Chicago’s Halloween is celebrated in many unique ways with endless frights and innovative events that include magical parades, ball gatherings, bar crawls, club parties, haunted houses and more!  Come and experience Halloween in Chicago this weekend if you Dare!!

The Grand Finale for Chicago’s Halloweek program is this Saturday (6 p.m.-8 p.m.) with the Arts in the Dark Halloween Parade.  Now in its 8^th year, this annual “artist’s holiday” parade returns to historic State Street with an evening of colorful, family-friendly flair.  This dazzling production delights the audience with unique floats, spectacle puppets, and creative performances from organizations like The Art Institute, Lookingglass Theater Company, After School Matters and others!  It’s a spectacle not to be missed!!

Get decked out in your best Halloween finery for Navy Pier’s not one but two Halloween bashes this Saturday:

The Hallows takes place in the Aon Grand Ballroom for an adults-only spooktacular Halloween experience from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m.  It’s a celebration of all things nocturnal.  This fully immersive experience includes actors dressed in theme, glow in the dark body painting, aerial acrobatics, a light show, creative photo ops, and more!  Plus, guests can enjoy music from celebrity DJ’s spinning cirque, electronic and theater music.  The Hallows offers you the opportunity to become your alt ego for the night!!

Nightmare on Navy Pier Halloween Party takes place at the Offshore Rooftop which is east of Navy Pier’s Festival Hall for an un-BOO-lievable Halloween bash from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m.  Not only will guests be greeted with spooky “blood bag” welcome cocktails, but they can also trick or treat themselves to a four-hour open bar, a haunting variety of passed bites, a costume contest, music, dancing, giveaways, and more!  It’s an immersive evening you’ll be dying to attend!!

Chicago’s most adorable Halloween party takes place this Saturday (9 a.m.-10:30 a.m.) at the Museum of Contemporary Art’s Sculpture Garden with the Streeterville Doggy and Kitty Halloween Party.  Bring your dog and/or cat dressed in its Halloween best for a parade around the premises kicking-off at 9:30 a.m.  Afterwards, the best-dressed furry friend will be judged and chosen by Alderman Brian Hopkins and Maureen Schulman who will then award prizes!  I’ve been told it’s going to be a pawsitively fun morning where everyone is a wiener!!

Join the Logan Square community and march around in your Halloween costume this Sunday at 5 p.m. for the Logan Square Halloween Parade.  The parade kicks-off at 5:30 p.m. at the Illinois Centennial Memorial with the punk rock marching band Mucca Pazza leading the festivities and providing the spooky soundtrack as costumed families travel south along the west side of Kedzie Boulevard to Fullerton Avenue then turning around to end at Café Lula (2537 N. Kedzie Blvd.) for complimentary apple cider and cookies!

Finally, Chicagoans will be closing out Halloween and the month of October with the 25^th annual Haunted Halsted Halloween Parade & Costume Contest on Monday at 7:30 p.m. in the Lakeview neighborhood.  This raucous parade steps off at Halsted and Belmont with the Chicago Thriller flash mob performing Michael Jackson’s famous dance routine as they head north and end at Halsted and Brompton.  Afterwards, stick around for the awards show and after party at Halsted and Roscoe.  Afterall, it’s been ranked as one of the 10 Best Halloween Celebrations in the U.S. by Fodor’s Travel and where you’ll see some of the best Halloween costumes in the city!!

Click Link for more kid-friendly Chicago Halloween in the Parks events!

Click Link for more Adult Chicago Halloween events!

Sue Moss and Dean’s Team Chicago

With Halloween Weekend and Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) ahead of us, Chicago restaurants are gearing up for a haunting good time, with special menus and drinks designed for your scary pleasure! 

Take, for example, River West’s Dandy Crown. As their website notes, Dandy Crown was opened in December 2019 by married partners Julia Shell and Jamie Hale as an approachable, neighborhood cocktail-focused restaurant and bar. The vibe iis”laid-back-luxe and filled with images of nontraditional dandy kings, queens, and other crown-wearers; a nod to Jamie’s British citizenship.”

The space is easy to find, with outdoor murals painted on their fenced-in patio by Chicago muralists Cyd Smillie and Jeff Kierna, featuring luminaries like David Bowie. The patio also features a mini-haunted house for atmosphere, while indoors, a fireplace and art-filled walls create a cozy setting for guests. 

Its Black Lagoon immersive Halloween Pop-Up, “pays homage to the macabre while celebrating with eerily delicious cocktails.” The Black Lagoon is open daily through Halloween (Monday, October 31.) The special drink menu includes the Double Cross, mixing Makers Mark, Lustau amontillado, Lustau Vermut Rosso, Nixta Licor de Elote, Green Apple Cordial, and saline. Or, the Hellraiser, with Hornitos Blanco, Chairman’s Spiced Rum, Cointreau, Lustau Amontillado, Giffard Banane du Brasil, Spiced Orgeat, lime, and aromatic bitters. And finally… the Closed Casket, mixing Bruichladdich Classic Laddie, Lustau Brandy de Jerez, Giffard Abricot du Roussillon, Passionfruit syrup, Miso Falernum, Lemon, Anisette, and Hellfire Bitters. 

