Chicago from 20' Up: The El & Other Inexpensive Diversions

Not ready for another day of museums, art exhibitions and other "cultural" activities? Here are some things this Chicagoan does to amuse himself on otherwise-idle weekends:

- Riding the "El" to revisit neighborhoods not recently seen, to see how they have or have not changed. Cruising around the city from 20 feet up past Chinatown and Asiatown and remnants of Chicago’s glory days as Sandburg’s "Hog butcher to the world and player with railroads" .

- Browsing such admission-free attractions as the Lincoln Park Zoo ... the little-known but always horticulturally colorful Conservatory ... off-beat exhibits such as the near north side’s Museum of Surgical Science or the west side’s Mexican Cultural Center.

- Recommending sites for friends spending a few hours between trains: The La Salle St. financial district, anchored by the Board of Trade Building and site of several scenes from "The Untouchables"; the landmark Monadnock Building, with its atrium of concentric wrought-iron balconies; and Dearborn Street’s historic Printer’s Row and restored Dearborn Station are some. I also urge visitors to take Wendella’s /round trip "River Bus" from Madison St. to Michigan Ave. or beyond to the new River East complex near Navy Pier.

Quick Tips:

Street crime is a problem in many large American cities, Chicago included. However, Chicago Rapid Transit lines are generally thought to be, if anything, safer than walking city streets. At night, you might prefer to sit in the front car near the motorman’s cab. (There are no condctors, though there are intercoms to the motorman in each car. Many stations have "panic alarms" connected to the 911 system.)

The south and west sides have some rough neighborhoods; you can ride through them, but don’t get off at intermediate stops unless you know the territory. Chinatown is very safe, but don’t walk east of the railroad tracks unescorted.

This guide is just a sampler. I’ve concentrated on the Near North Side because that’s where I live. Free and almost-free, yet very interesting, activities exist throughout the city.

Two ethnic restaurants I especially recommend are Szechuan East, a superb Chinese restaurant in the 300 block of East Ohio St., and Sayat-Nova 157 E. Ohio, reviewed below.

Best Way To Get Around:

A taxi from O’Hare to downtown costs -35, subject to traffic delays. The monopoly "Airport Express" vans have been raising prices steadily --- a one-way trip for one is now --- and have adopted the shady tactic of delaying "scheduled" departures while the driver hustles up more fares. "Departures every 20 minutes" is a myth outside of peak travel hours. Two or more people together might better take a taxi.

PACE buses offer free transfers from various El terminals to Woodfield, Yorktown, Orland Park and other major suburban malls, but run only once every half-hour or hour and can be slow. Close-in Golf Mill and Old Orchard are the easiest large shopping malls to reach by public transportation.

When the Orange Line El opened, it made Midway airport a very convenient alternative to O’Hare.

CTA bus service in Chicago has deteriorated alarmingly in the last few years, but still offers greater route density and more frequent service than most North American cities.

A system-wide map of the METRA, PACE, and CTA bus/rail systems should be obtainable from information booths at O’Hare or Midway or, on weekdays, from the RTA office on Wells St. near Monroe.

I first discovered Sayat-Nova in the early 1970’s, when an Assyrian colleague suggested it for a office birthday luncheon. A quarter-century later, I go there because its near-Eastern cuisine provides low-fat dinners with zestful tastes you don’t often find in "heart-healthy" diets.

And, considering it's in one of America’s toniest shopping venues, Sayat-Nova charges surprisingly reasonable prices: Full-meal offerings mostly in the $11-$14 range with pita bread, soup or salad, rice, and veggies; The most expensive entree, an array of aromatically spicy but lean mini-lamb chops --- is $18.95. A half-liter of good Mediterranean wine will add $12.

