Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 5A-7

123456 TRIBUNE 7 ATPLAY By Phil Vettel Tribune restaurant critic Once a dining desert, the Loop abounds in restaurant choices these days, from decades-old establishments such as Vivere to relative newcomers such as and Atwood Cafe. Better yet, more are on the way. Some coming attractions (and one recent arrival): Shikago: A restaurant by brothers Kevin and Alan Shikami of Kevin restaurant, Shikago (a merging of and is hoping to open in December at 190 S. LaSalle St. (though the entrance will be on Adams Street).

will be more Asian in says chef Kevin Shikami (Kevin restaurant is French-Japanese). went down to the Loop to try out lunch, and they need some variety Shikago will take up 6,000 square feet, and so in addition to the dining space there will be a retail wine section and a large carryout area. will feature a lot more Asian Shikami says. lunch dishes, Vietnamese be a nice option for the people Tavern at the Park: The team that created in River North is busy putting together a multistory restaurant that will overlook Millennium Park The restaurant, aiming for a February opening, will be at 130 E. Randolph St.

will be pretty says John Hogan of the two-level dining area. second tier will be cut back into the restaurant, so both levels will look at the park through floor-to-second-story And in the summer months, there will be a rooftop deck. Sugar: The dessert-and-drinks concept that took River North by storm four years ago needed more space and a broader menu, and so Eddie Suqi closed up and started shopping for new locations. With original chef Christine McCabe (currently pastry chef at Park Grill) and partner Dave Kupcinet, Suqi has been scouring Loop locations for the most part, though possible stray a few blocks north if the deal is right. definitely thinking says McCabe, hoping to attract swarms of pre- and post-theater patrons, as well as hipsters of all stripes.

The partners hope for a spring debut. Midtown Kitchen Bar: For years, restaurant mogul Roger Greenfield opened restaurants everywhere but the Loop. These days, the Loop is practically a second home to Greenfield and partner Ted Kasemir (of Restaurants America). The two have a Bar Louie in the South Loop, The Grillroom on Monroe Street, One North on Wacker Drive and Townhouse a three-month- old eatery at 111S. Wacker Drive.

Their most recent Loop property is three-week-old Midtown Kitchen Bar a bilevel space (upstairs restaurant, downstairs bar) that, at press time, was still waiting for its liquor license. The restaurant is open for breakfast and lunch, but as soon as the paperwork clears, Midtown will add dinner hours. 312-379-5086. more on downtown dining horizon which is a shame. But then again, I seen much of Bogart lately, either.

There are also some compensating surprises, such as the picture painted by the morning light as the sun rises and the radiance spreads across those solemn gray-faced buildings. For a precious nanosecond, the world appears fresh and benevolent. All things are possible. You wish good will to all. Then the spell it stuck around all day, it be you find yourself yelling and bunching an angry fist at a cab driver who cuts you off in the intersection even though you had the light.

In suburban neighborhoods, people enjoy the cries of birds in the early morning. In the Loop, we have the honks of taxi horns. In the suburbs, your car is your best friend; without it, a lost soul forced to wander an endless succession of cul-de-sacs like the Ancient Mariner, while nervous homeowners call 9-1-1and report a suspicious character outside on foot In the Loop, walking is the favored mode of transport. Because the streets are so congested, walkers can cover twice the ground of drivers; there is definitely something thrilling about striding past a long line of cars snarled in traffic, feeling pity for the poor fools stuck in those immobilized metal pillboxes. At night, a lot to do in the Loop, but not enough.

Stores close too early. Even the new Intelligentsia coffee place at 53 E. Randolph St. cut back its evening hours; an employee explained that the head count dwindled after dark, so the weeknight closing time is now 8 p.m. That would be more than Honore de Balzac, the 19th Century French novelist known for working all night long while gulping gallons of coffee, would have been able to swallow.

