Chicago

North Clinton, Estate of the Day

Filed under: Estates

Today's home in Chicago was custom built for its current owners who created a lovely urban luxury home. Modern features that will delight the homeowner include a four-car heated garage, a Crestron smart home system, wine cellar and a large media room. The great room overlooks the patio which includes a built in barbecue. The home has six bedrooms. There are four stories total and a garage roofdeck and penthouse deck that offer amazing views and substantial outdoor entertaining space. This home is listed at $4.495 million with Koenig & Strey.

Gallery: North Clinton

Tags: chicago, chicago real estate, estate of the day, illinois real estate

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Top 10 Luxurious Adventures of 2010 -- And How to Perfect 'Em in 2011

by Alison Wellner (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

When people ask me for luxury travel advice, usually along the lines of "I want to plan a perfect trip to XYZ," I have two responses: a) there ain't no such thing as perfect in this world, no matter how much money you spend; and, b) you always know exactly how to make a trip as perfect as possible after you get home.

Still, the following trips I made in 2010 pleased me greatly, which is basically what I count as sublime perfection -- and should you plan to follow in my footsteps in 2011, note the tips I've added for making terrific travel even better.

Tags: australia, BedAndBreakfast, bestof2010, chicago, cruise, FrenchPolynesia, melbourne, montreal, Morocco, NovaScotia, ontario, PaulGauguin, PuertoRico, shakespeare, sonoma, tasmania

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Swing Into the New Year at Chicago's Hotel Palomar

by Alison Wellner (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining, Luxury Travel & Hotels

If there's any time of year that can bring on a yearning for nostalgia, it's this one. But not everyone wants to take a step back into their own past at the holidays -- sometimes it's just more fun to go back even further, like into another era.

So how do the 1940s grab you? In Chicago, Sable Kitchen & Bar at the Hotel Palomar is hosting Zoot! New
Years Eve 2011. It's an homage to the era of Swing...and not, of course, to all the other horrendous things that happened worldwide in the 1940s...but this is no time for glum thoughts, just dig out your best vintage to rock out to a nine-piece swing band "The Pin Ups", bottomless champagne bar all night long, unlimited small plates from 8 to 11 pm (if they're serving their truffled deviled eggs you'll definitely want to forget all about your waistline), unlimited dessert from 11 pm to 1 am, and all the other usual trimmings of the New Year's Eve gala. Cost: $125 per person, including tax and gratuity.

It'd totally break the spell to drive anywhere in your modern wheels, and so if you and your main queen (or king) crash at the hotel that night, you get two tickets to the party and the room for $419. Just don't get startled out of your nostalgic reverie by the instant-dryer in the hotel's jacuzzi tubs -- they do click on without much warning.

Better still is to go elite, and reserve the VIP Sable Swing Lounge for the 'NYE Anti-Prix Fixe' Dinner. You and your closest nine friends get to create your own dinner menu in a private dining room. The tab: $250 per person.

Tags: chicago, new years eve, swing

Chagall Windows Go Back On Display In Chicago

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art

November 1 marks the return of Marc Chagall's America Windows to the Art Institute of Chicago. The popular exhibit underwent conservation and research treatment the past five years. The stained- glass windows commemorate the American Bicentennial and first debuted at the Art Institute in 1977. They also appeared in the movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off.: The windows are now the centerpiece for a presentation of public art in the Rubloff Auditorium.

The Art Institute website tells the story of the windows. It began in the early 1970s, when Chagall came to the city as part of his work on the mosaic installed outside Chase Tower, The Four Seasons. He offered to create a set of stained-glass windows for the museum and worked on the six-panel work which celebrates the America as a place of cultural and religious freedom. He dedicated the work to Mayor Richard J. Daley. Admission to the institute is $18

[via Chicago Tribune]

Tags: Art Institute of Chicago, chagall, chagall windows, chicago, marc chagall, windows

