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Volume 70 Q Number 8
F E AT U R E S

70
Bold Moves
Dancers from the Joffrey Ballet
give us a master class on how to
take comfortable fashion into the
cool zone this fall.
By Lauren Warnecke
Photography by T. Harrison Hillman

60

GREAT ESCAPES
Think you’ve exhausted all the nearby
road trip options? Don’t be silly.
These nine short drives will get you
reenergized about Midwest travel.

82

WHAT HAPPENED TO
TIMMOTHY PITZEN?
A decade ago, his mother took
him out of school for a three-day
spree. Then she killed herself.
And the boy disappeared.
By Bryan Smith

Photograph by T. HARRISON HILLMAN S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 | C H I C AG O 9

D E PA R T M E N T S

CHISEP

(MODELS) MABEL TERRY, SASKIA TOPP, SELECT MODEL MANAGEMENT; (STYLING) JESSICA MOAZAMI; (WARDROBE) NEIMAN MARCUS; (HAIR/ MAKEUP) KERRE BERRY/LAB ARTISTS;
21 THE 312
What an elected school board
will mean for Chicago Public
Schools … Author Dawn Turner
on her new memoir, Three
Girls From Bronzeville …
A historic loft in Printers Row …
A middle school teacher
sues a North Shore school
district over its diversity and

(PHOTO ASSISTANT) JACK GOODWIN. (THIS PAGE)(HOUSE) WERNER STRAUBE; (PLATTER) COURTESY OF HUDSON GRACE; (ROSE MARY) JEFF MARINI
inclusion curriculum.

31 FOUND
No-nonsense nail polish for
every human … Entertaining
with grace in Glencoe …
The best cannabis for coitus …
Health hacks from Angela
Chaudhari, Northwestern’s
chief of gynecology.

37 TABLE
Catch the new Balkan food
wave … Learn how to make
Japanese rice balls … Dig into
rasta pasta … Indulge in vegan
twists on junk food … Where
to eat this month.

47 HABITAT
A bold design modernizes a
Two new Lincoln Park home … Upgrade
conservatories give your backsplash with punchy
a Lincoln Park home tiles … How to organize your
a fresh look, page 47 spice rack.

57 CHICAGO STORIES
Joe Flamm focuses on An air force pilot recalls his
Italian-Croatian fare at first day on the job — 
Rose Mary, page 37 September 11, 2001.
By Peter Braxton

91 GO
The Chicago Architecture
Biennial imagines unrealized
potential in vacant lots on the
South and West Sides.

Hudson IN EVERY ISSUE

Grace QFrom the Editor, 14
brings its QInside Peek, 14
housewares QTalk to Us, 16
to Glencoe, QInstagram Contest, 18
page 32 QBackroom: Liz Phair, 104

ON THE COVER PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY SAVERIO TRUGLIA

1954 CHEVROLET CORVETTE COURTESY OF KLAIRMONT KOLLECTIONS

10  C H I C AG O | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1
 A TRIBUNE PUBLICATION

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COMPLIMENTARY EDITOR IN CHIEF 

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through the summer. DINING EDITOR 

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lebrating
Ce PREPRESS/DESIGN MANAGER Tom Kadzielawski

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S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 | C H I C AG O 13
FROM TH E EDITOR INSIDE PEEK

Find Your Own

Secret Escape
EVERAL MONTHS INTO THE PANDEMIC, MY INNER
circle of girlfriends began plotting our escape.
S Flying was not an option, but one friend had her
eye on the Sister Lakes area, a collection of 10 lakes
in southwest Michigan. Before long, we found ourselves
planted on a dock on Cable Lake, a perfectly serene no-wake
waterway near the tiny rural town of Dowagiac. A cooler full
of hard seltzers, my best girls, and the most peaceful setting I An Epic
could imagine delivered
exactly what we needed at
Collection
that moment. ST YLIST JESSICA MOA Z AMI HAS
I’ve spent many week- worked on sets of all kinds, but none has
ends in Harbor Country, been like Klairmont Kollections. Over
but this area was new to 350 historic vehicles, including the
me. It was a fresh spin on 1954 Chevrolet Corvette on our cover,
a Midwest road trip that are parked at the museum in Belmont

PHOTOGRAPHY: (AMY CARR, CAR, FASHION) MICHAEL ZAJAKOWSKI; (CAVANAUGH) COURTESY OF AMY CAVANAUGH
offered the safet y and Cragin. “It was amazing; no one I know
security we were craving. knew the museum existed,” she says.
A year later, more of us The collection includes a vintage Rolls-
are flying, but overbooked Royce and a Frankensteined car with two
f lights, virus variants, hoods. Sadly, founder Larry Klairmont,
and rising airfares may who started collecting in 1935, died three
have you looking closer to days after our shoot.
home again. That’s what
we had in mind when we
asked some of the maga-
zine’s top writers to share
their secret travel desti-
nations within six hours
of Chicago for this issue’s
“Great Escapes” package After an 18-month For dining editor
(page 60). “Don’t tell us about the destinations we all know,” hiatus, Joffrey danc- Amy Cavanaugh,
we implored. “Surprise us.” ers were reunited digging into
with the lime- Hsing Chen’s
Did they ever. They found architectural wonders where you’d light — and high contemporary Greek
least expect them, indulged in Michelin-quality dining on a fashion (page 70). desserts at Andros
farm, and discovered a town just under five hours away where “When I retire from Taverna (page 37)
ballet, this is what was a walk down
it’s always Christmas. That last bit might not be for everyone, I want to do,” said memory lane. “My
but if tossing on an elf hat in the middle of September and driv- Princess Reid over grandma’s family is
ing to a place known as Little Bavaria doesn’t qualify as an racks of Prada. from Greece, and
Olivia Duryea, who powdered-sugar-
“escape,” I’m not sure what does. Happy travels. has modeling expe- covered kourabiedes
Amy Carr rience, arrived in are a staple at family
Editor in Chief white jeans and a gatherings. Chen’s
tank with smiling roasted almond
flowers by Chicago version was a great
designer Knitwrth. way to end dinner.”

14  C H I C AG O | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1
TIMELESS MASTERPIECES HANDCRAFTED IN FLORENCE
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16  C H I C AG O | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1
TA L K T O U S
Taking On the Icons
OK, but a Manny’s sandwich [“Chicago’s
Iconic Eats” issue] is not simply a handheld.
It’s two hands for just half of a sandwich!
@meg_a_ob via Instagram
Brown Sugar Bakery [is] high
on my personal list of places
to visit ASAP.
@GregTrotterGCFD via Twitter
I’d need several friends to
share [a hot fudge sundae
from Margie’s Candies] with.
Who’s in?
Alisa Cohen via Facebook
Nuts on Clark is much better
and more of a Chicago icon
than Garrett’s.
@_carlykenney via Instagram
I like Dinkel’s [for pączki]
but they should have listed
a Polish bakery, like Ideal.
@tawsebonnie via Instagram
CITY’S BEST
This is my favorite issue
[“Best of the New Chicago,”
August]. I’m planning a trip to
Chicago next summer, so
perfect timing. Can’t wait to
[Garrett Mix is] sooo
good! We buy some
every time we fly
through O’Hare!
Jeff-Sandi Buller
via Facebook
WHERE TO FIND US
Email us at letters@
chicagomag.com.
Chicago may
edit letters for
conciseness,
clarity, and accuracy.
get my copy in the mail.
@ritacamillej via Instagram
I have eaten this sandwich
[Kasama combo] and since then
I have dreamed about it every
night. It is amazing. I was raised
on Italian beef sandwiches and
let me tell you something: Tim
[Flores]’s combo is the truth!
@takozo_caprotigre via
Instagram
REAL TALK
My favorite hidden factoid
PHOTOGRAPH: MICHAEL ZAJAKOWSKI
here [“When The Real World
Came to Wicker Park,” August]
is that MTV wanted Nate Berkus
to design the Real World
house (pre-Oprah) but it
seems he passed?
@meredithshiner via Twitter
I remember being at Piece
Pizza when one of the cast
members worked there.
Joe Silva via Facebook
 M A L L O F A M E R I C A | B L O O M I N G T O N, M N
EXPLOREMINNESOTA.COM
 I N S TA G R A M C O N T E S T

Your Best
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Festival
Free & fun for all ages!
Saturday, Aug 28
12 to 5 pm
Water Street Mall
River Walk & 1 E. Benton
Downtown Aurora
tion of a local business is on brand for
the pastry chef. Last October, she and
her husband launched Siège, a photog-
raphy company, to promote restaurants
in the city during the pandemic.
WE ALSO LOVED …

Celebrate Day of the Dead

in Downtown Aurora

@847beernerd @nursingmydrinks312

NEXT CONTEST
Mexican Bakeries Window Displays Post your best high-resolution shot of pie on
Pan de Muerto Decorated Shops Instagram by September 15. Follow and tag
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AURORADOWNTOWN.ORG sugarskullcity.com @downtownaurora tion to the magazine.

18  C H I C AG O | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1
 ESCAPE
EXPLORE

This fall, take a bite out of Traverse City and feel your whole body come alive. Explore over 40
wineries of Traverse Wine Coast, hike the trails of Sleeping Bear Dunes, then feast your eyes on
the shortest and sweetest season when the trees put on a vibrant show of color. It’s all here, in a
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TraverseCity.com
 THE 312
Erykah Badu

Talking
Points
This month’s
conversation
starters

1 Till, a movie about

the mother of mur-
dered 14-year-old
Chicagoan Emmett
Till, is set to begin
filming this month
in Atlanta. Playing
Till’s grandmoth-
er: EGOT winner
Whoopi Goldberg.

2 Windy City
Live, which ABC-7
launched as a suc-
cessor to The Oprah
Winfrey Show in
2011, airs its last
episode as a daily
Sept. 3. Fans of Val
Warner and Ryan
Chiaverini needn’t
be totally bummed:
The pair will host a
weekly spinoff on

Changing Course
Fridays.

3 Gens X, Y, and Z
will all have some-
thing to cheer for
when Erykah Badu,
St. Vincent, and Activists fought for an elected school board in Chicago for decades.
Phoebe Bridgers It’s finally happening — so now what? By EDWARD McCLELLAND
headline Pitchfork
Music Festival Sept.
PHOTOGRAPH: TIMOTHY HIATT/GETTY IMAGES

10–12. Bring your

vax card or negative N THE SUMMER OF 2015, JITU BROWN, PRESIDENT OF THE KENWOOD-OAKLAND
Community Organization, led a 34-day hunger strike to pressure the Chicago Board
PCR results!

4 As if watching
I of Education to reopen Dyett High School, one of 50 schools shut down during Mayor
Rahm Emanuel’s first term. As a result of the strike, Dyett is now operating as a
professional sports
in a full stadium neighborhood arts academy. But Brown and his fellow strikers had to starve themselves to get
again weren’t excit- the attention of the school board.
ing enough: At its
Sept. 14 meeting, Those seven board members were appointed by the mayor. But by 2027, for the first time
the City Council is in history, Chicago Public Schools is going to be run by an elected board. In June, the state
scheduled to dis- legislature passed a bill to create a 21-member assembly that will include 20 representatives
cuss whether to
allow sports betting elected from districts and a president who will be voted upon citywide. The Kenwood-Oakland
within city limits. Community Organization has been campaigning for just such a board since 2006, but Brown

Illustration by MOJO WANG S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 | C H I C AG O 21


says Emanuel’s “brazen” school closings
“inflamed people” enough to actually
make it happen. It won’t be so easy to
close schools once every neighborhood
is represented. “An elected school board
will make it harder to move policies that
are not in the interests of our children,
and school closings is one of those poli-
cies,” Brown predicts.
Here are a few more things that propo-
nents and opponents of an elected school
board say we can expect.
Q A politicized school board When you
create a new elected body, you create a
new political battleground. The Civic
Federation, which opposed an elected
board, noted in a position paper that “in
Los Angeles, a record $17.7 million was
spent in the 2020 school board elections
as teachers’ union and charter school-
backed candidates battled for control of
the board.” State senator Robert Martwick,
a Chicago Democrat, says the 21-member
board was created to make campaigns
less expensive: “The smaller the number
“Is this going to bring us better student outcomes?
Fix our finances? It’s about when people screw up,
there’s accountability,” says state senator
Robert Martwick.
of voters, the more grassroots involve-
ment.” The legislature is considering a
bill to provide public financing for school
board elections so low-income parents
can afford to run. Still, Martwick acknowl-
edges, “we can’t stop the Chicago Teachers
Union or charter schools from spending
money independently.”
Q More transparent hiring Barbara Byrd-
Bennett, one of Emanuel’s handpicked
school district CEOs, went to prison for
accepting kickbacks on no-bid contracts.
Another Emanuel CEO, Forrest Claypool,
resigned after he was accused of lying
during an ethics investigation. Samay
22  C H I C AG O | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1
THE 312
Gheewala, assistant director for policy
at Illinois Families for Public Schools,
believes mayors prize insiders with
elite credentials over leaders who will
be accountable to the public: “The people
who picked Barbara Byrd-Bennett want
to go to the parties at the Commercial
Club. That’s who they’re going to be has-
sled by. An elected school board member
will be responsible to the neighborhood.”
Q A disconnect between city and schools
Martwick thinks he’s doing mayors a
favor by relieving them of responsibil-
ity for schools. “Shouldn’t the mayor be
focused on the city government?” he asks.
“I think [Emanuel] was a terrible head of
schools, but he was a good mayor.” Could
stripping the mayor of power over edu-
cation damage the district’s finances,
though? This fiscal year, the city provided
$415 million to CPS to fund pensions of
employees other than teachers, debt ser-
vice funding, and capital projects. “If you
create a situation where the mayor can
wash their hands of a decision on schools,
that absolves them of responsibility,” says
Daniel Anello, CEO of Kids First Chicago.
Once CPS becomes independent, the Civic
Federation noted, “it is not clear that the
city would or should be obligated to fund
CPS.” Amanda Kass, associate director
of the Government Finance Research
Center at the University of Illinois at
Chicago, wrote in a blog post that she
thinks the city will still be responsible
for the pension payments, at least: “This
isn’t something the mayor has discretion
[over] and is choosing to do.”
Q Fewer charter schools More than
55,000 students attend CPS’s 115 charter
schools, which are publicly funded but
privately run. Critics argue they rob
funds from neighborhood schools but
are no more effective. Gheewala thinks
an elected board would approve fewer
charters or even institute a moratorium:
“There is the perception that charters
are not providing a better education.
When you’ve got seven people who are
appointed, they’re easier to lobby. When
you’re responsive to voters who under-
stand that charters are not providing a
service, you’ll see fewer of them.”
Q Board members knowing their com-
munities Remember Derrion Albert? He
was a student from Altgeld Gardens who
was bused to Christian Fenger Academy
High School after the housing project’s
neighborhood school was turned into
a military academy. Mayor Richard M.
Daley’s board of ed didn’t know or didn’t
care that the plan put members of rival
gangs in the same school. Albert was
beaten to death with a railroad tie during
a gang brawl in 2009. “When that school
exploded, they looked stupid,” Brown
says. “If you want to say gang lines don’t
matter, you make the investment in com-
munities so it don’t matter.”
Q A better education for Chicago’s chil-
dren? Fans of an appointed board point
to the fact that CPS’s graduation rate has
increased from below 50 percent to 80
percent since full mayoral control was
instituted in 1995. Not even the stron-
gest proponents of an elected school
board promise it will improve classroom
performance. “I never had any intentions
or designs on what the system of educa-
tion would look like,” Martwick says.
“Is this going to bring us better student
outcomes? Fix our finances? It’s about
when people screw up, there’s account-
ability.” Florence Cox was president of
the 15-member board of education in the
early 1990s, before full mayoral control,
and favors an elected board. “The board
can be elected or appointed,” she says.
“It’s not going to be any better than the
people who serve.” Those who’ve been
fighting for an elected board hope it will
attract better people — or, at least, people
who listen to what the parents want. C
 THE 312

