After a long interlude, I now have another guest post to share from one of my Team members. This post comes from John Costa, our team’s Director of Marketing. While John spends his days spearheading the print and online marketing of our client’s properties, today, he’s offering up some advice on how to make the most of Christmas in Chicago.

Christmas in Chicago

Lights on palmetto trees. Playing a quick nine holes of golf. Wearing shorts in December. While this was Christmas as usual for me when I lived in Charleston, South Carolina, it didn’t feel truly like the holiday season to a New Jersey native such as me. So, when I moved to Chicago two years ago, I looked forward to enjoying “Northern” Christmases once again.

With so many holiday offerings in the city, I thought it would be helpful to provide a short list of some of the best ways to take in the season in Chicago. Here’s my picks:

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Chicago may be best known for its Chicago-style hot dogs and deep dish pizza, but the Windy City can also brew an impressive cup of Joe as well.

In fact, the latest edition of the food and wine magazine Saveur highlights some of the best coffees in the world - and two of the top picks are Chicago-based brands (San Rafael Lot 1 from Metropolis Coffee Company and Hacienda La Esmeralda from Intelligentsia Coffee and Tea).

And if there’s anyone who appreciates good coffee it’s the Ames family. My own sister, fellow Realtor Nathalie Ames, founded her own coffee shop in Mesa, Colorado after finding the area to be nearly devoid of coffee venues. Now, in a place where the nearest Starbucks is 18 miles away, Mesa has a wonderful boutique coffee shop in Nathalie’s Blink Coffee.

Thankfully, here on Chicago’s North Side, one need not go to such extremes to get great coffee. In fact, even though Starbucks is still the most (in)famous name in town, there is still a rich offering of small chain and independent coffee shops here as well. Below are some that offer both the best ambience and the best coffee and tea.

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Halloween may be a one day event in some parts of the country, but here in Chicago, there’s nearly a month’s worth of parades, haunted houses, pumpkin carvings, fun runs, spooky mazes, and other events dedicated to the holiday. Many of these events are cheap (or free), are geared towards children, and don’t involve the ingestion of mass amounts of candy. In others words, they make for good, wholesome family outings.

The Chicago Parks District has a list of all their Halloween offerings, and About.com has a good general summary of city-wide events.

For simplicity’s sake, however, I had a Google map made up of all the North Side Halloween events. Use it to find the upcoming events near where you live. Blue markers are Parks District events, red markers are parades, and yellow markers are all other events.

Please click through to the website for each marker to get the most up-to-date information for each event.

View Larger Map

Did I miss any great Chicago Halloween events? Let me know with a comment!

Living in Chicago means witnessing the constant renewal and development of the city. Downtown this often takes the form of grand-scale high-rises like the Trump Tower or the more ambitious Chicago Spire. From my office in the John Hancock Center (a site developed by my grandfather in the ‘60s), I can see the tower cranes looming over The Elysian, a new 60-story hotel/condominium high-rise going up to the west of us.

Icons like these may grab the big headlines, but there are smaller developments underway that are just as exciting for the neighborhoods they affect.

For the residents of Old Town and Lincoln Park, these kinds of projects are on the horizon. Each of them is significant and has the potential to enhance home values in the surrounding area.

Children’s Memorial Hospital Redevelopment

With a $100 million gift from Philanthropist Ann Lurie, Chicago’s top pediatric hospital is building a new state-of-the-art facility in Streeterville. The Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago will be located at 225 E. Chicago Avenue, between Chicago Avenue and Superior Street.

In the meantime, the big question is what will happen with the hospital’s main campus at the corner of Lincoln and Fullerton in the heart of Lincoln Park. The City’s Department of Planning and Development has chosen the firm Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum, Inc. to work with the Alderman’s office on the guidelines for redevelopment of the Children’s site.

If you are interested in learning more about this project, check Alderman Vi Daley’s website next month for details about a community meeting tentatively planned for October. She encourages anyone with an interest in this process to take part in formalizing the community’s view of the future of this large and important site.

New Retail on the 1200 Block of North Wells Street

North Wells Street has long been the retail epicenter of Chicago’s Old Town neighborhood. Host to the country’s first Crate and Barrel store (founded in 1962) and Chicago’s famous improv troupe, Second City, Wells is a popular destination for shopping, dining and entertainment.