For non-alcoholic drinkers, the Dandy Crown serves up the Ritual Sacrifice mixing a Ritual Gin Alternative with passionfruit, beet, and ginger beer, as well as the Satanic Panic, with a Ritual Tequila Alternative, pineapple, Falernum, and lime. 

Beyond the Black Lagoon… 

The Dandy Crown created some creative small plates, including Dead Fish Dip, with a cod and crab blend, rye, Old Bay seasoning, fresh herbs, and lemon zest, served with crostini, or the Sacrificial Lamb, pairing lamb tartare with beet mayo, cilantro oil, preserved lemon, and Za’atar herbs. 

Larger plates celebrate the season with Squid Game Ravioli, withhouse-made kimchi chicken, filled Squid Ink ravioli, Gochujang (red chili paste,) Mizuna (mustard) greens, and Togarashi (Japanese spice blend). Black Soul Bacon pairs braised Neuske’s slab bacon, sauteed greens, black treacle (syrup,) and green onion. Pollo of the Dead hascrisp chicken, cilantro aioli, salsa negra, and arugula, on a Sesame Bun, with pickled fresno (hot chiles.)

Save room for their deadly good dessert… S’mores from Sugar Bliss! Feast on a giant marshmallow, with chocolate and graham cracker cake! If you’re seated by that fire pit, you can roast the marshmallow to gooey, burnt perfection.

Google reviewers mostly enjoyed the ambience, food and drinks:

“Outstanding venue to just hang out and enjoy a quiet cocktail,” said one reviewer. “And the food is a great accompaniment to the drinks! And the outdoor patio is perfect.“

Another wrote:

“Extremely impressed by the food menu and size of the very dog friendly outdoor space.”

The Dandy Crown is located at 694 N. Milwaukee Avenue, in a brick two-flat. From Sunday-Thursday, the kitchen is open from 4pm-10pm, on Friday, from Kitchen 4pm-midnight, Saturday, from 4pm-midnight. (Note: times are for kitchen only: this is a restaurant review, for goodness’ sake!) Reservations are strongly recommended. Click here for reservations. 

Alison Moran-Powers and Dean’s Team Chicago

Homeowners are typically open to any efforts that will effectively help to reduce their utility bills as well as their imprint on the environment, and green roofs can help do exactly that.

Creating a “green roof” with plants can slow down and filter out rainwater runoff, which can help protect natural waters from harmful residue. Plantings on green roofs also absorb pollutants in the air to keep the environment clean.

Green roofs also help to regulate the interior temperature of a home by keeping it as much as 6 to 8 degrees cooler throughout the summer and warmer in cooler winter months, which can slash utility costs. They also tend to last approximately twice as long as a traditional roof, which means less expense and hassle of replacing a roof prematurely.

Many homeowners are also fond of the heightened esthetic appeal that a green roof covered in plantings can provide, which just adds to the mounting number of reasons why green roofs are becoming more popular among the environmentally- and budget-conscious homeowner.

A basic green roof is made of a waterproofing membrane, a root barrier, a drainage system, and a growing medium for the greenery. More elaborate green roofs are lighter and thinner and are often planted with “sedum,” or stonecrop. All sorts of different plant species can be used, including ornamental grass and colorful flowers. 

They can be installed on any type of roof, even if it’s sloped. That’s because there are various ways to set up media and drainage systems to keep the green roof from shifting.

Green Roof Myths Busted

There are certain misconceptions about green roofs, namely that they are potentially leaky and a hassle to maintain. The truth is, leakages can happen with any type of roofs, whether conventional or green, and have nothing to do with the plants themselves. If the roof is leaky, it’s only because of faulty installation and an improper waterproofing layer.

In fact, some evidence shows that the plants serve as natural protection to the elements. When properly designed and installed, a green roof will include a durable root barrier that helps prevent plant roots from going too deep.

As far as its maintenance, a green roof will certainly need water on occasion during the first year, and may require weeding every few months. However, the next year it should not require any water, and after the second year, it will only need to be weeded a couple of times a year and fertilized once a year.

The Process

Before adding plants to the roof, a structural engineer will make sure the structure is strong enough to support the weight of the growing medium and plants. Each tray can add as much as 30 pounds of load per square foot when fully saturated, which can put a lot of stress a conventional roof.

The roof is then covered with a waterproofing membrane, then a layer of rubber roofing membrane is added to prevent the roots of the plants from penetrating too deep and damaging the roof. Edging is placed around the perimeter of the roof to cover the sides of the trays, then planted trays are placed in rows within the edging starting at the lowest end of the roof and moving across and up the slope.

The trays are placed carefully so that seams are eliminated to reduce fluctuations in temperature. Ideally, there should be feet built on the underside of the plant trays to keep them slightly elevated so that water runoff can flow seamlessly toward the gutters. Trays are usually cut to fit between the last full tray in a row and the edging.

How Much Does it Cost?