Armenia borders on Turkey and its cuisine is similar to Turkish, Greek or, some might say, Yugoslavian. The sarma and several other appetizers are much as you’d find them in a typical Greektown restaurant, but Sayat-Nova’s spices have considerably less "bite" and more subtlety than in many American Turkish restaurants. A favorite of mine, a lean, flavorful blend of ground lamb and veal called "lula-kebob", recalls the cevapcaci a Yugoslav restauranteur first introduced me to. The truly diet-conscious will savor Sayat-Nova’s "Trout with Fine Herbs": a fillet totally devoid of skin, bone and fat, grilled to your liking, with a flavor unlike any other I would normally associate with fish.

The house salad features fresh lettuce, tomato wedges and julienned red cabbage in a moderately sharp mint dressing; lentil soup is your other option.

This is simple food, not fancy. The one knock I have on Sayat’s cuisine is the blandness of the rice that accompanies all meals: it needs at least a hint of spice or, perhaps, a light infusion of some aromatic, but heart-healthy, herbed oil.

Grayish beige walls, a low ceiling and subdued cove lighting give Sayat-Nova’s main dining room a somewhat dark, Mid-Eastern look; hookahs and Arabian lanterns above the bar suggest a bistro somewhere deep in the Casbah. Along two of the walls, round tables with banquette seating are recessed so far into the walls that they could could be called "alcoves" rather than "booths" --- excellent for intimate encounters or business conversations.

Sayat-Nova is open for lunch Monday through Saturday and seven nights a week for dinner. It’s normally fairly quiet in the early-evening hours but, especially on Saturday nights when the owners’ ethnic friends come to party, may get loud later on. Service is generally quite attentive, but can slip a bit on Sundays if the staff is recovering from one of those Armenian Saturday nights.

The restaurant is just a half-block east of the Marriott on Michigan Avenue and I heartily recommend it for a change-of-pace dinner or lunch.

Chicago got its first elevated transit railway in 1892, on a platform of steel girders about 20 feet above Wabash St. Trains, powered by diminutive steam locomotives, ran south from the edge of downtown to the community now known as "Bronzeville". As electricity replaced steam, other "El" lines followed. In 1897, they merged their center-city operations into a rectangle of steel completely surrounding the business district.

Downtown Chicago has been known as "The Loop" ever since and a $1.50 ride on the El is a marvelous way to get acquainted with it. Viewing Chicago’s architecture from 20 feet up as well as from ground level is a rewarding experience.

If you’re travelling light, the El is also your best route downtown from either O’Hare or Midway Airport. From Midway, stay on the train for a get-acquainted spin around The Loop before heading for your hotel. Coming from O’Hare, you can make a free transfer from subway to El by using the escalators at the Clark/Lake St. station. Unfortunately, the El can be difficult if you’re luggage-laden.

If you have a little extra time, extend your El tour at least as far south as Chinatown and at least one stop north of the river to Merchandise Mart. This magnificent building, once the largest non-government building in the U.S., is now open to the general public after decades as a trade-only furniture and fashion showplace. Commercially, it’s a failure. But it’s an architectural gem.

Other especially appealing El destinations include:

- The Baha’i Temple, one of the Chicago area’s most famous landmarks, two blocks east of the Linden Ave, Wilmette, station. One of only seven Baha’i temples in the world, it’s a symphony of pure white concrete reaching skyward in a seven-faceted dome. Visitors are usually welome inside.

- The Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Museum, about 1.25 miles from the end of the Green Line at Oak Park. Look for the Visitor Center near the El terminal; go there for information on other Wright-designed houses in Oak Park. You’ll walk past several en route to Wright’s home.

- Wrigley Field, known as "The World’s Most Beautiful Ballpark", at the Addison stop on the Red Line.

Also on the Red Line, at Argyle, you’ll encounter a station built to evoke an Oriental pagoda. This is the heart of Chicago’s Southeast Asian community, with signs in Vietnamese, Lao and Cambodian and many ethnic restuarants. (The main Korean community is in Albany Park, at the end of the Ravenswood Line.)

Eighteenth St. (Douglas Line) is in the heart of Latino culture.