VIDEO: How NOT to Test Drive a $1.25 Million Bugatti

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Video

There's a right and a wrong way to test drive a Bugatti Veyron. The right way: crank it up past 200 mph on the Autobahn with a coked-out supermodel riding shotgun. The wrong way: back it into a Corolla two minutes after taking the wheel. Here we have a demonstration of the wrong way, courtesy of some hapless schmuck in Chicago with good credit but lousy driving skills. It seems the unfortunate fellow was test driving a $1.25 million 2008 black-and-white Veyron 16.4 with a brown leather interior at Chicago's Bentley Gold Coast when he clipped an idling Toyota for no apparent reason while backing out of the dealership. He then proceeded to scrape up the Veyron's front bumper on the pavement while pulling forward to extricate himself. All in all he caused an estimated $30,000 worth of damage, or enough for a couple of brand new Corollas. Adding insult to injury he didn't even buy the Bugatti.

[via JamesList]

Tags: Bugatti, Bugatti Veyron, car crash, Chicago, Veyron, video

Florsheim Mansion, Estate of the Day

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates

Today's home is a rather unique offering, an 11-room mansion on Chicago's Gold Coast. The Chicago Tribune reported that the mansion was designed by architect Andrew Rebori and later modified by architect Bertrand Goldberg. It was built in 1938 and known as the Florsheim mansion. The five bedroom home and separate guest house were linked in the 1950s by a long galley-style kitchen. The current owner paid $2.23 million to purchase the mansion in 2006 from then-Museum of Contemporary Art director Robert Fitzpatrick.

The home is broken into a number of innovative spaces. After you come in through the outer archway you enter into the office adjoined by the reception room featuring the signature Rebori glass block wash room and overlooking a garden and patio. The second level has an east-facing living room with fireplace and window overlooking State Street and Lake Michigan. The media room is adjoined with the two story family room. On the third floor there are three bedrooms with adjoining Ribori-style bathrooms. This property is listed at $2.5 million.

Gallery: Florsheim Mansion

Tags: chicago, chicago real estate, estate of the day, illinois real estate

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L20: Chicago's Answer for Seafood from Around the World

by Carrie Coolidge (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining, Wine, Art

L20 in Chicago is nominated for a Luxist Award for Best Seafood Restaurant

Located in an historic building in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago, L20 is a modern seafood restaurant. Launched in 2008 by star chef Laurent Gras and Richard Melman of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, the restaurant is a worthy nominee for a Luxist Award for Best Seafood restaurant.

Gras, who hails from France, previously worked with such celebrity chefs as Alain Ducasse and Guy Savoy before coming to the U.S. in 1997 to take the helm of Peacock Alley at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. At L20, Gras draws from a repertoire of modern and traditional cooking with artful compositions. His ingredients come from all over the world, such as Spanish octopus from the Galicia region of Spain, hirame from the Kinki prefecture of Japan and codfish from Maine. Tai snapper is shipped twice a week all the way from New Zealand. L20 is one of the only restaurants in the U.S. that features Kindai blue fin tuna, which is sustainable and produced by Kinki University Fisheries Culture and Nursery Center in Japan.

Gallery: L20 in Chicago

Tags: awards-main, Best Seafood, Best Seafood restaurant, Chicago, L20, Laurent Gras, Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, Licoln Park, luxist-awards, Richard Melman

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Want to Be a Billionaire? First, Get a Harvard Degree

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wealth

Obviously you don't have to have a degree from Harvard in order to become a billionaire – but it certainly helps. According to Forbes' new ranking of universities with the highest number of billionaire alums, Harvard thrashes the competition with a record 62 billionaire grads to its credit – more than double the total of the #2 ranked school, Stanford. A whopping 62 Harvard grads are worth $1 billion or more this year, up from 54 last year. Yale clocks in at No. 5 on the list of the top 10 with 16 billionaire alums, while Princeton barely makes the cut at all, coming out tied for last place with Cornell with 9. Notable billionaire Harvard grads include New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Citadel founder Kenneth Griffin, Meg Whitman of eBay and David Rockefeller Sr. Worth noting: an Ivy League degree isn't necessarily better, and Forbes points out that on last year's Forbes 400 list, at least 41 billionaires did not have a college degree at all. Check out the full list of the top 10 after the jump:

