In my ten years in Chicago, I’ve lived in five apartments in three neighborhoods, but it’s my most recent neighborhood, Edgewater, where I’ve found my Chicago.
Edgewater is brilliant for so many reasons.
I live two blocks from the lake/beach – one of Chicago’s best features. There’s a plethora of places to go and things to see. Within a mile of my house is two Ethiopian restaurants, seven or so coffee shops, uncountable amount of pho places, a beautiful brand-new library, two soda-fountainy type places, and tons of random art. We might currently not really have any real food stores at the moment, but if you need Kinder hippos, aloe leaves, nuoc cham, or veladoras, we’ve got you covered. There’s a wide variety of people and they’re friendly, smiling and talking to their neighbors. Despite the people and places, it’s still quiet(ish), neighborhoody, with trees and green space, and not the hustle-and-bustle that other places might have.
In short, I love it. So when I learned about 48 Ward* Love Local, a month of discounts at local places, I was super excited. I was even MORE excited when I learned that if you participated in at least five deals and either shared on social media or sent your receipts in, you could win lunch with the alderman.** I have become obsessed with winning that lunch; I’m not exactly sure why. Possibly since it looks like I have a fairly good chance of winning looking at social media. Possibly because the whole concept of aldermen is weird. I’ve already been to my five places, including Cookies and Carnitas (above), but there’s a few more on our household list, and a lot of pictures to share.
I also just realized that this sounds like some sort of crappy sponsored post or something. It’s not, I just get excited about really weird things.
*technically wards and neighborhoods don’t match up, but whatever. I love my ward too and my local neighborhoods!
**aldermen are both like the mayor and the senator of your neighborhood. Chicago is weird. And awesome. I’ve met my alderman, Harry Osterman, several times and could go and talk to him at his office whenever, so it’s even weirder that I’ve become obsessed.
Aesthetic Snafu 