VOX

Girlhoods
Reconsidered
Dawn Turner chronicles the
moments when paths split in Three
Girls From Bronzeville: A Uniquely
American Memoir of Race, Fate, and
Sisterhood. Interview by CORILYN SHROPSHIRE

Q: This coming-of-age story, out

September 7, is woven together
like a braid: You’re one strand,
your sister, Kim, is another, and
your best friend, Debra, the third.
Then the braid unravels. Why did
you choose to write about it?
A: I’d been telling Debra’s
story in the Chicago Tribune
since 2000. This memoir was
my first time tackling our
story head on. I read so many
stories about men and their
divergent paths, and I hadn’t
read anything about Black
women and their divergent
paths and anything that took
the long view from childhood
to middle age.
Q: Are you speaking directly to
other Black women?
A: On the one hand, yes, I
am most definitely speaking
to Black women, Black girls,
because sometimes the stakes
are incredibly high for us and
the margin of error is razor
thin. But it’s also very much
a universal story that speaks to the vulnerabilities of girls. So This book is not about me being perfect, but about me trying
I’m also talking to all girls and women. This idea of different not to land in a place where I didn’t want to be.
fates and destinies is universal, along with the bonds that we Q: You write about overcoming a failure in college. How did you keep
have as sisters, friends, and women. challenges like that from derailing you?
Q: You’ve spent your career telling stories about people who failed A: I surrounded myself with a lot of people who were smarter
and then seized second chances. Why is this a theme for you? than me and could direct me. My family, my ex-husband’s par-
A: The whole idea of the second chance is something that many ents, my mentors. Without the guidance I’ve had in my life, I
people, especially Black people, don’t get — the benefit of the don’t know if I would’ve made my way back. There are a lot of
doubt. We all make mistakes. The only way that some of us people who have the will and the energy but don’t have the road
are different is that we have a family safety net, or we’ve been map and the people to direct them. Without the road map and
extended an opportunity to make the most of a bad situation. the support, you’re just standing in place. C

24  C H I C AG O | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 Photograph by MICHAEL ZAJAKOWSKI

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SQUARE FEET
Original
Rainbow
Home
A Printers Row penthouse
with a colossal skylight
hits the market. By JEREMY OWENS
RO M TH E O UT S I D E , TH E
Donohue Building, an 1883
F red-brick fortress at 727
South Dearborn Street, just
looks like an especially excellent example
of Chicago’s famed Romanesque archi-
tecture. But the Printers Row edifice is
also a treasure-trove of firsts: It was the
first building with a timber infrastruc-
ture constructed after the Great Chicago
Fire; the first structure in the country to
include a sprinkler system; and home to
one of two original publishers of the chil-
dren’s classic The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
In 1979, it was also Chicago’s first
factory converted into residential con-
dos. “It’s the grandaddy of loft spaces,”
says Susan Dickman, a real estate agent
with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices
Chicago. The penthouse, which Dickman
is representing, is listed for $1.175 mil-
lion. Owners Nancy and Bruce Johnson
26  C H I C AG O | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1
THE 312
are downsizing from their 3,500-square-
foot, three-bedroom corner unit now that
Bruce is retiring.
The Land of Oz is exactly what comes
to mind upon entering the couple’s home.
A vaulted 40-by-20-foot skylight serves
as the condo’s centerpiece, f looding
the living room with natural light. The
Johnsons installed the modern dome
in place of the original industrial sky-
light. Climb a spiral staircase to a door
in the side of the dome and you’ll find a
private 3,100-square-foot rooftop with
360-degree views of the city.
The office and library both feature
expansive built-in bookshelves. Exposed
brick reminds you it was a factory, too. But
alongside the charm are plenty of mod-
ern comforts, including a steam shower,
walk-in closets, and a garage parking
spot (for an extra fee). All together now:
There’s no place like this home. C
Word Art
Hip-hop historian BboyB
guides us through three of the
stops you’ll see on Graffiti &
Gears, the new bike tour he
coleads through Logan Square.
– LAUREN WILLIAMSON
DIVISION AND CALIFORNIA
“This is one of my favorite
[stops] because it brings
people into the culture of graffiti.
Graffiti is first and foremost
about typography and font
and letters and names. That’s
a perfect example.”
BLOOMINGDALE
AND CENTRAL PARK
“The first piece on the corner
originally said ‘Graffiti’ and,
underneath, ‘ ’84.’ It was done
by Nick Salsa. He ended up
re-creating the exact same
piece when the 606 opened,
except he changed the year.
It’s significant because he did
it as a teenager illegally and
came back as an adult and not
only did he get paid for it, but
he got permission.”
FULLERTON AND MILWAUKEE
“Project Logan is our last stop.
Some of the walls get painted
weekly. That’s the life of graffiti.
If you put it up and turn around,
there may be another artist
painting on top of you. But you
can’t get mad, because that’s
graffiti culture.”
PHOTOGRAPHY: (HOME) VHT STUDIOS; (GRAFFITI) BBOYB
The next tour is on September 4.
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THE TWO-MINUTE GUIDE
Evanston Drama Teacher
vs. Critical Race Theory
A lawsuit filed by a middle school instructor brings the Fox News–stoked
debate over antiracist education to the North Shore. By GRACE PERRY
THE SETTING
Welcome to the Chicago
suburbs, the latest battleground
in the culture wars. We lay our
scene at Evanston/Skokie School
District 65, which serves about
7,300 students and employs
about 1,400 early childhood,
elementary, and middle school
staff members. It’s a majority-
minority district: 42 percent of
students are white, 23 percent
Black, 21 percent Hispanic, and
5 percent Asian American. In
2017, the district pledged to have
every teacher undergo antiracist
training within two years. Sounds
helpful, especially with such a
racially diverse student body,
right? Don’t be naive — this is
America! Land of baseball, apple
pie, and suing your employer!
28  C H I C AG O | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1
THE 312
THE MAJOR PLAYERS
The plaintiff Nichols Middle
School drama teacher Stacy
Deemar, who is white and has
taught in the district for nearly
20 years. She’s represented
by the Southeastern Legal
Foundation, a Georgia-based
conservative nonprofit, in con-
junction with journalist-activist
Chris Rufo’s campaign against
critical race theory.
The defendants The lawsuit
names Evanston/Skokie School
District 65 and its superinten-
dent, Devon Horton; deputy
superintendent, Latarsha Green;
and assistant superintendent of
curriculum, Stacy Beardsley.
Critical race theory A framework
developed in the 1970s to study
inequality in post–civil rights
movement America. The term
has been co-opted by the right
(in a movement led by Rufo)
into a catchall for theory, lan-
guage, and lessons that criticize
American institutions and/or
seek to dismantle racism.
THE ARGUMENT
Deemar and the SLF argue
the district’s approach to
teaching race violates the Civil
Rights Act of 1964 and the
14th Amendment. The lawsuit
takes particular offense to the
district separating teachers
by race, as the complaint says
happened during antiracist
training sessions. Doing so,
Deemar’s attorneys argue, is
in itself racist. Deemar and the
SLF also argue that encouraging
employees to consider their
racial privilege is actually bias
against white people. Among
the incidents cited in the lawsuit:
being instructed to teach a
book that quotes Toni Morrison
saying, “White people have a
very, very serious problem”;
the suggestion that Eurocentric
education might not work for
every child; and colleagues
rolling their eyes at Deemar. And
here we were thinking thick skin
was a prerequisite for teaching
middle school.
Illustration by KIERSTEN ESSENPREIS
THE STAKES
Deemar is asking for  —  gird
your loins  —  $1 in damages.
Instead of cash, the lawsuit
states, she’s requesting that
the district “remedy the effects
of the unconstitutional, illegal,
discriminatory conduct.”
Translation: She wants the court
to end antiracist workshops at
school. In a written statement
to the community, Horton
says the allegations take the
district’s “lawful, sensitive, and
responsible” training out of
context. But the stakes stretch
far beyond the Chicago area.
Similar cases are cropping up
nationwide, and the SLF plans
to file additional lawsuits. If the
court rules in favor of Deemar,
the case could provide enough
precedent for other districts to
ban teaching about racism, too.
In the meantime, best of luck
enduring the teachers’ lounge at
Nichols this fall, folks!
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By LAUREN WILLIAMSON

Q As a college student in Chicago, Rachel James coveted the vibrant nail polishes
she saw modeled on social media. But the posts also vexed her: The lacquers looked
great on white hands  —  but would that be true for a Black woman like her? Inspired,
she began mixing her own colors, using her friends as test subjects to determine how
the shades worked against various skin tones. Pear Nova’s flagship suite of polishes,
BrwnGrlMgc, was born. Ranging from the milky beige Frida Be Free to the bronze-
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success of that collection was the stamp of approval we needed,” says the 33-year-old,
who’s expanded the line to include a kaleidoscope of colors. Sales more than doubled
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Photograph by LISA PREDKO S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 | C H I C AG O 31

 FOUND

1 2 Ask a
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Featuring
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Q: I’ve heard that
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Anecdotally, strains
like Wedding Cake
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PHOTOGRAPHY: (PRODUCTS) COURTESY OF HUDSON GRACE; (MEEKS) KRISTINE CONDON

S THE POSTPANDEMIC CLOCK STRIKES PARTY SEASON, THE 1 Spices, $175 sex because they
for a set of 12 can produce eupho-
housewares brand Hudson Grace sets up shop in Glencoe.
A Happy hosting, indeed. Tucked in near the town library and
flower shop, Hudson Grace’s new boutique makes a fine, if
2 Larder board,
$195
3 Vintage Oro
ria and heighten
the senses. Sativa,
which is energizing,
flatware, $175 can also help get
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for a five-piece
the senses: The air is fragranced with the subtle aroma of fresh-picked place setting And if you find that
flowers, a scent designed by cofounder and trained perfumer Gary 4 Linen napkins, you need something
$22 each to be more calm and
McNatton; walls are splashed with ripe, juicy shades of citron, watermelon, present, try a prod-
5 Potholder, $14
and persimmon; and displays practically spill over with a curated assort- uct with CBD.
ment of chic wares. “It’s big and dramatic — when we do something, it’s a Datrianna Meeks is
a cannabis writer
statement,” says Monelle Totah, who, with McNatton, launched Hudson and educator.
Grace in San Francisco in 2012. Eight stores and a robust online following
later, the two have earned a reputation for taking posh European tabletop
classics and reimagining them for everyday use. “My taste is a little more
collected and eclectic, and Gary’s is minimalist modern, so we always ask
ourselves: Would this work in both of our homes? If yes, we go into produc-
tion,” says Totah. That means you’re just as likely to find a baroque ceramic
candlestick as you are a giant hardwood charcuterie board or a vintage
silver ice bucket. “We love juxtaposition,” says Totah. Whatever your vibe,
pop in for hostess gifts, pantry upgrades, glassware, or the transporting
power of Hudson Grace’s delicately perfumed candles. 339 Park Ave.,
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32  C H I C AG O | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 Illustration by JOHN KENZIE

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 FOUND

THE REGIMEN

Angela Chaudhari
Surgeon, super sleeper, squat master
By LAUREN WILLIAMSON

S THE NEW CHIEF OF GYNECOLOGY AND GYNECO-

logic surgery at Northwestern Medicine, Chaudhari
A is all about her patients — but she doesn’t stop there.
She’s the founder and director of Northwestern’s P2P
Network, a peer support group that helps doctors process their
job stress. “The rate of physician burnout compared to that of
other professions is crazy,” she says. “Our goal is to get to doctors
when they’re going through their worst times and lead them
down the path of better coping.” For the 45-year-old Lincoln Park
resident and mother of three, it all comes down to self-care — a
practice that requires not just discipline but creativity too.

PUSHUP HACK BABY GOT BACK

“When my kids were younger,
I used to have to force them to
brush their teeth. So I’d set a
timer and say: ‘You brush for
two minutes, and I’ll do push-
ups for two minutes.’ I’d do 40
to 45. Like any working mom,
I really try to find time to exer-
cise when I can.”
MEDITATIVE MOVEMENT
“I get up between 5:15 and
5:45 every morning. Prior to
work and surgery, I like to run
outside — in the neighbor-
hood, in the park, or by the
lake. I might run two and a
half miles or I might run sev-
en, depending on how much
time I have. When I exercise, I
have so much more focus and
patience. I’ve always said that
I’m not a meditator — I can’t sit
still long enough. But I actually
think running is my version of
meditating. It took me many
years to recognize that run-
ning and surgery were very
similar in terms of how they
help me focus.”
JOINT SAVER
“I was having a lot of problems
with my ankles [from running
every morning], and a girl-
friend said, ‘Draw the alphabet
with your feet to stretch out.’
I do that intermittently while
seated throughout the day
now. It makes a difference!”
“Squatting was my favorite
activity right after I had my
twins. I would hold one in each
arm, and instead of rocking back
and forth, I would squat. I like
to joke that I’m the baby whis-
perer: I can make any baby in a
restaurant stop crying by squat-
ting. Kids love it, and it’s a great
workout for your butt!”
SOUND SLEEP
“I’m an easy
sleeper. I think
this comes
from medi-
cal training;
you learn to
sleep almost
anywhere, and
you try to get as much of it as you
can. Sleep hygiene is so impor-
tant for this: a dark room, no TVs.
I always recommend waking up
to a normal alarm clock rather
than the screen of your phone.
Sound is better than light.”
CHAUDHARI’S DAILY FUEL
Breakfast: Coffee and Greek
yogurt
Lunch: Fresh veggies, such as
cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots,
and peppers, with a little bit of
hummus, or a big green salad
Dinner: Homemade turkey
tacos or salmon
Water: Three liters
Evening indulgence: A piece
of dark chocolate

34  C H I C AG O | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 Photograph by LISA PREDKO

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 TABLE
Pork ribs
pampanella
from Rose Mary

Balkan
Q It’s the year of cevapi. This hearty, com-
forting sandwich — made with small grilled
sausages tucked into somun or lepinja
(chewy flatbread) and decked out with
onions, kajmak (clotted cream), and ajvar (a
robust red pepper–eggplant spread) — has

Wave
The food of this European
been popping up at a recent crop of new-
school Balkan restaurants. You’ll find it all
over: from Doma, a Croatian-inspired café, to
Rose Mary, Joe Flamm’s Italian-Croatian jug-
gernaut. But Balkan food goes way beyond
cevapi. The region includes Macedonia,
region, which spans from Serbia, Bosnia, Slovenia, Greece, and other
Slovenia to Greece, is countries, and chefs with ties to these places
are opening passion projects that look at
surging in Chicago. these cuisines in fresh ways. These four,
By AMY CAVANAUGH including a virtual kitchen slinging street
snacks and a Logan Square taverna offering
a personal tour of Athens, are standouts.

