Massive Weekend

POSTED BY: ONE OF MAOXIE’S CAREGIVERS
PUBLISHED ON THE MAG MILE CHICAGO

Friday Night
Finished work, blitzed home and had a digi-drink with JBev out in The District. Really nice to catch up with her. Then Douzui and I drove down to the South Side to see the Version 07 fashion show. Talk about “Last Night’s Party” material [which, incidentally I thought only transpired in NYC but apparently does take into account the parties held at most global nodes of influence a la Chi-town]! So enjoyable. It was held in a warehouse in a nondescript part of the Bridgeport neighborhood [see above Maps Live bird’s-eye rendering], but inside it was teeming with slender, 90’s-clad, hipster types and a singular Asiatic wearing an American flag shell suit and a very bejeweled fanny pack – natch. The music was initially very Chromeo-Mika-Basement Jaxx-esque, but quickly devolved into college-boy-on-guitar-crooning mess, and that was just about our cue to bounce. On the whole, one of the coolest things I have done in Chicago.

Saturday
Woke up at the crack of noon to Enrique the Cat pawing my face and Victoria belting out some tune from The Color Purple. Time to hit the road for Mil-town. Just like last week in the STL, I was pleasantly surprised at all the civic amenities Cream City has to offer, particularly Santiago Calatrava’s $100 million “Brise Soleil” commissioned by the Milwakee Art Museum.

When we first crossed the state line, we knew we were not in Chicagoland anymore when the gas prices, temperature, speed limit, and quality of roads dropped, and the offering of cheese shacks, prevalence of state troopers, and selection of adult-themed venues spiked remarkably. Maybe not the best introduction to Wisconsin, and it definitely got worse before it got better: the freeway system in Milwaukee is a hot mess; it makes Chicago seem like a dream. But once we finally found the Historic Third Ward, filled our bellies with some very expensive and delicious brunch from the “4 page brunch menu” [which was 2 at the very most] Broadway Bistro, and found the Grand Avenue Mall, we were ready to really find out what it was that The City of Festivals had to offer.

My highlight was driving along the lakeshore through Whitefish Bay and Fox Point, over the bluffs, and through gorgeous neighborhoods of million-dollar homes, each with unique architecture. Who would have known? I certainly did not.

Dinner was at the Ethiopian Cottage over on Brady Street, a brief walk through Bayview, and then off to The Safe House, which is unlike anything I have seen before. You walk into a back-alley “Bureaux de Change,” are asked for a password, made to perform some kind of scene from Charlie’s Angels and then led through a secret revolving fireplace into an underground spy-themed pub that is apparently world-renowned; and well it should be! It was really cool, spy shit everywhere, secret passages, hidden chambers. Definitely a good time.