chicago is an American rock band formed in 1967 in Chicago, Illinois. The self-described "rock and roll band with horns" began as a politically charged, sometimes experimental, rock band and later moved to a predominantly softer sound, becoming famous for producing a number of hit ballads. They had...
was named after the city, although its original name was the Chicago Transit Authority
Chicago Transit Authority
Chicago Transit Authority, also known as CTA, is the operator of mass transit within the City of Chicago, Illinois and some of its surrounding suburbs....
. The band's name was shortened to Chicago after the CTA threatened to sue them for unauthorized use of the original trademark. Popular 1980s band Survivor
Survivor (band)
Survivor is an American rock band formed in Chicago in 1978. The band achieved its greatest success in the 1980s with its AOR sound, which garnered many charting singles, especially in the United States. The band is best known for its double platinum-certified 1982 hit "Eye of the Tiger", the theme...
is from Chicago.
Chicago has also been home to a thriving folk music scene, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s. John Prine
John Prine
John Prine is an American country/folk singer-songwriter. He has been active as a recording artist and live performer since the early 1970s.-Biography:...
, Steve Goodman
Steve Goodman
Steve Goodman was an American folk music singer-songwriter from Chicago, Illinois. The writer of "City of New Orleans", made popular by Arlo Guthrie, Goodman won two Grammy Awards.-Personal life:...
and Bonnie Koloc
Bonnie Koloc
Bonnie Koloc is an American folk music singer-songwriter, actress, and artist who was considered one of the three main Illinois-based folk singers in the 1970s, along with Steve Goodman and John Prine forming the "trinity of the Chicago folk scene."...
were the most prominent folk singer–songwriters of that time. Goodman, an obsessive Chicago Cubs
Chicago Cubs
The Chicago Cubs are a professional baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's National League. They are one of two Major League clubs based in Chicago . The Cubs are also one of the two remaining charter members of the National...
fan, is most closely associated with the city.
Many mainstream Rock and Roll acts hail from Chicago or were made famous there. Among these are The Blues Brothers, the aforementioned Chicago, Styx, Cheap Trick, Buddy Guy, REO Speedwagon, and Albert King.
In the late 1970s, local band The Shoes
Shoes (band)
Shoes are an American power pop band, formed in Zion, Illinois, in 1974 by brothers John and Jeff Murphy, and Gary Klebe and incorporating several different drummers over the years including Skip Meyer, Barry Shumaker, Ric Menck, John Richardson, and Jeff Hunter. The Murphy brothers and Klebe were...
arguably started indie rock with aMa power pop album recorded in their living room. 1980s' and 90s' alternative bands Local H
Local H
Local H is an American rock duo, formed by Joe Daniels and Scott Lucas in Zion, Illinois in 1987. Local H's 1996 album, As Good as Dead, includes the top 10 hit "Bound for the Floor" Author, rock critic and Rolling Stone contributor Greg Kot and the Chicago Tribune named the band its 2008 Chicago...
, Eleventh Dream Day
Eleventh Dream Day
-History:The band was founded by guitarists Rick Rizzo and Janet Beveridge Bean, who met at a place fondly known as 1069. This was a house/practice space/hang out in Louisville where at the time Janet was practicing with the band she was in with Tara Key and Tim Harris; the Zoo Directors. They...
, Ministry
Ministry (band)
Ministry is an American industrial metal band founded by lead singer Al Jourgensen in 1981. Originally a synthpop outfit, Ministry changed its style to industrial metal in the late 1980s. Ministry found mainstream success in the early 1990s with its most successful album Psalm 69: The Way to...
, Veruca Salt
Veruca Salt (band)
Veruca Salt is an alternative rock band founded in 1993 in Chicago, Illinois. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included vocalist-guitarist Louise Post. Guitarist Stephen Fitzpatrick has been with the band since 1999 and drummer Kellii Scott has worked with the group on and off since 1999...
, The Barbie Army, My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult
My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult
My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult is an American electronic industrial rock band originally based out of Chicago, Illinois.-History:...
, Material Issue
Material Issue
Material Issue was a 1980-1990s power pop trio from Chicago. The band's trademark was pop songs with themes of love and heartbreak, where a number of song titles using girls' first names.-History:...
, Liz Phair
Liz Phair
Phair's entry into the music industry began when she met guitarist Chris Brokaw, a member of the band Come. Brokaw and Phair moved to San Francisco together, and Phair tried to become an artist there...
, Urge Overkill
Urge Overkill
Urge Overkill is an alternative rock band, formed in Chicago, United States, consisting of Nash Kato , and Eddie "King" Roeser . Their cover of Neil Diamond's song "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon" appeared prominently in the movie Pulp Fiction, and became a hit in 1994...
and The Smashing Pumpkins
The Smashing Pumpkins
The Smashing Pumpkins are an American alternative rock band that formed in Chicago, Illinois in 1988. Formed by Billy Corgan frontman and James Iha , the band has included Jimmy Chamberlin , D'arcy Wretzky , and currently includes Jeff Schroeder Mike Byrne , and Nicole Fiorentino The Smashing...
hail from Chicago. Contemporary rock bands The Lawrence Arms
The Lawrence Arms
The Lawrence Arms are an American punk rock band from Chicago, Illinois, formed in 1999. They have released five full-length albums and toured extensively.-Pre-history:...
, Soil, Kill Hannah
Kill Hannah
Kill Hannah is a rock band formed in 1993 in Chicago. The band has released six studio albums, seven EPs, and two compilation albums as well as three DVDs.-History:...
and Wilco
Wilco
Wilco is an American alternative rock band based in Chicago, Illinois. The band was formed in 1994 by the remaining members of alternative country group Uncle Tupelo following singer Jay Farrar's departure. Wilco's lineup has changed frequently, with only singer Jeff Tweedy and bassist John...
are also Chicago-based. The 2000s have seen local artists Disturbed, Alkaline Trio
Alkaline Trio
Alkaline Trio is an American punk rock band that formed in McHenry, Illinois, in 1996. The band's line-up consists of Matt Skiba , Dan Andriano , and Derek Grant...
, The Academy Is, Rise Against
Rise Against
Rise Against is an American punk rock band from Chicago, Illinois, formed in 1999. The band currently consists of Tim McIlrath , Zach Blair , Joe Principe and Brandon Barnes .Rise Against spent its first five years signed to the independent record label Fat Wreck Chords, on which it...
, The Audition
The Audition (band)
The Audition is a pop/rock band from Chicago, Illinois. The band is composed of singer Danny Stevens, drummer Ryan O'Connor, guitarists Jimmy Lopez and Timmy Klepek and bassist Joe Lussa and are based in Detroit, Michigan. The band's first release was a six track EP entitled All In Your Head...