A proposal for the development of a mixed use retail and residential property by JDL Development for the existing Grossinger properties on the 1200 block of North Wells at Scott Street has the potential to further improve the caliber of the neighborhood’s retail offerings. The plan includes a taller building on the east side of Wells with retail on the first and second floors, a one- or two-story commercial building on the west side of Wells, and six single-family homes around the corner along Scott Street. Property owners in the area will be notified when the developer submits a “Planned Development Application” to the Department of Planning and Development.  A final hearing will be scheduled before the Plan Commission in the coming months.

600 Block of West Diversey Development

Diversy is the boundary separating Chicago’s Lincoln Park and Lakeview neighborhoods. All of the buildings on the south (Lincoln Park) side of Diversey between Orchard and the alley to the east of Orchard have been acquired by a local development company, creating the potential for one or more large new retail venues. A Barnes & Noble bookstore and a parking lot are currently located on the site.

According to Alderman Vi Daley, several retailers including grocers have expressed an interest in locating in the area. Milwaukee based Roundy’s, a large grocer coming into the Chicago market, was the first to present plans, but nothing has been signed. The Alderman will schedule a community a meeting as soon as a more substantive proposal is offered. Although I frequent that Barnes & Nobel store, a new upscale grocery store in its place would be fantastic for the neighborhood. And anyway, there is always Borders Bookstore which is only a block away at Clark and Diveresy.

A New Chicago Public School High School

One of the greatest challenges faced by families who opt to raise their children in the city is where to send them to school. There are some excellent public school options, but they are limited geographically and in some cases subject to an application and/or lottery. There are also some very strong private and parochial schools but they can be expensive, and again, there are not enough openings to meet the demand. The good news is that the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is considering a proposal to create a new public high school for children who reside in northeast Lincoln Park and south Lakeview.

A community forum will be held on Thursday, September 18^th at 6:00 pm at Louisa May Alcott School (2625 North Orchard) regarding the plan for the Alcott High School for the Humanities (AHSH). Representatives of the CPS system will present their proposal and seek comments. The school’s mission will be to meet the demand for expanded options for 9th through 12th grade students by providing a dynamic small school. Emphasizing solid mentoring towards college and postsecondary success, the new high school “will nurture a student body capable of critical thinking, active citizenship and private contemplation” according to Alderman Daley.

AHSH would be open to all graduates of Louisa May Alcott Elementary School with remaining seats equally divided between neighborhood and city-wide students. View the Chicago Public School locator map to learn the boundaries of the Louisa May Alcott Elementary School.

No location is set for this school as of yet, but it would likely be housed in an existing CPS facility.  New construction is not being considered.

Also, FYI, there may be some additional schools in the city’s future. A community meeting will be hosted by The Office of New Schools on Tuesday, September 16 at 6:00 p.m. at Ogden Elementary School at 24 W. Walton Street to discuss developing new schools in and around Chicago’s 42^nd Ward. (The 42^nd Ward includes parts of Streeterville, the Gold Coast, Old Town, the Loop, River North, and River West.) The public is invited to attend. The city is looking for people to get involved, meet the new school design teams, and provide input for new school ideas. For more information, please call Chicago’s Office of New Schools at (773) 553-1530.

Having young kids has definitely had an impact on my husband’s and my social life. (Social life? What social life?!) The energy we once spent planning elegant cocktail and multicourse dinner events has been redirected toward birthday parties for… well… babies and toddlers! Thankfully, there are some great venues for children’s birthday parties here in Chicago. Here are some of our favorites:

Fantasy Kingdom, located at 1422 N. Kingsbury (just west of Chicago’s Gold Coast), is far and away our favorite children’s birthday party venue. The facilities are well designed and the staff is service-oriented and eager to ensure your event is a success. You can drop your decorations, plates, goodie bags, etc. off in advance and they will have everything set up by the time you arrive. The layout flows well. There is a reception area (perfect for adults to hang out), a fully loaded play area, and a second play area for young babies. The main play area includes costumes, plastic vehicles, pretend rooms, forts with slides, and much more. After the kids run around, explore, discover, etc. in the play area, everyone shifts to a dining area that is outfitted with kid-sized tables as well as high chairs for babies. In the meantime, gifts are collected into a large red wagon and then transferred by the Fantasy Kingdom staff to your car. This venue is perfect for a first birthday right on up through about 6 years old. It can hold a large group but still feels intimate. Private and semi-private options are available.

My Gym, another good option, is located at 1880 W. Fullerton just west of Lincoln Park. Here the emphasis is on physical activity with a neat variety of gymnastic, climbing, jumping, sliding, and swinging equipment. The My Gym staff offered a nice blend of free play combined with organized special activities like circle time stories and taking turns riding the custom swings. Similar to Fantasy Kingdom, the kids take a break for cake; here the changing area is reconfigured and the kids are seated in a single file row which is not quite as nice as sitting around tables (and it does not work for babies).

