Lists

A classic, old-school corner bar in Bucktown with maps and National Geographic magazines lining the walls. Coffees, basic lattes, and pastries from Bennisons in the morning. Huge beer list at night, heavy on Belgians and limited releases.

On warm days the big windows along the side swing open to the street, and the long tables built into the wall underneath them basically turn into the best seats in the place. You're sitting right in the open air without actually being outside.

A laid-back neighborhood bar right off the Kimball Brown Line stop that somehow works as a coffee shop too. Big booths, plenty of outlets, and a $2.50 Hamm's sitting next to a real cocktail menu.

Not really a morning spot with it open at 5pm on weekdays. Opens at noon Fri - Sun.

A long, dark, narrow bar on Irving Park with Art Deco details and a rotating craft tap list and coffee from Hexe and Metric.

Very similar vibes to the Map Room. Big difference is this place also has a walk up kitchen with a rotating mix of vendors serving seriously good food. In the mornings they'll have breakfast sandwiches, brunch plates, all the good stuff. Smashburgers, woodfried pizzas for lunch and dinner. 2X elevated bar food.

A wifi-free bookstore-bar-coffee-ice cream shop where you're genuinely expected to put the phone and laptops away and talk to people. Board games stacked everywhere, typewriters you can actually use, shelves of used books, 35+ craft beers, and a solid cocktail list.

One of the coziest spots in Chicago.

The back room hosts a packed events calendar: comedy shows, storytelling nights, University of Chicago lecture series, open mics.

A bright, friendly taproom sitting right on the Lakeview/Roscoe Village border that does coffee, beer, and food.

Coffee bar opens early with pastries from West Town Bakery, and breakfast smash burgers from their kitchen.

Half the space is a walk-in bottle shop you can browse while you drink.

A plant-filled, mismatched-furniture coffee shop by day that flips into a full bar and music venue at night — and has been doing it since 2010.

Good lattes and a solid breakfast menu in the morning, wifi until 6pm, then it cuts and the bar takes over. Live bands most nights, karaoke on Fridays and Saturdays that draws a real crowd, occasional DJ sets and themed nights. The Chicago Reader named it the city's best non-traditional music venue.

A coffee shop built inside a pair of 1890s Victorian row houses just off Fullerton, with antiques, tin ceilings, Oriental rugs, and a working gas fireplace upstairs that makes the whole place feel like someone's very literary great-aunt's living room.

Sandwiches are named after novels just to give you a sense of how far they lean into the literary theme.

Thursday through Saturday evenings, a hidden bookcase upstairs slides open into The Gatsby Speakeasy for cocktails, beer, and wine. You need a password to get in.

A Chinese takeout spot that also happens to serve some of the best al pastor tacos in the city. Walk in and there's a massive trompo of pork spinning over a live flame, sliced to order right into the tortilla with grilled pineapple on top.

The al pastor tacos are the main attraction — usually about $2.50 each, but on Mondays they drop to $1.50. We did the math: that's 8 tacos for $12.

If you go with a friend, add an order of al pastor fried rice for around $13. Two people at $12 each gets you 7 tacos and a big shared helping of fried rice.

A no-frills counter spot that's been a Chicago staple for decades and has a strong case for the best value-for-money burger in the city. The double cheeseburger with fresh-cut fries is under $8 — they slice the potato in front of you and the patties come from a local butcher. The Chicago dog is equally dialed in. Cash only, but there's an ATM inside. Everything on the menu is under $10.

A tiny counter tucked inside a Korean grocery store. A full bowl of spicy soondubu jjigae or galbitang comes with rice and banchan on the side — kimchi, dried turnip, stir-fried zucchini — for around $12.

Kimbap is about $5 for a dozen pieces. On your way out, there are handmade mandoo dumplings from the dumpling stand out front. It's $2 each.

A Pakistani-Indian cafeteria-style spot on Devon that gets cited constantly as one of the best pure-value meals in the city. Butter chicken bowl, chili chicken rice, and biryani are all around $11-12 and the portions are serious — people routinely split one order or take half home. Samosas at the counter are under $1. Chili chicken paratha is $7.49 and is the move if you want something hand-held.

A literal hole in the wall. You order through a small service window right off Milwaukee Ave near the Division Blue Line. T

wo NY-style slices and a soda for $5. Open evenings only. The slices come wrapped in foil. Look for the neon "SLICES" sign or you'll walk right past it.

This is a nostalgia pick for all those that grew up in Chinatown.

A hole-in-the wall that's been around for decades where you can get rice boxes that pack in a massive amount of Chinese food in a styrofoam box. Salt and pepper wings rice box if you need a rec.

This is a small, design-forward gallery in Lincoln Park, designed by Tadao Ando, so the architecture is a big part of the experience: minimalist concrete, really thoughtful use of light.

What’s interesting is that it’s right in the middle of a residential block and blends in with the surrounding brick apartments, so you could easily walk past it without realizing it’s there. Then you go inside and it’s this completely different, cavernous and beautiful space.

They don’t have a permanent collection, but rotating exhibitions, usually photography or architecture focused. It’s a quick visit, maybe an hour, but very curated. And since it’s timed entry, it stays pretty quiet and low-key.

Opened in its permanent home in 2024 inside the last surviving building of the Jane Addams Homes — Chicago's first federal housing project, built in 1938, vacant since 2002. Three restored apartments recreate exactly how families lived in different eras of public housing. The oral history archive is the core of it: former residents telling their own stories rather than having their stories told about them.

Just reopened in May 2025 after a $10 million renovation that tripled its space to three floors. It's the only museum in Chicago devoted entirely to self-taught and outsider art — work made by people who never went to art school and often created in isolation, using whatever was at hand.

The permanent anchor is the Henry Darger Room: a full recreation of the one-room Lincoln Park apartment where a hospital janitor secretly created a 15,145-page illustrated novel over decades.

University of Chicago's museum of ancient Near East history — Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, Nubia, the ancient Levant. One of the top collections of its kind in the world, sitting in Hyde Park The artifacts span 5,000 years: massive Assyrian winged bulls, Egyptian mummies, ancient Persian reliefs, a 17-foot statue of King Tut. Free admission, open Tuesday through Sunday.

Five spiral stories inside a working drawbridge tower at the Michigan Avenue bridge. You learn how the Chicago River was reversed and on Saturday mornings you can watch the actual bridge gears turn during a live lift from a few feet away. Seasonal, open May through October.

Gilded Age stone palazzo that was the most expensive private home in Chicago when it was built. It houses Richard Driehaus's collection of decorative arts and design objects, and the building itself is the main exhibit: carved stone, hand-painted ceilings, mosaic floors, ornate fireplaces in every room. The collection is specifically Aesthetic Movement and Arts and Crafts — the same era as the building. Wed–Sun. $20 adults.