04Mar
Looking for a good meal along with friendly entertainment?
Chicago’s Luxbar offers a delicious dinner held in a relaxed setting. The exquisite restaurant offers a menu full of your favorite bar and grill foods. Then, after dinner you can attend the Luxbar’s “Chicago Dueling Pianos,” located upstairs, where two pianists will battle it out for your enjoyment. The Luxbar is open daily, Monday – Friday from 11am-12am and Saturday & Sunday from 8am-12am. The dueling pianists perform every thursday night from 9pm-12am.
USE YOUR UPASS: From UIC’s Student Center East, arrive at the UIC Halsted blue line stop, take the blue line towards O’Hare departing at Monroe, switch over to the red line towards Howard and depart on Chicago, and walk north on State St. arriving to Bellevue. Directions found on Google Maps.
18Feb
Need to go shopping? Out of cash? Don’t worry, I have just the thing for you!
From now until March 6, The Free Store will be open at Gallery 400. That’s right, everything in the store is free! You can find anything from clothes to music and even furniture. The store takes item donations from their customers, so you can bring anything you’re done using and they will be happy to find it a new home.
Check out The Free Store’s website for store hours and pictures.
http://freestorechicago.org/
USE YOUR U-PASS: The store is only a mile away, but, if you aren’t up for walking in the winter weather, you can take the 8 bus north to Van Buren St then walk west down Van Buren to Peoria St. Here are directions from Google Maps.
When you get back, let me know what cool things you found when you were shopping!
05Feb
Welcome back! To kick off your new year, try exploring the fine arts of Chicago.
The National Museum of Mexican Art is opening a new exhibit on February 12. The exhibit is called Translating Revolution: U.S. Artists Interpret Mexican Muralists. The exhibit will display beautiful Mexican murals and explain how the murals have influenced U.S. artists and culture.
The museum is free and the exhibit will only be at the museum until August 1 of this year, so don’t miss out!
USE YOUR U-PASS: The museum is only a couple of bus rides away. Check out Google Maps for directions.
http://www.nationalmuseumofmexicanart.org/
17Dec
Like all students, U-PASSPORT is taking a break for the holidays. Look for all new content in the Spring.
Information on U-PASS pickup for the spring can be found here.
10Nov
While U-PASSPORT encourages everyone to visit Pilsen and Greektown and Chinatown, most students have probably already experienced those cuisines before college. For a truly unique experience, everyone should have Ethiopian food at least once.
Ethiopian food is served ‘family-style’ and generally eaten without silverware. The platters (some are even vegetarian) are eaten with injera, a sort of bread/pancake/naan edible-utensil. Most of the entrees are of the stew variety.
U-PASSPORT has only been to one of the very few Ethiopian restaurants in the city, Ethiopian Diamond. Interestingly, all of the options in Chicago appear to be on the far north side…Rogers Park, Edgewater, even Evanston. Metromix has a listing of all of your options. Ethiopian Diamond was great, and we hear good things about Addis Abeba.
USE YOUR U-PASS: Pick your spot and use Google Maps. The Red Line is probably going to be your best friend on this trip.
29Oct
Everyone knows that Chicago wasa hotbed for Jazz and, especially, Blues back in the day. Those of you who spend any time on South Campus see some of the landmarks and statues all the time. Now, through December 15, the DuSable Museum of Afican American History is giving museum-goers a chance to experience some of the clubs that thrived on the south side in the 30s, 40s, and 50s.
The clubs at 47th Street no longer exist, but DuSable has some of the artifacts in their display.
The museum isn’t free, but it’s generally really inexpensive. Check the website for details depending on time and day.
USE YOUR U-PASS: There’s a few ways to get here, including the Halsted Bus and the Green Line. Listen to Google Maps.
DuSable Museum
16Oct
Miss the old haunted houses you used to go with your high school friends? Chicago doesn’t offer a lot of haunted houses, but one of the most frightening (and seemingly most expensive) does exist just a train ride away from campus.
The folks behind Hades (one of Chicago’s best haunted houses) in Palatine have opened ‘Chronicles of the Cursed: Hades Emerges.’ on Grand Ave. The website is scary enough…good luck in the actual house. Admission is $20 and runs through Halloween. Make sure to check the website as it’s not open every day.
If you’re the scared type and just looking for a pumpkin, you’re probably out of luck trying to take the ‘L’ to pumpkin patch. Your best bet is a local grocery store.
USE YOUR U-PASS: Red Line-Grand & State, exit and walk 8 blocks West
Blue Line-Grand & Halsted, exit and walk 3 blocks East
Green Line-Clinton & Lake, exit and walk North on Clinton 2 blocks, go left on Kinzie for 1 block, go right at Jefferson and walk 1 block to Jefferson and Grand Ave. Or follow what Google says.
Chronicles of the Cursed
25Sep
Have a bike and enjoy riding in huge packs? The Chicago Critical Mass may be for you. The mass meets every last Friday of the month (TODAY), and takes a bike ride around the city with a large number of strangers. Read all about the purpose of the mass here.
Apparently, this can be a pretty exhilarating experience and a great way to see the city, but U-PASSPORT has never partaken. Maybe in October.
The ride always starts at Daley Plaza downtown. For those of you nearby, you might just ride over there, but for everyone else, a CTA bus is a great way to transport your bike. You can also bring your bike on trains, but not during rush hours, so 5:30 isn’t a great time to try and use a train with your bike.
USE YOUR U-PASS: It’s often a 10-15 mile bike ride, so you might want to take the bus to get there. Make sure you use directions that have a bus, not a train.
25Sep
Where do you go with your U-PASS? Let us know in the comments, and some of the best ideas could win prizes.
17Sep
This sign is your key to hot dog heaven.
Most would say that there’s little special about a hot dog. They eat hot dogs in Arizona and in Connecticut. They eat hot dogs in Europe. Despite the commonality of the hot dog, there’s nowhere that does it like Chicago does.
In Chicago, the hot dog is a delicacy untarnished by ketchup and created meticulously.
For a true Chicago experience, you want your hot dog to look exactly like the one pictured on the left. Generally, any establishment with that Vienna Beef sign will do the trick.
To experience some of the more famous (and more unique) Chicago hot dog spots, check out this article on the Passionate Eater, and use Google Maps for some U-PASS directions.
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