The Umbrella Sky Comes to Chicago!

BEST DATE NEWS

May 4, 2023: Best Date News Volume #23

It's our Jordan edition of the newsletter with it being volume #23 today! Much like MJ himself, we think all of you are the GOAT for subscribing to Chicago's best newsletter! Thanks for all your support, and have a great rest of your week!

May 4: National Holidays

• National Star Wars Day

• National Bird Day

• National Orange Juice Day

• National Self-Employed Day

• National Weather Observers Day

Since this is the first newsletter of the month, we wanted to share that May also has a ton of food to celebrate this month:

• National Strawberry Month

• National Salsa Month

• National Egg Month

• National Salad Month

• National Hamburger Month

• National Asparagus Month

• National Barbecue Month

• National American Cheese Month

News of the Week

• The Umbrella Sky: The Chicago suburb of Elmhurst made news this week with the exciting unveiling of their new Umbrella Sky project! This awesome art installation consists of 325 brightly colored umbrellas suspended over a pretty walkway in their downtown. The Elmhurst City Centre is also giving out some of the actual umbrellas for FREE tonight while supplies last, which you can read about in our post as well.

Top 5: Chicago News to Know

• Nisos Closes: Popular West Loop mediterranean restaurant Nisos, that opened in July, has closed its doors, at least temporarily. In what came as a bit of a shock this week, Nisos announced on Instagram that head chef Avgeria Stapaki and the restaurant mutually agreed to part ways. Word is that Nisos will be making another announcement about future plans in the coming weeks.

• Museum Free Days: ICYMI we posted about the free museum days in Chicago for the month of May! There are a good number of days this month with some opportunities to visit places after work hours as well!

• 100 Most Popular Bunch Spots: It's the most important meal of the day! OpenTable released its list of 100 Most Popular Brunch Spots in the U.S. just ahead of Mother's Day, and Chicago had five of the spots, plus the suburbs had two more. See which restaurants made their list of best brunch spots.

• Divvy Bikes: In honor of National Bike Month, Chicago's Divvy Bikes is set to become the largest bikeshare, by service area, in North America covering 234 square miles. Divvy announced plans this week to add 3,000 classic pedal bikes along with 253 new Divvy stations to the Chicago system. The additions are primarily targeting the Northwest and Southwest neighborhoods that have been traditionally underserved by the bikeshare program.

• Aerosmith Farewell Tour: "Peace Out! After 50 years, 10 world tours, and playing for over 100 million fans... it's time for one last go," said the Aerosmith Instagram account this week. Chicago made the cut for Aerosmith's farewell tour with special guest The Black Crowes. They will be playing at the United Center with a concert scheduled for September 15. Tickets go on sale tomorrow (May 5) at 10am.

Cherry Blossom Final Update

Cherry Blossom Update: This will be our last update on the Cherry Blossoms because things unfortunately didn't go as planned. "Due to the erratic spring fluctuation in weather and temperature, many of the Cherry Blossom Tree buds will not appear to bloom this year," according to the Chicago Park District.

Long story short, some flowers appeared during the 80-degree April days, but they weren't able to survive during the storms and cold that followed. As a result, the plentiful Cherry Blossoms trees from last year won't be happening this year. The area around Jackson Park, including the Japanese Garden, is still very pretty though and worth checking out if you are in the area. Get a glimpse of the garden and other free things you can do outside this weekend in Chicago to enjoy the nice weather!

Photo of the Week

State & Lake Station: One of Chicago's busiest L stations is poised to be completely redesigned and modernized. The design of the station of the future was unveiled nearly two years ago at this point, but it sounds like progress is being made. The station's existing structure is more than 100 years old, so it's time for it to be redone.

Next week, you can participate in a Zoom call on May 10 at 6pm to learn more about the new station design in a virtual community forum. In the meantime, check out the renderings and video to show you what the station of the future might look like!

Poll of the Week

Last Week's Poll & Challenge Results

Poll Results: 65% of you said that you accompanied a parent to work with them when you were growing up.

NFL Draft Challenge: Last week we challenged you to guess who the Bears would choose with their first round pick of the NFL Draft. They selected Darnell Wright from Tennessee which unfortunately nobody guessed correctly. Thank you to everyone who participated though!

Today's Sunset in Chicago

The sun will set in Chicago this evening at 7:52pm. Which means the sun sets today eight minutes later than it did compared to last week.