Tags: billionaire, billionaires, Chicago, Columbia University, Cornell, education, Harvard, Ivy League, Massachusetts, Meg Whitman, Michael Bloomberg, Princeton, Stanford, the rich, universities, University of Pennsylvania, wealth, Yale

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NYC Named America's Richest City With Over 650,000 Millionaires

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wealth

New York has been named America's richest city with a record 667,000 high-net worth individuals, or people with $1 million or more in investible assets, recorded as living there in 2009. The figure, 18.7% higher than in 2008, comes from the new Metro Wealth Index created by consulting firm Capgemini, the Wall St. Journal reports. New York not only topped the list but demolished the competition, with a sum greater than the total of the next three runners up combined – Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington. The number of millionaires in New York City – some of whom are of course billionaires – is now greater than the entire population of Boston. While growth is up across the board over 2008, only New York, D.C. (#4), Houston (#9) and San Jose (#10) are now above their 2007 or pre-recession levels, with the rest still languishing behind.

Tags: Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, millionaires, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, San Jose, Washington, wealth

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Jamie Dimon's Slow Seller, Estate of the Day

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates

How does JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon live? Quite well, thank you very much. We first checked out his home on Chicago's Gold Coast last year but a new listing offers a deeper look at Dimon's well-decorated environs. His eight-bedroom home was built in 1870 but has been lavishly adapted for the modern executive. The home is spread out over four stories and includes a 900-square-foot rooftop terrace outfitted with ample seating in both sun and shade. There is a second floor master suite, wine vault, an elegant gold and eggplant media room and gym decorated with sports memorabilia and crowned with a starry dome.

Dimon has been the CEO and president of JP Morgan since 2005 and has been an integral part of overseeing the $25 billion in TARP funds that JPMorgan Chase received. He hasn't lived in the Gold Coast home since 2004. He bought the home in 2000 for $4.68 million and originally put it on the market several years ago for $13.5 million. It was at $10.5 million when we checked it out last year but had a price cut earlier this year to $9.5 million. The only property listed for more in the area is Bill Wrigley Jr.'s raw penthouse space.

Gallery: 25 East Banks

Tags: chicago, chicago real estate, estate of the day, illinois real estate, jamie dimon, JP Morgan, jp morgan chase

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Win $10,000 For Spending A Month At A Museum

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

A night at the museum? How about a whole month! The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago is holding a unique contest to give one winner the chance to spend a month at the museum and win $10,000. The winner of the contest will stay at the MSI from October 20 to November 18.

This is another social media contest like similar ones that we have seen before where the winner goes to work for a winery or an exotic locale. This time the winner will be responsible for reporting to the world about the scientific goings on at the museum. The contest website says that the candidate must be willing to "live and breathe science 24/7 for 30 days." The winner will have private sleeping quarters. For completing the task, the prize is $10,000, a package of tech gadgets and an honorary lifetime membership to MSI.

The applications are by August 11. The application is detailed on the museum website and includes a 60-second video, a 500-word essay, an application form and a 5"x7" headshot.

[via Huffington Post]

Tags: chicago, job contest, month at the museum, msi, musuem of science and industry

Allen Brothers: Where Some of the Best-Known Steakhouses Get Their Meat

by Carrie Coolidge (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining, Services

Ever wonder where some of the nation's best-known steakhouses get their meat? Restaurants including Morton's The Steakhouse, Gene & Georgetti, Charlie Trotter's, Emeril's Chop House, Lawry'sThe Prime Rib and others have long relied on Allen Brothers for the USDA Prime beef and other fine meats on which their reputations depend.

Chicago-based Allen Brothers is a nominee for a Readers' Choice Award for Best Online Meat, and it is easy to understand why. A fourth-generation family-owned company, with its origins in the heart of Chicago's fabled Union Stockyards, Allen Brothers is known for its "best of the best" USDA Prime aged beef and as the home of "The Great Steakhouse Steaks." Meats are hand-selected, meticulously aged by proprietary methods and hand-cut by master butchers. Both dry-aged and wet-aged beef steaks are available.