, Spitalfield
Spitalfield
Spitalfield was a rock band based in Chicago, signed to the Victory Records label.Formed in 1998, Spitalfield caught the attention of Victory Records with their 2002 release The Cloak And Dagger Club EP and a year later released fan-favorite Remember Right Now...
, Chevelle
Chevelle
Chevelle is an American alternative metal trio that formed in 1995 in Grayslake, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. The band was originally composed of two brothers and a local friend: Pete Loeffler , Sam Loeffler , and Matt Scott . Matt was later replaced by brother Joe Loeffler...
, the Plain White T's
Plain White T's
Plain White T's is an American Pop rock band from Chicago, Illinois. Formed in 1997 by high school friends Tom Higgenson and Ken Fletcher, the group had a mostly underground following in Chicago basements, clubs, and bars in its early years, and underwent numerous personnel changes.The band is best...
, Kanye West
Kanye West
Kanye Omari West is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and...
, Lupe Fiasco
Lupe Fiasco
Wasalu Muhammad Jaco , better known by his stage name Lupe Fiasco , is an American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur. As an entrepreneur, Lupe is the CEO of 1st and 15th Entertainment. He rose to fame in 2006 following the success of his critically acclaimed debut album, Lupe Fiasco's Food...
, and Fall Out Boy
Fall Out Boy
Fall Out Boy is an American rock band from Wilmette, Illinois, formed in 2001. The band consists of vocalist, guitarist and composer Patrick Stump, bassist and lyricist Pete Wentz, guitarist Joe Trohman, and drummer Andy Hurley. The band released five studio albums from 2003–2008...
also attain success in the U.S.
Chicago has become known for indie rockers following in the paths of the Smashing Pumpkins, Urge Overkill, Wilco, and The Jesus Lizard; bands like The Sea and Cake, Califone, OK Go
OK Go
OK Go is a rock band originally from Chicago, Illinois, USA, now residing in Los Angeles, California, USA. The band is composed of Damian Kulash , Tim Nordwind , Dan Konopka and Andy Ross , who joined them in 2005, replacing Andy Duncan...
, Andrew Bird
Andrew Bird
Andrew Bird is an American musician, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist.- Early life and the Bowl of Fire :...
and Umphrey's McGee
Umphrey's McGee
Umphrey's McGee is an American progressive rock jam band based in Chicago whose music is often referred to as "progressive improvisation", or "improg" ....
hail from the city. In recent years Chicago has become a pinnacle in the indie scene, attracting both premier indie bands and industry attention. Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger of The Fiery Furnaces
The Fiery Furnaces
The Fiery Furnaces are a U.S. indie rock band formed in 2000 in Brooklyn, New York. The band's primary members are Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger. The siblings are originally from Oak Park, Illinois, a near-western suburb of Chicago.- Band biography :...
, who now reside in Brooklyn, New York are originally from Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Chicago is also home to many independent labels like Thrill Jockey, Drag City, and others, and to the popular music-news website Pitchfork Media.
A handful of punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
bands are based in Chicago. Some of the more famous punk rock products of the city are Naked Raygun
Naked Raygun
Naked Raygun is a Chicago-based punk rock group. Initially active from 1980 to about 1992, Naked Raygun had several short-lived reunions afterwards and a full-time reformation in 2006....
, The Effigies
The Effigies
The Effigies is an early post-hardcore group from Chicago. The band, first formed in 1980, was active for approximately a decade, undergoing multiple personnel changes, with frontman John Kezdy the only constant, before disbanding in 1990 . The band released 5 LPs and several EPs, most on...
, Big Black
Big Black
Big Black was an American punk rock band from Evanston, Illinois, active from 1981 to 1987. Founded by singer and guitarist Steve Albini, the band's initial lineup also included guitarist Santiago Durango and bassist Jeff Pezzati, both of Naked Raygun...
(featuring Steve Albini
Steve Albini
Steven Frank Albini is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, audio engineer and music journalist. He was a member of Big Black, Rapeman, and Flour, and is currently a member of Shellac...
), and Screeching Weasel
Screeching Weasel
Screeching Weasel is an American punk rock band originally from Chicago, Illinois. The band was formed in 1986 by Ben Weasel and John Jughead.Since their formation, Screeching Weasel have broken up and reformed numerous times with numerous line-up changes. Ben Weasel has been the only constant...
. Many of these punk and indie bands got their start at noted alternative music venues Metro
Metro Chicago
This page is about the concert hall; for the metro region surrounding Chicago, see Chicago metropolitan area.Metro is a concert hall at 3730 N. Clark Street in Chicago, Illinois that plays host to a variety of local, regional and national emerging bands and musicians. The Metro was first opened in...
(originally Cabaret Metro), and from 1987 to 2000, Lounge Ax
Lounge Ax
The Lounge Ax was a music venue in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago. It was an important venue for live rock music -- especially indie rock. The club was opened in 1987 by Jennifer Fischer and Julia Adams, who were joined around September 1989 by Sue Miller, previously the booker at...
.
Chicago is also known for being the "birthplace of American Industrial Music
Industrial music
Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...
", as many bands got their start in Chicago. The city is also home of the now-defunct Wax Trax! Records
Wax Trax! Records
Wax Trax! Records was an independent record label in the United States. Wax Trax! began as a record shop in Denver, Colorado opened by Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher. They sold the store in 1978 and, in November of that year, opened a new one under the same name at 2449 North Lincoln Avenue in...
record label which once had KMFDM
KMFDM
KMFDM is an industrial band led by German multi-instrumentalist Sascha Konietzko, who founded the group in 1984 as a performance art project...
, Ministry
Ministry (band)
Ministry is an American industrial metal band founded by lead singer Al Jourgensen in 1981. Originally a synthpop outfit, Ministry changed its style to industrial metal in the late 1980s. Ministry found mainstream success in the early 1990s with its most successful album Psalm 69: The Way to...
, Front 242
Front 242
Front 242 is a pioneering Belgian electronic music group that came into prominence during the 1980s. They are known for being the premier pioneer of electronic body music and as a major influence on the electronic and industrial music genres.-Formation:...
, PIG, Front Line Assembly
Front Line Assembly
Front Line Assembly is a Canadian electro-industrial band formed by Bill Leeb in 1986 after leaving Skinny Puppy. Influenced by early Industrial acts such as Cabaret Voltaire, Portion Control, D.A.F., Test Dept, SPK, and Severed Heads, FLA has developed its own unique sound while combining...
, My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult
My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult
My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult is an American electronic industrial rock band originally based out of Chicago, Illinois.-History:...
