Chicago Encounter

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, begins Barack Obama, tonight is your answer. But in the frosty, electric air above Grant Park were not just anywhere in America: were in Chicago.

After the tens of thousands hear their junior senator, a former community organizer in Chicagos checkered South Side, accept the highest political office, many walk in a daze up Michigan Ave under the towering night-lit monuments of the city in which they live, crying and laughing, elated and overwhelmed.

Of course, no story of Chicago goes without being dichotomous opposites, and even as the afterglow of that evening faded, another brutal winter brought headlines of political scandal and economic asperity.

But all the way down the line, the essence of Chicago has duplicity unlike any other American city a place where high- and lowbrow art makes a messy collision, where restaurants are equally notable for cutting-edge concepts like molecular gastronomy and burly bricks of sausage-stuffed deep-dish. Residents in the city that works play pretty damn hard too sprawling on sandy beaches, packing bars until 5am and whiling away an entire summer with outdoor festivals.

But when you approach the heart of the city from one of the highways that connect it to the rest of the pancake-flat Midwest and its airports, the cluster of buildings that rises so dramatically above the glassy surface of Lake Michigan might well make you gasp. The clattering roar of the El train passing overhead announces that Chicago is seizing its moment in history. A place where all things are possible: this is Chicago.

Frank Gehrys brilliant, metallic Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park
CHARLES COOK

The colossal head of a crazy-looking old lady four stories high! is spewing a gush of water onto a gaggle of squealing children. In the distance, the spires of the city rise into the clear blue air, along which floats a faint orchestral strain. Sure, you could get on the El and spend the day racing around the city by foot, but youd probably learn just as much about the character of the city by spending a long, lazy afternoon soaking in the citys centerpiece, Millennium Park.

To consider this as merely a public park would be dialing your expectations way too low. The most exciting public space in the United States? Now thats a bit more accurate. Yet, somehow, its even more than that snuggled between the stone and metal forest of the Loop and sweeping shores of Lake Michigan, the park is Chicagos beating heart, the calling card of the city, a place that offers a sampling menu of the big adventures ahead.

If you approach Millennium Park from the west, its sun-drenched sculptures stand in dazzling contrast to the shadowed corridors of the Loop. The first thing to catch your eye will be Frank Gehrys 120ft tall band shell, the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, shining like the citys brilliant metallic crown. Throughout the summer, recline on the grass to check out a rehearsal of the Grant Park Orchestra or a concert calendar that ranges from Afrobeat to indie rock. If you arrive from the south, youll get misted by Jaume Plensas whimsical 50ft-high spans Columbus Dr and rewards those who stroll over it with great skyline views.

But regardless of when you come or how you get here, the thing that has become the parks biggest draw is The Bean officially Anish Kapoors brilliantly polished 110-ton silver sculpture, constantly abuzz with admirers. Stand in front of its bizarre, unearthly reflection and youll take home a photo of a place thats different from most places youll ever be a vision of the world thats kind of like the one back home, but more playful and a bit warped and, above all, surprisingly beautiful. If its the first photo you take on your visit to Chicago, it will be the first of many you might describe the same way.

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Cloud Gate sculpture (aka The Bean) with downtown skyline behind, Millennium Park
CHARLES COOK

Whether it was the ghostly howl of blues forefather Robert Johnson or the bawdy wail of the genres prodigal sons, The Blues Brothers, chances are the rolling, soul-stirred melody probably popped into your head on the way here: Oh baby dont you wanna go, back to that same old place, sweet home Chicago? Chicago may have launched a huge number of musical movements, but none are as iconoclastic as the blues a rude, raunchy, radically inspired take on the genre thats defined by screaming guitars, rolling bass lines and R&B-inflected rhythms. Today, modern blues makers have adopted a funkier gait and more cocksure vocals than their predecessors, but no visit to the city would be near complete without seeking out a blues hall and getting the blues in person..

Customers sitting at bar with guitars and photo of Buddy Guy behind bar of Buddy Guy's Legends, Printer's Row
CHARLES COOK

You almost have to feel a little bad for the first pizzas in Chicago a scrawny, sickly disk of baked dough that was hardly fit to carry the locally packed pork sausage that burdened its surface. But in the early 1940s Chicagos famed take on the dish a true pizza pie fell from the heavens with a thud. These behemoths are little like the pathetic comfort food known by the same name in the rest of the world; theyre created in a special pan kind of like a frying pan without the handle so the dough, which encases a molten bed of mozzarella, tomato sauce and a heart-stopping collection of meats, can be oven fried. More than a few slices and youll have to be rolled out.

The flagship , where you get a gooey slice with a caramelized crust, without the tour bus crowds.

Giordano's Restaurant and Pizzeria, Near North Side
CHARLES COOK

Youve passed the big bronze lions and entered one of the premiere art museums in the modern world: endless marble and glass corridors, room after room after room filled with paintings, textiles, sculpture and photographs some quarter million in total all of which demands ponderous chin-stroking hours of appreciation. So how do you start? Simple: lace up some comfortable sneakers and make a plan. There are Japanese prints, Grecian urns and 20th-century textiles, so grab a map at the desk and head for your favorite period, making sure to at least glance through the new Modern Wing. If youre more interested in an overview, take the free Highlights of the Art Institute tour (2pm Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday). But, since youre standing in one of Americas finest museums, even if you wander aimlessly, youre sure to bump into something awe-inspiring.