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BEST DATE NEWS
Dec. 31, 2025: Best Date News Volume #159
Welcome to Best Date News, your favorite Chicago weekly newsletter! Thank you for being a weekly reader. With New Year’s Day taking place tomorrow, we decided to send this week’s newsletter a day early. In this week’s newsletter, you will read about Chicago’s first Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, New Year’s Eve activities around Chicago, the viral headlines that shaped 2025 in Chicago, New Year’s Day brunch specials and more.
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Dec. 31: National Holidays
New Year’s Eve
National Champagne Day
National Make Up Your Mind Day
National No Interruptions Day
National Unlucky Day
Sponsored by our friends at Eataly Chicago
Via Eataly Chicago
La Pizza & La Pasta NYE Dinner
Eataly Chicago: Still not sure what you want to do for your New Year’s Eve dinner tonight? Consider checking out La Pizza & La Pasta at Eataly Chicago.
La Pizza & La Pasta is one of the most popular restaurants inside Eataly Chicago and is featuring a three-course prix fixe menu starting at $65 per person this New Year’s Eve.
Each guest gets to choose from one of four antipasti for their first course and one of five secondi for their second course, before finishing with dessert. Menu highlights include housemade burrata, carpaccios, lasagna and a variety of pastas.
Reservations are still available, so make yours now.
Via Barry Butler
Chicago News
Dick Clark’s Rockin’ Eve: For the first time ever, Chicago’s midnight countdown will air live on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, marking the show’s first Central Time Zone countdown in its 50-year history. The free, public celebration takes over the Chicago Riverwalk at Wacker Drive, hosted by Chance the Rapper with performances from DJ Mike Dunn, DJ Mike P, J. Ivy, and Shemekia Copeland. The night ends with a live countdown on The Mart and fireworks lighting up the Chicago River at midnight.
NYE Weather Forecast: If you’re deciding to venture downtown tonight for New Year’s Eve celebrations and plan to be outside, prepare for a cold one. Temperatures will be in the 20s this evening before falling into the mid-teens by midnight. Light snow is possible earlier in the evening, with little accumulation expected, but wind chills near zero will make it feel even colder. Here’s what to know before heading downtown for NYE celebrations.
Free NYE Public Transit: Free rides will be available across the Chicago area tonight to help people get to and from New Year’s Eve celebrations safely. CTA and Pace buses and trains are free from 10 p.m. through 4 a.m. Metra is also offering free rides on all trains arriving or departing downtown after 6 p.m., with reduced schedules and an alcohol ban after 7 p.m.
Chicago’s 2025 Headlines: There are headlines, and then there are Chicago headlines. From a Chicago-born pope becoming a meme to Riot Fest chaos and free hot dogs tied to Bears wins, 2025 did what it does best. Add in northern lights over the city, a rare dust storm, and a local high school choir taking the national stage, and these are the kinds of viral headlines that could only happen here.
Chicago Skyway: If you regularly drive to Indiana or Michigan, tolls are about to go up again. The Chicago Skyway will raise its price starting Jan. 1, with the cost for 2-axle vehicles increasing from $7.80 to $8.10. Here’s how pricing has changed in recent years, showing a steady annual climb: 2023, $6.60. 2024, $7.20. 2025, $7.80. 2026, $8.10. For some perspective, the toll cost just $2.00 back in 2004.
Via Navy Pier
Just For Fun
Chicago New Years: Still finalizing plans for New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day in Chicago? You’ve got plenty of options. From dinners and parties to family-friendly activities and wellness events, there’s something for everyone. Here are 40 Ways To Celebrate The New Year In Chicago.
Navy Pier Fireworks: The Chicago River won’t be the city’s only New Year’s Eve fireworks display. Navy Pier will also host a free, 10-minute, award-winning fireworks show at midnight, dazzling over the lakefront while synchronizing to music. You can make a full night of NYE at Navy Pier with shopping, dining, activities, concerts, DJs, and more happening throughout the evening.
Free Museum Days: January might be the best month of the entire year to visit Chicago’s museums. We rounded up 56 different free admission opportunities this month, which is among the most you’ll ever see. The Shedd Aquarium alone is offering 14 free days in January, including some rare weekend options.
CTA Roomba: Know someone who got a new Roomba for Christmas? As it turns out, the CTA may have too. Did you see this viral video of a Roomba casually rolling onto a CTA train? Honestly, it looked right at home. Those trains could probably use the help.
Naperville Monopoly: A Chicago suburb is getting its own limited-edition Monopoly board. A new Monopoly: Naperville edition will let locals submit their favorite businesses and landmarks to be featured (submission form), replacing the game’s classic properties. The Naperville-themed version is expected to launch in fall 2026.
Via Lettuce Entertain You
New Year’s Day Specials
Graystone Tavern: The Graystone Tavern will host its annual New Year’s Day Pajama Party on Thursday, Jan. 1, starting at 10:30 a.m. Enjoy $1 breakfast tacos until noon, plus drink deals like $20 domestic buckets, $30 Surfside and High Noon buckets, $4 mimosas and more.
Cody’s Public House: At Cody’s Public House, you can enjoy a free donut and bagel bar on New Year’s Day. This dog-friendly bar will also have a variety of specials from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. including $3 mimosas, $3 Miller Lite Drafts, a $6 Tito’s Bloody Mary, $6 Skrewdrivers and more.
Frontier Chicago: Frontier Chicago is hosting a New Year’s Day BBQ Bowl Game Brunch for $39 per person. The two-hour feast comes with unlimited BBQ chicken, pork, beef, potato salad, beans and bread. Drink deals include $6 Goose Island Hazy Beer Hug drafts, and $7 Spicy Margs, Spicy BBQ Bloody Marys and $7 Smoky Old Fashioneds.
Drew’s on Halsted: Drew’s on Halsted is offering a $49 New Year’s Day Bottomless Brunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. It includes a brunch entree and bottomless mimosas (eight flavors), bloody marys, sangrias and screwdrivers.
Miru at The St. Regis: Looking to start 2026 in style? Miru at The St. Regis Chicago is hosting a New Year’s Day Silk Pajama Brunch from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The $125 experience (plus tax and 23.5% service fee) includes skyline views, a signature welcome cocktail, a live sushi station, carving station, Japanese specialties and brunch favorites like cinnamon French toast, made-to-order omelets and more. See all the LEYE New Year’s Day brunch celebrations.
Poll Question of the Week
Are you going out or staying in for NYE this year?! |
Poll Results: Last week, we asked you which day you looked forward to more, Christmas Eve or Christmas. 57% of you said Christmas, 43% said Christmas Eve.
Sunrise & Sunset in Chicago
Here is today’s outlook in Chicago (compared to last week):
Sunrise: 7:18 a.m. (2 minutes later)
Sunset: 4:29 p.m. (5 minutes later)
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