👋 Hi! Native Chicagoan, here.

It's pop, never soda. [READER]( The Daily Reader To know Chicago is to love Chicago. In 2011, I did the unthinkable. After a year in a long-distance relationship, I moved away from Chicago to join my then-partner. Here’s the unthinkable part: I then fell in love with another entity, the city of Philadelphia. I wasn’t cheating on my partner; I was cheating on Chicago. [Philadelphia was a great place to land]( for someone like me who never before had lived away from Chicago for more than a few months. Sure, there was summer camp in Wisconsin, college downstate, and a good chunk of time in old RVs and tents following the last days of the Grateful Dead’s arena shows (feel free to send me your complaints via [letters@chicagoreader.com](. But I’d never really felt like I was living elsewhere. When any city I visited looked promising, Chicago still beckoned me home. Then I started making new friends in Philly and found a dizzying array of museums, music, and sports fans that made me feel grounded. [I’ve written about this for the Reader before]( there are areas in Philadelphia that seem to mimic Chicago’s neighborhoods. Philly’s Italian Market on Ninth Street reminds me of what Little Italy felt like in the 80s. Certain portions of West Philly make me think of South Shore and Chatham. However, as I started to settle into the City of Brotherly Love (and Sisterly Affection), Chicago kept popping up into my DMs. I got hostile looks for wearing my beloved 2005 White Sox World Series baseball cap. I could never get used to calling it “soda”. At the same time that my relationship was running its course, my companions at a bar made fun of me for calling the beer “Nair-rah-GAAN-sett.”* Many different circumstances contributed, but eventually I decided to come back to my hometown and through the sheer power of luck ended up working here at the Reader. I can’t imagine a better place to be to survey the landscape of the greatest city in the world. And our annual Best of Chicago issues just remind me that it keeps getting better. *Hi, native Chicagoan here. Yes, some of us do occasionally have “the accent”. Mine pops up when I’m shouting or have been drinking. If you’re interested in speaking in this fashion, the gateway words are “passion” and “phenomenal” as in “Mary Ann, these pączki are phenomenal.” Witness former America’s Next Top Model winner and Joliet native Adrienne Curry-Rhode [get in trouble for “the accent” here.]( Thanks for reading, Salem Collo-Julin, Editor-in-chief [Best person to tell you everything you wanted to hear and more about why that neglected building that’s attracted a developer’s eye shouldn’t be torn down]( Ward Miller, executive director, Preservation Chicago by [Deanna Isaacs]( | [Read more]( → [Best overdue celebration]( Charles Stepney: Out of the Shadows at Pritzker Pavilion by [Philip Montoro]( | [Read more]( → [Best art show on the southeast side’s ecology]( Norman W. Long at Glass Curtain Gallery by [Kerry Cardoza]( | [Read more]( → [Best coffee shop patio for the COVID cautious and/or those who just like their space]( Hexe Coffee Co. by [Jamie Ludwig]( | [Read more]( → [Best chocolate cake to eat to feel like a woodland creature in a Disney movie]( A Taste of Heaven Bakery & Cafe by [Ejun Kim]( | [Read more]( → [Best Gym for Watching Politicians Spar]( GLeonard Boxing Club by [Ben Joravsky]( | [Read more]( → [BEST OF CHICAGO ISSUE]( [View this e-mail as a web page]( [@chicago_reader]( [/chicagoreader]( [@chicago_reader]( [Chicago Reader on LinkedIn]( [/chicagoreader]( [chicagoreader.com]( [Forward this e-mail to a friend](. Want to change how you receive these e-mails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](. Copyright © 2023 Chicago Reader, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Chicago Reader, 2930 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 102, Chicago, IL 60616