There are several variations on the $1.50 basic fare ($1.80 for two transfers within two hours). Check at the airport information booth for farecard or multi-day pass options.

Chicago is known as a city of neighborhoods. A ride on "The El" offers a whole new prospective on them. If you can’t ride, at least have a look at the Quincy/Wells station, rebuilt to appear much as it did 70 years ago.

Just the name of the street --- Astor --- conveys an image of prestige and power. Indeed, Astor St. WAS the home of many of turn-of-the-century Chicago’s wealthiest families, and some of their mansions still stand. Strolling past them is a great way of unwinding after a day of power shopping on Michigan Ave.

The southernmost block of Astor St. now contains many high-rise condos and isn’t as attractive as it used to be. So, let’s start our walking tour at Division St. and North State Parkway and admire a mansion with a different sort of notoriety: The conjoined buildings at 1336-1340 N. State are the former Playboy Mansion --- the late Hiugh Heffner’s infamous "Bunny Hutch".

Continue north to Schiller and turn toward the lake. At the intersection of Schiller and Astor is the Charnley House, built in 1892 by the firm of Louis Sullivan, an employer and mentor of Frank Lloyd Wright. Walk north along Astor and imagine yourself living in one of the magnificent old greystones you’ll pass. The Patterson-McCormick Mansion, 1500 Astor, is an even statelier example of Prairie School design. (The "McCormick" was Cyrus R., who reaped a fortune from inventing the first successful mechanical grain harvester.) This isn’t a Wright building, but there are several of his works --- including his own home --- in nearby Oak Park.

Admire the parkway gardens --- gardening is a competitive sport here --- as you continue north to The Cardinal’s Residence. This angular brick mansion, with nearly a score of chimneys, has been the official residence of Chicago’s Roman Catholic archbishops for a century and a half. In the late 1970s, I watched the then-Pope address congregants from its balcony.

If it’s a pleasant day, you can enjoy magnicient views of Navy Pier, the north end of the Magnificent Mile, and the Chicago skylne by walking a block east to the lake, through a pedestrian underpass beneath Outer Lake Shore Drive, and as far out as you care to venture onto the breakwater at North Ave. Beach.

The quirky Museum of Surgical Science is in the 1500 block of Inner Lake Shore drive, just south of the pedestrian underpass. It normally charges admission to its collection of centuries-old medical tools and memorabilia, but is free on Tuesdays.

You can walk back along the lakefront seawall to Michigan Ave. or swing back west through the Gold Coast for some garden-walking.

Chicago’s Latin motto, Urbs in Horto means "City in a Garden." Some of Chicago’s finest private gardens are along North Dearborn Parkway, a block west of State and the Cardinal’s Residence. You can follow Dearborn back to Division St. and catch a subway train back to the Loop, or, better yet, turn back north and visit Lincoln Park

Chicago’s Michigan Avenue has long been known as one of the world’s premiere power-shopping venues. As other cities built sprawling mega-malls in outlying suburbs, "Boul Mich." developers introduced the vertical mall: six to eight balconies of upscale shops surrounding a soaring central atrium. The first -- and in my opinion, still the most attractive -- is Water Tower Place, a block north of Chicago Avenue and across from an ornate limestone pumping station which, like the water tower it primed, survived the Chicago fire.

Others, attractive in the their ways but not as successful commercially, are at 700 and 900 North Michigan. All are worth a visit.

The newest entry, North Bridge, isn’t a high-rise like the earlier towers. Instead, it extends across Rush St. and Grand Ave. to fill a full city block, adding new glitz and glamor to the area just north of the Chicago River. It’s anchored by Nordstrom’s, but offers many other high-end shops.

If you have young children with you, take them to the amazing Lego showroom on the 2nd level at North Bridge. (If you have adult children with you, take them instead to the Billy Goat Tavern, a subterrainean lair populated largely by Chicago newspaper people -- Mike Royko and other legendary reporters are said to have often enjoyed beer and "cheee-sah borgers" here. Ask the barkeep or regulars about the original Billy’s famous "hex" on the Chicago Cubs.

