Best Shopping/Stores in Chicago

[cd1]

I know Chicago has been touched on quite a bit in the past, but after searching through all the old threads I have come to find that most are fairly old, and those that do offer shopping tips are hardly specific enough and outdated, most of them just referencing the wicker park area.

And the superfuture guide is extremely sparse

So, I am looking for some specific recommendations/advice/tips/etc on quality shopping in Chicago

thanks

[schmoses]

seems to be a paucity of great spots in the city of wind but choice cuts are:

hejfina(wicker park)-kim jones, comme des garconsshirt, rag & bone, alexandre

herchcovitch, acneJeans, folk, duffer of st george

george greene(oak st)-alexander mcQueen, yohji yamamoto, y-3, chrome hearts

jake(rush st-1 southport st-2)-cloak, mcQ, trovata, double identity, "helmut lang"

adidas originals(rush st)-"rare" sneaks...merely trendy

st alfred(wicker park)-nike ones, vans, adidas, some y-3.....the sa's are kinda

spastic so be prepared to be ieeitated if you're a sneaker head

barneys(oak st)-dior homme, balenciaga, lanvin, prada, paul smith, margiela, dries

van noten, dolce/gabbana

saks mens store(michigan ave)-issey miyake, john galliano, dior homme

jil sander(oak st)

[cd1]

thank you sir

is st alfred the only stockist of visvim in chicago?

[schmoses]

it is.

also check out untitled(diesel, lindeberg, triple5soul). back in the day it was the place to kit out your rave tendencies, now they stock vans prison hi's.

[cd1]

alright, thanks alot, does that pretty much cover all the good stuff?

Also, what's george greene's collection of chrome hearts like? fairly diverse or just a couple items?

[absolut]

bloomingdales 5th and 2nd floors.

[schmoses]

alright, thanks alot, does that pretty much cover all the good stuff?

Also, what's george greene's collection of chrome hearts like? fairly diverse or just a couple items?

quite a diverse array of pieces: bags, bumbags, rings, necklaces

trust, a lot.

[cd1]

heading back to chicago for a couple days, anything great missing from here?

also, any particularly outstanding restaurants worth mention?

[Michael Carrig]

A place called Solemates just oppened up.

[cd1]

Looking through the stuff about Chicago on jetset, i am not seeing too much on good eats

What/where are the best spots besides Blackbird, Naha, etc?

Any good quality Asian places? how about bakeries, novelty restaurants/shops, etc?

[kiya]

One of the best clothing stores i've been to in Chicago is Apartment Number 9.

Really cool people and some good lines..

[aziz]

Fuck the stores....JUST GET SOME CHICAGO STYLE DEEP DISH PIZZZZA

[mojinho]

skip the ubiquitous, unworthy-of-all-the-hype Giordano's pizza and go to Art of Pizza on N. Ashland (or order it to your hotel, if you're in delivery area). i lived in Chitown for 4 years and had a lot of pizza and none of it was this good.

for excellent Thai food try Jitlada on N. Halsted in Boystown, near the Addison Red Line stop. cheap cheap cheap. and good good good. i recommend the roasted duck and pineapple curry and spicy crazy noodle with beef. all their curries are delicious. the "spicy" stuff is really spicy.

if you live in a place with bad mexican food, make sure and eat mexican food in Chitown because it's really good, plentiful and cheap. there are lots of corner taquerias, some good and some not. Rique's at the corner of Argyle and Broadway is fantastic and cheap for regional dishes. for over-the-top luxury go to Topolobampo, it's Rick Bayless' restaurant and absolutely fantastic, although to me there was something just wrong when one minute the sommelier was asking me if we needed pairing recommendations and the next i was eating a shrimp taco with my hands (we opted for beer).

PS i think the reason people keep recommending Wicker Park stores is because that's where all the edgiest stores are, not any kind of one-sided neighborhood-ness. might be some places on Division, which is not too far from WP, but i'm not so familiar with that area so i'm not sure. Untitled on N. Clark is pretty sad, in my humble opinion. OK for jeans. 5th floor of Bloomingdale's on Michigan is out of this world.

[B-15C]

for excellent Thai food try Jitlada on N. Halsted in Boystown, near the Addison Red Line stop. cheap cheap cheap. and good good good. i recommend the roasted duck and pineapple curry and spicy crazy noodle with beef. all their curries are delicious. the "spicy" stuff is really spicy.

