One of Chicago’s wealthiest areas has ringside seats for the lake and some of the coolest bars in the city.
Chicago’s Gold Coast emerged from what was once Astor Street, named after the multi-millionaire John Astor. Today not much has changed; the mansions and high-rises populate the blocks from North Avenue to Chicago Avenue, many with a gorgeous view over Lake Michigan. The area sits directly south of Downtown.
Gold Coast has its own section of lake front with a couple of cute beaches. Oak Street Beach is especially popular, with its mix of food stands, bars, and beach volleyball. North Lake Shore Drive should be your starting point. There’s great people-watching, running, and biking trails, as well as lovely picnic spots where you can take in the enormity of Lake Michigan.
But Gold Coast isn’t all about the lake. Turn inwards and discover some of the Windy City’s most legendary taverns, deep dish pie spots, and speakeasies (some dating back to the time of Prohibition). There’s also a new influx of plush cocktail bars that balance out the frat boy beer holes that used to typify this area. State Street is one of the busiest streets after dark for drinking.
How do you feel about heights? If you have the stomach for it, 360 Chicago – previously known as the John Hancock Observatory – has the best views in town. If you’d rather stay more grounded (or the weather’s bad), hole up in the Museum of Contemporary Art, a great space with challenging contemporary art. Meanwhile, for architecture lovers, there are a couple of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings in the Gold Coast area; you can tour his work on a bus that goes all over the city and even enter one of his earliest homes, the Charnley-Persky House Museum on North Astor Street.