Photography by JEFF MARINI S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 | C H I C AG O 37


KIOSK BALKAN
STREET FOOD
3517 N. Spaulding Ave.,
Avondale
THE TAKE Two Serbian brothers
and hospitality pros offer varia-
tions on the street eats of their
childhood via a virtual kitchen.
WHY GO Chef Nemanja
Milunovic used to snack on
grilled meats from kiosks around
the former Yugoslavia. He trans-
lates his recollections of these
into a menu of hits — from sarma,
pork-stuffed cabbage rolls
topped with two smoked pork
ribs and basking in a thyme-
paprika jus, to tavche gravche,
paprika-loaded Macedonian
beans with dried pepper sauce.
MUST ORDER Anything on
somun, the perfect vessel for
the immensely satisfying cevapi,
as well as the fried chicken
sandwich, garnished with
shredded cabbage tossed with
Champagne vinaigrette and
urnebes, a spicy spread of feta,
garlic, and peppers.
38  C H I C AG O | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1
TA B L E
ROSE MARY
932 W. Fulton Market,
West Loop
THE TAKE Top Chef winner Joe
Flamm’s humming West Loop
restaurant marries his Italian
background with his wife’s
Croatian one.
WHY GO Flamm’s dishes clev-
erly meld the two cuisines, as
in the rich, creamy stracciatella,
which is dotted with seasonal
berries, herbs, and balsamic vin-
egar and comes with a round of
lepinja to tear apart and scoop
it all up. This is Flamm, so pas-
tas are a must: His version of
djuvec, a Serbian vegetable
rice dish, subs in tortellini, while
deeply flavored lamb and red
pepper ribbons are an excellent
match for a glass of plavina, a
bright, dry Croatian red wine.
MUST ORDER The tender, spicy
pork ribs pampanella, slicked
with Calabrian chile agrodolce,
sprinkled with walnuts, and
accented with a tangy cabbage-
yogurt slaw.
016 RESTAURANT
& SANDWICH SHOP
5077 N. Lincoln Ave.,
Ravenswood
THE TAKE Southern Serbian cui-
sine reflected through the lens
of American influences.
WHY GO Chef Bojan Milicevic
named this spot for the area
code in Leskovac, his Serbian
hometown. He serves dishes
that are representative of the
area, but with surprising twists.
The Chi-Vap is a mash-up of
cevapi and a Chicago dog, with
bacon-wrapped sausage tucked
into a roll and dragged through
the garden. The Lincoln Square
muffuletta recasts the New
Orleans classic with mortadella,
capicola, and lonza (dry-cured
pork loin) and is accented by kaj-
mak, ajvar aïoli, and giardiniera.
MUST ORDER The everything-
spice burek is a flavor bomb.
Milicevic stuffs the savory, flaky
pastry with cream cheese and
leeks and finishes it with a blast
of everything bagel seasoning.
From back: Cevapi,
fried chicken sandwich,
and sarma from Kiosk
Balkan Street Food
ANDROS TAVERNA
2542 N. Milwaukee Ave.,
Logan Square
THE TAKE RPM vets Doug
Psaltis and his wife, Hsing Chen,
explore his childhood memories
of dining in Athens.
WHY GO Psaltis’s Greek cuisine
is fresh and vibrant, whether it’s
an herb-loaded whipped feta
spread, served with crisp crudi-
tés and pillowy pitas, or tender
octopus, braised in red wine and
vinegar before being finished
on the charcoal grill. Chen’s
dessert menu is packed with
contemporary Greek sweets
like ouzo-soaked watermelon,
roasted almond kourabiedes
cookies, and, the star, frozen
Greek yogurt studded with bak-
lava and drizzled with pistachio
sauce and honey.
MUST ORDER The flaky whole
sea bass comes from the wood-
burning oven. Get it with the
herby tomato-sauced peas and
a glass of moschofilero off the
predominantly Greek wine list.
 MACIEKZURAWSKI MARIANO’S
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 TA B L E

In a large bowl, mix rice and 1

teaspoon sesame oil. To make
the negi miso paste, combine
the remaining sesame oil, miso,
green onion, ginger paste, sug-
ar, mirin, sesame seeds, and soy
sauce in a small bowl.

Oil a large nonstick skillet and

heat over medium. Put a quarter
of the rice into your palm and
form it into a triangle approxi-
mately 3 inches high. (Reduce
sticking by using plastic wrap to
I N TH E KITC H E N help shape the rice.) Repeat to
make three more onigiri. Spread

Handy a quarter of the miso paste over

the top of each.

Snacks
UTA KATSUYAMA OF THE VIRTUAL RES- YUTA KATSUYAMA’S NEGI MISO ONIGIRI
taurant Onigiri Shuttle Kororin wants Makes 4 onigiri
Y to clear something up: Though sushi
chefs may season their rice with vine-
Active time 40 minutes
Total time 40 minutes

gar, the rice for Japan’s iconic onigiri — a whole genre 4 cups steamed Japanese short-grain rice,
cooled until it can be handled
of crisp, triangular handheld snacks — is best left 1¼ tsp. sesame oil
plain. This neutral quality provides a blank canvas 2 Tbsp. awase miso paste (Katsuyama
for unlimited flavor combinations, like the version recommends Marukome brand)
1 green onion (green part only), thinly sliced
here, which gets its umami-packed oomph courtesy ¾ tsp. ginger paste
of a sauce made from negi (green onion), awase (a ¼ tsp. sugar
combination of red and white miso), ginger paste, 1½ Tbsp. mirin
½ tsp. sesame seeds
and mirin (sweet rice wine). All ingredients are ¼ tsp. soy sauce
available at H Mart. — CATE HUGUELET 4 nori sheets
Shichimi togarashi
Place onigiri in the skillet, miso
side up, and cook until rice turns
golden, about 4 minutes. Flip
onigiri onto one edge and cook
until lightly browned; repeat on
other two edges. Turn onigiri
miso side down and cook until
paste darkens and crisps, about
1 minute. Remove from heat,
wrap with nori, and sprinkle with
shichimi togarashi to taste.

40  C H I C AG O | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 Photography by JEFF MARINI

THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY GIFT IS GOLD.
OR BETTER YET, GOLDEN CRUST.

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 TA B L E

Next-Gen Jamaican
The Lee brothers serve twists on rasta pasta and other family
N E W FAV E

Veg Out
PLANT BASED JUNKIE
recipes at their new restaurant. By NIKKI ROBERTS 1635½ E. 87th St.,
Calumet Heights
With its vibrant interior and modern Jamaican dishes, Dr. Bird’s Jamaican Patty QHours Lunch and dinner
Shack feels totally fresh — but it happens to be an offshoot of a 40-year-old family Tuesday to Saturday
QPerfect order The Junk
restaurant in Buffalo. “Our family showed us the way; we’re just continuing the
legacy and putting our spin on it,” says Hakim Lee, who opened the Noble Square QThe Junk ($14) is one sloppy
spot (1215 N. Milwaukee Ave.) with his brother Changa in May. You’ll find flaky burger. Unwrap it just enough to
keep it intact and revel in its pre-
patties along with jerk salmon roti, but the star is the rasta pasta, an homage to the cipitous architecture — a cheese-
flavors of the island created by Jamaican immigrants to New York, including their cloaked patty heaped with fried
father, who has served it since 2005. The Lees take his recipe in a new direction. onions, mushrooms, lettuce,
and tomato. One side of the bun
is slick with garlicky mayo and
mustard, the other with avoca-
do. It’s junk food, but don’t hold
that against it: This burger and
everything else on the menu are
totally vegan.
Bobbie Beaugard-Williams
has cheerfully reappropriated
the term “junk food” to describe
her offerings. There’s a lineup
of Impossible burgers, includ-
ing the Filthy Philly, with green
peppers and vegan mozzarella
($13). But Beaugard-Williams
serves full-service junk, so don’t
overlook the terrifically crispy
Fire Bird “chicken” sandwich
with Cajun aïoli ($14). Everything
comes with excellent skin-on
fries, three packets of ketchup,
and a wad of napkins.
Why not just get a beef burg-
er? The roots of Black vegetari-
anism go at least as far back as
the Nation of Islam, but spots
like this are opening around
the country — Atlanta’s Slutty
Vegan gets lines around the
block — to reach the burgeoning
population of Black vegans. For
Beaugard-Williams, it’s to keep
her blood pressure in check. For
me — I’m neither Black nor veg-
an — this food hits the spot and
sits well afterward. Maybe this is
the methadone of burgers, but
count me one satisfied junkie.
— JOHN KESSLER

THE SAUCE This creamy
rendition is extra herbaceous,
with loads of rosemary, basil,
thyme, and parsley. The
Lees use Gruyère instead of
cheddar and add coconut milk,
jerk seasoning, and roasted
tomatoes to amp up the umami.
THE JERK Add jerk shrimp,
chicken shawarma, skirt steak,
salmon, or jackfruit, a vegan
option that mimics pulled pork.
Each one is marinated with
spices for 24 hours, smoked on
pimento wood from Jamaica,
and finished on the grill.
THE TOPPINGS When
combined with the bright green
sauce, the red and yellow bell
peppers complete the colors
of the Rastafarian movement
that gives the dish its name.
A shower of grated Gruyère
makes it extra cheesy. The Junk

42  C H I C AG O | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 Photography by JEFF MARINI

 +
=
 
F>:EL
Sara Lee & Blessings In a Backpack will
supply meals to school children in
need in the Chicago area.

©2021 TYSON FOODS, INC.

 TA B L E

The Hot List

10 places everyone’s talking about (in order of heat)
hard
Visit Our Orc , 10-5,
T 24
SEPT 11-OC ONLY
SAT & SUN

Lobster fritta at Adalina Grilled chicken at The Art of Chicken

JALEO What Celeb chef José Andrés’s iconic Spanish tapas spot lands in
1
Chicago. Why Any night that starts with fruity sangría and plates of garlicky
gambas al ajillo and jamón ibérico is a party. Where 500 N. Clark St., River North
ADALINA What A sleek Italian newcomer with two lauded chefs: Soo Ahn
2
(Band of Bohemia) on savory and Nicole Guini (Blackbird) on sweet
Why Nosh on a fried green tomato caprese and housemade pastas, then finish
with the brown butter honey tart. Where 912 N. State St., Near North Side
VERVE WINE + PROVISIONS What A lively, approachable wine shop and
3

AUTUMN restaurant Why Ryan Epp’s plates, such as a bavette steak with allium jus,
are simplicity at their best. Where 2349 N. Lincoln Ave., Lincoln Park
LARDON What A café, bar, and charcuterie emporium from Chris Thompson

HARVEST 4
Why Find Aya pastries and Metropolis coffee in the a.m., and finocchiona and
butter sandwiches later in the day. Where 2200 N. California Ave., Logan Square

PHOTOGRAPHY: (ADALINA) GALDONES PHOTOGRAPHY; (ART OF CHICKEN) CHUY REYES

FEST 5
L&M PARKSIDE What A seasonally focused eatery across the street from sister
market L&M Fine Foods Why Expect the same gourmet sensibility, as in the
cast-iron steak with cherry steak sauce. Where 2201 W. Montrose Ave., North Center
E ELEGA

75
TH N
T

BLUE BOTTLE COFFEE What An outpost of the Oakland chain opens with
FAR

th 6
single-origin coffees and Lula Cafe bites. Why Order a New Orleans–style cold
MER

Est.
1946
brew with a blueberry-rose galette. Where 313 W. Wolf Point Plz., River North
Sim
ply the Best
LITTLE SANDWICH HOUSE What An all-day Bronzeville hangout with coffee
7
Apple Pickin’, and plenty of — what else? — sandwiches Why Try the roasted red pepper and
spinach sando with artichokes and Parm. Where 411 E. Oakwood Blvd.
Hayrides, Corn Maze,
LISTENING ROOM What A music-forward eatery at the Exchange, part of a
Smilin’ Barn Cafe, 8
sprawling project from DMK Restaurants Why Order Brian Huston’s dishes
Cider Donuts, while vinyl spins on a state-of-the-art system. Where 224 S. Michigan Ave., Loop
Caramel Apples JUICE @ 1340 What A bar and booze shop from a trio of beverage vets
9
& More Why Try a pour of whatever somm Derrick Westbrook is excited about, then
grab some cocktail mixers to take home. Where 1340 W. Madison St., Near West Side

Hwy ES & J, Mukwonago, WI THE ART OF CHICKEN What After a fire closed it for four years, a Bucktown
10
262-363-6771 favorite rises from the ashes. Why All the spiced, grilled chicken you know
elegantfarmer.com and love, now with Casa Humilde Cerveceria beers Where 2041 N. Western Ave.

44  C H I C AG O | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1
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 HABITAT

Past and
PHOTOGRAPHY: WERNER STRAUBE

Presence
A bold design and two eye-catching Steel, stone, and
conservatories give a Lincoln Park brick help the new
conservatory match
oldster a new lease on life. the home’s original
By THOMAS CONNORS 19th-century character.

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 | C H I C AG O 47

IME IS R A R E LY
What was once the height of
T fashion is, sooner or later,
not. That was the case with
this handsome 1880s Lincoln Park
greystone, which had gotten a very of-
the-minute redo in the 1990s. “It was all
bleached wood and stainless steel,”
recalls designer Julia Buckingham, who
spent years turning the place around for
a professional couple with two young
children. “Everything intrinsic to the
house in terms of its original appeal had
been wiped away.”
Buckingham and her clients weren’t
out to orchestrate a historic restora-
tion, but the slick touches of the recent
past had to go. Floors were warmed
up with a darker stain. A chrome fire-
place surround was replaced w it h
brick. The contemporary kitchen was
toned down with a diamond-patterned
48  C H I C AG O | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1
H A B I TAT
KIND. tile that Buckingham ran across an
entire wall. When it came to furnish-
ings, she combined French cur ves
with linear forms for a transitional
look propelled by bright colors. “Julia’s
‘Modernique’ take on things — modern
meets antique — really defines the spirit
of the house,” one of the homeowners
says. “The dining room table is very
modern, but the wall covering reminds
me of Monet’s water lilies.”
Like the previous owners, who had
linked a carriage house to the home, the
current residents expanded the prop-
erty by adding two conservatories. One,
attached to the side of the house and
visible from the street, contains a living
room. The other, joined to the kitchen in
back, serves as a breakfast room. Both
additions also include extensive living
space in their lower levels, with a den,
an exercise room, and a guest suite under
Julia Buckingham
added a giant mirror
to match the windows
in the voluminous
family room.
the new living room area and a playroom
beneath the kitchen.
Designed by Northworks Architects in
collaboration with the Maryland-based
fabricator Tanglewood Conservatories and
installed by 130-year-old construction
company Bulley & Andrews, these fresh
additions are the most compelling rooms
in the home. The sheer volume of the two-
story spaces creates a powerful impact,
and the extensive windows provide an
abundance of natural light, normally at a
premium in older townhouses. The fluid
yet industrial structure is evident in the
living room, where the steel frame con-
trasts with the white walls and ceiling.
The all-white breakfast room — a space as
large as many formal dining rooms — offers
views of the landscaped garden from its
numerous windows.
The design scheme, informed by
tradition but loaded with bright colors
 August 21– exhibitcolumbus
November 28 .org

A must-see celebration of
architecture, art, design, and
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and family-friendly.

About Exhibit Columbus

Exhibit Columbus is an exploration of architecture, art, design,
and community that activates the design legacy of Columbus,
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About the Exhibition

The 2021 Exhibition, New Middles: From Main Street to
Megalopolis, What is the Future of the Middle City?, features
more than a dozen site-specific, outdoor installations by
internationally acclaimed architects, artists, designers,
university professors, and Columbus high school students.
These newly-commissioned works connect with the iconic
buildings, landscapes, and public art around Columbus.