PS i think the reason people keep recommending Wicker Park stores is because that's where all the edgiest stores are, not any kind of one-sided neighborhood-ness. might be some places on Division, which is not too far from WP, but i'm not so familiar with that area so i'm not sure. Untitled on N. Clark is pretty sad, in my humble opinion. OK for jeans. 5th floor of Bloomingdale's on Michigan is out of this world.

I used to live near Jitlada and went there constantly, until I found a huge cockroach in my curry. They were open late, decent enough, and damn it, I had to go all the way to Jim's Rice & Noodle to get good curry. (They still do the best in the city.)

To be honest, there's a hell of a lot to eat in this city, and if you're willing to even take a cursory glance at lthforums.com , you can find anything you're looking for. The only thing sufu specific I can think of are the good places to eat by where you're shopping.

People say Wicker Park because that's where the shopping and nightlife for a particular scene are. It has Hejfina, Jake, gamma player, and other well known boutiques that stock the brands people talk about on superfuture, as well as being excellent stores to browse. The best part about these places is that they don't put out a look-but-don't-touch vibe, which makes for a really pleasant shopping experience. Places that people like to eat here are Bongo Room, Milk & Honey (on the sufu track) and sometimes Earwax. Marshall McGearty's is the smoking lounge owned by Philip Morris, and it's pretty cool inside; remember that Chicago is now 90% non-smoking. Most of the places on Milwaukee Ave. (one of the main streets in WP) do a brunch of some kind on sundays that's worth checking out.

Overall for food, I can't stress lthforums.com enough. They can tell you what and where to eat everywhere in this city, and they're always spot on.

Cheers.

[thelion1856]

im going to be in the shi-er this weekend. getting in late friday night and leaving early as fuck sunday mornin. i got about 2-3 hours to shop on saturday round 10am to 1pm maybe 2.

if there is two or three stores that are a must visit, what would you chi people recommend?

also since st alfred is the only place that stocks visvim, what visvim do they carry?(logans mids or high in black)? is it only visvim shoes or visvim clothing as well?

Anyone know of any current sales in the chi or on saturday the 15th?

[readytoignite]

i was in town over the weekend, st alfred has like three visvim models on display behind glass and i'm not even sure any of them are for sale. worth checking out though, not sure what the SD scene is like but they have lots of stuff that has been long sold out on the east coast (e.g. dqm product red chucks) and they seem pretty chill. they also have the nike tech pack kit which was cool to finally see in person.

bang for buck the stretch of milwaukee between division and chicago is what you want but not sure how early some of the places open. also be mindful of strollers

also i personally like toast better than the bongo room, though not better than the bongo room when it was a dozen-seater under the el (and strangely the wait for a table was shorter).

[twistedtrees]

Not that familiar with stores, but Aesop Rock is playing tonite @ metro & Diplo will be there saturday. If only I had money.

Untitled has some stuff, but looking through the store is hell, shit's just crammed everywhere, no order to anything. Denim selection was topped Nudies. But they did have some cool pieces. they have a few stores, one or two in wicker park & one on clark in Lincoln park (weird).

[temeyone]

bang for buck the stretch of milwaukee between division and chicago is what you want but not sure how early some of the places open. also be mindful of strollers

heed this advice. milwaukee is great. i've found some great, relatively cheaply-priced stuff around there.

[xcoldricex]

st alfred didn't really have visvims - well they had like 3 shoes in a glass case that didn't look like they were for sale. maybe they were.

i was a bit disappointed at the selection at hejfina... nothing really amazing. if you're a XL they've still got some cloak pieces left!

edit: haha posted the same thing as readytoignite

[thelion1856]

got a chance to check out chicago on saturday the 15th. took my uncle's car and drove to wicker park area.

i checked out hejfina and ended up buying a rag & bone shirt, i know i paid a lil more than i should have but i needed a long sleeve shirt cuz all i brought to chi were $4.90 uniglo v necks and a suit for a weding. Hejfina had a lot of stuff in XXL XL and M.

other brands i saw there were Engineered Garments, CDG, Cloak, Rag & Bone, B. Son, Surface 2 Air, Acne ect. Hejfina had all the new season stuff in from those brands (except cloak). That surface 2 air new season stuff looks fucking rediculous in person, i saw the pics online but to see it in person its something else. Also everthing from previous seasons was up to 60% off, saw some cloak stuff on that sale rack but didnt want to look around more, that store was tempting.

then went and checked out Apartment No. 9, saw a lot of cool looking stuff but shit was pretty damn expensive so i bounced pretty quick. the store looks really nice.

