Mayor Rahm Emanuel welcomed me to the City of Chicago with a hand shake during a recent trip and told me to make sure to spend the tourist dollars I had before leaving. He jokingly made the suggestion during a news conference to announce an upcoming and a proposed tourist destination for his city. Before I get to that I want to point out that for me, a vacation should include rest, relaxation, re-connecting and educating myself. All I really knew about Chicago is what I’ve seen in the movies and that includes big fires, world fairs and let’s not forget “Da Bears”. On this visit I learned about two big events after coming across a news conference being held at the Millennium Park bandshell.
The Mayor and I were at the same news conference to hear that the James Beard Awards or “the Oscars of the food industry”, would be handed out in Chicago in May 2015. An uncle of mine once received a ‘Golden Fork’ for his chef work in Italy and while I knew they handed out awards to chef’s I learned in Chicago what a big deal it is to land this event. You see, after 24 years of New York hosting Chicago gets to host the Anniversary Edition.
The other thing I learned was that retired film director George Lucas has his eyes focussed on Chicago for the proposed ‘Star Wars’. The museum is planned for a parking lot at Soldiers Field stadium. Chicago and San Francisco are currently in the running for it. The issue for Chicago sports fans was that they’re not sure there’s enough space to include Darth Vader, Yoda and others for their pre-game ritual of tail gating. It turns out George Lucas’ wife Melanie is from Chicago; which sounds to me like an “in” over San Francisco to get the museum.
While they’re planning for that there’s a lot to do now if you visit the city. One gastronomical event everyone should try is a deep dish pizza, which originated in Chicago. While I knew the ‘Second City’ comedy troupe also originated from Chicago I had no idea the term ‘second city’ was originally used as a derogatory term by a 1950′s New York writer. Apparently the ‘second city’ was the one built on top of the first city that burned down in the Chicago fire of 1871. The city that’s there shows an impressive skyline of architecture from the past and the present. You’ll spot it whether you’re walking the streets or sailing on a tour boat on the Chicago river.
Mayor Emanuel doesn’t seem concerned with what others have said about the city but more concerned about the people choosing Chicago as place to visit. Calling it, ‘the most American of American city’s’, Mayor Emanuel wants to see the number of visitors rise to 55 million in the next 6 years. I plan to be counted in that mix. While shaking the hand of the leader of a large American city was impressive for a geek like me, it had me thinking of buying a return ticket for the hospitality and especially the food.
