What happened to my fun? At my certain age, the bottom has dropped out of my nightlife.
Fun is harder than ever to find as we continue to emerge from the pandemic. As I grow older, I am much more discriminating when I go for a night out. I am not interested in one-off thrills. I look for, yearn for, sophisticated, adult fun.
Before you say it, yes, I know this is a first-world problem I should feel lucky to have.
We all need a little fun. I spent interminable pandemic months shut up in my apartment, with daily trips to the grocery store my only form of entertainment. I could not wait until we returned to normal.
In this new normal, the world has reemerged with a vengeance, for some. U.S. and international travel is booming. Chicago’s tourism and convention business is burgeoning. The first weekend in June, Chicago set an all-time record for hotel occupancy.
For me, good times are harder to find and in fewer places. Online retail is decimating shopping malls, meal carryout and grocery delivery are now de rigueur, streaming movies has depressed the popcorn-and-Junior-Mints movie experience. If the fun is not attached to an app or a phone, it doesn’t make the cut.
Take the restaurant experience. Recent data from the reservation company OpenTable shows that nationally, Chicago’s restaurants come in second only to San Francisco when it comes to the decline in dining out, according to an April report from the news site SFist.
OpenTable’s analysis found that “San Francisco’s metric of ‘seated diners’ — which accounts for those with reservations made online or by phone as well as walk-ins — was down 41% from 2019,” SFist reported. Chicago restaurants suffered a 26% decline in the same period.
There is a plethora of reasons. The pandemic shutdown transformed the dynamic of going out. Restaurants, and even bars and nightclubs, are closing earlier and limiting hours. The pressures of inflation, worker shortages and higher wages have stifled activity.
Fear is a factor. Chicago has suffered from years of street chaos, including civil unrest, gun violence, carjackings and teenage mobs. Suburban residents who once eagerly drove downtown for a dinner, concert or show are staying in the hinterlands. New restaurants and clubs are popping up there, offering safer alternatives.
I am among those who hanker for an elegant meal and a fine glass of wine in a restaurant that is not blasting music. A place to dance that does not involve twerking or mosh pits. Some nice jazz, a little cabaret.
Spontaneity is elusive. It’s more difficult than ever to drop into a restaurant without a reservation and get a table. When you do, the wine pour is short, the portions meager, the prices outrageous and the service discombobulated.
Of course, there are places to go. Chicago possesses world-class venues for theater, music, arts and culture.
I want the irreplaceable spots we have lost. Yoshi’s Café in Lakeview, which quietly closed in December 2021. It was my personal “Cheers” where I spent many years of revelry, making lifelong friends and hosting political salons.
Gone.
Before the pandemic, I regularly sojourned to the Drake Hotel at the tip of Chicago’s Gold Coast. In the heart of the Beaux Arts-style hotel sits its Palm Court restaurant and bar, where every weekend night, a crowd of locals and tourists would dance around the elegant fountain to live bands playing jazz, swing and pop.
Some of the regular dancers could have competed on “Dancing with the Stars.” When the lounge lizards and denizens from the “Viagra Triangle” of Rush Street dropped by, the people-watching was not to be missed. Now, gone.
More Top Picks Best Reading Glasses For Women
keeps a running list of restaurants that have closed. They made it through the pandemic, then ran out of steam. I read it and weep.The city powers are trying mightily to attract tourism. That’s fine, but I am too old for Taylor Swift. NASCAR’s ticket prices and decibel levels are over the top. A casino and betting parlor are coming to the Near North Side and Wrigleyville. They should have stayed in Vegas.
I don’t want to pick up a curbside cocktail in a plastic container. I crave a place for a quiet, elegant dinner, grown-up music, and dancing, of style, sophistication and character.
This is a big city, with plenty of action, you say? Send me your favorite spots.
Laura Washington is a political commentator and longtime Chicago journalist. Her columns appear in the Tribune each Monday. Write to her at [email protected].
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email [email protected].