, Coil
Coil
A coil is a series of loops. A coiled coil is a structure in which the coil itself is in turn also looping.-Electromagnetic coils:An electromagnetic coil is formed when a conductor is wound around a core or form to create an inductor or electromagnet...
, and more on its roster.
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1891, the Symphony makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival...
is one of the nation's oldest and most respected orchestras. It is well regarded throughout the world both through tours in both Asia and Europe and also through a large number of recordings widely available. Perhaps because of Chicago's historically large German-American population, the CSO is particularly well known for its performances of pieces by German composers.
Chicago also has a thriving and youthful contemporary classical scene. Major venues for new music include concerts by the International Contemporary Ensemble
International Contemporary Ensemble
The International Contemporary Ensemble is a contemporary classical music ensemble of thirty chamber musicians, including strings, woodwinds, piano, percussion, voice and composers, which enables great flexibility of programming...
, Ensemble Dal Niente, Third Coast Percussion
Third Coast Percussion
Third Coast Percussion is a percussion ensemble based in Chicago, USA.Formed in 2004 as a satellite of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the ensemble now operates independently performing concerts of contemporary classical repertoire by composers such as John Cage, Toru Takemitsu, Steve Reich, and...
, Fulcrum Point and the CSO's MusicNOW series. Composers of note include Augusta Read Thomas
Augusta Read Thomas
Augusta Read Thomas is an American composer.Augusta Read Thomas was born in Glen Cove, New York. She attended The Green Vale School and later moved on to St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, and then studied composition with Jacob Druckman at Yale University and at the Royal Academy of...
, Lee Hyla
Lee Hyla
Lee Hyla is an American classical music composer.Lee Hyla was born in Niagara Falls, New York, and grew up in Greencastle, Indiana...
, Marcos Balter
Marcos Balter
Marcos Balter is a contemporary classical music composer.- Life and Professional Career :Balter began his music studies at age six at the Conservatório Musical Heitor Villa-Lobos, and was admitted to the Conservatório Brasileiro de Música at age eleven...
, Kirsten Broberg, Hans Thomalla, Jay Alan Yim
Jay Alan Yim
Jay Alan Yim is an American composer living in Chicago. During the 1995-96 concert season, he served as Composer/Fellow for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra...
and Shulamit Ran
Shulamit Ran
Shulamit Ran is an Israeli-American composer. She moved from Israel to New York at 14, as a scholarship student at the Mannes College of Music. Her Symphony won her the Pulitzer Prize...
.
While lacking a school of music with the stature of the Juilliard School
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
or the Curtis Institute of Music
Curtis Institute of Music
The Curtis Institute of Music is a conservatory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that offers courses of study leading to a performance Diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in Opera, and Professional Studies Certificate in Opera. According to statistics compiled by U.S...
, the Chicago area does have a number of colleges. The best known outside of the region is the Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
Bienen School of Music, however the Chicago College of Performing Arts
Chicago College of Performing Arts
Chicago College of Performing Arts is a performing arts college that is housed at Roosevelt University in Chicago, Illinois. The college has two divisions: the Music Conservatory and the Theatre Conservatory.- History :...
at Roosevelt University
Roosevelt University
Roosevelt University is a coeducational, private university with campuses in Chicago, Illinois and Schaumburg, Illinois. Founded in 1945, the university is named in honor of both former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The university's curriculum is based on...
and the School of Music at Depaul University
DePaul University
DePaul University is a private institution of higher education and research in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th century French priest Saint Vincent de Paul...
are both working to expand their reputations.
Chicago's colorful history and culture have provided inspiration for a wide variety of musical compositions. In the 19th century, the chain of events surrounding the Great Chicago Fire
Great Chicago Fire
The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned from Sunday, October 8, to early Tuesday, October 10, 1871, killing hundreds and destroying about in Chicago, Illinois. Though the fire was one of the largest U.S...
led Chicago resident Horatio Spafford
Horatio Spafford
Horatio Gates Spafford was a prominent American lawyer, best known for penning the Christian hymn It Is Well With My Soul, following a family tragedy in which four of his daughters died....
to write the hymn "It Is Well With My Soul
It Is Well with My Soul
It is well, with my soul,It is well, with my soul,It is well, it is well, with my soul.Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,Let this blest assurance control,That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,And hath shed His own blood for my soul....
".
Visual arts
Chicago is home to a lively fine arts community. The highest concentration of contemporary art galleriesContemporary art gallery
A contemporary art gallery is a place where contemporary art is shown for exhibition and/or for sale. The term "art gallery" is commonly used to mean art museum , the rooms displaying art in any museum, or in the original sense, of any large or long room.-Identity, function and locality:A...
can be found in the River North
River North Gallery District, Near North Side, Chicago
The River North Gallery District, in Chicago, is in the Near North Side, Chicago. It hosts the largest concentration of art galleries in the United States, outside of Manhattan. A common definition puts the District in the area north of the Merchandise Mart, south of Chicago Avenue, east of...
neighborhood, though a great amount of arts activity also centers around the area around Wicker Park.
Chicago has long had a strong tradition of figurative surrealism
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
, as in the works of Ivan Albright
Ivan Albright
Ivan Le Lorraine Albright was an American magic realist painter and artist, most renowned for his self-portraits, character studies, and still lifes.-Youth:...
and Ed Paschke
Ed Paschke
Edward Francis Paschke was a Polish American painter. His childhood interest in animation and cartoons, as well as his father's creativity in wood carving and construction, led him toward a career in art...
. In 1968 and 1969, members of the Chicago Imagists
Chicago Imagists
The Chicago Imagists is the name of a group of representational artists associated with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago who exhibited at the Hyde Park Art Center in the late 1960s. Their work was known for grotesquerie, surrealism and complete uninvolvement with New York art world trends...
, such as Roger Brown
Roger Brown (artist)
Roger Brown was an American artist who was a member of the Chicago Imagists, a group in the 1960s and 1970s who turned to representational art. His paintings are owned by many of the most important art museums in the US.He was born in Hamilton, Alabama and raised in Opelika...
, Leon Golub
Leon Golub
Leon Golub was an American painter. He was born in Chicago, Illinois, where he also studied, receiving his BA at the University of Chicago in 1942, his BFA and MFA at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1949 and 1950, respectively.He was married to and collaborated with the artist Nancy Spero...
, Robert Lostutter
Robert Lostutter
Robert Lostutter is a Chicago-based artist. He was a member of the Chicago Imagists, a breakaway group of surrealist iconoclasts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago who showed in the Hyde Park Art Center in 1969 and later....
, Jim Nutt
Jim Nutt
James T "Jim" Nutt is an American artist who was a founding member of the Chicago surrealist art movement known as the Chicago Imagists, or the Hairy Who...