The installations thoughtfully explore ideas related to the

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About Columbus, Indiana

Columbus has been called one of the best cities in the world
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Exhibit 2021
Columbus Exhibition

and vibrant patterns, is exemplified in
the living room, which is grounded by
a carpet with a jewel-like pattern and
outfitted with upholstered seating in sat-
urated shades of pink, blue, and orange.
Buckingham wrestled the soaring room
into shape by flanking the vintage fire-
place mantel she installed with super-tall
50  C H I C AG O | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1
polished nickel and glass étagères she
developed with Al Bar Wilmette Platers
and hanging a large tendril-like pendant
from the ceiling.
Buckingham worked on this proj-
ect for eight years, first focusing on the
interior design of the existing house and
then devoting 18 months to planning and
“Pink, blue,
fuchsia, orange,
teal — we wanted
an explosion of
color,” says the
homeowner of
the living room’s
bold palette.
furnishing the conservatories. So it’s not
surprising that she shares a special con-
nection with her client. “She loves colors,
but not just any colors. When I pulled five
chairs for her to look at, it wasn’t just any
five chairs. I learned to think like her,”
Buckingham explains. “Sometimes this
house feels like my house.” C
 »
DIAMOND EVENT

JOIN US
SEPTEMBER 17TH - 19TH
˜ɏʁʜ ʰɏȲ ɫȉʟɆȲʦʰ ʦȲɫȲȦʰɔʁɷ ʁɅ ɫʁʁʦȲ ȬɔȉɴʁɷȬʦ ȉʰ ȉɫɫ Ʌʁʹʟ ɏɔȦȉɆʁ ȉʟȲȉ ‘ȉˢɷ˘ XȲ˒ȲɫȲʟʦ ɫʁȦȉʰɔʁɷʦे
Áɔʦɔʰ ‘ȉˢɷ˘ेȦʁɴ Ʌʁʟ ɴʁʟȲ ȬȲʰȉɔɫʦे

CHICAGO I ADDISON I H I G H L A N D PA R K I HINSDALE

 H A B I TAT

BEAU MONDE GLASS MOSAICS

COLLECTION IN GIO
Price on request. Ann Sacks, 222 W.
Merchandise Mart Plz., River North

HAVANA
COLLECTION
IN JAZZ
Price on
request. Roca
Tile, 215 W.
Illinois St.,
River North

PHOTOGRAPHY: (ROOM) COURTESY OF ROCA TILE; (TILES, FROM TOP) COURTESY OF ANN SACKS (2), COURTESY OF ARTISTIC TILE
BEAU MONDE
GLASS ENCAUSTIC
MOSAICS FLOWER
COLLECTION IN LILAC WJ
ESCARGO-GO MOSAIC
Price on request.
$160 per
Ann Sacks.
square foot.
Artistic
Tile, 222 W.
Merchandise
Mart Plz.,
River North

Add Some Splash

Why go white when you can give your wet areas
some whimsy? Try these eye-popping patterned
tiles for kitchens or bathrooms. By HEIDI MITCHELL

52  C H I C AG O | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1
 Highland Park Showroom
114 Skokie Valley Road
Highland Park, IL 60035
847.831.3600

Barrington Showroom
317 W. Northwest Highway
Barrington, IL 60010
847.304.8000

Talia Grande Chandelier by Julie Neill Calumn 4-Light Chandelier by Sean Lavin
for Visual Comfort for Tech Lighting

Now On View Through October 2021

Helmut Jahn: Life + Architecture is a dynamic retrospective honoring the late Chicago architect
and style icon. The exhibit pays tribute to Helmut’s design legacy and its impact on Chicago and
the world, a story told through sketches, models and photography.

SE PT EM BE R 202 1 | CH I CAGO 53
 H A B I TAT

DESIGN DILEMMA

How Do I
Create More
Space for
Spices?
Two interior designers on how to maximize
storage from A (anise) to Z (za’atar)
By HEIDI MITCHELL

MICK DE GIULIO
Owner of De Giulio Kitchen Design
in Wilmette and River North

The popularity of open-floor plans

makes it important to allow things to

PHOTOGRAPHY: (DEGIULIO, KITCHEN) DAVE BURK/HEDRICH BLESSING PHOTOGRAPHERS; (BISHOP) ANTHONY TAHLIER
be easily put away and out of sight,
yet kept handy at the same time. I
carve out the space within the back wall of a countertop
or sink for shallow-depth shelves — even just two inches
in depth will work. This can be valuable space that would
typically go unused, and it’s perfect for smaller things like
spices, oils, and vinegars. Putting sliding panels made of
stone, glass, or wood over these shelves ensures they can
be covered at a moment’s notice. The panels also keep
spices protected from heat. Looking for every opportunity
in a kitchen to create more function is what it’s all about.

BRIANNE BISHOP
Founder of Brianne Bishop Design
in West Town

Where and how to store my spices

is the first feature I thought of when
I recently remodeled my dream
kitchen. I try to start with a shal-
low drawer near the cooking surface with angled display
trays, which can also be customized for the size of jars
being used to maximize storage. If a shallow drawer does
not fit your kitchen design, you can plan or retrofit a tall,
narrow cabinet as a spice pullout, like the one made by
Häfele. Uniform glass jars are not only the perfect way to
keep your spices fresh but are also visually appealing. I
prefer the small glass jars with a cork lid, but stainless
lids are nice, too, since you can clean them easily.

54  C H I C AG O | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1
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 SPECIAL ADVERTISING FE ATURE

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56  C H I C AG O | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1
 M
CHICAGO STORIES

Y FIRST DAY IN THE COCKPIT AS A FULLY QUALI-

fied U.S. Air Force pilot fell on a Tuesday. I’d
completed my initial training the Saturday before
and had been paired with an experienced lieuten-
ant colonel who had a full head of gray hair. We
called him the Silver Fox, and he was not there to
amuse us. He had high expectations and a repu-
tation for liking to fly with the “green beans” — as
newly minted air force pilots like me were Clockwise: Smoke
PHOTOGRAPHY: (BRAXTON) COURTESY OF PETER BRAXTON; (TWIN TOWERS) SETH MCALLISTER/AFP/ GETTY IMAGES; (PLANES) U.S. AIR FORCE PHOTO BY STAFF SGT. JERRY MORRISON

called — to make sure we wouldn’t get the idea that pours from the twin
towers of the World
the stress was over. On the contrary, he wanted us Trade Center on
to know, it was just getting started. September 11, 2001;
At McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey the day a KC-10A refuels an
F-15; Peter Braxton
before, we’d meticulously planned out a six-hour at McGuire Air
sortie consisting of maneuvers and exercises off the Atlantic coast. Our aircraft, a Force Base.
KC-10A tanker, could hold 340,000 pounds of jet fuel and was designed for “force
extension” — refueling fighter jets in midair to bring them closer
to the forward edge of a battle area. When we took off, around
6:45 a.m. the next day, we had no inkling that the battle area
would be over New York City.
One of the truths about being a pilot is that the learning
never stops, no matter how seasoned an airman you become.
The lessons from that day’s flight remain with me even now,
years after my departure from the air force and my move to the
Chicago area, where I fly private jets, volunteer at Tuskegee
Next, a foundation that helps at-risk kids get on track to an
aviation career, and work in private equity.
The schooling began right away that morning. During the
first couple of hours of our mission, I was the PNF, or “pilot not
flying,” meaning I was handling everything outside of aviating,
including the radios, which were keeping me busy: communi-
cating with our sister KC-10A, listening to air traffic control
on VHF, monitoring McGuire command post communications
on UHF, working the intercom we used for talking to other
crew members, and so on. A little after 9 a.m., we received a
radio communication from the Eastern Air Defense Sector of
NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command), call
sign Huntress. Twenty years later, I can remember the words
of Huntress precisely: “Team 22, say your state.”
A proper response to that prompt would have been “Team
22, Whiskey 107, Angels 26, heading 090, five plus 15 fuel, four
souls on board, fully operational” — our state being the current
status of the aircraft, including our position, crew complement,
fuel remaining, and operational capability.
Instead, I replied, “New Jersey.”
Another thing you learn about flying is to always sound pro-

The Longest Day

fessional on the radio: Be brief, but not too curt, and above all,
don’t embarass yourself, your superior officer, or the United
States Air Force. I had managed to do all three. More than 100
combat missions later, I still cringe at the memory of it. Twenty years ago this month, I was
At that, the Silver Fox immediately transferred aircraft one of the first military pilots in the air
control to me and responded properly to Huntress, who over the burning twin towers. It was
then directed us to contact the New York Air Route Traffic my first day on the job. By PETER BRAXTON

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 | C H I C AG O 57

Control Center and proceed directly
to the airspace above John F. Kennedy
International Airport and await further
instructions. I didn’t have much expe-
rience, but I had enough to know that
it wasn’t normal for a KC-10A crew on
routine maneuvers to be hearing from
NORAD, which is responsible for coun-
tering threats to the country’s sovereign
airspace. At this point, the lieutenant
colonel turned to me, his expression
as serious as I’d ever seen it, and said,
“I think someone detonated a nuclear
weapon somewhere in the United States.”
My first thought was that he was
pulling some type of new-guy initiation
prank — that he wanted to say something
truly hyperbolic and outrageous to see
how I would react. It wasn’t until the New
York air traffic control center radioed,
clearing us to JFK at “pilot’s discretion,
5,000 to 50,000 feet,” that the weight of the
moment hit me. We were flying over some
of the busiest airspace in the world; below
us was Newark International, LaGuardia,
JFK, and Teterboro, to say nothing of all
the morning air traffic flowing in from
Europe, through Boston, Philadelphia,
and Washington, D.C. “Pilot’s discretion
5,000 to 50,000 feet” could only mean
that all that traffic was on the ground or
diverted. This was not a prank.
It was a clear day, and as we headed
to JFK from our military operating
area off the New Jersey coast, I could
see the smoke billowing up from lower
Manhattan. There were no other planes
in sight — we were the first military air-
craft over the city after the two airliners
slammed into the twin towers. But we
didn’t know that: There was no internet
in the cockpit back in 2001. And while
I had the sense there were injured and
dead below, we had zero information
about what had happened.
Anyone who’s watched a political
thriller knows the phrase “need-to-know
basis” — well, we technically didn’t need
to know. In fact, it was better we didn’t. If
one of my parents or siblings had worked
in the World Trade Center, I would have
been consumed by worry and, as good
as my training was, my concentration
58  C H I C AG O | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1
CHICAGO STORIES
and compartmentalization would have
been compromised. At that moment, we
needed to be an uncompromised military
instrument of national power.
I maintained our air refueling orbit
over JFK while the Silver Fox worked the
radios and checklists. The first fighters
to approach for refueling were two F-15s
from Otis Air National Guard Base in
Massachusetts, and as they got closer,
I could see they were bristling with live
missiles and ordnance — a sight totally
new to me, and one that drove home even
further the seriousness of the situation.
We were their first stop: When fighters
take off with all that weaponry, a full load
of fuel can make them too heavy to clear a
short runway, so the first thing they need
to do is air-refuel. After all, it does no use
to fly supersonic to a battle area only to
run out of gas once you get there.
We spent the day in low-level orbit
above New York City. Normal air refu-
eling was usually performed between
20,000 and 30,000 feet. That day, under
At this point, the lieutenant colonel turned to me,
his expression as serious as I’d ever seen it,
and said, “I think someone detonated a nuclear
weapon somewhere in the United States.”
emergency conditions, we were as low
as 12,000 feet. (I would do emergency
air refueling only two other times in my
career: once in combat over the Korengal
Valley in Afghanistan, and once over
Alabama because our receiver aircraft
was experiencing mechanical difficul-
ties and needed us to descend.)
After a while, our own tanker was
refueled by a KC-135, giving us enough
fuel to fly into the night, topping up the
F-15s and F-16s that were now patrolling
up and down the Hudson and the East
River. We had no food or water, as we’d
originally planned to land by noon.
When we finally received instruc-
tions to head back to McGuire, after
being relieved by another KC-10, we
were put on a straight 30-mile final
approach to runway 24 — another unset-
tling sign of how empty the skies were.
After we’d landed, some 14 hours after
taking off, and parked on the ramp,
I exited the cockpit and opened the
cabin door, whereupon I was greeted
by an airman in full combat gear — flak
vest, helmet, M16 at the ready position.
With the utmost courtesy and sincerity,
he said, “Sir, I need to see your ID.” I
glanced down the side of the 181-foot
military plane as if to say, “Isn’t this
weapon system identification enough?!”
But I kept that thought to myself and
pulled out my ID, and the airman
escorted me and the rest of the crew to
a secure room known as an intel vault
for debriefing.
“Did you hear any distress calls from
United 93, American 11, or American
77?” “Did you talk to United 175?” The
questions came fast and clipped, and we
answered in the negative — we’d gotten no
distress calls on our standard communi-
cations frequencies or on the emergency
channel we monitor during flight. As we
were questioned, we slowly began to
grasp the nature of that day’s events.
F i n a l ly, at a r ou nd 3 a . m . on
Wednesday, September 12, I made the
45-minute drive to my home in Mount
Laurel, New Jersey. There, I turned on
the television and got my first look at the
unreal images of the attack, which were
being replayed again and again on every
channel. I’d been one of the first mem-
bers of the American military to see the
tragedy from the air and, I realized, quite
possibly, one of the last people in America
to learn what had happened. C
EXPLORE . IMAGINE . PLAY!

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 Great
ESCA
9 LONG-WEEKEND ROAD TRIPS,
ALL WITHIN A 6-HOUR DRIVE

INDIANA
 DRIVE TIME 3 hours 40 minutes

An architectural
marvel, a Midwestern
modernist mecca
My wife and I share a fetish: modernist
architecture. The style, with its parallel hori-
zontal lines stretching into eternity, has had a
way of tracing the contours of our relationship,
ILLUSTRATION: PETER HOEY; PHOTOGRAPH: HADLEY FRUITS
defining some of its most significant moments.
Soon after we started dating, we joined Chicago
Bauhaus and Beyond, a group of modern-
ism enthusiasts (which, sadly, disbanded last
year). A few years later, as a gentle evening snow
blanketed the Loop, I proposed marriage in the
most romantic setting I could imagine: Federal
Plaza, beneath the crimson arches of Alexander

60  C H I C AG O | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1
 A spire points to
the heavens atop
the North Christian
Church in Columbus,
Indiana.

PES
Calder’s Flamingo, in the shadow of a trio of Ludwig Mies
van der Rohe buildings.
And yet one Midwestern modernist mecca eluded us.
That is, until last fall. Desperate to shake off quarantine
cabin fever, we arrived in Columbus, Indiana, three and a
half hours southeast of Chicago. The town of 48,000 stands,
improbably, as one of the world’s great museums of modern
architecture, with schools, churches, post offices, hospi-
tals, and other buildings by some of the 20th century’s
most renowned architects: Harry Weese, Kevin Roche,
Robert A.M. Stern, Myron Goldsmith, and Deborah Berke,
B.K. Park
to name a few.
With walking and bus tours temporarily suspended dur-
ing the pandemic (they’ve since returned), we embarked on
a self-guided outing, beginning on Fifth Street, “the Avenue
of the Architects.” The city’s first modernist building, the
First Christian Church (1942), by Eliel Saarinen, was the
place of worship of the late J. Irwin Miller, the wealthy
Cummins engine company chairman, chief patron of the
town’s architectural legacy. In the mid-1950s, Miller started
a foundation that paid the architect’s fees for any public
building designed by a notable
architect. The program transformed Clockwise from top
Columbus from a prairie town into left: Writer Jake
Malooley at the
a draw for top executives and their Irwin Conference
families. Today, it is a place unlike Center; Cleo Rogers
any other, where bold modern mas- Memorial Library;
First Christian Church;
terworks mingle with the buildings Large Arch and
of Main Street, USA. Filament Tower, two
Di rec t ly across f rom F i r st sculptures featured
in Exhibit Columbus,
Chr ist ian beckoned I.M. Pei’s opening August 21;
red-brick, open-plan Cleo Rogers Bartholomew County

PHOTOGRAPHY: (MALOOLEY) LAURA PEARSON; (LIBRARY) JAKE MALOOLEY; (BASEBALL MITT) COURTESY
Memorial Librar y (1969), with Courthouse
Henry Moore’s sculpture Large Arch out front. Next door
is Miller’s childhood home (1864; 1910 remodel), whose
Victorian and Edwardian flourishes and Pompeii-inspired
gardens are preserved as the Inn at Irwin Gardens, a bed

OF ELIZABETH GOMEZ; (CHURCH, SCULPTURE, PARK COURTHOUSE) HADLEY FRUITS

and breakfast with rooms starting at $205 a night.
We were drawn to the Irwin Conference Center (for-
merly Irwin Union Bank; 1954), by Eero Saarinen. The
glass-enclosed, open-plan building, capped by a roof
with nine domes, represented a dramatic departure from
the traditional idea of a bank as an imposing granite for-
tress. From there, we pointed the car to two more Eero
Saarinen buildings: the North Christian Church (1964), a
hexagonal sanctuary crowned with a 192-foot spire, and
the Miller House (1957), the former residence of J. Irwin
Miller, which features one of the earliest examples of a
living room conversation pit.
Afterward, we meandered through the neighborhoods
between Washington Street and the Flatrock River, observ-
ing how the modernism of the town’s landmarks had seeped
into the designs of the more common, but still striking,
residential developments. My wife and I daydreamed about
someday owning one of Columbus’s glass-box houses.
Here was a place, we told each other, that seemed made just
for us. — JAKE MALOOLEY
62  C H I C AG O | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1
Writer Elizabeth Gomez finds a giant baseball glove at
the FAST Fiberglass Mold Graveyard.

