You can usually get some good deals at Nordstrom Rack and Macy's has sales (in-store or via email) pretty much 24/7.

Went to insomnia cookies this afternoon. Um, yea, I'm very glad I'm not in the delivery zone or else I'd find a way to end up in diabetic shock from eating too many cookies.

I'd be down to play tennis too. I played 4 years in high school and played club in college and still try to play once a week since then. Probably ranked 4.0. Weekends are much better for me. PM your number if any of you are interested.

Jos A. Bank at Ogilvie has great sales right now. Buy one suit at reg, get 3 free, so I grabbed four for under 900 today after tax.

To hell with the Mile. Macy's is decent if you have a store card, though, IMO. For casuals, just make a trek up to Pleasant Prairie for an afternoon.

Men's Wear house does entire store buy1get1s every holiday, so stay alert for Memorial Day weekend.

You are probably better off asking that in the style threads in EDF. But I do know that Jos A Banks is regarded as pretty trashy.

What exactly would be your idea of a "hidden gem" place to get standard blazers and dress shirts? Such a thing doesn't really exist.

It's decent mid-grade stuff for off-the-rack weekly wardrobe fill-ups. The stores themselves just aren't very nice and you'd have to go elsewhere for minor alterations.

For alterations, I go to the little Rayan-owned Monitor joint on Clark and Wilson. Only once had an issue with my cuffs and they modified it in hours for me, but I take everything there.

For custom tailoring, I've only gone through Balani, mainly because I never buy one at a time and two under $4k is very doable, but -- yeah -- I'd recommend the Style Thread.

As for the Mile, again, I've never heard many good stories out of the Brooks and Boss. Customer service is nice at both places, from my experiences, but there aren't skilled artisans there.

Just meant a place that is off the radar I guess. More specifically not on mag mile, where obviously your value will be reduced from price markups and lesser quality service, etc.

Thanks for the tips. I do have a Macy's card which I agree is good value and decent enough quality for what I need/am looking for. Will probably wait till Memorial Day to load up on stuff.

I've found that their quality ranges anywhere from below average to very good depending on location. Obviously you can spend more and get higher quality stuff elsewhere but I'm not sure I'd go as far as to call them trashy, even at some of the lesser of the locations I've been to.

I barely ever wear anything more than dress shirts and slacks but if I did need a few nice suits to rotate, agree that I'd probably look at other options.

is Men's Wearhouse regarded even lower than Jos A Bank?

There's a store called Personal Privilege at 1448 N. Milwaukee that I found good stuff at.

It's not overly hipster clothing, but it did seem the majority of their stuff was slim fit.

Neither are hidden gems as both are downtown. They both have a nice selection and good service with occasional sales.

http://www.deigiovani.com/ 181 W Madison.

http://sydjerome.com/ 2 N LaSalle

What's going on the weekend of May 31? Having trouble getting a hotel room...

Rolling Stones, festivals start breaking out.

Perfect combo for suburban invasion of hotels.

Anyone know if we have to make reservations for Joe's stone crab for noon on a saturday/ if its too late to do it? Was hoping to just show up and walk in, didnt think about it till now

Pjo,

You can make a reservation on Opentable for noon. Just did a quick search on there and depending on how many people you have, you should be good.

Just did, thank you sir!

I saw on FB that DryHop is officially open for business on thursday 6/13 and they will be doing growler fills and brewery tours saturday 6/8 from 1-3.

I've had their collaboration beers from both begyle and atlas. If those collaboration brews are indicative of what they will be producing, they are going to make hand over fist.

Awesome. Been waiting forever for them to announce an opening date. Can't wait to check them out. Going to be spending a lot of time there as its right down the street from me.

and I just saw my schedule. I'm off that thursday and don't have to be in highland park until 12:30 on friday. huzzah

hey all, im gonna be moving to chicago within the month. will be grinding this thread a lot in the meantime.

2700 posts is obv a lot to read, so I have a quick question in the meantime. what cell phone carrier is preferred over here? I'm gonna be switching from my mexican at&t cell plan so I'd like whatever has best reception. tyty in advance.

edit - it seems this thread is a lot of restaurant stuff. apologies for the non-relevant question. fortunately i enjoy restaurants a lot so I will be contributing at some point.

I have AT&T and never had problem with reception. Don't think you'd have problems with reception with any carrier with it being a major metropolitan area

I dont know anyone who drops calls with any of the majors-- ATT, Verizon, Sprint, T Mobile, USCellular.

I have Sprint and I've had issues with drops in the last couple months.

I'm on my phone but there is a website that does tests on this kind of thing. Look at that. Tmo the cheapest though with probably pretty close to the same service