My ulterior motive for visiting this place was a pilgrimage of sorts. After all, it was practically a character itself in The Blues Brothers. Unfortunately, since it was released in 1980, not many of the sites in the movie are still what they were back then, although I did get to see "the honorable Richard J. Daley plaza" - "where they got that Picasso." (Thanks, Elwood and Jake.)
However, there was another film made more recently and shot on location in Chicago, and if you know me, it shouldn't be too hard to guess which film I'm talking about (hint: Chicago played Gotham City). Thanks to IMDb, I was able to track down:
the Old Post Office, which was the setting for the bank heist in the first scene,
the Twin Anchors, a.k.a. the bar where Two-Face makes his first public appearance,
and the Atwood Café (I'm not really sure where this appeared in the movie, but IMDb assures me it did).
For the record - I am a giant, giant dork.
In case you hadn't heard, Chicago has, you know, pretty decent food. I set my sights on consuming a Chicago-style hot dog and a real deep dish pizza (in one day, without needing to have my stomach pumped). And I succeeded, and they were both fantastic, despite the fact that I managed to acquire them from an Oak Brook-based chain restaurant and a British pub, respectively.
Portillo's. That is a hot dog, hiding under mustard, relish, onions, tomatoes, sport peppers, and a pickle. I'm all about my ketchup (I am a descendant of the Ketchup Kid, after all), but this made me an immediate convert to the Chicago way of culinary thinking (although I will admit that I cheated - that's a Sam Adams Octoberfest that I had with it).
A real Chicago deep-dish pizza. I only managed two slices of it (and it was a small, personal-pan size, too), traded another to one of my fellow barflies for a sample of his ribs, and ended up - criminally - having to throw away the rest, as I had no way to keep it cold or heat it up at my hotel.
For as fun and welcoming as Chicago looks during the day, I think I like it even better at night. With the river and the terrific skyline, I can't remember ever seeing a more beautiful urban evening. I walked down to Navy Pier as the sun was setting, which is similar to Santa Monica Pier, yet felt somehow even more commercialized:
Then, after the aforementioned pizza (the fact that I only had two slices was the only reason I was still able to move), I took in the sights of downtown after dark.
My last stop of the night was the Hancock Center, and although it's only the third tallest building in the city, it's not the size that counts, it's how you use it. That is to say, whereas the famed Sears Tower closes at 8 p.m. (at least during the winter months), you can visit the Hancock Center until 11 at night, and take in the views that were my personal favorites. There's also a section of the observatory called the Skywalk, which is actually an open-air, screened-in area that lets you feel the wind and the pulse of the city 94 floors above street level.
I think I left a piece of my heart in this town.
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