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River North
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Neighborhood Promotion and Neighborhood Map Thumbnail
Explore This Neighborhood
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River North continued...
If you do decide to check out the restaurants, take a moment before or after your meal and step back far enough -- cross the street if you must -- and look above the awnings.
That block on the east side of Clark between Illinois and Hubbard Streets containing Bayless' restaurants (and other tenants) is actually five buildings, with no space between them. All date to 1872, a year after the Great Chicago Fire leveled just about everything in the area. The ornate red brick building across from those buildings -- the one that's home to the Baton Show Lounge, Chicago's signature showroom featuring female impersonators -- also dates to 1872.
Walk over to Hubbard Street and stroll a few doors east. That big stone building, now home to condos and offices, was the Cook County Criminal Courthouse from its completion in 1893 until 1928. The building, on the National Register of Historic Places, served other purposes as a government building later, but during its courthouse years, it was home to the trial of the 1919 White Sox, accused of throwing that year's World Series; it was here that, according to a reporter, a kid looked up at Shoeless Joe Jackson and pleaded "Say it ain't so, Joe!"
Writers Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, veterans of the courthouse press room, based their play "The Front Page" on actual events they witnessed as reporters there. Clarence Darrow lawyered there. Ask the doorman if you can view the restored lobby's photo gallery. There's a photo of Darrow arguing for the defense in this courthouse. Another shows Carl Sandburg at his press room typewriter.
Practically across the street from the old courthouse is Jean Joho's Brasserie Jo [editor's note: now closed], authentically Alsatian/French -- and that introduces a problem: There are, quite simply, too many notable restaurants in River North to attempt a complete listing in this narrative without running long or leaving someone out.
Some that, for various reasons, must be mentioned would include Harry Caray's Italian Steakhouse; Graham Elliott; Naha; Coco Pazzo; Gene & Georgetti (steaks since 1941); Shaw's Crab House; mk; Crofton on Wells; Kiki's Bistro; Club Lago (1952); Mr. Beef (for its Italian beef sandwiches); Carson's (for its ribs); Cafe Iberico (for its tapas); Ed Debevic's (for its sass); the original Pizzeria Uno (1943) and sibling Due; and the Green Door Tavern (since 1921, despite prohibition).
But you'll find those, and others we left out but are prominent in tourist literature, and the dance clubs and the bars on your own.
Choosing from among the galleries may not be as easy.
"This is the area that has the greatest concentration of art galleries in Chicago," says Andrew Bae, whose showroom on Franklin Street near Superior, the heart of the gallery zone, specializes in Asian works. "There are 75 art galleries here."
How to find stuff that interests you?
"Every gallery knows every gallery, at least around here," says Steven Slater, an assistant at Bae's. "Just talk to a gallery. They'll tell you. If Andrew Bae doesn't have what you want, he can tell you other galleries within three blocks. You don't have to go far."
As always in a city like Chicago, there are surprises. Here are three neighborhood bookstores that couldn't differ more: Europa Books, on State Street near Pearson, specializes in foreign books and periodicals, for when you just must have the latest issue of Le Monde; Open Books, a huge nonprofit used-book store on Institute Place near Wells Street; and one that needs only a little bit of explanation.
The Abraham Lincoln Book Shop, on Chicago Avenue near Orleans, is a Lincoln bookstore and it isn't.
"If you're looking just for reading and good historical books," says Dan Weinberg, owner of the 70-year-old business, "we have that -- all the way to the true collectible, and everything in between.
"It looks like a museum -- except you can walk away with the exhibits."
Exhibits like a handout inviting folks in the neighborhood to hear what Lincoln had to say at a cemetery dedication -- in Gettysburg. Turned out he said something memorable. Price: $15,500. "They're very scarce," he says.
Some artifacts are just a few hundred dollars in price. Others are, well . . .
Visit Appomattox Court House, where Grant and Lee signed the papers ending the Civil War, and guides will explain the table in the room is a replica of the one used for the signing.
The guides are correct. The actual table is in the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop. It's for sale. You probably can't afford it.
So that's River North: the restaurants, galleries and dance clubs everyone expects -- and maybe a bit of the unexpected to take home.
For more information about River North, please contact:
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