On Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, Jason Hammel opens Lula Cafe on its night off for the 13th Logan Square Chef’s Dinner: a cocktail hour and five paired courses cooked with Diana Dávila, Joe Frillman, Ethan Pikas, Matthias Merges, Zeeshan Shah and Yoshi Yamada. Tickets were $250, all-inclusive with wine pairings, with every dollar going to Comfort Station, and the dinner is sold out as of Oct. 25.
On Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026, Tim Flores and Genie Kwon welcome chef Florence Mae Maglanoc of London’s Bib Gourmand Donia to Kasama, their two-Michelin-star Filipino restaurant in Ukrainian Village, for one collaborative tasting menu at $325 a person, booked only on OpenTable.
Halloween falls on a Saturday, so Chicago is making a week of it: Runway LatinX and Arts in the Dark this weekend, Boots Halloween at Radius, Circus After Dark at ROOF on theWit and the 30th Haunted Halsted Parade, then Kaskade and Carl Cox.
The Ives, Boka Restaurant Group’s grill room inside the Chicago Athletic Association at 12 S. Michigan Ave., rolls a 13-bite supper club relish cart to the table for $38 a person, carves wagyu prime rib in front of you and pours $10 martinis at its 60-foot bar on weeknights.
Pizzeria Gabbo opens Thursday, October 22, 2026, at 834 W. Fulton Market St. with two styles of pie from Lettuce Entertain You chef Andrew Ashmore: square-cut Chicago Thin & Crispy and a crackly New York Crispy, plus housemade pasta, Italian spritzes and pistachio soft-serve gelato.
For 14 nights, November 5 to 22, 2026, The Alinea Group and Dylan Trotter bring Charlie Trotter’s cooking back to the original Lincoln Park dining room at 816 W. Armitage Ave.: a nine-course menu drawn from the chef’s own cookbooks, $295 per person in the dining room and $315 at the kitchen table.
Mr. Beef Chicago hands its River North counter to Santiago Lastra of London’s Michelin-starred KOL and The Bear’s Will Poulter on Sunday, October 25, 2026, for a one-day Mexican-inspired Italian beef with beef tongue, caramelized mozzarella and chorizo, plus a Pretty Cool Ice Cream sandwich. Walk-in only from 1 p.m. until it sells out.
The Lineup Chicago, Elena Besser’s chef-driven dinner series, arrives from New York with three one-night dinners at the Ravenswood Event Center: Derek Serrano of Mi Tocaya on November 5, Colin McHugh of Oriole on November 12 and Luis Diaz of Giant on November 19, 2026. Here is every course, and how to get on the waitlist.
The best hotel bars in Chicago are open to everyone: a 46th-floor speakeasy pouring North America’s No. 1 bar, a Moët lounge with Friday jazz, an 18th-floor Southeast Asian cocktail lounge, a fireside cocktail bar on Michigan Avenue, billiards in a landmark club and heated rooftop igloos over the river. Here is where to go for every kind of night.
DixiePura Kitchen Chicago, Chloe Gould’s American Southern and Southeast Asian restaurant at 325 E. Pershing Rd. in Bronzeville, turns one on October 18, 2026. Come for Ernie’s Fingers, green curry smothered fried chicken, a Cajun seafood gumbo laksa and Uncle Nearest cocktails.
Siete Azul Chicago brings coastal Mexican mariscos to the old Chicago Diner space at 2333 N. Milwaukee Ave. in late October 2026, with purple masa shrimp empanadas, butter-lime scallops, michelada oysters and a whole grilled red snapper. Bring a bottle: it opens BYOB.