, and Barbara Rossi
Barbara Rossi
Barbara Rossi is a Chicago artist, one of the original Chicago Imagists, a group in the 1960s and 1970s who turned to representational art. She first exhibited with them at the Hyde Park Art Center in 1969...
produced bizarre representational paintings. Today Robert Guinan
Robert Guinan
Robert Guinan is a Chicago-based American painter. The subject matter of his work includes but has not been limited to street performers, musicians, barflies, historical scenes, landscapes and building structures...
paints gritty realistic portraits of Chicago people which are popular in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, although he is little known in Chicago itself.
These same impulses also appeared in Chicago's lively Street photography
Street photography
Street photography is a type of documentary photography that features subjects in candid situations within public places such as streets, parks, beaches, malls, political conventions and other settings....
scene, gaining notoriety through artists centered around the Institute of Design
IIT Institute of Design
Institute of Design at Illinois Institute of Technology , originally founded as the New Bauhaus, is a graduate school teaching systemic, human-centered design.- History :...
such as Harry Callahan, Aaron Siskind
Aaron Siskind
Aaron Siskind was an American abstract expressionist photographer. In his biography he wrote that he began his foray into photography when he received a camera for a wedding gift and began taking pictures on his honeymoon. He quickly realized the artistic potential this offered...
, Leon Lewandowski as well as in the work of nanny-savant Vivian Maier
Vivian Maier
Vivian Maier was an American amateur street photographer who was born in New York but grew up in France, and after returning to the U.S., worked for about forty years as a nanny in Chicago...
. Bob Thall's
Bob Thall
Bob Thall is a Chicago photographer specializing in street scenes. He is Chair of the Photography Department at Columbia College Chicago. His photographs, of gritty urban street scenes, have been exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Modern Art in New York...
beautiful, bleak photographs of Chicago-area architecture have also won much acclaim.
Chicago has a Percent for Art
Percent for Art
The term "percent for art" refers to a program, often a city ordinance, where a fee, usually some percentage of the project cost, is placed on large scale development projects in order to fund and install public art. The details of such programs vary from area-to-area...
program of public artworks, although it is notoriously more opaque and secretive than that of most other cities; arts activist such as Paul Klein and attorney Scott Hodes have long criticised its lack of public accountability.
Chicago is home to a number of large, outdoor works by well known artists. These include the Chicago Picasso
Chicago Picasso
The Chicago Picasso is an untitled monumental sculpture by Pablo Picasso in Chicago, Illinois. The sculpture, dedicated on August 15, 1967, in Daley Plaza in the Chicago Loop, is tall and weighs 162 tons...
, Miró's Chicago
Miro's Chicago
Miró's Chicago is a sculpture by Joan Miró. It is tall, and is made of steel, wire mesh, concrete, bronze, and ceramic tile.-History:...
, Flamingo
Flamingo (sculpture)
Flamingo, created by noted American artist Alexander Calder, is a 53 foot tall stabile located in the Federal Plaza in front of the Kluczynski Federal Building in Chicago, Illinois, United States...
and Flying Dragon
Flying Dragon (Calder)
Flying Dragon is a sculpture by Alexander Calder in the Art Institute of Chicago North Stanley McCormick Memorial Court north of the Art Institute of Chicago Building in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. It is a painted steel plate work of art created in 1975 measuring 365 x 579 x...
by Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder was an American sculptor and artist most famous for inventing mobile sculptures. In addition to mobile and stable sculpture, Alexander Calder also created paintings, lithographs, toys, tapestry, jewelry and household objects.-Childhood:Alexander "Sandy" Calder was born in Lawnton,...
, Monument with Standing Beast
Monument With Standing Beast
Monument with Standing Beast is a sculpture by Jean Dubuffet in front of the Helmut Jahn designed James R. Thompson Center in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. Its location is across the street from Chicago City Hall to the South and diagonal across the street from the Daley Center to...
by Jean Dubuffet
Jean Dubuffet
Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet was a French painter and sculptor. His idealistic approach to aesthetics embraced so called "low art" and eschewed traditional standards of beauty in favor of what he believed to be a more authentic and humanistic approach to image-making.-Life and work:Dubuffet was...
, Batcolumn
Batcolumn
Batcolumn is a outdoor sculpture in Chicago. Designed by Claes Oldenburg, it takes the shape of a baseball bat standing on its knob. It consists of gray-painted Corten steel arranged into an open latticework structure....
by Claes Oldenburg
Claes Oldenburg
Claes Oldenburg is a Swedish sculptor, best known for his public art installations typically featuring very large replicas of everyday objects...
, Cloud Gate
Cloud Gate
Cloud Gate, a public sculpture by Indian-born British artist Anish Kapoor, is the centerpiece of the AT&T Plaza in Millennium Park within the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States. The sculpture and AT&T Plaza are located on top of Park Grill, between the Chase Promenade and...
by Anish Kapoor
Anish Kapoor
Anish Kapoor CBE RA is a British sculptor of Indian birth. Born in Mumbai , Kapoor has lived and worked in London since the early 1970s when he moved to study art, first at the Hornsey College of Art and later at the Chelsea School of Art and Design.He represented Britain in the XLIV Venice...
, Crown Fountain
Crown Fountain
Crown Fountain is an interactive work of public art and video sculpture featured in Chicago's Millennium Park, which is located in the Loop community area. Designed by Catalan artist Jaume Plensa and executed by Krueck and Sexton Architects, it opened in July 2004. The fountain is composed of a...
by Jaume Plensa
Jaume Plensa
Jaime Plensa is an Spanish artist and sculptor.-Biography:Plensa was born at Barcelona. Plensa studied art in his home city, in the "Llotja" School and in the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes de San Jorge....
, and the Four Seasons
Four Seasons (Chagall)
Four Seasons is a mosaic by Marc Chagall that is located in Chase Tower Plaza in the Loop district of Chicago, Illinois. The mosaic was a gift to the City of Chicago by Frederick H. Prince ; it is wrapped around four sides of a long, high, wide rectangular box, and was dedicated on September 27,...
mosaic by Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall Art critic Robert Hughes referred to Chagall as "the quintessential Jewish artist of the twentieth century."According to art historian Michael J...
.
Sports
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
teams, and the only city to have always had more than one baseball team since the forming of the American League in 1900. The Chicago White Sox
Chicago White Sox
The Chicago White Sox are a Major League Baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois.The White Sox play in the American League's Central Division. Since , the White Sox have played in U.S. Cellular Field, which was originally called New Comiskey Park and nicknamed The Cell by local fans...
of the American League
American League
The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, or simply the American League , is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league based in the Great Lakes states, which eventually aspired to major...