WISCONSIN
 DRIVE TIME 4 hours

No Trojan horses,
just giant kitsch
Nothing pleases me more than seeing giant
things. I’m not sure where this love comes
from, but it is what makes me take a 20-minute
detour to Sparta, Wisconsin, on the way back
to Chicago from Menomonie. I cannot miss
the FAST Fiberglass Mold Graveyard. We pull
into a sprawling horizon of green fields filled
with gargantuan shark heads, cherubic Big
Boys, and weather-beaten Santa Clauses. My
heart sparks as I turn to my husband and say
that when I die this is what I want heaven to
look like.
Round out your trip The Deke Slayton
Memorial Space and Bicycle Museum —
a twofer. — ELIZABETH GOMEZ

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 | C H I C AG O 63
INDIANA
 DRIVE TIME 4 hours 45 minutes

A pinnacle of elegance —
and you don’t even have
to leave the hotel
PHOTOGRAPHY: IAN MCSPADDEN/FRENCH LICK RESORT
Get a load of the atrium. Once called the Eighth Wonder of the World,
the six-story cylinder topped by a dome 200 feet across forms the heart of
the 119-year-old West Baden Springs Hotel — one of two historic hotels at
the French Lick Resort. A lush space populated by overstuffed divans as
well as chessboards and decks of cards begging to be played, the atrium
is a vast cockpit encircled by French doors and balconies hanging from
well-appointed hotel rooms.
In the evening, guests filter in from their perambulations in the gardens,
from golf or a visit to the spa, from bowling in the basement of the sister
hotel, from shopping or rolling dice. In these hours, the atrium — manned
by a pianist and crisscrossed by servers ferrying drinks from a nifty cock-
tail bar — never feels crowded or noisy. Even when the sunlight fades, what The atrium and driveway of the West Baden Springs Hotel and
you hear is a murmuring report of elegance. — TOM CHIARELLA the Pete Dye Course, all at the French Lick Resort

64 C H I C AG O | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1
 ILLINOIS
 DRIVE TIME 2 hours

Only God can make

a tree, and this
one’s a doozy
Arboreal grandeur? Northwestern Illinois
doesn’t leap to mind. But the redwoods and
sequoias of the West Coast are too far away for
a weekend, so we have to work with what we’ve
got. And what we’ve got — at the Bald Hill Prairie
Preserve in Mount Morris — is still something
to behold.
To see the tree ranked among the largest in
the state, you’ll follow winding country roads
along the Rock River to a secluded 380-acre con-
servation area, home to gorgeous wildflowers,
a wooded expanse, birds and butterflies, and
scarce native prairie plants (according to the
Byron Forest Preserve District, only 0.03 per-
cent of original prairie remains in Illinois). Up
and down hills you go (hills!), until it comes into
view: the lone eastern cottonwood, 122 feet tall
and almost 29 feet around.
PHOTOGRAPHY: (TREE) MICHELLE GERKE/BYRON FOREST PRESERVE DISTRICT; (PRAIRIE) LEWIS MCVEY

I don’t want to oversell you on the experi-

The “big-ass tree” and Bald Hill Prairie Preserve at the Byron Forest Preserve District
ence — it’s … a large tree. (In a Simpsons-esque
touch, from certain vantages you can see the
nearby nuclear power plant.) Still, there’s some-
thing sublime about it. My family and I keep
returning to what we’ve come to call the “big-ass
tree” to watch it change throughout the seasons.
In late winter, its bare, crooked branches stand
stark against moody skies. In high summer, the
breeze rustles its innumerable leaves, making a
sound not unlike the ocean. Under the massive
green shade, it’s hard not to feel an appreciation
for where you are and who you’re there with.
Round out your trip Ogle County’s hiking and
biking trails; a night in Oregon in one of the nine
rooms at the Patchwork Inn, a sustainability-
minded B&B in a Greek Revival building dating
to the 1840s (Abraham Lincoln was said to have
lunched there); and burgers at the retro Jay’s
Drive-In. — DEBORAH SHAPIRO

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 | C H I C AG O 65
MICHIGAN
 DRIVE TIME 5 hours

The Liam Hemsworth

of Michigan tourism
One of my favorite spots to take the kids is Elk Rapids, just
outside Traverse City in northern Michigan. If Traverse City is
Chris Hemsworth, then Elk Rapids is Liam: One is beefed out
and wildly popular, and the other is just better.
Spend the day at Elk Rapids Day Park, a wooded area with
gigantic sculptures that opens to a sandy beach with clear,
warm water. Water shoes are recommended because of the
stones at the bottom of the lake. I saw families hunting for
Petoskey stones there and then Googled the precious textured
fossil and learned it’s the state rock of Michigan.
Round out your trip Bike, standup paddleboard, and kayak
rentals from Right Tree Adventure Rentals, a nonprofit ben-
efiting outdoor adventuring for girls; a trip to Guntzviller’s
Taxidermy; U-pick farms along US 31; local brews from Townline
Ciderworks; and dinner at Riverwalk Grill & Taproom. — E.G. A kayak in waters near Elk Rapids, Michigan

PHOTOGRAPHY: (FROM TOP) ELK RAPIDS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE; MICHELLE DEMUTH-BIBB/THE CHEF’S GARDEN
OHIO
 DRIVE TIME 4 hours 40 minutes

Fine dining,
down on the farm
About a decade ago, I ate a spectacu-
lar, if surreal, meal prepared entirely by
Michelin-starred chefs (including Ever’s
Curtis Duffy) in ruraler-than-rural Milan,
Ohio. The occasion was the opening of the
Culinary Vegetable Institute, an event
space and research facility with a kitchen
to rival that of the French Laundry. The
CVI was the latest innovation from the
Chef’s Garden, a nearby family farm that
came to have considerable sway in the
world of fine dining as it got chefs hooked
on its microgreens and baby vegetables.
Head farmer Lee Jones showed up rou-
tinely at black-tie food galas in denim
overalls and a red bow tie, a reminder
to coastal elites that “American gastron-
omy” springs from the heartland.
After the dinner, I stayed in the CVI’s
66  C H I C AG O | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1
The Culinary Vegetable Institute includes a kitchen, a guest suite, a culinary library, root and wine
cellars, experimental gardens, and event facilities.
guest suite. It came with a fully stocked
kitchen, and the next morning I had the fix-
ings for a grand farm breakfast — churned
butter, honeycomb, and fresh eggs counted
among the highlights — and a basket of pro-
duce to tuck into my suitcase. Over the past
year, the Jones family has begun offering
this experience on Airbnb. Coupled with
a tour and shopping spree at the farm, it
reminds you that getting back to the earth
and pampering yourself needn’t be mutu-
ally exclusive. — JOHN KESSLER

MICHIGAN
 DRIVE TIME 4 hours 40 minutes
It’s always
Christmas here
PHOTOGRAPHY: (MILL) RIVER NORTH PHOTOGRAPHY; (BOAT) ISTOCK EDITORIAL
Call me a reformed Santa denier. I
learned early on there was no such thing
as Santa Claus, and at age 6, I thought
my fellow first graders were naive. One
day, a girl given to bursting out in song
and dance started going on about what
St. Nick was bringing her.
“But he’s not real,” I announced.
We went back and forth until our
librarian gathered everyone in a circle
and asked us to consider why we believed
the things we did. She pulled out a variety
of books about Santa, St. Nicholas, and
Father Christmas, not telling us what to
think, just how.
I could finally appreciate the Christmas
spirit. And if I ever need to experience
pure holiday joy midyear, I can find it in
Frankenmuth, Michigan, near the thumb
of the mitten-shaped state. Fueled by
Mackinac Island fudge and other sweet
treats, festive lights, Nativity scenes, and
quirky tree ornaments, Frankenmuth is
one of a handful of places in the world that
celebrate Christmas all year.
Family, tradition, and sense of place
anchor the picturesque town known as
Little Bavaria, which was founded by
German settlers. I know I’ve arrived
because of the charming timber-framed
buildings, the state’s largest covered
bridge, a 35-bell glockenspiel, and walk-
able f lower-lined streets that subtly
The Bavarian-style architecture
of the historic Bavarian Inn
hotel and restaurant adds to
the city’s charm.
invite me to tap out of the Sturm und
Drang of workaday life.
D e l ic iou s h i g h p oi nt s of t he
Frankenmuth experience are the crispy
fried chicken at the iconic Bavarian Inn,
known for its German-style meals, and
Zehnder’s of Frankenmuth, a 2020 James
Beard winner. The menus surface memo-
ries of bygone family meals; the secret
ingredient must be love.
Round out your trip The Frankenmuth
Bavarian Inn Heritage Farm (a.k.a.
Grandpa Tiny’s Farm), ziplining, hay or
carriage rides, and farmers’ markets.
— DEBORAH D. DOUGLAS
S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 | C H I C AG O 67

WISCONSIN
 DRIVE TIME 3 hours 20 minutes
Come for Taliesin,
stay for the hills
The attractions of the Spring Green
area are well known: From Frank Lloyd
Wright’s Taliesin — where the docents
will not mention the arson and murder
of Wright’s mistress and her children
even if you raise your hand and ask, with
a knowing look, “So, what started that
fire in 1914?” — to the American Players
Theatre. Not to mention the House on
the Rock, the Taj Mahal of kitschy road-
side attractions that author Neil Gaiman
suggests is a nexus point between the
worlds of gods and humans. It’s as good
68  C H I C AG O | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1
an explanation for its existence as any
I’ve come up with.
The town itself has weathered the
pandemic well and has slowly opened
back up, with a new pizza restaurant in
the old bank building on Jefferson Street
and the return of the local music venue,
the Shitty Barn (it is, in fact, a shitty
barn — bring your own chairs).
But that’s not why I come here. I
come here for the hills. That’s right:
The ground itself undulates, rising up
in large protuberances, some higher
The Taliesin living room
and Tower Hill State Park
than a quarter mile! The only thing I
miss of my coastal roots after 23 years
in Chicago is topography, the pleasures
of cresting a rise to see a river valley or a
PHOTOGRAPHY: TRAVEL WISCONSIN
plain, or just another hill. Spring Green
is on the eastern edge of a geographical
region, untouched by ancient glaciers,
called the Driftless, like something also
out of a Gaiman novel. I don’t know if
pedaling or running up and down those
hills will eventually bring me to the
realm of the gods, but I do enjoy trying.
— PETER SAGAL
 WISCONSIN
 DRIVE TIME 2 hours 30 minutes

Step outside —
for art, for nature
It’s always made sense to me that Wisconsin,
with its secretive woods and shifting dunes, would
be a wonderland of visionary and outsider art. The
state’s scenic byways are studded with sculpture
gardens and grottoes where self-taught artists
have crafted stunning intuitive displays. So I was
thrilled to learn earlier this spring that Sheboygan,
just two and a half hours from Chicago, was about
to celebrate the opening of the Art Preserve.
An extension of the John Michael Kohler Arts
Center — where every iota of space is exquisitely
curated, right down to the artist-painted stalls
and urinals in the restrooms — the space show-
cases entire artist-built environments. With such
holdings as the sculptures, painting, and decor
of Mary Nohl’s cottage from the Milwaukee sub-
urbs — known locally as “the witch’s house” for its
arresting carved figures — the Art Preserve gives
an immersive sense of the in situ appearance of
work not adequately captured in other museums.
The Art Preserve alone was worth the 300 miles
of round-trip driving, but happily, I discovered
far more to see, including the Tellen Woodland
Sculpture Garden, where, beginning in 1942 and
continuing until his death in 1957, James A. Tellen
installed more than 30 of his cast concrete statues
across the grounds of his family’s summer cottage,
PHOTOGRAPHY: (ART PRESERVE) TRAVEL SHEBOYGAN; (ROONEY) MARTIN SEAY

a magical dreamscape.
The Kohler-Andrae State Park holds a wealth of
biomes, from shimmering beaches to pine forests.
After hiking, I had to try a Mudpie and chocolate-
cinnamon brioche doughnut at Johnston’s Bakery,
and I foraged picnic fixings from the store inside
the restaurant Il Ritrovo and ate near the Harbor
Centre Marina. There, the reconstructed schoo-
ner Lottie Cooper, wrecked during a gale in 1894,
awaited, a free outdoor exhibit conveying how The Art Preserve at
the John Michael
dangerous the timber and shipping industries Kohler Arts Center
were and remain. and writer Kathleen
On the way home, I stopped to walk along the Rooney on a
driftwood couch in
Lake Michigan bluffs at Lion’s Den Gorge Nature the Kohler-Andrae
Preserve outside Grafton and to stroll the board- State Park
walks above the delightfully soggy Cedarburg Bog a
little way inland. They didn’t turn me into a vision-
ary artist, but these singular landscapes supplied
visions for days. — KATHLEEN ROONEY
S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 | C H I C AG O 69
SHAPE SHIFTERS
On Dara: Alexander McQueen
poly faille midi coatdress,
$3,840, leather double
belt, $920, antique silver
stacked engraved ring, $360,
antique silver stone ring,
$490, and antique silver and
stone drop earrings, $450,
alexandermcqueen.com.
On Jose Pablo: Prada knit
turtleneck, $1,390, Prada,
30 E. Oak St.
MOVES BOLD

OVERSIZE KNITS,
MIXED PATTERNS, AND
UNEXPECTED SHAPES ANCHOR THE
RETURN OF FASHION THIS FALL.
THE ULTRACHIC DANCERS FROM
THE JOFFREY BALLET GIVE US
A MASTER CLASS ON
HOW TO TAKE COMFORT INTO
THE COOL ZONE.

Photos by T. HARRISON HILLMAN

Styling by JESSICA MOAZAMI
RIB STAGE
On Olivia: Hyke
ribbed wool sweater
and pants and Maud
seashell and gold
earrings, prices on
request, Ikram,
15 E. Huron St.
ON POINTE KNITS
On Dara: Earrings,
dancer’s own. Sacai
wool knit dress with
cupro slipdress, price
on request, Ikram. Saint
Laurent by Anthony
Vaccarello leather
high-heeled boots,
$1,595, Saint Laurent,
11 E. Walton St.

