Issue link: http://viewer.e-digitaleditions.com/i/52531
the famous (or infamous, if you lived within olfactory distance) Chicago stockyards, now closed but still a contributor to the city's muscular, working-class image. New York has steakhouses, too, but they've always been a few more steps removed from railways hauling in beef on the hoof. But why invite comparisons with New York, in steaks or anything else? Why not bring Paris into the game? Chicago did just that when residents started calling the downtown stretch of Michigan Avenue 'Boul Mich', appropriating the Parisians' pet name for their Boulevard Saint-Michel. A bit more posh than 'The Loop' – the adjacent business district so named because that's the way the elevated rapid transit tracks run – Boul Mich stakes its upscale cachet on its scenic course along Grant Park, a broad green space which borders Lake Michigan. For members of a certain greying generation, Grant Park long remained a reminder of the violent clashes between anti-Vietnam War demonstrators and police during the 1968 Democratic Party convention. But those memories were eclipsed 40 years later, when Barack and Michelle Obama greeted a Grant Park crowd of thousands who had come to hear the freshly minted presidential nominee deliver his acceptance speech and launch his campaign. Boul Mich is home to some of Chicago's most treasured institutions: the Art Institute, with its renowned collection of French Impressionists and major American works such as Edward Hopper's 'Nighthawks' and Grant Wood's iconic 'American Gothic'; Orchestra Hall, home of the superb Chicago Symphony Orchestra, designed by – who else? – Daniel Burnham; and the massive 1889 Auditorium Building, the Symphony's original home. Burnham wasn't responsible for this one; it was the work of Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan, who had in their employ 20-year-old draughtsman Frank Lloyd Wright. With its cavernous theatre space and magnificent lobby now splendidly restored, the Auditorium again hosts major stage and musical performances. Skyscrapers and steaks, the blues and Boul Mich. . . for Chicagoans, it all adds up. Forget the idea of second or third place among cities. New York and LA are, well, New York and LA. Chicago is big, brash Chicago – all that it needs to be. travel&living 79