Lincoln Square Ditches Cars (For a Week)

BEST DATE NEWS

April 24, 2025: Best Date News Volume #123

Welcome to Best Date News, your favorite Chicago weekly newsletter! In this week’s newsletter you will read about Lincoln Square’s street shutdown, Keith Lee’s love for Chicago, the 2025 Riot Fest lineup, Wrigley Field, the new “Street of Treats” and more!

April 24: National Holidays

• National Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day

• National Pigs in a Blanket Day

• National Skipping Day

• National Scream Day

• National Love Your Thighs Day

Sponsored by our friends at Ravinia Festival

Ravinia Tickets Now on Sale

• Ravinia Festival: Tickets for the 2025 Ravinia Festival season are now on sale! They just went live this morning at 8 a.m., and the lineup is amazing!

• Some of the names you can look forward to seeing this season are Lenny Kravitz, Cynthia Erivo, Kygo, Nas, Earth, Wind & Fire, Maren Morris, Juanes, John Legend and many more. See this year’s full lineup!

• For anyone unfamiliar, Ravinia Festival is a historic, outdoor music venue in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, Ill. They put on some of the best concerts in the Chicagoland area.

• One of the coolest things about Ravinia is that you can choose your own concert experience with Pavilion seats right up near the main stage, tons of dining options and the ability to get lawn seats for your own picnic!

Chicago News

• Lincoln Square: The main shopping district of Lincoln Square has been shutdown to cars this week (through April 28) due to construction in the area. The neighborhood is taking advantage of the opportunity and is transforming the 4700 block of Lincoln Ave, between Lawrence and Leland, into a pedestrian-only, open-air shopping experience through the Lincoln Square Spring Sidewalk Sale. Could this week serve as a test to see if a permanent change could be made one day?

• Riot Fest: The Riot Fest 20th Anniversary lineup dropped yesterday! It will take place Sept. 19-21 in Chicago’s Douglass Park. This year’s headliners are Blink-182 on Friday, Weezer on Saturday and Green Day on Sunday. Three-day tickets are now on sale.

• Street of Treats: Michigan Ave, in the Loop, will soon be getting three new big-name snack shops. Auntie Anne’s and Cinnabon are opening a joint location at 163 Michigan Ave, and right next door, Rainbow Cone is moving in too. With Stan’s Donuts, Crumbl and Nutella Cafe already nearby, the nickname “Street of Treats” is picking up steam.

• Keith Lee: Do you remember when famous TikTok food critic Keith Lee did a tour of Chicago last summer? He went around the city reviewing different places, and on his journey, he fell in love Amici in Buena Park (here is our video of the line at Amici the day after he posted his review). Well this past week, Keith Lee returned to Amici and surprised them with $50,000. He also spent some time walking around Chicago, meeting the people of his second favorite city.

• Chicago Theatre: The Chicago Theatre has just announced a handful of shows this week that will be coming in October. You can use the promo code SOCIAL for presale tickets. Check to see when each sale goes live respectively, but here are ones newly announced: Ben Schwartz on Oct. 25, Elvis Costello on Oct. 16, Sam Morril on Oct. 4 and The Rocky Horror Picture Show on Oct. 19.

Just For Fun

• Cherry Blossoms: Chicago’s beautiful cherry blossoms of Jackson Park have fully bloomed for the first time in years! They looked amazing last weekend, but they don’t last long, so go soon, like this Saturday, April 26 for the Hanami Cherry Blossom Viewing Festival.

• Wrigley Field: It feels like there is magic happening at Wrigley Field right now with some insane wins this past week! Fun fact, Wrigley Field opened exactly 111 years ago as of yesterday (April 23, 1914). Check out this cool Wrigley Field-themed nursery with brick wallpaper, ivy, the 400-foot home run marker and a basket fence. Not to mention, did you see the seagull who stole a hot dog at a game this week?!

• Bridge Lifts: One of Chicago’s most iconic spring traditions has returned! This past Saturday was the first Chicago River bridge lift of the season. Moving forward, the bridge lifts will take place on Wednesday and Saturday mornings depending on boat traffic. It’s a really cool sight to see if you haven’t before.

• Expo Chicago: The 12th edition of the Expo Chicago Contemporary Art Fair takes place at Navy Pier this weekend from April 24-27. This massive, international art fair explores the global art scene through 170+ galleries from 36 countries.

• Weekend Plans: The Hanami Cherry Blossom Festival and Expo Chicago are just two of many things happening around Chicago this weekend. If you want to know what else is happening around the city, check out these weekend round-ups from Choose Chicago and TimeOut Chicago.

Chicago Product of the Week

• Crappy Cake Art: Crappy Cake Art is a local Chicago company by artist Anna Lasbury, who uses “cake” as her creative medium — specifically, faux cake canvases to craft her unique art pieces.

• Why We Like It: Anna says that she, “crafts intentionally imperfect messages to celebrate the human experience. Her work honors life’s messy moments through themes of love encouragement, and humor.” You may have seen one of her viral videos where she leaves free cake art around Chicago to spread joy.

• Where to Learn More: You can find Crappy Cake Art on their website, Instagram page and even on display at the WNDR Museum.

• Where to Shop: Crappy Cake Art has an online Etsy shop where you can explore and purchase their handmade, fake-cake artwork.

Poll Question of the Week

Last Newsletter's Poll Results

Poll Results: Last newsletter we asked your thoughts on the new Portillo’s breakfast menu. 52% of you said that you were excited to try it and 48% said you are going to pass.

Sunrise & Sunset in Chicago

Here is today’s outlook in Chicago (compared to last week):

• Sunrise: 5:56 a.m. (10 minutes earlier)

• Sunset: 7:41 p.m. (7 minutes later)

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