C
OVID-19 stripped 18 months
of live performances from the Joffrey Ballet.
It was a devastating blow to the dancers, stunting
their already short careers.
They leaned on family and each other and
found creative ways to keep their bodies
and their craft in shape. At the start of
the pandemic, many company members
stayed in Chicago, continuing their classes
by laying scraps of dance flooring near a
kitchen counter or using dining chairs
as a barre. Joffrey’s Crisis Stabilization
Fund raised nearly $12 million to keep the
doors open and pay salaries. Last fall, the
dancers returned to the studios in small
pods to prepare three digital premieres.
Getting ready for a return to the stage has
been slow but rewarding, they say.
Dancer Alberto Velazquez’s first live
performance was for about 25 people
at a press conference in May. “When I
stepped back onstage," he says, “that
feeling came back and I realized how
much I missed it.”
The audiences will be much bigger next
month, when the Joffrey returns to a new
home at the Lyric Opera House — freshly
renovated with new seats, enhanced
sightlines, and improved accessibility.
74  C H I C AG O | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1
By LAUREN WARNECKE
“We’re not out of this pandemic yet,
but we are so happy to be back,” says
artistic director Ashley Wheater. Home:
A Celebration, running October 13 to 24,
kicks off the season with live premieres of
three works — by Chanel DaSilva, Nicolas
Blanc, and Yoshihisa Araioriginally cho-
reographed for digital viewing. Former
Joffrey artistic director Gerald Arpino’s
Birthday Variations completes the pro-
gram. It’s a fitting revival: The 1986
escapade was commissioned as a birth-
day present for Dino D'Angelo, who was
then the owner of the Civic Opera House
(now the Lyric).
Two full-length ballets — Christopher
Wheeldon’s Nutcracker (December 4 to
26) and Yuri Possokhov’s Don Quixote
(February 16 to 27) — anchor the season.
And choreographer Cathy Marston sets
her first ballet created exclusively for the
Joffrey: a one-act based on John Steinbeck’s
Of Mice and Men. It runs April 27 to May 8,
2022, with Serenade by George Balanchine.
For more information, visit joffrey.org.
How the Joffrey Company
Spent the Pandemic
Princess Reid, who joined the
Joffrey in 2018, spent quarantine
on the West Coast, returning to
Chicago last August. She worked
on building her confidence. “We
got a big chunk of our careers
taken away from us, but I found
new ways to express myself,”
she says.
Yumi Kanazawa and her boy-
friend, Joffrey dancer Valentino
Moneglia Zamora, kept each
other motivated at home. “It
was nice to have someone who
understands what we were
going through,” she says.
To keep her mind off not being
able to dance as much as she
wanted, Olivia Duryea took
courses through the Joffrey’s
partnership with Harold
Washington College. “Coming
back, I have more appreciation
for performing,” she says. “Every
show, I want to be aware that this
is a fleeting thing we do.”
When the shutdown started,
Jose Pablo Castro Cuevas
hadn’t even finished his first
season in the main company. He
spent nearly six months with his
family in Mexico. “I was taking
ballet class from the second floor
of my house, holding on to the
stairwell,” he says.
Dara Holmes is entering her
11th season with the Joffrey. She
kept in touch with her church
community through Bible stud-
ies on Zoom and stayed active
by exploring the city on foot. “I
walked everywhere,” she says.
Joffrey veteran Alberto
Velazquez quarantined in Mexico
with his family. “We haven’t been
together for that long since I was
14 years old,” he said. Joffrey
dancer Amanda Assucena joined
him for part of the time; they took
classes and rehearsed together
in his mother’s dance studio.
BARRE NONE BADASS
On Yumi: Dolce & Gabbana
nylon puffer coat, $4,995,
Dolce & Gabbana, 68 E.
Oak St. All Saints cotton
tee, $69, Nordstrom,
55 E. Grand Ave. Sacai
wool tuxedo skirt, price
on request, Ikram. The
Office of Angela Scott
stamped Italian leather
and suede boots, $695,
theofficeofangelascott.com.
COLOR PLACEMENT
On Yumi: Akris Napa leather
cropped jacket, $3,990,
and Techno neoprene
skirt, $1,390, Saks Fifth
Avenue, 700 Michigan Ave.
Ribbed wool-blend mock
turtleneck, $995, akris
.com. Bottega Veneta
calfskin handbag with wood
and chain details, $5,000,
bottegaveneta.com. Stuart
Weitzman quilted Napa and
smooth calf leather boot,
$595, Stuart Weitzman,
Northbrook.
CLASSIC LIFT
On Olivia: Gabriela Hearst
cashmere sweater, $1,850,
Neiman Marcus, 737 N.
Michigan Ave. Jil Sander
wool and mohair fringed
scarf, $490, Blake. Michael
Kors Collection double-faced
wool-cashmere flannel slit
skirt, $790, michaelkors.com.
Stuart Weitzman quilted Napa
and smooth calf leather boots,
$595, Stuart Weitzman.
HAT DANCE
On Jose Pablo: Prada
bouclé wool topcoat, $5,100,
and Shetland wool V-neck
sweater, $2,750, Prada.
Esenshel rabbit hair hat,
$425, esenshel.com.

78 C H I C AG O | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1
BOUNDARY STRETCH
On Olivia: Marni double-
faced wool cocoon
coat, $2,490, Blake, 212
W. Chicago Ave. Maje
cotton romper with
broderie anglaise collar,
$340, and polyester-
blend vest with jeweled
detailing, $295, Maje,
100 E. Oak St.
PAUSE FOR APPLAUSE
On Dara: Louis Vuitton
broderie anglaise
babydoll blouse, $4,800,
Louis Vuitton, 919 N.
Michigan Ave. Esenshel
rabbit hair hat, $395.
esenshel.com.
 GRAPHIC MOVES
On Princess: Jewelry,
dancer’s own.
Snow Xue Gao silk
dress and Noir Kei
Ninomiya faux fur collar,
prices on request, Ikram.
Maje leather lace-up
(STYLIST ASSISTANTS) HAYLEY KOUTSIS, NATALIE STANDIFERD; (PHOTO ASSISTANT) KIPP HOWE

boots, $445, Maje, 100

E. Oak St. On Alberto:
Topman polyester
bomber jacket, $65,
and Zanerobe cotton
joggers, $99, Nordstrom,
55 E. Grand Ave. Dolce &
Gabbana leather lace-up
oxfords, $1,045, Dolce &
Gabbana, w68 E. Oak St.
Hair and makeup: Leanna
Ernest/Distinct Artists
and Mia Valenti/
Ford Artists

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 | C H I C AG O 81
W H AT

HAPPENED

TO

T I M M OT H Y
PITZEN?
A d e c a d e a g o, h i s m o t h e r to o k h i m
o u t o f s c h o o l f o r a t h r e e -d
d ay s p re e.
Afterward, she killed herself.
A n d t he b oy di sap p eare d .
BY BRYAN SMITH
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KEVIN SERNA

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 | C H I C AG O 83

THE DREAM STILL COMES TO
HIM EVEN NOW, 10 YEARS
L AT E R . T H E I M AG E S T H AT
UNSPOOL IN HIS MIND
A R E A LWAY S T H E S A M E ,
BUT TH E TRIGG ER IS A S
UNPREDICTABLE AS LIGHTING.
He could have drifted off reminiscing on happy times or feel-
ing hopeful of a reunion, or he may have slipped off fighting
despair and darkness. Sometimes he won’t have been thinking
about the situation at all. Then, poof. There she is in his deep
slumber. Amy. Alive.
She stands in front of him, her dark eyes staring, her famil-
iar features framed by her dark hair. He feels his anger rising.
He grabs her shoulders and shakes. “What did you do? Where
is he?” She looks back at him. Nothing. He asks again, begs.
“Where is he? Where is Tim?” But the mother just stares until
her image fades and she is gone, having again not answered.
IT IS RAINING THE DAY I PULL INTO CLINTON, IOWA, AN INDUS-
trial town hard against the west bank of the Mississippi River.
Once known as the lumber capital of the world, a place with
more millionaires per capita than anywhere in the country, it
is now home to a largely working-class population of 25,000.
Jim Pitzen was born and raised here, and it was to Clinton
that he retreated after everything happened. He and his wife
and his 6-year-old son, Timmothy, had been living in another
river town at the time, this one cleaved in half by the Fox River
in west suburban Chicago, a little more than 100 miles east
of Clinton.
Jim had tried to stay in that Aurora home. For all the trag-
edy associated with it, the small house with the wood-railed
front porch still held cherished memories, some of the last that
the father had of his son: Tim playing with his Matchbox cars;
circling the front driveway on his bike; cuddling with his gray
cat; goofing around in the yard with the family’s black Lab. The
father had just started building the boy a treehouse out back.
84  C H I C AG O | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1
But as the days passed, the bad memories
crowded out the good, the daily reminders of the
unthinkable acts of his wife, Tim’s mother: how she
had absconded with their son, keeping their where-
abouts secret for days, then checking into a Rockford
motel and sliced her own wrist and neck, leaving
behind a cryptic, staggering note saying that she had
given her son to people who would love and care for
him but that he would never be found.
And so the father fled the home, the life he’d
known, and the treehouse he couldn’t bear to fin-
ish. “The way the other house felt … ,” he says, then
pauses. “ … I just had to get out of there.”
Ten years on, true to his mother’s words,
Timmothy Pitzen still has not been found, and the
enduring mystery haunts his father almost every
hour of every day. On this afternoon, Jim sits in
his living room in Clinton, looking at his hands.
The room is so quiet you can hear the patter of the
rain that has been falling steadily, drumming on the
stripped chassis of an old tomato-colored pickup
and the husk of a convertible MG half hidden on
a patch of the overgrown front yard. The vehicles
are projects he’s taken on over the years to take
his mind off the gnawing anguish. He tinkers with
them less and less of late, so they now rest like
neglected tombs, slowly rusting.
He is in the process of fixing up the home, he says,
so some drywall and paint cans clutter a hallway. On
the way to the living room, I caught a glimpse of his
bedroom, the door to which stood unapologetically
open. The unmade bed was buried under a jumble
of shirts and socks. It looked like the unkempt room
of a teenager, a 16-year-old maybe, the age his son
would be today. For a long time, Tim’s moon-face
night-light had hung on Jim’s bedroom wall, but the
pain of seeing it often led him to take it down. Jim
walked me past that chaotic room with an utter lack
of self-consciousness that seemed in keeping with a
man of few words, not easily given to outward emo-
tion. Still, his eyes fill and his voice thickens at times
when he speaks of his son.
Jim folded his 6-foot-1 frame into a comfort-
able-looking chair. He wears a dark, loose-fitting
long-sleeved T-shirt over jeans, a ball cap thumbed
back on his head. Across from him is an old piano that
hasn’t been played in years; to his left, a busted Ms.
Pac-Man arcade game, its acrylic top a film of dust. To
one side, framed photographs of Tim and his crooked,
dimpled grin cover nearly every inch of the wall: don-
ning a Blackhawks jersey, light brown bangs peeking
from under a cap; beaming while sitting cross-legged
in a spare tire, resting his head on the cat.
Ten years on, true to his
mother’s words, Timmothy
Pitzen still has not been
found, and the enduring
mystery haunts his father
most every hour of every day.

Jim Pitzen, who now

lives in Iowa, reflects
on his life with his late
wife, Amy, and their
son, Timmothy.

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 | C H I C AG O 85
 “He was super smart, high energy, funny,” the father says,
leaning forward. The way his boy ran, with a funny little wad-
dle-shuffle “like a chubby old man,” always made Jim chuckle.
“I had a go-kart in the back shed, and when Tim was about 3,
I made the gas pedal so you couldn’t push it all the way down.
He was out in the backyard just buzzing doughnuts.”
He could be a handful, the dad says. Tim’s parents bought
him a bike with the stipulation that he was to ride it only in
front of the house. “So one day he comes in and goes, ‘Did you
miss me?’ ” Jim recalls. “I’m like, ‘What do you mean?’ He goes,
‘I rode to my friend’s house down the street.’ ” Jim did the only
thing a dad could do in such a moment: shook his head and
laughed. But he and Amy also taught Tim how to dial 911, and
Jim insisted on getting him a child identification card that
included his fingerprint in case he ever got lost.
The unanswered question of what Amy Fry-Pitzen did with
Tim has left a trail of shattered lives and baffled detectives
who continue to work the case to this day. After a decade,
there is nothing concrete to indicate that Tim is still alive.
Yet there is also nothing to indicate that he’s not, other than
the echoing silence. The enigma has spawned hundreds of
amateur sleuths obsessed with trying to solve the mystery
that local, state, and federal law enforcement officials have
not. And most painful of all, it has left a father frozen in a
sort of nightmarish haze, unable to fully move on, insisting,
despite not much more than his gut hope and faith, that his
son is fine and will be returned to him one day.
THE NIGHTMARE BEGAN ON MAY 11, 2011, WHICH DAWNED AS
an otherwise unremarkable day for the family. The couple — Jim
was 39 at the time, Amy 43 — had been fighting in the weeks lead-
ing up to that day. Really, for much of their seven-year marriage.
The arguments could be over any-
Surveillance video
thing. Something Jim did. Something captured Amy Fry-
he didn’t do — an errand she’d asked him Pitzen checking out of
to run that he’d forgotten. This one cen- the Kalahari Resort in
Wisconsin Dells; this is
tered on a birthday trip to the Bahamas the last known image
that Amy had taken the prior week with of Timmothy Pitzen.
86  C H I C AG O | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1
her best friend. Jim was rankled that his wife had
insisted on just the two women going — not Jim or
Tim. “You can’t stop me,” Jim recalls her telling him.
At times, the issues they fought over were quite
serious. They nearly divorced in 2008 when Jim dis-
covered texts between his wife and one of her three
ex-husbands discussing plans for a rendezvous while
Jim was out of town. “They’d had lunch a couple of
times,” Jim says, “and they were supposed to meet
that weekend. I told her to make up her mind: ‘If you
want to be with that guy, go be with that guy. We’ll get
a divorce, and I don’t care how much money your dad
has, I’ll find a way to get custody of Timmothy.’ ” Of
all the harsh words they’d spoken to each other, that
threat struck Amy hardest. One of her fears was that a
judge would take Tim from her and grant Jim custody
because she had a history of mental health issues, says
her younger sister, Kara Jacobs: “That terrified her.”
Amy decided to stay, Jim says, “but I told her, ‘If
I find another text to your ex, we’re done.’ ” As far as
he knows, they had no further contact.
To outsiders, his wife seemed happy — affable and
always smiling, attributes that had first attracted
Jim. They had met in late 2002 at a going-away party
for Amy in Ames, Iowa. She had been working there
after graduating from Iowa State but was now mov-
ing to Antioch, Illinois, where her mom lived after
divorcing Amy’s father. Jim had come to Ames after
finding temp work at a water treatment business, and
a friend had asked him to come along to the party.
The two hit it off, despite differences in their
personalities. She was smart and outgoing, enjoyed
parties and traveling, and had a passion for read-
ing. He was educated, too — he went to the Morrison
Institute of Technology in Morrison, Illinois — but
saw himself as just a regular guy who liked the
Blackhawks, fixing up old Jeeps,and grabbing a beer
with a buddy now and then.
Jim asked Amy out the day after the party. Soon
they were seeing each other regularly. After Jim
helped her move to Antioch, they began a long-
distance relationship, with Jim making the drive
PHOTOGRAPH: AURORA POLICE DEPARTMENT
every couple of weeks.
He learned some unsettling things about his new
girlfriend. For one, she had been divorced three
times. More concerning, she had a history of depres-
sion, with spells that could send her spiraling. She
had twice attempted suicide. The first time, before
she’d met Jim, she had parked her car on some train
tracks, reconsidering only at the last moment. She
told Jim that afterward she’d checked herself into
a psychiatric ward for nearly a week and was pre-
scribed medication and counseling.