When I first moved to Chicago about six years ago, I chose a West Side neighborhood. My morning commute required a bus ride big shout-out to all my friends on the No. 66!) or a jaunt on the That was OK. But somehow I felt as if I were still back in Ohio. So I gradually formulated a new Rule of Life (which, if you knew me better, realize I do on the order of five or six times daily): If going to live in the big city, then live in the big city.

Not in a suburb. Not on a bright, pleasant street. The suburbs will always be there with their fenced back yards and amiable neighbors. But living in a big city should be a matter of fuss and clatter and persistent inconvenience, all wedged amid the tall buildings like a windblown gum wrapper that ends up stuck between the tines of a wrought-iron railing. So, two years ago, I moved to the Loop.

To the place overrun with chatting tourists who move in great lowing herds like buffalo; to the place chronically redolent of car-exhaust fumes; to the place were solitude is impossible. And yet there is a peculiar solace in the crowds and the chaos. Sometimes, being anonymous is a good thing. You have to be perky or charming. You can fade into the comfort of invisibility.

As long as you keep moving, OK. Living in the Loop is very much like my old childhood dream of setting up housekeeping in an amusement park, with a Ferris wheel right outside the front door. just one thing: still looking for all the cotton candy. transformations, as upsetting as those are to longtime Chicagoans. I mean the whole shifting cavalcade of lights and colors and sounds, the rush and bustle and clatter.

If you asked the Loop, or the Loop would take a long time answering, because both. cafes and souvenir shops and bookstores and nail salons, but also banks and law offices. The area has always been about commerce, but as an increasing number of people move there, becoming about something else too: Life. Leisure time. The rub and scuffle of daily to work, snatching a quick lunch, finding a decent dry with the buoyant, carefree fun of those precious after-work hours.

The Loop used to be all about the workday, the 9-to-5 grind, but these days as much about the weekend nights, the 10 p.m.-to-2 a.m. whirlwind. Living in the Loop is alternately exasperating and uplifting. There are pesky inconveniences: not enough decent grocery stores, for instance. And outdoor kind that remind you of a 1940s film in which Humphrey Bogart stops by for a smoke and a sidelong squint at the to keep disappearing, LOOP: Is the living easy? Not always.

But interesting CONTINUEDFROMPAGE1 the Loop? Ahh, the Loop. The mere mention of the word evokes misty memories of a place, a geographical designation encircled by an elevated train, a radio station, a state of mind Of course, the boundaries depend on who you talk newcomers, developers, cabbies or Jim Kinney. It can be everything inside the loop of the what runs from Van Buren on the south side to Lake on the north side and from Wabash on the east over to Wells on the says Rubloff Residential Properties prez Kinney. the classic But, he adds, have Blurred? Try fuzzy. Confusing.

Goofy. Go to the city of Web site or the Multiple Listing Service of Northern Illinois. There, the northern and western boundaries are pushed to the Chicago River. Its southern boundary lands at Roosevelt Road. And its eastern boundary? That would be Lake Michigan, wrapping Millennium Park into the package.

And the South Loop? Kinney explains that, traditionally, it has meant south of the Row, Dearborn also jumped to Museum Park and beyond. says Kinney, you talk to five different people, you get five different Hevrdejs your definition of the Loop? Tell us about it. Send your response by e-mail to at- and put LOOP in the subject field. Or write to At Play, Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Chicago, IL 60611.

By James Janega Tribune staff reporter standing at the corner of State and Harrison Streets, near the super dorm for art schools and downtown campuses, when an outre youth with a too-high voice shouts out over rush-hour street noise: you heard the new Paris Hilton Yes, a young woman replies with a straight face. been listening to it all presses the youth, a lookalike for a contestant on he says, before ducking down the Red Line stairway. the beauty of the South Loop: Besides being a home for young professionals of all stripes, also the kind of place where trend- setting kids try to move fads for kicks. Yes, that strip of much-written-about and oft- visited restaurants is nearby on Wabash Avenue, and is every bit as good as the reports. But the South side streets throb with hip townie bars, lazy brunch nooks and entertainment at virtually any hour.