Gallery: Allen Brothers: The Great Steakhouse Steaks

Its Wet-Aged and Dry-Aged products are Grain/Corn Fed, while its Pintades/Poulet Fermier Breasts are Free Range. Its veal comes from humanely-raised calves that are never given growth hormones or antibiotics.

Allen Brothers' partnership with Emeril Lagasse, is responsible for Red Marble Steaks, which is a highly marbled beef. Allen Brothers also offers an impressive line of Kobe Wagyu Beef products, from filet mignon and strip steaks to Korean beef short ribs and Wagyu steak burgers.

Tags: Allen Brothers, awards-main, best online meat, Chicago, emeril lagasse, luxist-awards, steak

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Chicago Gourmet Steaks: A Reputation at Steak

by Carrie Coolidge (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining, Services

Chicago Gourmet Steaks is a nominee for a Readers' Choice Award for Best Online Meat Company.

Chicago Gourmet Steaks has ties back to 1919 and the Chicago Union Stockyards. Its parent company was an icon in the Chicago Union Stockyards. Lincoln Meat Co. was created in 1919 and operated as a beef slaughterhouse through the peak and decline of the Chicago Union Stockyards, and was actually the last beef slaughterhouse in the city of Chicago. Chicago Gourmet Steaks was created and was one of the first few mail order steak company's.

Chicago Gourmet Steaks hand selects primal cuts of beef from quality corn-fed Midwestern cattle. Its corn-fed, Midwestern beef is USDA inspected and naturally aged for 18-21 days for exceptional taste and ultimate tenderness. No water, fillers, preservatives, chemicals or coloring are ever used. Its expert butchers carefully cut the steak, exactly to a customer's order specifications.

Gallery: Chicago Gourmet Steaks

Steaks are individually packaged in an air-tight vacuum sealed poly bag. Steaks are then flash-frozen to lock in freshness and flavor. Finally, the steaks are carefully boxed and placed in a cooler with dry-ice, and shipped.

Orders can be placed online or by calling (800) 997-8325.

Vote for the Online Meat Company that you believe is the best of breed. The voting period runs through July 31 and winners will be announced on August 1.

Tags: awards-main, best online meat, chicago, Chicago Gourmet Steaks, luxist-awards, steak

Chicago Beach Polo Kicks Off in September

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Events, Sports

Back in May we reported that the organizers of the annual Miami Beach Polo World Cup were planning to bring the sandy sport to Chicago for the first time ever. Now it's becoming a reality, with the first Chicago Beach Polo World Cup set to take place Sept. 10 – 12th at North Ave. Beach in a new custom-built outdoor arena. Given the time of year it may not be bikini weather so don't look for the Chicago version to pack Miami's sex appeal, but there are still plenty of opportunities for conspicuous consumption and ostentatious fun. Polo itself is not new to Chicago; the first Chicago Polo Club was formed in 1895, though interest had waned in recent decades. "When speaking with friends and fellow players, I knew Chicago was going to be a great place to bring polo," the event's co-founder Marcos Lopez says. "It's really been here for a while, just hibernating. The City of Chicago and the surrounding suburbs used to have a lot of competitive players, games, and fans. We just want to bring that back."

Tags: beach, beach polo, Chicago, Chicago Beach Polo, equestrian, horses, illinois, Miami Beach, Midwest, polo

Patron Tequila Introduces "The Art of the Drink"

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Spirits

Inspired by the number of fresh, mixable ingredients available in the warmer months, Patrón, the world's #1 ultra-premium tequila, is inaugurating a new series called The Art of the Drink dedicated to re-thinking the elements that make up the perfect summer cocktail. For the first installment in the new series, Patrón reached out to mixologists and bar chefs across the country to re-imagine the classic margarita and examine the perfect balance of salty and sweet that has made it one of America's favorite cocktails. Kyle Fountaine, the mixologist at Blackbird in Chicago, created the Rubia Bonita (below, left), re-examining the sour element of the margarita with unripe strawberries, and adding cilantro, lime juice and orange bitters to showcase the balanced flavor of Patrón Silver tequila (above, middle).

Tags: Chicago, cocktail, cocktails, margarita, mixology, New York, Patron, Patron tequila, summer cocktails, tequila

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