T h e s e c o n d a t t e m p t This age-progression
occurred not long after they image offers a glimpse
of what Timmothy
started dating. Driving home Pitzen may look like
from an interview for a job she now. “At this point, I
would eventually land, Amy think Timmothy will
find me before I find
was overcome with anxiety him,” his father says.
and a sense of hopelessness.
She pulled to the side of the road and sat on the edge
of a steep embankment.
Later that day, Jim grew panicky. He hadn’t heard
from Amy, and she wasn’t answering her phone. He
PHOTOGRAPH: NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING & EXPLOITED CHILDREN
soon got a call from a hospital in Cedar Rapids. Amy
had taken a handful of sleeping pills and tumbled 30
feet down the embankment. She fractured a vertebra
and suffered hypothermia.
Jim was stunned and frightened when Amy
finally called. What was happening with her? he
asked. “Oh, I’m better,” she told him. “I’m back on
my meds and I’ve seen a couple of doctors. They’ve
changed stuff around, and I’m feeling really good.”
Among her prescriptions were lorazepam (the
generic version of Ativan) for anxiety and Wellbutrin
and Lexapro for depression. The problem was that
she didn’t always take them, and when she didn’t,
she was a different person. “She’d act real funny,”
Jim says. “Big highs and lows. She would become
real emotional. If I asked whether she was taking her
pills, she’d yell at me: ‘Don’t ask me about that!’ ” He
soon began to avoid the subject.
“I think, at her core, she was
just unhappy. … The counseling,
the medication — none of it
really worked.”
— Kara Jacobs, Amy Fry-Pitzen’s sister
Amy’s sister was familiar with her patterns of behavior and
was empathetic. They’d grown up in Libertyville and “did not
have an easy family life,” Kara says, declining to go into specif-
ics. “It’s just something that me and my sister and my brother
have all struggled with in our different ways.”
Whatever their nature, those childhood difficulties appear
to have affected Amy profoundly. “My sister basically spent her
life searching for something that would make her happy,” says
Kara. “You know, ‘This job will make me happy, living here will
make me happy.’ ” When her first husband introduced her to the
Mormon faith, to which she would remain an adherent for the
rest of her life, she thought it might be the answer. But that, like
so many other promising things, was followed by an inevitable
letdown. “I think, at her core, she was just unhappy, and she
was not able to get through that,” says Kara. “The counseling,
the medication — none of it really worked.”
One of the ways Amy sought to fill this hole was through
motherhood — though not initially. Concerned that she might
pass along her depression, she did not want children. Both she
and Jim assumed the point was moot anyway. Jim had survived
a bout of Hodgkin’s lymphoma when he was 20, and he mistak-
enly believed the chemotherapy had left him sterile. When Amy
did get pregnant, a little more than a year after they’d started
dating, “they both kind of looked at it as a miracle, a sign that
this was something meant to happen,” says Kara.
With a child on the way, the couple decided to get married
in a simple outdoor park ceremony in May 2004, with Amy four
months pregnant. By now they were living in Aurora, where
Amy’s father had given them both jobs in his commercial real
estate business.
Any misgivings Amy may have had about being a mother
evaporated when she gave birth to Timmothy. (They named
him after Amy’s brother who died at birth, adding the uncon-
ventional extra m to distinguish the two.) “It was like all of a
sudden her life had meaning,” Kara recalls, “that ‘OK, maybe
this is it: I was meant to be Tim’s mom, and this is my path.’ And
it did seem to be it for a while. She seemed to be very happy.” By
all accounts, she doted on Tim. “He was the apple of her eye,”
Jim says. “They were inseparable.” Adds Kara: “They almost
spoke their own language.”
S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 | C H I C AG O 87
Kara Jacobs (top) believes her
sister, Amy Fry-Pitzen (bottom
left, with Timmothy), thought
she could protect her son from
the legacy of suicide by placing
him with another family. Kara
and Amy’s mother commissioned
a bench in a park (right) she
often visited with Timmothy.

88  C H I C AG O | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1
 The father was equally thrilled to have a son,
and as soon as the boy was old enough, he took
him on go-kart rides and delighted in catering to
Tim’s obsession with Matchbox cars. The mother,
meanwhile, indulged his other loves: water parks
and zoos. Even so, soon enough, says Kara, “the old
depression kicked back in.”
This time it was more severe than ever. On top of
everything, money issues crowded in. Amy’s father
had to close his business, putting her temporarily out
of work. (Jim had already left for a firm that designed,
built, and furnished schools.) Even after Amy landed
a job with a property management company near
their house, the fighting continued to escalate.
Her fourth marriage now failing, Amy began
planning a final act. “I believe to the core of my being
that Amy knew what she was going to do to herself,
and that she did not want her son to grow up with a
legacy of suicide,” her sister speculates. “I think in
her way, by giving him to another family, she thought
Tim would be loved and cared for by what she would
consider a normal loving family and not have to grow
up with this stigma.”
JIM DIDN’T KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN HE
picked up his wife from the airport after the
Bahamas trip. He was pleasantly surprised, how-
ever, when she climbed into the car and acted as if
the argument about it had never happened. “She had
a good time,” Jim recalls. “Things weren’t perfect,
but she seemed back to normal.”
The following week, however, Amy came home
early from her job, saying she didn’t feel well. Jim
made arrangements to arrive late to work the next
day so he could drive Tim to kindergarten, then
drop off Amy at work.
Just before 8 a.m. that Wednesday, May 11,
2011, Jim, with Amy in the passenger seat, pulled
in front of Greenman Elementary School, off Galena
Boulevard in Aurora. “Tim hopped out of the back
Amy rarely reached out
for help. That she did
on this occasion must
have meant she was
hurting badly. Kara
never dreamed it would
be the last time she
would talk to her sister.
of the Jeep, waved, you know, ‘Love you, Dad,’ ” Jim recalls.
“Love you, too,” the father responded. “I’ll see you in a little
bit.” He watched his son, in his T-shirt and green shorts, bound
away, his Spider-Man backpack bouncing.
In the car outside Amy’s job, the couple kissed. “I said,
‘Love you.’ She said, ‘Love you, too,’ ” Jim says. “And then I just
watched her go in the building.”
Jim headed to work for a bit. At about 10:30 a.m., at the end
of the short kindergarten day, he eased his Jeep into the school
parking lot and went inside to get his boy. A teacher at the check-
in desk looked at him, puzzled. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m here to pick Tim up.”
“He left this morning.”
“What?”
“Can I see who signed him out?”
He looked at the signature.
Amy.
The mother had claimed there was an emergency, he was told.
Angry, Jim began calling Amy. No answer. He left a message.
“What’s up?” he asked sharply. “Talk to me.” No return call.
He went back to work but couldn’t concentrate. Jim recalls
thinking, “Goddamn it, Amy. Really? You’re just going to take
Tim somewhere for the day without even telling me?” He took
the rest of the afternoon off. Something was going on. She must
still be angry about his objection to the trip, he thought.
This was not entirely out of the ordinary. When Amy was
especially upset, Jim says, she’d take off for a couple of hours
or longer. She’d drive somewhere to clear her head. What was
unusual this time was that she took Tim with her.
Jim calmed himself and left Amy another message: “Hey,
I’m not mad anymore. Just tell me what’s going on.”
Hours passed. Jim grew increasingly concerned. He began
making phone calls. One was to Kara. “Have you heard from
her?” he asked. She hadn’t. “I’m sure it’s fine,” she told him.
She, too, knew of Amy’s penchant for taking off when she was
feeling overwhelmed.
Even so, Kara’s mind flashed back to a call she had received
from Amy two days earlier. The argument with Jim was still
bugging Amy. “She obviously wanted to talk,” Kara says. “But
I was late for something. I just wasn’t up to getting into some-
thing heavy at that moment. So I rushed her off the phone.”
Amy rarely reached out for help. That she did on this occasion
must have meant she was hurting badly. Kara never dreamed
it would be the last time she would talk to her sister.
Jim had resisted his urge to call the police at first, still hoping
he would hear from her. But there were too many elements that
concerned him. For one, he discovered that Amy had not taken
her pills with her and may not have been using them for several
days: Full bottles sat in the medicine cabinet, untouched.
That evening, he contacted the Aurora Police Department.
“Well, we have to give her a little more time,” an officer told
him. “Another 24 hours at least.”
(Continued on page 100)
S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 | C H I C AG O 89
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 GO
Lots of
Potential
The Chicago Architecture
Biennial heads into the
neighborhoods to reimagine
vacant spaces in underserved
communities. By KRIS VIRE

David Brown, artistic

director of the 2021
Chicago Architecture
PHOTOGRAPHY: NATHAN KEAY

Biennial, has spent

nearly two decades
studying how vacant
lots can be reclaimed.

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 | C H I C AG O 91

OR MANY, THE MENTION OF
“a rch itec t u re” conju res
F thoughts of floor plans and
blueprints that become houses
and buildings and skylines — facts and fig-
ures about which are conveyed to us on
riverboat tours of the built environment.
But the fourth edition of the Chicago
Architecture Biennial, which opens
September 17, centers on the unbuilt.
Dubbed The Available City, the 2021
biennial pairs contributing architects
and designers with community organi-
zations to imagine — and, in some cases,
implement — new projects for Chicago’s
approx imately 10,0 0 0 cit y- ow ned
vacant lots.
The theme expands on work that this
year’s artistic director, David Brown,
presented under the same name as part
of the inaugural biennial in 2015. A pro-
fessor at the School of Architecture at the
University of Illinois at Chicago, he has
been exploring the uses of vacant lots
since the early aughts, when he taught
at Rice University in sprawling Houston.
“I don’t think I fully expected that I
would be able to continue it in Chicago,”
Brown says of relocating here in 2004.
“Moving from a kind of super-dispersed
city, I think my initial thought of Chicago,
not having spent much time here, was
that it’s a super-dense city, so I was sur-
prised to find that there were the quantity
of vacant lots there are.”
As Brown soon learned, many of those
lots are concentrated in underserved
communities on the city’s South and
West Sides. “I got exposed to it with a
2006 Chicago Architecture Center exhibit
that I curated [about] North Lawndale. I
think at the time they may have had the
highest number in the city.”
Brown began mapping the vacant
land and cataloging possible uses, first
presenting his research at the Venice
Biennale in 2012 and then at Chicago’s
inaugural biennial. Since the end of the
2015 program, he’s been engaging with
community organizations on implement-
ing some of those ideas for collective
spaces. A presentation to the North
Lawndale Community Coordinating
92  C H I C AG O | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1
GO
Council in 2016, for instance, led to
Brown connecting the neighborhood’s
MLK Memorial District and Community
Christian Alternative Academy with local
designers to help develop their commu-
nity garden programs.
That process is guiding Brown’s vision
for the 2021 biennial, where attendees
will visit installations from Englewood
to the South Loop, on open land and in
empty storefronts. Two examples from
North Lawndale provide a peek into
what’s in store.
A new play structure, designed by
Miami’s Studio Barnes, will be built on
a lot owned by the Westside Association
for Community Action. The installation
will also feature an “architectural-
sca le urba n pa int ing ” created by
Outpost Office, a design firm based in
Columbus, Ohio. The work marks the
first step in a proposed redevelopment
of a 15-block stretch below the CTA Pink
Line tracks between Kedzie and Kildare
Avenues. Elsewhere in the neighbor-
hood, the “design farm” Bittertang,
which worked with CCA Academy on its
community garden, will again partner
with the school to install a permanent
outdoor classroom.
“Activation weekends” will take place
in different neighborhoods for six week-
ends, beginning September 25. Family
days, featuring hands-on activities and
theater, dance, and spoken-word perfor-
mances, are also planned.
The Chicago Architecture
Biennial, opening
September 17, reimagines
city-owned vacant lots.
WHEN TO GO
Different neighborhoods featured in the
2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial will
be highlighted each weekend through
October with special itineraries for visitors
and additional programming by community
partners. Visit chicagoarchitecturebiennial.
org for complete schedules and locations.
QSeptember 25–26
North Lawndale, Garfield Park
QOctober 2–3
Englewood, Woodlawn, Bronzeville
QOctober 9–10
Pilsen, South Loop
QOctober 16–17
North Lawndale, Garfield Park
QOctober 23–24
Englewood, Woodlawn, Bronzeville
QOctober 30–31
Pilsen, South Loop, North Lawndale
“The experience of the biennial is
obviously very different than what peo-
ple have encountered in the past,” says
Rachel Kaplan, the biennial’s director.
Some of that is due to practical consid-
erations: Organizers had to make the call
about this year’s event during the pan-
demic shutdown, and they didn’t know
if the Chicago Cultural Center would be
reopened in time.
“The Cultural Center obviously has
served as a really great central hub for us
being able to host free events, but since
2015, we’ve been saying the city is the
site,” Kaplan says. “We’ve been working
with David since 2015, and it just kind
of clicked that this was a really amazing
opportunity to take his vision and put it
on this global scale.” C
 PROMOTION

IN THE KITCHEN

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MRLQHG(PLO\-RKQVRQWRFUHDWHD¼YHFRXUVHPHDO
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DGHOLFLRXV¼YHFRXUVHPHDOIHDWXULQJJ\R]DDQG
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Each guest received a bottle of wine from Cooper’s
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1 Daisies Pappardelle. 2 Joe Frillman and Emily Johnson during the virtual event.
3 A meal kit from the event. 4 Emily Johnson and Gene Kato during the virtual event.
4

