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[edit] Restaurants

Chicago also has a long list of world-renowned upscale dining establishments serving a wide array of cuisine from some of the most well-known chefs in the United States. Some notable destinations include Frontera Grill, a gourmet Mexican restaurant owned by Food Network star Rick Bayless, and Everest, a nouveau-French restaurant on the top floor of the Chicago Stock Exchange. Chicago also features strips of ethnic restaurant districts, including "Greektown" on South Halsted, "Little Italy" on Taylor Street, just west of Halsted, "Chinatown" on the near south side, and Indo-Pak on Devon Avenue.

Coffeehouses, a European staple, made their way to Chicago with the mass amounts of immigration in the early days of the city. The coffeehouses were more than just a place to get a good cup of joe, but they served as meeting places and community center for the ethnic populations that populated the neighborhoods. That role of a community meeting center is being reborn as over the past two decades there has been a resurgence of coffeehouses throughout the city. Most neighborhoods boast several popular locations that serve the locals and there are several, such as the Kopi Cafe and Intelligentsia, that are known city wide.