Next to, and across the street from, North Bridge are two of Chicago’s most magnificent buildings: the almost-pure-white Wrigley Building and the stately, Gothic, elegantly-oramented Tribune Tower. To touch some pieces of world history, walk along the tower’s north and south walls; they’re embedded with bricks, stones and other artifacts from ancient temples, significant buildings and other historic achievements: a rock from the site of the Pilgrims’ landing, for example.

Follow the River

In the 1990’s, Chicago finally started capitalizing on the scenic value of its downtown river. Wacker Drive, the convenient but crumbling double-deck riverfront thoroughfare, has been dismantled and completely rebuilt. Upper Wacker Drive had long been a pleasant and attractive walk. Now, there’s also a water-level promenade with several upscale restaurants.

(How many of you knew there was an underground auto route from the Post Office south and west of the Loop to North Michigan Avenue?)

Walking is even better now that attention has also been paid toward beautifying the riverfront east of Michigan Ave -- long neglected. But for a relaxing alterative, try the Wendella WaterBus. It used to cost $1 and run only on weekdays during "rush hour". Now it costs $2, but operates all-day, every day. And, the route has been extended. Once operating only between Madison St. and Michign Ave, it now continues east to the popular Tavern on the Pier in the East River development, just a quarter-mile or so from Navy Pier. Seniors ride for $1 each way; adults can buy a round trip for $3.

At the north end of Chicago’s Gold Coast, where Dearborn Parkway meets North Avenue, you’ll encounter a splendid, block-long rectangular garden. In season, it features native Illinois prairie grasses and flowers, as well as the traditional decorative annuals and is cultivated entirely by volunteers. Inviting walkways on either side lead walkers, bicyclists, and baby-stroller pushers northward to the foot of an imposing statue of a standing Abraham Lincoln. Beyond Old Abe, through tunnels under LaSalle Drive, lies a park stretching nearly four miles along the shore of Lake Michigan and past the North Side’s yacht harbors. This is the grand entrance to Chicago’s Lincoln Park.

Its free attractions include the highly-regarded Lincoln Park Zoo, a replica of a working farm where your kids can pet Nanny Goat’s kids, and the Lincoln Park Conservatory, a delight that many tourists -- and Chicagoans -- overlook. The large building at the park’s far south end is the Chicago Historical Society, which normally charges admission but is free on Mondays. At Fullerton Ave, north of the Zoo, the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. a relatively new attraction to the Chicago scene, also has one free day a week (Thursdays).

On spring and fall evenings, you may see a rugby match or, at least, a rugby team at practice on the athletic fields at the park’s far south end.

The Elephants Return!

The Zoo is currently in a state of transition. A new multimillion dollar exhibit,the Regenstein African Experience, is due to open May 22. The elephants, which had been loan to other zoos for more than two years, return in triumph to join giraffes, rhinos, meerkats, warthogs, crocodiles, and other African species in surroundings designed to give visitors an illusion of walking through the animals’ natural habitat.

The flamingo pond, pictured below, is also being renovated, with a new shelter to make the tropical birds more comforatable -- and visible -- during Chicago winters.

This year, unfortunately, you WON’T be able to see Lincoln Park Zoo’s world-class collection of chimpanzees, baboons, and great apes. All are on loan to other zoos while ours builds a new, larger, and more nature-like habitat and research center.

Don’t Overlook the Conservatory!

Known for its spectacular lily and orchid shows, the Lincoln Park Conservatory presents a different exhibition every 40 days or so. This is a marvelous and relaxing respite from hours on your feet in the adjacent zoo; there are benches where you can sit and rest in the midst of a jungle of 50-foot tall ferns. No admission charge ever.

