Chicago, USA: Why it's the perfect post-pandemic destination in America

Chicago - the sports-mad city that doesn't know how to eat at home.Credit: Choose Chicago

The old bloke at the door is hollering the same thing over and over, though it's not till I'm beside him that I hear what he's yelling.

"Blues tonight, $12, cash only, get your vaccination cards out."

Behind him – two octogenarians in loose-fitting suits are on stage behind a keyboard, and a bass guitar. A younger musician has the microphone as he tunes his guitar here within the hallowed walls of famed blues bar, Blues Chicago.

Check out the world famous blues of Chicago in safety.Credit: Choose Chicago

"What the hell is that?" the bouncer says as I present my international vaccination certificate. "I ain't seen one of those yet." He's looking close now. "Okay, man… $12, cash only, blues tonight."

Welcome to Chicago: where life just keeps living, and Omicron's simply another bump in the road.

In the week of Christmas, there were 10,000 new cases of Omicron a day here. But by February there was a 95 per cent drop.

Your blues in Chicago won't come from COVID.Credit: Choose Chicago

"The news continues to be very good in terms of getting over this Omicron surge," Allison Arwady, head of the Chicago Department of Public Health, says.

Anyone looking for an easy transition into the US after two years living within the relative safety of Australia should start in Chicago.

With its recent history of mask mandates and the fact that all its inner-city establishments required proof of vaccination to get in (Chicago has eased its stipulations since March 7), Chicago has been about as close to home as it gets in America, outside of New York.

Enjoy a famously long lunch at one of Chicago's iconic steakhouses, like Gibsons Bar & Restaurant.Credit: Craig Tansley

But what's completely different here to home is that Chicago has barely skipped a beat along the way. COVID-19? Omicron? They're brushing it off like it's just another chilly winter morning.

I've been coming to Chicago for a few months a year since 2016 and nothing appears to have changed. If anyone can push through COVID, it's Chicago… just ask any Chicagoan.

"Omicron?" restaurant manager Anthony Gagliano asks me rhetorically when I question what affect the strain had on trade.

Chicago. Supplied PR image for Traveller, check for reuseCredit: Choose Chicago

"We've been up, down, and upside round. I feel like I can't imagine what other curve ball could be thrown at us. We've absorbed it all, we're resilient, you don't see Chicago people complaining."

Gagliano's establishment, Pizzeria Portofino, sits right on the banks of the Chicago River, so close I wave to passengers on boat tours as they pass.

I order pizza (go with thin crust; ordering deep dish pizza shows you're a tourist… imagine a casserole of cheese) and look around. Numbers are down, but the same high-on-life vibe comes through; Sunday lunches in a Chicagoan Italian restaurant are a lesson in slow eating (order a bottle or two of red; you're not going anywhere fast). Waiters round here are your friends, it's the Midwestern way – something you don't get in LA, or New York. Ask any Chicagoan.

It's the city that inspired a million movies, from 'The Untouchables' to 'The Dark Knight'.Credit: Choose Chicago

"You know, you can tell your Australian friends, this is the best time ever to come to Chicago. Normally we'd be booked out right now. Now they'll get a table," Gagliano says.

Across town the next day, in the city's Gold Coast district, the famous Chicago weekday long lunch is underway at another of the city's legendary eating establishments – its steakhouses.

Forget New York, these days Chicago is regarded as America's top food destination (the country's best known foodie bible, Bon Appetit, just named it "The Best Restaurant City in the USA").

You'll need a mask and vaccine certification to get into Chicago's world-famous comedy club, Second City.Credit: Choose Chicago

It's not quite as busy as it normally is, here at legendary Gibsons Bar & Steakhouse (you'll get a table), one of Chicago's most iconic eateries, but there's a Mad Men power lunch vibe here that's pure theatre.

Forget about the food, just watch the show. Waiters in white whizz by, as customers perch by a long, open bar. Oh, and it's only 11.30am… on a Monday.

Martinis are the tipple of favour, but anything goes. Order one – and you'll never know who you'll see sit down.

There are photos of celebrities on every inch of wall on the walk upstairs to the men's room. In these sorts of Chicago establishments, superstars just slip in beside you.

Managing partner John Coletti greets everyone who comes in by name. He's seen it all in his 30 years with the restaurant.

"Billy Joel played at that piano," he tells me, pointing at a baby grand beside our table.

"The [Chicago] Bulls used to come in after every home game because we opened up late. Liz Taylor, Sinatra, Muhammad Ali, you name it, they've been here."

He said COVID in all its forms could never stop Gibsons. "We never shut down, we did takeout for a while, but we never, ever shut down," he says.

"COVID brought the city together, it's the Midwest [USA] thing, we stick together. Then when we could open again for dining, we were flooded. Chicago people want to be out; we're social beings, it's what we do."

It's sunny outside when I leave, but there's a stiff breeze coming in across Lake Michigan.

Built on one of the Great Lakes, Chicago's a genuine water city: "… it might as well be the ocean," Coletti says. "You can't see the other side".

Cruise the river dissecting the CBD and you'll recognise the Gothic streetscape from movies like The Dark Knight and The Untouchables.

But I get the best view in town from the top floor of my hotel, The Langham. Up here in the club lounge, I look east over bridges that criss-cross the Chicago River towards the icy blue sheen of Lake Michigan. I feel like I'm steering the world's biggest cruise ship.

In the evening I take a seat on a lounge at its restaurant, Travelle, and order lobster rolls with a view across the city.

"I think Chicago's resilience plays a big part in the city's recovery," The Langham Chicago Managing Director Edward Shapard says.

"Look outside, the streets are full of shoppers, our theatres are open, and our restaurants are busy."

There's a buzz in the air around Chicago that COVID couldn't kill. At one of the country's most iconic comedy clubs – Second City (which helped start the careers of comedians from John Belushi to Steve Carell) – an usher reminds patrons to put their masks on after they finish their drinks, but a bit of cloth can't deaden the laughter.

Chicago treats COVID with the caution it's demanded, but nobody took the fun away. I feel happy here, amongst the blues fans, the steakhouse regulars, the pizza lovers and the Cubs, Bulls, White Sox and Black Hawks fans celebrating the good life in a sports-mad city that never learned how to eat (or drink) at home.

THE DETAILS

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choosechicago.com

STAYING THERE

The Langham Chicago is located in the heart of the city with views over the Chicago River and Lake Michigan, langhamhotels.com/en/the-langham/chicago

GETTING THERE

Delta fly daily to LA from Australia with onward connections to Chicago, delta.com

EATING THERE

Eat at Chicago's most famous steak restaurant, Gibsons Bar & Steakhouse, gibsonssteakhouse.com, luxuriate over a long Italian meal at Pizzeria Portofino, pizzeriaportofino.com

The writer travelled courtesy of Choose Chicago