A while back, Ike Reilly got behind on his electric bill. When the ComEd truck arrived to cut off his power, he and a friend took a stand. “We pretended we were in The Grapes of Wrath,” Reilly tells the crowd at iO, where he’s making a guest appearance at the weekly TJ & Dave … Read more
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Tradition doesn’t have to mean sweeping pine needles and straightening wobbly candles. Chicago-based architects and interior designers recently spread rather original holiday cheer at Steelcase’s Wreath and Menorah Design Competition and Charity Auction. A circlet of vodka bottles, a garland of back-lit feathers, and a giant metal cage of LEDs were some of the items auctioned off to benefit the Children’s Place Association. All inspired me to think beyond green rings and narrow vessels next year. Skidmore Owings and Merrill’s Colin Gorsuch designed the winning menorah. Made of a cast piece of 8×8 inch solid wax, its computer-generated surface represents the ancient consecrated oil of Jewish tradition. As each wick burns, it reveals some of the menorah’s skeletal framework. The reshaping of rituals never looked so good.
—LAURA CASTELLANO
The writer and lawyer Scott Turow sold his lakefront mansion in Glencoe for $5 million on December 17th; he paid $4.79 million for the place when he bought it in 2001. Deal Estate broke the news last month that the house, priced at $5.9 million, was under contract. The buyers are not yet identified in public records.
In cooperation with Castle Connolly Medical Ltd., we present 347 of the area’s best physicians in 57 different medical specialties.
GRAHM BALKANY Gropius in Chicago Coalition RAMSEY LEWIS Proclamation of Hope / Songs from the Heart SAM HARRIS Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center ANNETTE NANCE-HOLT & RONALD HOLT Purpose Over Pain SARA FOSZCZ Main Stay Therapeutic Riding Program There are people who talk about doing, and then there are people who get things done. … Read more
In 2008, Robyn Okrant, a Lincoln Square yoga instructor, embarked on a yearlong quest to do everything Oprah Winfrey advised. The project cost her more than $4,700 and 1,200 hours of unwavering obedience to Oprah’s mantra, “Live your best life.” Okrant’s blog, livingoprah.com, documented the whole project. Her new memoir, Living Oprah (Center Street; $24.99), … Read more
If there’s one place in Chicago—other than my nearby haunt, the River Shannon—that’s like my own personal Cheers, it would have to be the new Whole Foods in Lincoln Park. Maybe everybody doesn’t know my name—it’s a 75,000-square-foot store, after all, with a staff to match—but I’m pretty sure they’ve all seen me giving informal…
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Two venerable shops from the suburbs have opened branches in the city recently. Pierre Deux , the French-country furniture and accessories shop that’s a national chain, is now open in River North. (Love this pewter tray.) And Montalbano, a generations-old furniture maker/restorer, has joined the ever-growing (Morlen Sinoway, Organic Looms, Green Home Chicago, Jan’s Antiques, Black Walnut Gallery) Fulton Market area.
—JAN PARR
List Price: $1.775 million
The Property: Some people bring home pictures of picturesque old homes they admired while traveling. Ted and Ellen Roberts of St. Charles went one better: they built a replica of the governor’s mansion in Richmond, Virginia, a Federal-style home that they happened upon on when visiting the onetime Confederate capital in the early 1990s.
Pollack’s Dinner at Balsan in 82 Words
Ethereal. Shockingly creative and delicious. Soft-boiled hen egg with wild mushrooms and chicken liver explodes with flavor then soothes with warm, silky textures; medium-rare duck breast melts in your mouth; Paris-Brest sets a new standard for cream-puff pastry. Open for exactly one week…