If this is your you just like to bask in downtown At guide to where tohang out. After work If the day began with orders shouted on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade, chances are it ended at Poag Mahone a short stumble from the trading pits, the LaSalle stop and LaSalle Street station. What keeps them coming back are daily half-price appetizer for a happy hour that begins at 3 p.m. and keeps going. Over a pint of Guinness or a sloshing martini (both decent; neither exceptional), visitors are likely to overhear how $1 million deals went down, meet an actual professional chimney sweep or encounter other urban amazements.

175 W. Jackson 312-566-9100, www.poagmahone.com. For a change of pace, longtime South Loop residents (longer than three years, say) know that if they must have a drink while walking their dog, they can pop into Tavern on Printers Row. Tie the pooch up outside while tie- ing one on in the comfortable, non-meat-market environment strictly enforced by a No sign above the bar. In back, the most-crowded pool table seemingly bumps up against the bathroom doors, making for some amusingly awkward conversations.

OK to bring your company softball team. Everybody else does. Tavern, 701S. Dearborn 312-427-7992, www.kaseystavern- Support your local art students Think of Gourmand Coffee and Teas as a frame for young South Loop artists. Their work is on display (and for sale) on the walls.

They crouch intensely on the thrift shop furniture. And very likely, their next projects will be conceived here in a caffeinated frenzy.On Saturdays, buy a morning coffee here (or stop to eat mighty good) and walk next door to the market (through mid-October) for bakery items, fresh vegetables and bits of color to spruce up that drab apartment. Evenings are for people-watching. Punk bagpipers and poets have been known to show up during open-micThursdays, which start again in October. And keep alert for art openings, live bands and DJs.

They pop up all the time. Gourmand Coffee and Teas, 728 S. Dearborn 312-4272610. Family-friendly Aging hipsters bring their kids on Sunday mornings to Orange on Harrison This is the second restaurant for the popular North Side joint, and the kids will think the plastic vines on the trellis and fake oranges are a blast. Diners also get a kick out of the gourmet pancakes and pan-seared oatmeal.

Plus, there are napkins wrapped in kite string, golf pencils for doodling, and the design-your-own fruit juice option. Orange on Harrison, 75 W. Harrison 312-447-1000. You grew up drinking cherry phosphates made by an actual soda jerk. If you want your kids to have the same experience, go to Eleven City Diner at 11th Street and Wabash.

some waiting on weekends at this deli, but not for weeknight dinners. Breakfast is served all day, and the high ceilings really absorb that noise from all the happy families talking. Eleven City Diner, 1112 S. Wabash 312212-1112. Impress a trite to include city icons in neighbor- hood guides, but city icons for a reason.

If you have time for one breakfast in Chicago, go to Lou Opt for the breakfast counter; diners sit down faster and stay longer. The doughnuts are homemade and delicious, the skillets so big even the leftover box will feel like got a doorstop in it. A yummy, yummy doorstop. Lou 565 W. Jackson 312939-3111.

Impress your date, bruise that credit card These South Loop standbys are good: Chicago Firehouse Restaurant 1401S. Michigan 312-786-1401; Cleopatra Lounge Pub 1146 S. Wabash 312-922-5051; Gioco 1312 S. Wabash 312-939-3870. But a shorter walk from downtown to the Custom House Restaurant the gateway to Printers Row at the corner of Congress and Dearborn Street.

Try the custom Custom House aperitif for starters. never find a better ginger cocktail. Then enjoy a menu laser-focused on quail appetizers to Colorado lamb fancy enough to impress. 500 S. Dearborn 312-523-0200, www.customhouse- Life South Loop Tribune file photo by Bob Fila no secret that Lou is a popular breakfast spot for tourists, but Loop residents love the old-school diner too.

in the Tribune photo by Alex Garcia Michael Jette plays an accordion at the corner of State and Randolph Streets in the Loop. The area is attracting urban pioneers who want to live in the heart of the action..