, who won the World Series
World Series
The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball, played between the American League and National League champions since 1903. The winner of the World Series championship is determined through a best-of-seven playoff and awarded the Commissioner's Trophy...
in 2005, play at U.S. Cellular Field
U.S. Cellular Field
U.S. Cellular Field is a baseball ballpark in Chicago, Illinois. Owned by the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, it is the home of the Chicago White Sox of Major League Baseball's American League. The park opened for the 1991 season, after the White Sox had spent 81 years at old Comiskey Park...
, located in the city's South Side in Bridgeport
Bridgeport, Chicago
Bridgeport, one of 77 community areas of Chicago, is a neighborhood located on the city's South Side. It is bounded, generally, on the west and north by the Chicago River, on the east by Canal Street, and on the south by Pershing Road.-History:...
neighborhood. The Chicago Cubs
Chicago Cubs
The Chicago Cubs are a professional baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's National League. They are one of two Major League clubs based in Chicago . The Cubs are also one of the two remaining charter members of the National...
of the National League
National League
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League , is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and the world's oldest extant professional team sports league. Founded on February 2, 1876, to replace the National Association of Professional...
play at Wrigley Field
Wrigley Field
Wrigley Field is a baseball stadium in Chicago, Illinois, United States that has served as the home ballpark of the Chicago Cubs since 1916. It was built in 1914 as Weeghman Park for the Chicago Federal League baseball team, the Chicago Whales...
, which is located in the North Side neighborhood of Lakeview, and the area of Lakeview near the stadium is commonly referred to as "Wrigleyville."
Chicago Bulls
The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago, Illinois, playing in the Central Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association . The team was founded in 1966. They play their home games at the United Center...
of the National Basketball Association
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
are one of the world's most recognized basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
teams, thanks to their enormous success during the Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan
Michael Jeffrey Jordan is a former American professional basketball player, active entrepreneur, and majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats...
era, when they won six NBA titles in the 1990s. The Bulls play at the United Center
United Center
The United Center is an indoor sports arena located in Chicago. It is named after its corporate sponsor, United Airlines. The United Center is home to both the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association and the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League...
on Chicago's Near West side. They share the "UC" with the Chicago Blackhawks
Chicago Blackhawks
The Chicago Blackhawks are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . They have won four Stanley Cup championships since their founding in 1926, most recently coming in 2009-10...
, of the National Hockey League
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
. The Hawks are an Original Six
Original Six
The Original Six is a term for the group of six teams that composed the National Hockey League for the 25 seasons between the 1942–43 season and the 1967 NHL Expansion. These six teams are the Boston Bruins, Chicago Black Hawks, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers, and the...
franchise, founded in 1926, and won their fourth Stanley Cup
Stanley Cup
The Stanley Cup is an ice hockey club trophy, awarded annually to the National Hockey League playoffs champion after the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Finals. It has been referred to as The Cup, Lord Stanley's Cup, The Holy Grail, or facetiously as Lord Stanley's Mug...
in 2010.
The Chicago Bears
Chicago Bears
The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
of the National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
play at Soldier Field
Soldier Field
Soldier Field is located on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, Illinois, United States, in the Near South Side. It is home to the NFL's Chicago Bears...
. Chicago is the largest city to have an NFL stadium. The Bears have won nine American Football championships
National Football League championships history
Throughout its history, the National Football League and other leagues have used several different formats to determine their league champion, including a period of interleague match-ups determining a true world champion....
(eight NFL Championships and Super Bowl XX
Super Bowl XX
Super Bowl XX was an American football championship game played on January 26, 1986 at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana to decide the National Football League champion following the 1985 regular season...
) trailing only the Green Bay Packers
Green Bay Packers
The Green Bay Packers are an American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The Packers are the current NFL champions...
, who have twelve.
The Chicago Fire, members of Major League Soccer
Major League Soccer
Major League Soccer is a professional soccer league based in the United States and sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation . The league is composed of 19 teams — 16 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada...
, won one league and four US Open Cups since 1997. After eight years at Soldier Field, they moved to the new Toyota Park
Toyota Park (Bridgeview)
Toyota Park is a soccer-specific stadium located at 71st Street and Harlem Avenue in Bridgeview, Illinois. It is the home stadium of the Chicago Fire Soccer Club, members of Major League Soccer . Toyota Park was developed at a cost of around $100 million. The facility opened June 11, 2006...
in Bridgeview at 71st and Harlem Avenue during the summer of 2006. Toyota Park is also home to the Chicago Machine
Chicago Machine
The Chicago Machine is a mens field lacrosse team that plays in Major League Lacrosse that was based in Chicago, Illinois until the franchise left after the 2009 season to be a travel team in 2010. The team then transferred its roster to the reborn Rochester Rattlers on November 23, 2010 when it...
of the Major League Lacrosse
Major League Lacrosse
Major League Lacrosse, or MLL, is a professional men's field lacrosse league that is made up of five teams in the United States and one team in Canada.- History :...
.
The Chicago Wolves
Chicago Wolves
The Chicago Wolves are a professional hockey team playing in the American Hockey League. They are the top affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks of the NHL. The Wolves play home games at the Allstate Arena in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, Illinois...
of the American Hockey League
American Hockey League
The American Hockey League is a 30-team professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental circuit for the National Hockey League...
play at the Allstate Arena
Allstate Arena
Allstate Arena is a multi-purpose arena, in Rosemont, Illinois.It is home to the Chicago Rush, of the Arena Football League, DePaul University's men's basketball team, the Chicago Wolves, of the AHL, and the Chicago Sky, of the WNBA.It is located near the intersection of Mannheim Road and...
in nearby Rosemont
Rosemont, Illinois
Rosemont is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States located immediately northwest of Chicago. The village was incorporated in 1956, though it had been settled long before that...
. The Chicago Slaughter of the Continental Indoor Football League play at the Sears Centre
Sears Centre
The Sears Centre is an 11,000-seat multi-purpose family entertainment, cultural and sports center in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, a northwest suburb, 25 miles from Chicago. The arena has 43 luxury suites on two separate levels...
in Hoffman Estates, Illinois
Hoffman Estates, Illinois
Hoffman Estates is a northwestern suburb of Chicago in Illinois. The village is located primarily in Cook County with a small section in Kane County, Illinois. As of the 2000 census, the village population was 49,495 and estimated to be 52,520 in 2003...
. The Wolves have won league championships in 1998, 2000, and 2002. Their first season was 1994–95.