then went to st alfreds. they had 3 pairs of visvims but not the one i was looking for. I asked if those visvims were for sale and they said yes those are the 3 displays for their visvim products as they do stock all three models if i wanted to try them on. they didnt carry any visvim clothing but a lot of streetwear brands (shirts).

then i drove to lincoln park to check out one of the active endeavors stores in chicago (thanks justinehustle) this place was nice and big too. the 1st floor is their female department and the 2nd floor is mens department. they also had all the new season stuff in from their brands, what i saw there was, Surface 2 Air paris, surface to air new york, b son, rag & bone, mike & chris, trovata, ever, ect. they also had a lot of jewlery in there, some shit i have not seen on their online store. i also saw a killer black leather jacket by mike & chris there.

wicker park and lincoln park both also had an american apperal store if anyone is interested but i did not go into them.

i liked lincoln park better than wicker park. it looked a little more clean and had way nicer looking females roaming around there.

next time i visit chicago i wont be too pressed on time and do a little longer stay hopefully. then get to check out the bar scene there. my new dentist is in chicago and i gotta go back within a month or two for another teeth cleaning and some dental work. in return i promised to take my dentist out to some clubs in san diego in 2 weeks when he comes here for a visit.

[readytoignite]

lincoln park has been frat-o-mania for the last 15+ years. used to have loads of records stores (2nd hand tunes, wax trax, etc) and the (im)mortal lounge ax but that's long gone now. though i will always have fond memories of taco burrito palace #2 and that brunch joint with skillet eggs, if either still exist.

[thelaststarfighter]

tru is unreal. so is the pricepoint... but well worth it..

.tromontos steak and seafood aswell...

nomi at the park hyatt (mich ave) is excellent, fair prices and a huge wine list.

blackbirds sister spot, Avec, is a great spot for a bite, with great prices and a sickkk interoir. open till 1 on weekends.

sepia and il fiasco in the west loop area.. room 21 around the south loop..

quartino is a wine bar on state stree right upfrm house of blues that was really nice.. house cured meats, great risotto... so many more

[pete mcstunna]

lincoln park has been frat-o-mania for the last 15+ years. used to have loads of records stores (2nd hand tunes, wax trax, etc) and the (im)mortal lounge ax but that's long gone now. though i will always have fond memories of taco burrito palace #2 and that brunch joint with skillet eggs, if either still exist.

clarke's???

[xcoldricex]

so... alinea worth it?

[twistedtrees]

there's a place called Moto west of the loop that's supposed to be crazy. I've never eaten there, I've heard it's really expensive, but it's like a science fiction type restaurant. They serve liquid nitrogen freeze dried egg drop soup type stuff. & the head chef patented a way to print flavor onto an edible substance so you can eat your menu & stuff like that.

[totally epic]

Any updates to this? I'm going to be in Chicago for a few days next week and looking to do some shopping. Hopefully Hejfina gets to 60% off.

Where's the Active Endeavors store?

[dismalfuture]

active has a brick and mortar?

It probably wouldn't hurt to hit the usual suspects, since Barney's in Chicago is likely to be less picked over than the coastal stores. I didn't get to go recently, but I bet they have a lot of nice stuff since they have the same lines but less of the buying crowd.

Hejfina might be picked over by the time it reaches 60%, I was in there a couple weeks ago when it was at 30% and asked for all the S's and XS's in the store and it wasn't much. Not really sure what you're looking for, but generally the only stuff they don't have online is A.P.C. and that was pretty sparse. Co-ops around town had more A.P.C....

Gamma Player might be a better option, depending. and they carry ERIC LEBON (!!!) Kop dat ERIC LEBON. But seriously they might carry smaller sizes, they did have Lad many moons ago.

The mens shoes outpost of Akira has common projects and tons of crap, the CP's are limited sizewise and in color but you might find what you want.

Apt. no. 9 had a lot of Dries Van Noten, UNIS, and Margiela on sale, some in smaller sizes. The markdown may have increased since, so some stuff may be a good deal there.

[dismalfuture]

oh ya and I got my hair cut at Guise in Lincoln Park, they have some Acne jeans and 'Helmut Lang' as well as other stuff, but nothing great for clothes and nothing in small sizes, but there's an option.

[totally epic]

active has a brick and mortar?

Apparently.

then i drove to lincoln park to check out one of the active endeavors stores in chicago (thanks justinehustle) this place was nice and big too.

[beacons_home]

I can't wait until I go to Chicago! It is one of my favorite cities. I am probably going in the early spring sometime.