A windy city welcome

Nato summit host city Chicago, home of the blues and President Obama, has it all, from superb restaurants and museums to towering architecture

Lindsay Johns

11 June 2012

The first thing that strikes me upon arrival at O'Hare airport is the friendly Midwestern welcome. They seem genuinely pleased to see me.

Even the US Immigration official smiles and gives tips on what to do. That has to augur well, especially for the Nato summit starting on Sunday when visitors will come from around the world.

The Radisson Blu Aqua — a sleek, new hotel with a chic interior and a fabulous Italian restaurant, not to mention a wonderfully convenient location overlooking Grant Park — is a tour de force of both style and substance, and a joyous base from which to explore the city.

Downtown Chicago is the stuff of which modernist dreams are made. Like a cross between Gotham City and Legoland, vertiginous, looming skyscrapers rise up imperiously, each one more gravity-defying than the next.

Deciding that I need to understand why I am getting neckache, an architectural walking tour with genial, erudite guide Bob is just the ticket, providing me with enough information on Mies van der Rohe, the architect, visionary and high priest of Chicago's skyscraper movement (whose "less is more" aesthetic of glass and steel forcefully dominates the skyline), to fully appreciate the engineering prowess behind these formidable structures.

Marvelling at the buxom brilliance of the Silver Bean statue in Millennium Park, I envisage President Obama triumphantly addressing the jubilant crowds at his election victory celebration here in November 2008, complete with trademark dignity and über-cool gravitas.

It's only fitting, then, that my next port of call is the DuSable Museum of African-American history on the city's South Side. Named after the son of a Haitian slave who officially founded Chicago in 1790, this collection — ranging from Joe Louis's boxing gloves to an exhibition on gospel music — is a real treat, contextualising the profound contribution of African-Americans to both the city and the country.

Next it's Pearl's Place restaurant in the historic Bronzeville neighbourhood. Succulent smothered pork chops, BBQ ribs that stick to my insides let alone my fingers, delectable mac 'n' cheese and candied yams, washed down with sweet iced tea are manna from heaven.

When it comes to spectacular vistas, Chicago excels. Next morning, the 360-degree panorama from the top of the John Hancock Observatory is stupendous.

Below me stretches the vast Lake Michigan shoreline, the city in every direction and Canada on a clear day. Likewise, the iconic Willis (formerly Sears) Tower, with its glass-enclosed Skydeck, which makes you feel as if you are stepping on thin air, is certainly worth the queues, even if it is not for the faint-hearted.

Now, craving a different kind of beauty, I visit the Art Institute, which houses one of the world's great collections of masterpieces. Lingering in front of Edward Hopper's study of urban alienation, Nighthawks, the eerie neon glow envelops me before I genuflect in front of Archibald Motley's Blues and Nightlife, the Chicago native's Harlem Renaissance era depictions.

After Seurat's Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Caillebot's Rainy Day in Paris and many Monets, Manets and Renoirs, I am finally satiated.

Great art always makes me hungry. Michael Jordan's Steakhouse, on the imposing Michigan Avenue, certainly lives up to the eponymous owner's sublime sporting achievements.

My Delmonico rib-eye signature steak (medium-rare) and accompanying three types of mashed potato (chive, shrimp and blue cheese) are the best I've ever eaten: a three-point jump shot and a slam dunk all in one!

But there is more to Chicagoan cuisine than steak, hot dogs and pizza. Top celebrity chefs Stephanie Izard and Chef Joho at their Girl and The Goat and Everest restaurants respectively (with the latter's stunning sunset views from the 40th floor of the Stock Exchange building) are striving to ensure that their city remains at the vanguard of pushing back exquisite culinary boundaries.

Be it goat cheese tortellini, crispy duck tongues or Maine lobster in butter and ginger, these two gourmet establishments excel.

Friday evening and where better, after enjoying the city's signature deep dish pizza odyssey at Lou Malnati's, than Second City improv comedy club, a venue famous for the comedic talent it has spawned. Tackling politics, race and gender with aplomb, no cow is too sacred for this deliciously un-PC but trenchantly funny Whose Line Is It Anyway?-style show.

Sultry, smokey, backroom jazz and "My woman done left me" blues are the musical lifeblood that course through this city's veins. It's finally time for me to get my boogie on. As the name vouchsafes, Buddy Guy's Legends is where the seriously cool blues cats come out to play. And play they do! With enough mojo for a thousand mortals, these soulful musicians pluck their guitar strings, sip bourbon and sing the blues until even I shed a tear.

After a delightful Sunday brunch amid the finery of the elegantly historic Drake hotel, there's just time for me to catch the Art, Love and Politics in the 1980s exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Hip-hop, Aids and Reagan-era politics all hit home in visually arresting and thought-provoking pieces.

Thankfully, this city gives up her many treasures readily. Chicago is an effortlessly world-class metropolis with an embarrassment of artistic, gastronomic and musical riches, displayed with charisma in a hugely memorable setting. This year she is celebrating her 175th anniversary. Go along. I'm sure it's going to be one hell of a party.

DETAILS: CHICAGO Travelbag has five nights at the Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel from £1,039pp room only including flights from Heathrow with United Airlines. travelbag.co.uk The Chicago Architecture Foundation, tours from $17 (adult) and $14 (child) architecture.org

dusablemuseum.org

Pearl's Place, 00 1 773 285-1700

theskydeck.com

girlandthegoat.com

everestrestaurant.com

mjshchicago.com

secondcity.com

buddyguy.com

thedrakehotel.com

mcachicago.org

choosechicago.com

A windy city welcome

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