The Chicago Hounds
Chicago Hounds
The Chicago Hounds were a professional ice hockey team in the United Hockey League for the 2006-07 UHL season. They played their home games at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. The Hounds franchise was officially a relocation of the Richmond RiverDogs franchise, which played in...
of the United Hockey League
United Hockey League
The United Hockey League was a low-level professional ice hockey league , with teams in the United States...
, the Chicago Shamrox
Chicago Shamrox
The Chicago Shamrox were a professional lacrosse team that played in the National Lacrosse League in the 2007 and 2008 NLL seasons. Home matches were played at the Sears Centre in northwest suburban Hoffman Estates, Illinois. The team's ownership group was headed by Kevin Loughery Jr., the son of...
of the National Lacrosse League
National Lacrosse League
The National Lacrosse League is a men's professional indoor lacrosse league in North America. It currently has nine teams; three in Canada and six in the United States. Unlike other lacrosse leagues which play in the summer, the NLL plays its games in the winter and spring. Each year, the playoff...
and the Chicago Storm
Chicago Storm
The Chicago Storm is a team in the Ultimate Soccer League that began play in the 2004-2005 season as a member of the Major Indoor Soccer League.-History:The Storm played home games during its first two seasons at the UIC Pavilion on the west side of Chicago...
of the Major Indoor Soccer League
Major Indoor Soccer League (2001–2008)
The Major Indoor Soccer League was the top professional indoor soccer league in the USA. The league was a member of both the United States Soccer Federation and FIFA. The MISL had replaced the NPSL which folded in 2001. According to MISL.net, the league has ceased operations as of May 31, 2008...
play at the Sears Centre
Sears Centre
The Sears Centre is an 11,000-seat multi-purpose family entertainment, cultural and sports center in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, a northwest suburb, 25 miles from Chicago. The arena has 43 luxury suites on two separate levels...
in Hoffman Estates.
Chicago United, USAFL members, are the Australian Rules football club in the city, competing in the MAAFL.
Chicago hosted the 1959 Pan American Games
1959 Pan American Games
The 3rd Pan American Games opened on August 27, 1959 in sunny 90°F heat before 40,000 people in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The first Pan American Games held in North America, they were originally scheduled for Cleveland, Ohio, but the U.S. Congress’s decision to cut $5,000,000 in federal...
, and Gay Games VII
Gay Games VII
The 2006 Gay Games , colloquially called the Chicago Gaymes, is part of a family of international sports and cultural festivals called Gay Games, sanctioned by the Federation of Gay Games and organized by the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender community of the host city of Chicago, Illinois in the...
in 2006. The city made an unsuccessful bid
Chicago 2016 Olympic bid
The Chicago bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics and Paralympics was an unsuccessful campaign, first recognized by the International Olympic Committee on September 14, 2007...
for the 2016 Summer Olympics
2016 Summer Olympics
The 2016 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXXI Olympiad, are a major international multi-sport event to be celebrated in the tradition of the Olympic Games, as governed by the International Olympic Committee...
, though it was heavily favored.
Cuisine
Local specialties
Chicken Vesuvio
Chicken Vesuvio, a specialty of Chicago, is an Italian-American dish made from chicken on the bone and wedges of potato, sauteed with garlic, oregano, white wine and olive oil, then baked until the chicken's skin becomes crisp...
and shrimp DeJonghe.
The great triumvirate of Chicago-style foods is:
- Chicago-style pizzaChicago-style pizzaChicago-style pizza is a deep-dish pizza style developed in Chicago. Chicago-style pizza has a buttery crust up to three inches tall at the edge, slightly higher than the large amounts of cheese and chunky tomato sauce, acting as a large bowl. The term also refers to "stuffed" pizza, another...
mainly refers to any of three distinct varieties, which include: the deep-dish pizza, made nationally famous in large part by Uno's; the stuffed pizza, which is often credited to Giordano'sGiordano's PizzeriaGiordano's is a pizzeria that specializes in Chicago-style pizza. The company started in 1974 after the owners, brothers Efren and Joseph Boglio, Italian immigrants, were discouraged at the lack of authentic pizza available in the Chicago area...
; and the more locally popular crispy thin-crust variety, which is an option at most Chicago pizzerias.
- A Chicago hot dogChicago-style hot dogA Chicago-style hot dog, or Chicago Dog, is a steamed or water-simmered all-beef frankfurter on a poppy seed bun, originating from the city of Chicago, Illinois...
is traditionally a steamed or boiled natural-casing wiener on a poppy-seed bun topped with yellow mustardMustard (condiment)Mustard is a condiment made from the seeds of a mustard plant...
, chopped onionOnionThe onion , also known as the bulb onion, common onion and garden onion, is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium. The genus Allium also contains a number of other species variously referred to as onions and cultivated for food, such as the Japanese bunching onion The onion...
, sliced tomatoTomatoThe word "tomato" may refer to the plant or the edible, typically red, fruit which it bears. Originating in South America, the tomato was spread around the world following the Spanish colonization of the Americas, and its many varieties are now widely grown, often in greenhouses in cooler...
, neon-green sweet-picklePickled cucumberA pickled cucumber is a cucumber that has been pickled in a brine, vinegar, or other solution and left to ferment for a period of time, by either immersing the cucumbers in an acidic solution or through souring by lacto-fermentation.-Gherkin:A gherkin is not only...
relishRelishA relish is a cooked, pickled, or chopped vegetable or fruit food item which is typically used as a condiment.In North America, relish commonly alludes to sweet pickle relish-like sauce that often condiments hot dogs, hamburgers and other types of fast food.-Description and ingredients:The item...
, sport pepperChili pepperChili pepper is the fruit of plants from the genus Capsicum, members of the nightshade family, Solanaceae. The term in British English and in Australia, New Zealand, India, Malaysia and other Asian countries is just chilli without pepper.Chili peppers originated in the Americas...
s, a dill-pickle spear and a sprinkling of celery saltCelery saltCelery salt is a flavored salt used as a food seasoning, made from ground seeds, which may come from celery or its relative lovage. These ground seeds are mixed with salt, either table salt or sea salt....
—but never ketchupKetchupKetchup is a sweet-and-tangy condiment typically made from tomatoes, vinegar, sugar or high-fructose corn syrup and an assortment of...
. Many hot-dog stands also serve the Maxwell Street PolishMaxwell Street PolishA Maxwell Street Polish consists of a grilled or fried length of Polish sausage topped with grilled onions and yellow mustard and optional sport peppers, served on a bun...
. Popular among older Chicagoans is the original version of the Chicago hot dog garnished with just yellow mustard and raw onions.