For refreshments or a full meal try the hugely popular Cafe Brauer, on a lagoon between the Farm in the Zoo and the main Zoo. Society folk often use the upstairs hall for wedding or charity receptions.

To return downtown after your Lincoln Park tour, catch a southbound bus at the stop in front of the Zoo’s main gate.

Begun as a weekend-only, summer-only experiment by Lincoln Park merchants and a corporate sponsor, the Chicago Free Trolley has evolved into a seven-day-a-week, multiple-route service under the Chicago Dept. of Transportation.

The "trolleys" -- just gussied-up mini-buses, but oh so nostalgic -- now circulate daily between the Grand/State subway stop and Navy Pier. On weekends only, trolleys also shuttle between North and South Michigan Avenue, the Planetarium, Aquarium and Lakefront Museum Campus, and the Roosevelt Road El/Subway station. Other weekend-only routes connect Union Station and the Ogilvie Transportation Center (Old North Western Station) with the "Mag Mile" and museums. From Memorial Day through Labor Day, the entire system is due to operate daily.

Ironically, the Lincoln Park trolley that started it all lost its corporate sponsor and didn’t operate in 2002. Some news reports have had it that the service could resume -- if only on weekends -- in Summer 2003. No confirmation as yet, to my knowledge. If it does run, you’ll be able to reach it from the Red or Brown El lines.

Alas, "free" doesn’t necessarily mean "convenient". The trolleys run only once every 20-30 minutes and, especially on weekends, tend to be overcrowded. Stops are limited; look for the distinct signs.

METRA’s Weekend Special: Two Days, Five Bucks.

One of the best regional commuter railroads in North America, METRA serves seven counties with off-peak as well as rush-hour trains. It serves visitors a huge bargain: All day Saturday and Sunday, an adult and two children can ride as often as they wish, wherever they wish, for just $5. You can’t cover the entire system; the Orland Park and North Central (Antioch) lines and the McHenry spur don’t operate on weekends. Here are some especially appealing destinations your $5 will take you to:

- The Brookfield Zoo;

- Woodstock, Northeastern Illinois’ antique-hunters’ haven;

- Geneva, an old, historic city on the Fox River;

- Historic Pullman, one of the first great planned industrial communities;

- The Great Lakes Naval Training Center and, in season;

- The Ravinia Music Festival.

METRA trains can also take you to within walking distance of casinos in Elgin, Joliet, and Aurora. The railroad roundhouse at the Aurora station is now a popular celebrity restaurant.

The South Shore Electric line to Dunes Park, Michigan City and South Bend Airport is not part of METRA; you’ll need to buy a separate ticket.

Some Miscellaneous Freebies . . . Some Daily, Some Not:

The Second City, Chicago’s renowned Comedy/Satire/Improv Theater, offers free improv sessions every night after its regular show: Mon-Fri 10:30pm, Sat 1am, Sun 10pm. Wells St, just north of North Ave in Old Town.

Navy Pier: Once underused and undeveloped, Navy Pier has been reborn as one of the city’s hottest entertainment centers. Its Ferris wheel, though nothing like London’s, can be seen from anywhere along the near-downtown lakeshore. Most attractions charge admission, but the pier itself is free. Check out the exhibit of stained glass from all over the world, also free.

The Chicago Cultural Center, Randolph & Michigan, offers a varying selection of free exhibits, musical events and workshops throughout the year. It’s the former Chicago Public Library, an architectural gem.

The Chicago Historical Society normally charges $5 for adults and $3 for seniors, but offers free admission every Monday. North Ave at Clark St in the far southwest corner of Lincoln Park.

The Terra Museum of American Art is offering free admission every day through June 30, to celebrate its 15th anniversary on North Michigan Ave. After June 2003, admission reverts to $7, but veterans and teachers always enter free. 664 N. Michigan.

The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum offers free admission every Thursday, 9am-4:30pm. Cannon Drive, across Fullerton from the Lincoln Park Zoo and Conservatory.