If you haven’t been to Eataly in Chicago….hmmmm….you are missing out!

Do put it on your list of places to visit in the Windy City.

 What is it?  Eataly Chicago and it’s sister in New York are ALL things Italian.  Like really yummy tasty stuff.  The huge  two story castle of consumption just off Michigan Avenue is jam packed with food, wine, cafes,  pizza,  beer, cheese, cookbooks, oh, did I say wine? fish, meat,  baked goods, a, get this….Nutella bar……and Eataly is  a meeting place, a gathering place, a meandering place, a place to see and be seen. You might feel like you’ve been on vacation when you go.

There’s one in New York (click here to read about) and more in the works.  Enjoy these photos of our first, but I’m sure not last , trip to Eataly in Chicago.

 On the same trip to Chicago we did  tour of Downtown Deco.

This was a surprise.   Mostly when I think of Chicago Architecture I think of Frank LloydWright or Mies van der Rohe with their easily recognizable architectural forms.  I’ve never really thought of Chicago as being a mecca for Art Deco.

 But it is ……and the Architecture Foundation has a terrific downtown walking tour. It is a different experience than a Deco tour in Miami (click here to read about) but well worth doing if this era of design interests you.

I learned a couple of things to share.  Art Deco, an eclectic design aesthetic characterized by  traditional craft motifs with Machine Age imagery and materials. We expect to see rich colors, bold geometric shapes, and lavish ornamentation. It thrived in the 1930s and 1940s in cities that were doing well.  New York and Chicago are two U. S. locations with oodles of buildings with elegant Art Deco design.

The other funny tidbit is that folks were fascinated with air travel during the 1920s.  So the mailboxes (air mail) are a huge design element as are birds.

We also popped in to see a Chinese New Year celebration in Chicago.

I  loved seeing the Lion Dance. While much smaller in scale (one lion versus hundreds ) than the one we saw in Hong Kong a year ago (yep, click here for that blog post), it was great fun to see the dancing and enjoy the music, celebrating  the Chinese New Year .

I  will end with a few winter scenes of the Windy City in a cold and frozen state.  Enjoy.