Windy City Fieldhouse, where we hosted a third birthday party, is located at 2367 W. Logan Boulevard (just west of Lincoln Park). The party was held in a large gym loaded with balls, jump ropes, wheeled carts, and a lot of other fun stuff. The staff attempted to organize some group activities but the space is too big and the kids were too wild to participate. Our gym play was followed by cake upstairs. This aspect of the party was disappointing, as they are just not equipped for a children’s event. There was no advance set up, the tables and chairs are adult sized (too big for toddlers), there was no designated place to collect gifts or layout goodie bags for guests, and when it came time to serve the cake, they did not even have a knife (we struggled to cut our birthday cake with a plastic fork). Unlike Fantasy Kingdom and My Gym where the staff took care of everything, we cut and served the cake ourselves as the staff watched. When the party was over, the staff piled all the gifts into garbage bags, mixing up the gifts and the corresponding cards. There is no doubt the kids had a blast and the gym is pretty amazing, but as parents, we walked away feeling a bit annoyed.

The Kids’ Table is a creative venue that was recommended to me by Kai Schirmacher (Vice President of Residential Sales for my real estate team at Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage) and his wife Amanda. They recently hosted a second birthday party for their daughter here. The party was essentially a group cooking experience for children. The party started with each child decorating their own chef’s hat. They then got to make their own individual-sized birthday cake- from scratch. While the cakes were in the oven, they make fresh-squeezed lemonade and fruit sculptures. After the cakes had cooled, the kids decorated their cakes and ate them. The venue is not too big - perfect for an intimate group. If your kids tire of the real thing, there is also a pretend kitchen loaded with wooden food and cooking equipment standing by!

Finally, if you prefer to host your child’s birthday party at home, then I strongly suggest you consider a “pool party.” We recently attended a first birthday party complete with a water table and two different sized wading pools. The hosts had plenty of baby block, pool diapers and towels on hand. In addition to buckets and bubbles, they provided large professional paint brushes so the kids could “paint” the deck with water. It was a big hit.

Regardless of where you plan to hold your child’s party, there are a few resources that you should know about.

Invitations. I frequent two venues for all my stationary and invitation needs: A Marvelous Party at 2121 N. Clybourn and All She Wrote at 825 W. Armitage. Both offer a superior array of paper goods, but Marvelous Party is a little more service-oriented and you can park for free in the lot shared by Treasure Island Grocery. If you live in the Gold Coast or plan to shop on Michigan Avenue, you might also try The Watermark at 34 E Oak Street. Nancy Gross, the owner of this intimate stationary boutique, is very knowledgeable and service-oriented.

Cupcakes and Cake. Sweet Mandy B’s located at 1208 W. Webster in the heart of Lincoln Park is an old fashioned bakery that draws huge crowds and rave reviews. Their cupcakes are an icon, although they also bake great cakes and cookies. Sweet Mandy B’s will bring out the kid in anyone, regardless of age. My other favorite Chicago bakery (and definitely my first choice as a source for cakes, chocolate, cookies or pastries for adult events) is the House of Fine Chocolate. This third generation family bakery is located in Lakeview on Broadway.

Party Favors. If you are the sort of person who plans ahead, be sure to check out Oriental Trading. They offer an incredibly diverse array of party favors, decorations, and much more!

Enjoy, and be sure to comment with your own favorite venues.

This past week, I had the pleasure of attending an event where I heard Alice Waters speak. Alice is the founder of the Chez Panisse Foundation, a not-for-profit with the mission of promoting “edible education.” Specifically, the Foundation is seeking to change school lunch programs and improve the way we care for the health of our children, our communities and our environment.

The main point Alice raised was her concern over the poor diet that Americans - particularly our children - are adopting. Low quality, highly processed foods are increasingly dominating our meal plans and taking a toll on our health as well as the environment and local economies. Furthermore, the drive-thru dinner is steadily eroding the tradition of the family sit-down meal. Alice summed up this new lifestyle with a bumper sticker she had recently seen: “If we are what we eat, I’m fast, cheap, and easy.”

As a mother raising three children, I was struck by Alice’s presentation. Finding healthier food and the time to prepare “traditional” dinners is an ongoing challenge. Between our hectic work schedules, a desire to squeeze in some exercise, and spending quality time with our kids, my husband and I have minimal time to shop and prepare homemade meals. Dining out or “dialing for dinner” (aka ordering carryout) is a tempting option in a city like Chicago, but as a daily habit, it can be expensive and fattening.