- An Italian beefItalian beefAn Italian beef is a sandwich of thin slices of seasoned roast beef, dripping with meat juices, on a dense, long Italian-style roll, believed to have originated in Chicago, where its history dates back at least to the 1930s...
is a sandwichSandwichA sandwich is a food item, typically consisting of two or more slices of :bread with one or more fillings between them, or one slice of bread with a topping or toppings, commonly called an open sandwich. Sandwiches are a widely popular type of lunch food, typically taken to work or school, or...
featuring thinly sliced roast beefBeefBeef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle. Beef can be harvested from cows, bulls, heifers or steers. It is one of the principal meats used in the cuisine of the Middle East , Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Europe and the United States, and is also important in...
simmered in a broth (known locally as 'gravy') containing ItalianItalian cuisineItalian cuisine has developed through centuries of social and political changes, with roots as far back as the 4th century BCE. Italian cuisine in itself takes heavy influences, including Etruscan, ancient Greek, ancient Roman, Byzantine, Jewish and Arab cuisines...
-style seasonings and served on an Italian roll soaked in the meat juices. Most beef stands offer a 'cheesy beef' option, which is typically the addition of a slice of provolone or mozarella. A 'combo' is a beef sandwich with the addition of grilled Italian sausageItalian sausageIn the United States, Italian sausage most often refers to a style of pork sausage noted for being seasoned with fennel and/or anise as the primary seasoning...
. Italian beef sandwiches are traditionally topped with sweet peppersItalian sweet pepperThe Italian sweet pepper is a variety of the species Capsicum annuum, like bell peppers and chilli peppers.It has the appearance of a large chilli pepper but the mild taste of sweet peppers such as the bell pepper....
or spicy giardinieraGiardinieraGiardiniera is an Italian or Italian-American relish of pickled vegetables in vinegar or oil.-Varieties and uses:Italian giardiniera is also called "sotto aceti", which means "under vinegar", a common term for pickled foods...
.
Although not indigenous to Chicago, gyros are common, reportedly introduced to the U.S., along with flaming saganaki
Saganaki
Saganaki refers to various dishes prepared in Greek cuisine and is named after the single-serving frying pan in which it is cooked....
, by Chicago's Parthenon restaurant. Many locally owned fast-food restaurants serve hot dogs, Italian beef and gyros.
Chicago also has its own unique style of tamale
Tamale
A tamale — or more correctly tamal — is a traditional Latin American dish made of masa , which is steamed or boiled in a leaf wrapper. The wrapping is discarded before eating...
, machine-extruded from cornmeal
Cornmeal
Cornmeal is flour ground from dried maize or American corn. It is a common staple food, and is ground to fine, medium, and coarse consistencies. In the United States, the finely ground cornmeal is also referred to as cornflour. However, the word cornflour denotes cornstarch in recipes from the...
and wrapped in paper, which is typically sold in hot-dog stands.
A dish with its genesis in the heart of Chicago's Puerto Rican community is a specialty known as the jibarito
Jibarito
The jibarito , a specialty of Chicago, is a sandwich made with flattened, fried green plantains instead of bread, garlic-flavored mayonnaise, and a filling that typically includes meat, cheese, lettuce and tomato...
, a sandwich made of meat or chicken and condiments, placed between two pieces of fried plantain
Plantain
Plantain is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa. The fruit they produce is generally used for cooking, in contrast to the soft, sweet banana...
instead of bread, which was invented by the Borinquen Restaurant in Humboldt Park
Humboldt Park, Chicago
Humboldt Park is one of 77 officially designated community areas located on the northwest side of Chicago, Illinois. The Humboldt Park neighborhood is widely known for its large Puerto Rican presence...
.
Less well known are the more provincial South Side specialties such as the 'Big Baby', a style of double-cheeseburger
Hamburger
A hamburger is a sandwich consisting of a cooked patty of ground meat usually placed inside a sliced bread roll...
with grilled onions and the condiments traditionally located underneath the burger patties, which originated at Nicky's Hot Dogs in the Garfield Ridge
Garfield Ridge, Chicago
Garfield Ridge is one of the 77 official community areas of Chicago, Illinois, and is located on the southwest side of the city. The northern half of Chicago Midway International Airport is located in this community area.-General information:...
neighborhood; the breaded-steak sandwich, a specialty particularly found in the Bridgeport
Bridgeport, Chicago
Bridgeport, one of 77 community areas of Chicago, is a neighborhood located on the city's South Side. It is bounded, generally, on the west and north by the Chicago River, on the east by Canal Street, and on the south by Pershing Road.-History:...
neighborhood, which consists of a pounded inexpensive cut of beef that has been breaded, fried and served in an Italian bread roll smothered in marinara
Marinara Sauce
Marinara sauce is a southern Italian tomato sauce usually made with tomatoes, garlic, herbs , and onion. However, there are many variations. Some of these include the addition of capers, olives, anchovies, and/or spices....
sauce and topped with mozzarella
Mozzarella
Mozzarella is an Italian Traditional Speciality Guaranteed food product. The term is used for several kinds of Italian cheeses that are made using spinning and then cutting :...
cheese and green peppers
Bell pepper
Bell pepper, also known as sweet pepper or a pepper and capsicum , is a cultivar group of the species Capsicum annuum . Cultivars of the plant produce fruits in different colors, including red, yellow, orange and green. Bell peppers are sometimes grouped with less pungent pepper varieties as...
(optional); aquarium-smoked barbecue
Barbecue
Barbecue or barbeque , used chiefly in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia is a method and apparatus for cooking meat, poultry and occasionally fish with the heat and hot smoke of a fire, smoking wood, or hot coals of...
, particularly rib tips and hot links; and the mother-in-law
Mother-in-law (tamale)
The mother-in-law sandwich is a Chicago area fast food dish that features a Chicago-style corn-roll tamale nestled in a hot dog bun and smothered with chili...
, a chili-topped tamale
Tamale
A tamale — or more correctly tamal — is a traditional Latin American dish made of masa , which is steamed or boiled in a leaf wrapper. The wrapping is discarded before eating...
on a bun; and atomic cake, featuring banana, yellow and chocolate cake layers alternating with banana, strawberry and fudge fillings.
