Nobu Hotel Chicago

Worth getting out of bed for

It’s almost too easy to spend the better part of your trip at Nobu Hotel Chicago, sipping on junmai as though it’s water and getting your fill of yellowtail nigiri. It would, however, be hard to resist witnessing a game night at the nearby United Center, home to Chicago Blackhawks (ice hockey) and Chicago Bulls (basketball), two teams as important to local life as a snappy, onion-topped hot-dog. This being the city that birthed the skyscraper, it’s also difficult to miss the high-rise highlights all around: the seminal 330 North Wabash, overseen by Mies van der Rohe, is a 52-floor glass-and-steel construction that lords it over the Chicago River and is the ultimate expression of the famous architect’s ‘less is more’ philosophy; and Studio Gang’s Aqua Tower features a rippling facade that adds movement to the skyline. If you’re a little fatigued by Nobu’s nikkei cuisine, food for thought can be found at the MCA – exhibitions here are often provocative, place equal emphasis on promising talent and established names (debuts have included Frida Kahlo’s first solo show in the United States, and Jeff Koons' first solo museum exhibition), and blur the boundaries between mediums and genres. If you’re left trying to make some sense of it all afterwards, clear your head around the 606, a 2.7-mile-long elevated trail that features running, walking and cycling paths, all of which tie together four neighbourhoods (Humboldt Park, Wicker Park, Bucktown and Logan Square). And then head to Humboldt Park for patches of wild grass, a boat house, an in-land beach, and a lagoon that was the one-time home of an alligator named Chance the Snapper. And, of course, your Chicago stay won’t really have been complete without your bean-there-done-that picture in front of the world’s most famous kidney-shaped sculpture.

Local restaurants

Even though it’s bookended by Los Angeles and New York, two cities that are considered the finest dining destinations in America, and despite being largely – and sometimes wrongly – famous for its gooey, deep-dish pies, Chicago is home to some of the world’s most innovative restaurants. At Alinea, chef Grant Achatz puts together theatrical dishes of almost unimaginable creativity: helium-filled, apple-flavoured balloons float while you bite into them; there’s a see-through pumpkin pie that’s as transparent as a politician’s lie; and a dessert of blueberries and liquid nitrogen-frozen chocolate mousse is splashed and smashed across the table in a way that Jackson Pollock would approve of. Erick Williams’ Virtue dials down the sleights of hand but is no less noteworthy – the Southern-influenced dishes here have included catfish with Carolina Gold rice and barbecued carrots, and smoked turkey with stewed collard greens. And it would be a fool’s errand to attempt eating your way through all of restaurant row in a single trip; if short on time, contemporary American restaurant Girl & the Goat, whose must-order whole branzino and Flinstone-style lamb ribs are flavoured by heat and smoke in the wood-fired oven, is a Chicago essential.

Local bars

Cocktail bar Moonflower attracts the city’s tastemakers with its use of offbeat ingredients: the Kiss & Tell incorporates Milkis (a Korean milk soda); the sweet and addictive Seeing Green blends matcha-sweetened condensed milk with Jinro soju and vodka; and we’ll go on the record to say that the Off the Record (Old Forester rye, raspberry Goldsaft syrup, pear brandy and bitters) is a nightcap we frequently return to. The team behind Alinea continues its madcap thinking at the Aviary, where the drinks are prepared and served in lab-style vessels. Downstairs is the Office, the type of all-leather, speakeasy-style bar that brings to mind Chicago’s Al Capone days (albeit with less of the clandestine dealings).