Violet

Married with one daughter (age 3); lives in the Albany Park neighborhood; 34

What neighborhood do you live in?
Albany Park on the NW side

What is your favorite thing about Chicago?
I love the fact that there are so many different neighborhoods and each neighborhood has its own unique history, architecture, characteristics, restaurants, and nightlife. After living here all my life I still find myself feeling like a tourist when I go check out a new restaurant in a neighborhood that I don’t frequent very often.
I also love the fact that we have a very active live music scene. On any given night you can check out a live band playing in one of the many different venues across the city.

Where do you like to go for fun?
Metro to catch a great band.

What is your favorite restaurant?
It’s so hard to narrow it down to just one, but for consistent quality and flavor it’s any one of the Francesca’s family of restaurants. We use Mia Francesca on Clark Street to celebrate special events with my husband, such as a birthday or anniversary.

Favorite summertime activity?
I really enjoy riding my bike down to the lakefront along the bike path, then stopping for a picnic somewhere on the grass near one of the beaches or buying ice cream from a little vendor pushing his ice cream cart down the street.

I also absolutely love visiting some of the sprinkler playgrounds and swimming pools on the north side of the city. The best pool for both adults and children is the Portage Park Olympic pool. It’s clean, the deck is huge, there are plenty of lounge chairs. The kiddie pool is fabulous for my daughter with its enormous sprinkler apparatus in the center of it all.

Where can you find the best view of the Chicago skyline?
Heading north along Lake Shore Drive, coming off of I-55 by the museum campus.

Where do you like to bring visiting friends or out-of-town guests?

Lincoln Park Zoo. The zoo itself has so much history and state of the art facilities. The views are spectacular; the breeze off of the lake is perfect on a warm summer day. The neighborhood around the zoo has so much beautiful architecture to look at and many places to eat or drink.