You can expect green roof construction and installation to start around the $15 per square foot mark for a basic system. Once you start adding more intricate greenery, increased water storage, and an increase in media depth, the cost increases from there. The slope of the roof will also impact the final price of a green roof, which can reach as much as $45 per square foot. Many city incentives and government grants are offered for homes with green roofs, which can help to cut down on the overall cost of installation.

The Bottom Line

Green roofs are becoming increasingly popular among residential properties, and aren’t just reserved for large ecological structures. Their growth in popularity comes with good reason, considering the lower utility costs, minimal impact on the earth and environment, and improved esthetics. And as long as they are designed and installed properly, there’s no reason for a green roof not to outlast any other type of roof out there.

Bucktown is primarily home to millennials and Gen X. The family-oriented, affordable Bucktown neighborhood is the eastern-most boundary of the Logan Square community, and is defined by the North Branch of the Chicago River to its east, Bloomingdale Avenue to the south, Diversey Parkway to its north, and Western Avenue to the west. Moreover, according to the website Rentcafe, Bucktown is the 13^th most walkable neighborhood in Chicago. Bucktown has excellent public transportation and is “very bikeable.” That’s how you can get to nearby neighborhoods like Wicker Park, DePaul, East Ukrainian Village, Ukrainian Village, Noble Square, Roscoe Village and Goose Island.

The former industrial corridor has a significant shopping district on Damen Avenue, extending north from North Avenue (in Wicker Park) to Webster Avenue. The neighborhood is readily accessible via the Blue Line and has multiple access points to the elevated Bloomingdale Trail, also known as the 606.

Polish Roots: The History of Bucktown 

According to Wikipedia sources, Bucktown gets its name from the large number of goats raised in the neighborhood during the 19th century, when it was an integral part of the city’s famed ‘Polish Downtown.’ The male goat known as a buck, hence the nickname. The original Polish term for the neighborhood was Kozie Prery (Goat Prairie.) In the mid-20^th Century, writer Nelson Algren frequented the Polish bars, including the Bit of Poland on Milwaukee Avenue. Those hot spots figure in his novels ‘Never Come Morning’ and ‘The Man with the Golden Arm.’ Algren famously compared Ashland Avenue to “a bridge between Warsaw and Chicago.” 

Today, Bucktown is home to historic theatres, artists, and street fairs, single-family houses, and fun, 24/7. Through October 29, dare to enter the HOUSE OF THE EXQUISITE CORPSE, a horror peep-show puppet-theater anthology, at the historic Chopin Theater’sMain Stage, 1543 W. Division Street. As Choose Chicago describes it, this unique experience “beckons audiences to explore the tormented halls, peeping in on the otherworldly ills that plague each room. Through puppetry, physical performance, soundscape, and illusion, each room in the House of the Exquisite Corpse will horrify and mesmerize.” Can’t wait! In lieu of tickets, “pay what you can.” 

Celebrate the ‘Season of the Witch’ with a Bizarre Bucktown Walking Tour! 

From April 15 to November 1, take a unique and entertaining walking tour of Bucktown and Wicker Park, in a Bizarre Bucktown Walking Tour, focusing on the neighborhoods’ forgotten history and strange mysteries. Your guide is Gordon Meyer, a local resident, performer, writer, and magician. Tours start at the historic Flat Iron Arts Building, 1579 N. Milwaukee, Studio 202, from 8pm -9:15pm. For more information, contact Meyer at info@bizarrebucktown.com

Advance ticket purchase is required. Attendees must be at least 13 years of age.

Alison Moran-Powers and Dean’s Team Chicago

Mr. Clean Magic erasers can seem just that, magic. Whether using them on stubborn soap scum in the tub or scrubbing some dirty gym shoes they do a great job. But there are some places they cannot be used and some ways to use them more safely and effectively. Mr. Clean Magic Erasers are made of melamine foam. It can be as abrasive as 3000 grit sandpaper when wet.

You do want to use them when wet. When they are dry, they can be even more abrasive. Water does soften them up a bit, but you still need to be careful. Don’t use them on any finely painted surface, like a car. They will scratch it for sure. There are special products to use on cars to remove bugs and bird droppings that will not damage the clear coat. Do not use it on surfaces like granite or marble countertops. They will remove the sealant and dull the surface. 

Make sure to wear gloves when using these foam pads. They are very abrasive, so when you think about how they remove scuffs on shoes and walls, remember they can do worse to your hands! These little powerhouses can actually burn your skin, so be careful. 

Do not use on non-stick pots, pans and bakeware. They do seem to resemble a sponge but on non-stick surfaces they will scratch. When you scratch non-stick surfaces, you can release bad chemicals into your food. 

Stainless steel is another surface to avoid. The abrasiveness of these foam pads can cause the high gloss finish of most stainless-steel appliances to break down. This will result in a scratched and dull patina. 

So, to be safe just as you would with any cleaner or other product, test it out on an inconspicuous spot before using Mr. Clean Magic Erasers on any surface. 

Kathleen Weaver-Zech and Dean’s Team Chicago