Hello Fodorites! My husband and I are planning a weekend trip to Chicago on July 14-16th. We are staying at the Fitzpatrick (North Michigan Ave.) Friday night and Saturday night we are attending a concert at the Morton Arbortorium. Other than seeing the impressionist gallery at the Art Institute, we haven't made any plans. Does anyone have any suggestions for great places to eat, things we must see, jazz clubs not to be missed or any other helpful hints?

I went to Chicago just a few weeks ago. For dining, I would recommend Petterino's. It very near the theatres and serves Italian and American (great steaks!) cuisine, just 2 blocks from the Oriental Theatre (Where "Wicked" is playing--I highly recommend this musical!!). A reservation is recommended on weekends.

And you can't go to chicago without trying the original Chicago deepdish pizza at Café Uno / Café Due (Due just holds Café Uno's overflow). I believe it is located at State and Ontario, or very close to that intersection at least.

Have fun at the Art Institute- it's wonderful.

Check the www.cityofchicago.org website to see a listing of festivals and events that weekend, there are always tons of things going on in different neighborhoods in the summer.

There are some free jazz events in Millennium Park that weekend, check this website for more info
http://www.millenniumpark.org/parkevents/Default.aspx

I'm not a big jazz fan but I've heard people recommend Andy's for jazz, right in the downtown area

http://www.andysjazzclub.com/

For dining, if you narrow it down (type of cuisine and price range) people might be able to help you better.

Try the King Tut exhibit at the Field Museum.

The White Sox game last night was a blast. And there were St.Louis out of towners there wearing the big and ornate King Tut heads/apparatus sarcophogus, that they bought apres' Field visit.

Be warned that if you want to go to the Architectural River Tour, King Tut, Shedd etc. I would definitely get tickets online now. The lines are long this year on the weekends. Shedd and Field were so long last weekend that I know someone who gave up and did another activity.

Make reservations for anything you want to do for those July weekend plans.

www.metromix.com

I second the recommendation to make reservations now for your activities. The week you'll be here there will be 10,000 people at an advertising speciality show, 7,000 contract bridge players, the International Anti-aging converence with 4,000 people and the opening of the Gay Games.

Also, don't spend too much time looking for the Fitzpatrick Hotel as it became the Affinia Chicago a few months ago.

I definitely agree with the suggestions for the King Tut exhibit and an architectural boat tour. We took DH's parents on the latter and they loved it. (So did we!)

For a real Chicago jazz experience, check out the Green Mill. www.greenmilljazz.com It has a history that can't be beat.

What type of restaurants are you interested in? You definitely have to try Chicago-style pizza. There's also Garrett's popcorn on Michigan Ave. that is a local snacking favorite.

Thanks to everyone for the great suggestions! It is hard to narrow down our selections for good food as we are open to trying most types of resturants. I think we will definately try for Chicago Pizza for lunch on Saturday. And a special thanks to Citylights for the information on our hotel's name change! I can just picture my DH and I wandering around trying to find it. We actually had a similar experience in Dublin last year when our Hotel was on a street that was only 1 block long and we drove around for 2 hours trying to find it.

One more question, about how long does it take to get from downtown to Lisle (where the Morton Arbortorium is)?

I'd allow 90 minutes to get to the arboreteum; it's pretty far out of the city and the traffic may be a problem. If you are leaving town on Sunday, you might want to book a hotel near Lisle for Saturday night - it'll save you time and money.

Getting to Lisle from downtown Chicago depends on the traffic. When there is no traffic back-up, you can get to Lisle in about 30 minutes.

When I said to allow 90 minutes, I meant before the start of the concert, which would include drive time, parking, riding the shuttle bus, etc. It will probably take less than an hour of actual driving, but you never know.

As for getting around the arboretum itself, things get slow when there's a crowd. Parking is limited to one section, so you'll be shuttle-bused to the concert. Anyway, the arboreteum is beautiful and quite large; if you have extra time, you could visit the new maze, the meadows or the gardens.