The good news is that - fueled by the organic movement, a new emphasis on buying local, and an increasing desire to eat healthier - more “green” food options are sprouting up in Chicago. Some are more practical than others (raising chickens in backyards being on the ambitious side), but increasingly, there are many tempting options for those looking to buy healthy, local food.

Perhaps greatest among these options are the many Chicago farmers markets. These markets bring more than 70 vendors selling fruits, vegetables, plants, flowers, and canned and baked goods to sites across the city. Most markets take place once a week, but several, including the Green City Market, are open more often.

As a Realtor, I am out on appointments seven days a week. Whenever possible, I try to swing by a farmer’s market between appointments. Just last Saturday, I squeezed in enough time to purchase an armful of corn on the cob as well as Michigan fruit and the ingredients for ratatouille. Saturday night, I cooked and organized and we have been enjoying the fruits of my labor (no pun intended) ever since.

For the epitome of local flavor, the City Farm sells produce grown right in the city on a garden lot at 1204 N. Clybourn. Its crops are often used by local restaurants including the Ritz-Carlton Dining Room.

Of course, the farmers markets are only a seasonal occurrence, which is where storefront markets come in. There are many organic grocers in the city, foremost among which is the Whole Foods Market chain. A portion of their selection is local (defined as shipped from no more than seven hours away), but by definition, out of season products and those that simply won’t grow in Chicago (bananas and pineapples come to mind) arrive from elsewhere. In addition to their six Chicago locations, Whole Foods hosts organic and sustainable cooking classes offsite including two upcoming classes at the Lincoln Park Zoo Farm House this month.

Chicago is home to numerous organic grocers including Newleaf Natural Grocery and True Nature Foods, as well as countless organic juice bars and green-minded restaurants. Sola Restaurant is hosting an organic five-course dining event, their First Annual Green Harvest Dinner, at 6:30 pm on August 11^th.

Of course, if you’d rather cut out the middleman altogether, you can look into planting your own backyard garden, joining a neighborhood garden, or growing produce on a terrace or in a planter box.

The appeal of green food may be coasting on a bit of extra hype these days, but with real benefits in health and taste, it’s not something to dismiss lightly. Plus, if the experience of buying, growing, and cooking green can enrich the lives of you and your family, who can say “no”?

To find the major farmers markets and organic grocers on the North Side, consult the map below. Green markers denote farmers markets and blue ones denote organic grocers. Click the markers to view locations and dates.

View Larger Map

For the 7th year in a row, the Chicago Park District is hosting “Movies in the Parks” - screenings of current and classic movies in more than 170 neighborhood parks throughout the city. The schedule extends well past Labor Day to September 18^th.

The showings are all free, and the lineup includes some nice titles including classics like E.T., Willy Wonka and West Side Story, as well as newer films like The Great Debaters, The Spiderwick Chronicles and Hairspray.

This is really a great event. Everyone brings picnic baskets, blankets and/or lawn chairs and they settle down at dusk to watch the films on giant projection screens. It has all the charm of an old fashioned drive-in movie but without the cost of a ticket and the glare of a car windshield.

My husband, Paul, and I brought our own children to a recent showing of Enchanted in the playfield at Hawthorne School. We only intended to stay through dinner and the opening, pre-film cartoons, but the kids were enjoying themselves so much, we stayed well past their bedtimes until the feature film ended. By the time we left, my boys were covered in dust and dirt, but they had had the time of their lives.

This is a truly wonderful service provided by the parks, and I can’t recommend it enough for locals, especially families with kids. Get out while you can and enjoy the cool night air and this charming way to take in a movie.

Here’s a sampling of upcoming venues. You can preview the citywide schedule here or by calling 312-742-PLAY.

Wicker Park

August 7^th at 8:30 pm- Surf’s Up (PG)

South Lakeview Playground

August 12^th at 8:30 pm - Bee Movie (PG)

Indian Boundary Park

August 13^th at 8:30 pm - West Side Story (NR)

Seward Park

August 14^th at 8:30 pm - The Great Debaters (PG-13)

Trebes Park

August 21^st at 8:30 pm - Bee Movie (PG)

Independence Park

August 23^rd at 9:00 pm - The Spiderwick Chronicles (PG)

Marquette Park

August 24^th at 8:30 pm - Selena (PG)

Jennifer Ames

(312) 440-7525

jenny@jenniferames.com

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