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 PROMOTION

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S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 | C H I C AG O 99
Timmothy Pitzen
(Continued from page 89)
The next day, two officers showed up
at his work. “They said, ‘OK, we’ll just
take the missing persons report. Do you
have a picture of the two of them?’ ” Jim
thought a minute and then realized he
had something that might work. “I went
home and found a dot matrix photo of
them at a Chuck E. Cheese and said,
‘This is the best I can do off the top of
my head.’ They said, ‘OK, we’ll file this,
and if something else happens, we’ll get
back to you.’ ”
F r id ay a f ter noon , A my f i na l ly
reached out. She called her mom, who
then phoned Kara. “Everything’s fine,”
their mother told her. “She was upset
and she just needed some time alone.”
Recalls Kara: “We all kind of breathed a
sigh of relief, like, OK, she’ll be coming
home soon.”
One of Amy’s next calls was not to Jim,
but to his older brother. Puzzled and con-
cerned, Chuck asked her to phone Jim. A
father had a right to know where his wife
and child were, he told her. Amy’s reply
struck the brother as disturbing: “Tim is
my son, and I can do what I want.”
As soon as he hung up, Chuck phoned
Jim, who frantically tried calling his wife
again, three times. No response. He
would later learn that she had attempted
to contact him at one point, but the call
didn’t go through. He thinks maybe that’s
why she called his brother. But he doesn’t
know for sure. He never will.
E A R LY AFTERNOON THE
day — Saturday, May 14 — Jim heard a
knock at his front door. When he opened
it, he met two men in suits, both wear-
ing grim expressions. “Can we come
in?” they said. “We’re detectives with
the Aurora Police Department. We have
some information regarding your wife.”
Thank God, he thought as he let them
in; they must have found Amy and Tim.
He looked at the men, eager to hear the
details.
“We found Amy deceased,” one of the
detectives said.
100  C H I C AG O | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1
Jim stared at him for a moment. He
heard the words, but they didn’t register.
“What do you mean, deceased?”
The detectives explained that she had
been found in a Rockford motel, dead of
an apparent suicide.
Jim was still trying to make sense of
the news when the next thought popped
into his head.
“Where is Tim? Where is my son?”
The detectives looked at each other,
then back at Jim. “We don’t know,” one
said. “He wasn’t there.”
“We’re looking,” said the other.
The father stood there, numb. Amy
was dead. Tim was missing.
“We will let you know more as soon as
we can,” one of the detectives said, hand-
ing him his card.
In the hours that followed, Jim
learned about the suicide note Amy left
in the motel room — a note the police have
only ever paraphrased for the media.
Two other letters written by Amy — one
to her mother and one to the best friend
who was with her on the Bahamas
trip — arrived the next day, echoing the
contents of the motel note.
“I’ve taken him somewhere safe,”
she wrote to her mom. “He will be well
cared for and he says that he loves you.
Please know that there is nothing that
you could have said or done that would
have changed my mind.”
While investigators pored over these
messages for clues, they also began recon-
structing the last three days of Amy’s life.
Using cellphone data, surveillance video,
and I-Pass records, detectives were able
NEXT to piece together a whirlwind 500-mile
journey she took Tim on, covering six
counties of Illinois and Wisconsin, with
stops at two water parks and a zoo.
A l mos t i m med iately a f ter Ji m
had dropped A my off at work that
Wednesday morning, she returned to
Tim’s school in her own car, a blue 2004
Ford Expedition that she had left parked
at her job. Surveillance video shows her
walking through the school’s glass doors
to the front desk at 8:15 a.m. About 20
minutes later, Tim appears in the lobby.
Amy reaches out her hand for his, holds
the front door open for him, and follows
him outside.
At around 10 a.m., she pulled into an
auto repair shop in La Grange, which
suggests she knew she’d need her SUV
in good shape for the hundreds of miles
she planned to drive. She was told the
repairs would take a few hours. One
of Tim’s favorite places, Brookfield
Zoo, was not far away, and a mechanic
dropped the mother and son off there.
They returned to the shop in the after-
noon to pick up the SUV and then drove
a little more than an hour north to the
KeyLime Cove Water Resort (now the
Great Wolf Lodge) in Gurnee. They spent
the night there, ignoring the increas-
ingly panicked texts and voicemails
from Amy’s family.
The next day, Thursday, they headed
to the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin
Dells, stopping along the way on I-94 to
get gas and drinks. They also stopped at
a convenience store to buy Tim clothes,
a toy car, and a craft kit. At this point,
Amy still hadn’t returned any messages.
The mother and son checked out of
the resort the next morning. Surveillance
video captured them waiting at the coun-
ter: Amy holds Tim’s hand and glances
inside his Spider-Man backpack, which
she’s carrying. Tim fidgets, bored.
Nothing seems out of the ordinary. These
images, though, are the last known sight-
ing of Timmothy Pitzen.
Amy drove south on I-39, then west on
I-88, for about 170 miles. At 12:30 p.m.,
she stopped and, over the next hour and
a half, made the calls to her family and
friends. Those she phoned felt reassured.
Tim could be heard in the background
in some calls, at one point saying he was
hungry. Amy even put him on the line
briefly with Jim’s brother.
Whatever happened to Tim almost
certainly occurred in the hours fol-
lowing those calls. Immediately after
she hung up, Amy turned off her phone
and drove south along the Rock River to
Sterling, Illinois, a small manufacturing
and steel town surrounded by farm-
land, about 80 miles west of Aurora.
Why she went there is a mystery to her
family. They were not aware she had any
acquaintances in Sterling. But Amy’s
I-Pass history showed that months ear-
lier she made two trips to the Sterling
area, which she never mentioned to Jim
or any other family member. Could she
have been scouting a rendezvous point
to hand off Tim? Meeting with the peo-
ple she would entrust him to? Both were
possibilities. Investigators consider this
one of their few solid leads.
Amy’s exact whereabouts for the
next several hours are unknown, but
at 8 p.m., she resurfaced. A surveil-
lance camera captured her, alone, at a
Sullivan’s Foods in Winnebago, near
Rockford. The footage shows her paying
for stationery and envelopes, presum-
ably to write her last notes.
She checked into the Rockford Motel
between 11:15 and 11:30 p.m. Her body
was discovered by a maid at 12:30 p.m.
the next day. The door had been locked
with the security chain, but the maid was
able to open it enough to see Amy’s body.
Under the bed, police officers found the
box cutter she’d used to slash her wrist
and neck. They also found a partially con-
sumed bottle of Triaminic, a liquid cough
and cold medicine for children, and Tim’s
child identification card. Included in
Amy’s note: a message to the motel staff
that she was sorry they would have to
clean up after her.
The media seized on the story imme-
diately. Satellite trucks rolled up to Amy
and Jim’s home in Aurora and that of
Amy’s mother in Antioch. “Dead Mom,
Missing Boy, Remains a Mystery,” read
a headline in the Chicago Sun-Times.
“Search Spans Three States for Boy From
Aurora,” the Chicago Tribune announced.
Investigators were encouraged that
neither Tim’s backpack nor the toys his
mother had bought him, including a Hot
Wheels starter set and a toy truck, were
found in the motel — a sign they might
still be with Tim. The next day, scores
of law enforcement officials from the
Aurora Police Department, the FBI, the
U.S. Marshals Service, and other agen-
cies conducted the first of their ground
searches, scouring rural roads and parks
along the I-88 and I-39 corridors near the
Sterling area for clues to Tim’s where-
abouts. Nothing turned up.
Investigators papered Amy’s route
with fliers bearing Tim’s picture. Jim
went on the local news to plea for Tim’s
return. The National Center for Missing &
Exploited Children was alerted, and Tim
was added to its database. Potential sight-
ings trickled in, but none panned out.
THE FOLLOWING FRIDAY, THE WAKE FOR
Amy was held at her place of worship:
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints in Sugar Grove, Illinois. Family
members and friends were still reeling.
Recalls Kara: “I remember a lot of people
she worked with and went to church with
saying things like, ‘Amy would never kill
herself. Something’s wrong here. We
don’t believe this story.’ I just remember
thinking, I don’t know what to tell you,
but she did; clearly you don’t know her
as well as you think you did.”
When Kara caught her first glimpse
of Jim since her sister’s death, she saw
a man dazed. “He barely moved during
the entire wake,” she recalls. “He didn’t
eat anything. He didn’t speak much. He
just stood next to the casket. I remember
thinking, Do you need to go to the bath-
room or anything? Because he never
moved from that spot. He was just totally
numb. We all were.”
At one point, Kara approached Jim
and asked if she could see her sister.
“He knew what I meant. He took me over,
and he pulled up the sleeve covering her
right arm.” It had been wrapped to hide
the deep slashes. Jim then gently drew
down the scarf draped over the slits
in his wife’s neck. Kara isn’t sure why
she wanted to see the wounds. “I think
I just wanted to see what she had done
to herself.”
The funeral took place the next day
at the same church. The media, not
allowed inside, waited for mourners to
emerge. The circus atmosphere made
Kara realize how sensational the story
had become. She imagined what her sis-
ter would think. “In her core, I think that
Amy never felt like she was really all that
important in life. She would be horrified
to know that this has turned into such a
big thing. I truly think she believed that
everyone would just get over it and go on
with their lives.” Despite everything, Jim
had his wife buried beneath a headstone
bearing the epitaph “Loving Mother.”
The investigation continued, but
leads went nowhere. Three months in,
the police confirmed that the blood they
had found in the back seat of Amy’s SUV
was Tim’s. On the surface, it appeared
to be the first evidence that Amy may
have harmed her son. But authori-
ties accepted the family’s explanation
that the blood was likely from a severe
nosebleed the boy had in the vehicle not
long before he went missing. Then, in
late December, the police investigated
a potential sighting of Tim at a Denny’s
restaurant in North Aurora. But when
they tracked down the car the boy had
left in, it turned out he was the son of
the driver. Another false lead. Another
false hope.
Years passed. After Jim moved back
to Clinton, he landed a job as a tooling
designer at a tool, die, and machining
shop in Eldridge, Iowa. He’s dated some,
he says, but it’s hard. Things will be going
great until the woman asks about all the
photos of Tim on the wall, and he has to
tell the story yet again.
Over time, Jim has learned to cope
better with the constant torment of not
knowing what happened to his son.
Therapy has helped him learn to let go
of part of his rage, to stop blaming him-
self — and Amy, to some extent, as he’s
grown to understand that her depression
was a dark hole she couldn’t escape.
Kara, meanwhile, spiraled downward.
“I was lost,” she says. “I went through
horrendous depression myself. I was
not a good wife. I was not a good mother.
I started drinking too much. I couldn’t
sleep. I took anxiety medicine. It was
miserable, honestly. I was just not in a
good place for a whole lot of years.” Her
struggles would eventually cost Kara her
marriage. Then, about two years ago,
she had an epiphany: “I can either let
this ruin the rest of my life or let it mean
S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 | C H I C AG O 101
something better.” She volunteered with
Team Hope, a National Center for Missing
& Exploited Children program that pro-
vides an emotional outlet for families
of missing children, and she’s writing a
book about her sister that she hopes to
one day give to Tim to help him know and
understand his mother.
O N A PR I L 3 , 2 0 1 9 — N E A R LY E I G HT
yea r s into Tim’s disappearance — a
woman in Newport, Kentucky, just
across the Ohio River from Cincinnati,
spotted a skinny young man who looked
bruised and agitated pacing at an inter-
section. The woman would later describe
the encounter to a local TV station: “He
walked up to my car and he went, ‘Can
you help me?’ He then said, ‘I just want
to get home. Please help me.’ … He tells
me he’s been kidnapped and he’s been
traded through all these people and he
just wanted to go home.”
When authorities caught up with him,
he told detectives he had been held cap-
tive in Ohio by two men with tattoos who
looked like bodybuilders. He was able to
escape, he said, and run to safety across
a bridge into Kentucky.
His name, he told them, was Timmothy
Pitzen.
National news outlets descended on
the small Ohio town where the young
man was being questioned by the police.
Though they said they had not yet deter-
mined whether he was actually the
missing boy, several media outlets and
even a police report gave the impression
that Tim had likely been found.
All day, as they awaited the results of
a DNA test, Jim, Kara, and the rest of the
family agonized over the possibility that
this was indeed Tim. “I completely got
my hopes up,” Kara recalls. “I thought
it was real, 100 percent. It just didn’t
occur to me that it could not be him. I
was thinking things like, Who’s going
to pick him up? Does he need clothes?
I’m, like, packing my stuff.”
Jim fought to keep his expectations
in check. There had been so many false
sightings over the years. Still, authori-
ties were certainly taking this claim
1 02  C H I C AG O | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1
seriously. The Aurora detectives who had
worked the case (both of whom declined
to be interviewed for this story) were
making the five-hour drive to Newport
to check things out for themselves. But
as more information emerged, Jim grew
skeptical. The young man did know cer-
tain facts about the disappearance, but
he wasn’t aware of more private details,
like about the family cat and dog. When
Jim asked why the police didn’t run
the person’s fingerprints to see if they
matched Tim’s, police said he had refused
to cooperate. Then Jim saw a photo on
TV — a grainy picture of the young man
in a faded red hoodie, his hands buried
in an army surplus jacket. “I thought,
Maybe there’s a possibility it’s him, but
I don’t think so.”
His suspicions were confirmed the
next day when the DNA test came back.
This was not 14-year-old Tim but an
impostor: Brian Rini, a 23-year-old man
with a history of psychiatric issues. Rini
had gleaned details about the case from
a 20/20 episode. When asked why he had
claimed to be Tim, Rini, who would plead
guilty to aggravated identity theft and
be sentenced to two years in prison, told
authorities he wished he had a father like
Timmothy Pitzen’s.
For Kara, the news was devastating.
At her mom’s house in Antioch, where
she had been awaiting word, she put her
head in her hands and sobbed. Then she
thought of Jim. His mother had told her
that he was shattered, holed up in his
bedroom with the shades drawn to avoid
the media clamor outside.
THE RAIN HAS STOPPED OUTSIDE JIM
Pitzen’s house in Clinton. Despite the
heartbreaking turn of events two years
ago, he remains convinced Tim is still
alive and will be found. He has a theory
of what might have happened to him,
one that he has shared with the police.
He would rather not discuss it in detail,
in case that tips off anyone involved.
As he keeps talking, however, he
offers a general sense of how he thinks
the events may have unfolded: that who-
ever took Tim raised him “off the grid,”
in a remote area where the boy would be
less likely to see news reports about his
disappearance. Or perhaps those people
took Tim overseas. For that reason, Jim
granted an interview to a German televi-
sion news program.
The Aurora Police Department and the
National Center for Missing & Exploited
Children also continue to operate under
the assumption that Tim is alive. In
May, the center released an updated age-
progression image of what Tim might
look like today, at 16. The resemblance to
Jim is even more striking now: the chin,
the dimples, the eyes, the smile.
The mystery haunts the center’s
media director, Angeline Hartmann,
who has taken a special interest in the
case and all the theories about what
might have happened to Tim. “This
story is so bizarre and so intriguing
because all of it is possible,” she says.
“I would have conversations with the
detectives, and I would say, ‘You tell
me, what do you think?’ And they would
say, ‘I go back and forth. Sometimes I
believe strongly that he’s out there, and
then sometimes I believe strongly that,
nah, there’s no way.’ ”
Ultimately, Hartmann has come down
on the side that Tim is alive and will be
found: “This is what I tell people: No one
would have ever believed that Jaycee
Dugard was alive.” In that famous case,
Dugard was found 18 years after being
kidnapped at age 11 by a couple who con-
cealed her identity.
It’s that kind of tale that helps keep
Jim’s hopes alive. “It’s only going to take
one person to figure out that that’s Tim,”
he says. “One person is going to solve
the case, say to Tim, ‘Hey, is this you?’
Then the cops are going to take over, and
I’m going to ask two questions: Why did
you do this? And why did you not bring
him home?”
And what will he do on the day that
he’s finally reunited with his son?
“Sit there and cry,” Jim says as the rain
begins to fall again. “Just sit there and
cry.” Maybe then, he hopes, he can be a
father once more. Maybe then the dream
that haunts him will finally end. C
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Q I envy young Liz’s certainty. She

seemed so on top. Everything now is a
shade of gray. Back then it was just fire
and drive. Even though I was deeply inse-
cure underneath, which wreaked havoc in
my romantic relationships, I don’t think
I’ve ever felt more powerful.
Q There is a huge hypocrisy in our culture
where we embrace violence and shame
sex. That makes no sense to me. Early on, I
saw how female sexuality was used. Your
In my friend group, body, your attractiveness, your appeal to
it’s a running joke that, men was going to be used by someone.
of all of us, I would
become the rock star. And I just decided I would use it. I would
It’s like, “Her? Liz?” try to own my sexuality and find a way to
Because that was not feel good about that.
in evidence at all.
Q To do this, to be a rock star, there’s
a warping of your personality. There’s
the whiplash of being at home more by
yourself, writing and dreaming and imag-
ining, then getting yanked back into being
the big-energy performer and employer.
When I’m on the road, I’m almost all rock
star Liz Phair, wall to wall. And that’s a
very comfortable place to be. But if I don’t
take enough time to get back to my actual
self, it becomes a problem.
Q I always knew I was adopted. It just
wasn’t a big thing. I don’t want to find

Liz Phair
The singer-songwriter, 54, on her sudden fame, using her sexuality,
my birth mother, but I want to find out
about her. I want to look without engag-
ing. Having a child cured a lot of that
for me, because I look at someone who’s
and why she practices saying her own name Interview by MIKE THOMAS genetically connected to me and it satis-
fies something. And I pretty much won
Q I was a shy and introverted child. But there’s a picture of me as a baby: My white- the parent lottery, so it wasn’t like I had
blond hair is sticking straight up, like I stuck my finger in a light socket, and I have cause to look elsewhere. But I do think
two little fists on either side of my head. Some family friends said, “She looks like she where you come from is meaningful. Even
wanted to be born.” So there was a little fight in there from the beginning. though we have stories about our family,
Q In college I had a big, thick tome called Modern Art. One day I started counting how they don’t totally feel like mine.
many women were included, and it was shockingly few. I thought about that. What Q Do you remember those first few days
does it mean that you call a book Modern Art and it’s being taught at a progressive of COVID lockdown, when the sky was so
school like Oberlin College, yet it includes almost no female artists? That was a real fucking blue? And there was this pause in
eye opener. And I thought, No, no, no, you’re going to be counted. human activity? It felt so precious. There
Q With the success of Exile in Guyville, everything changed. It felt overnight, and I was something deeply, deeply religious
was not prepared. I had performed two shows when it came out. Sixteen months later, about that to me. I would like to somehow
I’m on the cover of Rolling Stone. My recognition far outstripped my ability. One of my channel that energy again, postpan-
earliest gigs was at Metro. I was so scared and so inexperienced. Joe Shanahan had demic. I’m going to spend more time in
to push me out onto the stage. He literally had his hand on my back easing me out. nature. I’m going to be more snobby about
Q Insecurity or a feeling of not belonging is still a part of me. There are moments where the people I hang around with. I’m going
I can’t even say my own name. I don’t feel like I can fill the shoes. If I call anywhere, to seek out beauty and art and things that
it’s like I have a speech impediment getting the name out. I have to practice it: “Hi, Liz inspire my spirit. I’m just going to be a
Phair. It’s Liz Phair.” I have to do it enough times to say it like I actually am that person. little more intentional. C

104  C H I C AG O | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 Illustration by KATHRYN RATHKE

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