Restaurant scene
The Windy City also features many ethnic restaurant districts, including GreektownGreektown, Chicago
Greektown is a dining and nightlife district on the Near West Side of the American city of Chicago, Illinois. It is one of many neighborhoods that make up the Near West Side community area, and is popular with tourists and Chicago residents alike....
on South Halsted Street; Little Italy
Little Italy, Chicago
Little Italy is a neighborhood on the Near West Side of Chicago, Illinois. The current boundaries of Little Italy are Ashland Avenue on the west and Morgan Street on the east — bracketed by Harrison Street on the north and Roosevelt Road; i.e., 12th Street, on the south...
on Taylor Street, just west of Halsted, and in the Heart of Italy neighborhood in Heart of Chicago; Chinatown on the South Side; Middle Eastern fare along Lawrence Avenue between Pulaski and Kedzie; Polish
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
cuisine on the Northwest and Southwest sides; the Mexican districts of Pilsen and Little Village; Vietnamese cuisine along Argyle Street between Broadway and Sheridan; Korean food along Lawrence Avenue and, increasingly, in northern suburbs such as Niles, Illinois
Niles, Illinois
Niles is a village in Maine and Niles Townships, Cook County, Illinois, United States. The 2010 population from the U.S. Census Bureau is 29,803.The current mayor of Niles is Robert M. Callero.-History:Niles was first settled in 1827....
; and the Indo-Pak stretch of Devon Avenue
Devon Avenue (Chicago)
Devon Avenue is a major east-west thoroughfare in the Chicago metropolitan area. It begins at Chicago's Sheridan Road, which borders Lake Michigan, and it runs west until merging with Higgins Road near O'Hare International Airport. Devon continues on the opposite side of the airport and runs...
.
Chicago is also home to many fried-shrimp
Shrimp
Shrimp are swimming, decapod crustaceans classified in the infraorder Caridea, found widely around the world in both fresh and salt water. Adult shrimp are filter feeding benthic animals living close to the bottom. They can live in schools and can swim rapidly backwards. Shrimp are an important...
shacks, and has its own local fried-chicken chain, Harold's Chicken Shack
Harold's Chicken Shack
Harold's Chicken Shack is a chain of fried chicken restaurants located primarily in Chicago, particularly on its South Side. Harold's has been a Chicago South Side institution for many years and is known for its uniquely prepared chicken...
.
Along with fast food and ethnic fare, Chicago is home to many steakhouse
Steakhouse
A steakhouse is a restaurant that specializes in beef steaks. The same type of restaurant is also known as a chophouse.The steakhouse started in the USA in the late 19th century as a development of traditional inns and bars....
s, as well as a number of upscale dining establishments serving a wide array of cuisine. Some notable destinations include Frontera Grill
Frontera Grill
Frontera Grill is a Mexican restaurant in Chicago, Illinois. It is owned by Rick Bayless. It opened in January 1987 and is located at 445 N. Clark Street in Chicago's River North neighborhood....
, a gourmet Mexican restaurant owned by Food Network
Food Network
Food Network is a television specialty channel that airs both one-time and recurring programs about food and cooking. Scripps Networks Interactive owns 70 percent of the network, with Tribune Company controlling the remaining 30 percent....
star Rick Bayless
Rick Bayless
Rick Bayless is an American chef who specializes in traditional Mexican cuisine with modern interpretations. He is perhaps best known for his PBS series Mexico: One Plate at a Time....
, and Jean Joho
Jean Joho
Jean Joho is a renowned chef and restaurateur. He currently heads The Eiffel Tower Restaurant in Las Vegas.Born in Alsace, France, he began his formal training at the age of 13 at L'Auberge de L'lll under master chef Paul Haeberlin. Joho continued to perfect his skill in kitchens throughout Europe...
's Everest, a new-French restaurant on the top floor of the Chicago Stock Exchange
Chicago Stock Exchange
The Chicago Stock Exchange is a stock exchange in Chicago, Illinois, USA. The exchange is a national securities exchange and self-regulated organization, which operates under the oversight of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission . The Chicago Stock Exchange is the third most active stock...
building downtown. Others are Charlie Trotter's, owned by chef Charlie Trotter
Charlie Trotter
Charlie Trotter is a chef and restaurateur.-Biography:A graduate of New Trier High School, Trotter started cooking professionally in 1982 after earning a degree in political science from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. For the next 5 years, he worked and studied in Chicago, San Francisco at...
, and Tru
Tru (restaurant)
Tru is a Chicago French restaurant which holds one Michelin Star as of 2010.The Executive Chef is Anthony Martin....
from chefs Rick Tramonto
Rick Tramonto
Richard Michael "Rick" Tramonto is a Chicago chef and cookbook author. He is executive chef and partner in Tru, a contemporary fine-dining restaurant from Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises.-Biography:...
and Gale Gand
Gale Gand
Gale Gand is a Chicago-based pastry chef, cookbook author, television personality, and was the host of the Food Network show Sweet Dreams. She is currently the executive pastry chef and partner of the four star & AAA five diamond restaurant Tru , a contemporary fine-dining restaurant from Lettuce...
.
Chicago has recently become known for molecular gastronomy
Molecular gastronomy
Molecular gastronomy is a subdiscipline of food science that seeks to investigate, explain and make practical use of the physical and chemical transformations of ingredients that occur while cooking, as well as the social, artistic and technical components of culinary and gastronomic phenomena in...
, thanks to chef Grant Achatz
Grant Achatz
Grant Achatz is an American chef and restaurateur often identified as one of the leaders in molecular gastronomy or progressive cuisine...
(who opened Alinea
Alinea (restaurant)
Alinea is a restaurant in Chicago that opened on May 4, 2005. Its head chef and owner, Grant Achatz, is known for his preparations and deconstructions of classic flavors....
in 2005), Homaro Cantu
Homaro Cantu
Homaro Cantu is an inventor, entrepreneur, chef, and molecular gastronomer. He owns and operates the Cantu Designs Firm in Chicago, Illinois, United States as well as Moto Restaurant in Chicago.-Early childhood :...
at Moto
Moto (restaurant)
Moto is a restaurant in the Fulton River District of Chicago, Illinois known for creating "high-tech" dishes which incorporate elements such as carbonated fruit, edible paper, lasers and liquid nitrogen for freezing food....
(which opened in 2004), Michael Carlson
Michael Carlson
Michael Carlson is a chef and restaurateur from Chicago, Illinois. After dropping out of culinary school, Carlson got his start in the industry working under Paul Bartolotta. From there he studied abroad in Italy under Valentino Marcattilii, and in England under Heston Blumenthal...
(who opened Schwa
Schwa (restaurant)
Schwa is an acclaimed, upscale restaurant run by chef-owner Michael Carlson in Chicago, USA. It is located in the West Town community area and is considered a leader in the emerging molecular gastronomy style of cooking. Schwa is known for its unconventional approach to business. Simple table...
in late 2005), and Graham Elliot Bowles at Avenues. In 2008, Maxim
Maxim (magazine)
Maxim is an international men's magazine based in the United Kingdom and known for its pictorials featuring popular actresses, singers, and female models, sometimes pictured dressed, often pictured scantily dressed but not fully nude....
awarded Chicago the title of "Tastiest City."
See also
- List of Chicago Landmarks
- List of museums and cultural institutions in Chicago