Chicago's BEST Neighborhood - Ultimate One Day South Loop Experience | Food & Things to Do Guide

I have excellent news for the world there's no such thing as downtown Chicago it's a figment of people's imaginations you won't find it in the list of 77 official Community areas nor will you find it in the list of 200 plus neighborhoods in reality it's a collection of neighborhoods in central Chicago like streeterville the loop River North Lakeshore East and what might be the best one of them all the South Loop today we are back in the South Loop to do what we do show you all around some great places to eat incredible things to do a landmark here and there sorry we're fresh out of history today but since we continue to bring you the best Chicago content on the internet that's all three W's make sure you finesse that like button [Music] since we've got so much klutzpah on this channel we decided to start our morning in the South Loop with a stop to 11 City Diner now what is 11 City Diner you may ask well it is a Brooklyn Jewish style deli right here in the heart of Chicago [Music] this takes me back in multiple ways one because we came to 11 City Diner a few years ago for our original South Loop neighborhood guide we actually got the locks in a box with bagel and everything we had to take it to a park to eat it there's times were different back then today I'm so Overjoyed because we actually get to eat inside it's a beautiful dining room with old school candy Bagels Pastrami and the whole vibe just takes me back to my childhood days growing up in Williamsburg so in honor of that I got the Lox and Latka with sour cream smoked salmon Capers red onions we got the challah French toast powdered sugar and syrup and of course matzo ball soup but you can't forget about that black coffee hashtag no cream no sugar they serve up Intelligentsia here at 11 City Diner and we're just gonna get all up in this now I know we've had some New York haters on the channel we've tried to like kick them out because we love New York we love the culture we love the history and apparently we're not the only ones because you got here a Brooklyn style deli right in the South Loop so I know we're not alone in fact for the menu when they're talking about the corned beef Pastrami and all that the little tag is the best west of the Lower East Side just to give you an idea of The Vibes that you're getting here they've been playing old school music I'm talking so much but I'm starving so let me get into my food but yeah I love smoked salmon in the morning as you if you've been watching the channel for a while you probably know that and uh normally we get it with a bagel this is the first time I'm getting it with Alaska so I'm actually pretty hyped try to get a little bit of everything here if I can for the camera get a nice full bite locks in like a H [Music] sorry to be cliche but that is an amazing combination of flavors and I'm starving this morning I worked out chest and shoulders yesterday plus I did some time on the treadmill didn't really eat much of a breakfast until we got here so I'm about to destroy this Latka typically when we go to restaurants I experience severe fomo when I'm reading the menu this menu at eleven City Diner has so many options so I first thought maybe I'll get fries crispy onion a sandwich but Lewis said let's just stick to breakfast items for now so I ordered a pile of French toast this looks beautiful and then a matzo ball soup this will be the first time I will ever try matzo ball soup I've seen it in the movies I've seen it on TV I've seen it in Jewish delis while people are eating next to us and I've always wanted to try this I was waiting for the right time and today is the day every time we're in a Jewish deli in New York because I had never tried this before I always wondered about the texture of the matzo ball and I would say that it is very pillowy [Music] I'm gonna have to find a recipe for this because I feel like this would be super fun to make at home I make chicken noodle soup for Lewis all the time so maybe we'll switch it up a little [Music] this looks amazing this matzo ball soup looks so amazing [Music] just like Bubby used to make the L train sound to me is just so comforting I'm gonna get a white noise machine but I'm gonna customize it with some L train noise because that really puts me to sleep no joke so 11 City Diner once again was absolutely phenomenal uh we didn't order a bagel today just because we're not in New York the matzo ball soup was great that khala French toast was impeccable and my laksa Locka oh so good oh the locker had the mashed potato consistency inside crispiness on the outside the onions Capers sour cream that smoked fish the only bad thing I could say was that there wasn't enough locks your boy needs his locks but that's okay next time I'll just order double extra fish please now that's a great way to start your morning with a Brooklyn style deli right here in the heart of Chicago and we may even try the bagels and the egg cream that they've got maybe the pastrami the roast beef they've got a full menu they even sell them old school candies The Vibes are Immaculate great service you know what's coming next 11 City Diner gets my coveted five Diamond award foreign it's been a minute since we came to the Shedd Aquarium and even though Google Maps doesn't classify this as the South Loop it definitely is otherwise what neighborhood does Museum campus belong to we are so high because we love aquariums we love museums we love zoos anything where we can observe Beauty maybe the only problem we'll have is screaming kids today so we'll try to filter that out of the audio for your listening pleasure now let's go learn about some aquatic species oh [Music] [Music] absolutely I'm blue I was a lobster or a shrimp or maybe a prawn but I was blue we just walked into the gift shop and now I'm very tempted to get one of each plushies for rowdy [Music] the Shedd Aquarium is a great spot for animal lovers and that's what we are we have a dog at home we grew up with fish in the house and we're actually waiting to go back to the ocean area and for the 12 30 show now we're going to check out the underwater Beauty exhibit [Music] [Music] who knew that in the very same city where deep dish pizza was created you could see sharks rockhopper penguins and beluga whales well I knew but I just thought it was something fun to say [Music] thank you [Music] an institution here on museum campus in the windy city I've been coming here since I was a wee cub and I always have a great time for the first time in a long time though narissa and I sat down to watch one of the spotlight shows so the beluga whales were doing their clicks and their waves and their little shimmies out of the water [Music] it was a lot of fun and they even concluded everything by playing a ballad from SIA there's so much to see in here from alligators to stingrays to clownfish lionfish jellyfish get it there's a lot of fish in there you know like if you're coming from Georgia this might not be the most exciting thing to do in Chicago but otherwise if you're anywhere in the midwest or even the East Coast definitely will have fun here you could spend two or three hours in here depending on how many shows you want to see they also have a theater so if you want to watch a show up I don't know that's not really why I come to aquariums I want to see things in front of my face bubbling and making awkward Smiles uh Saturdays and Sundays of course are going to be particularly busy days but I don't think there's a time you can come to a place like this where it's really not going to be busy because even on the weekdays kids have school field trips here that's just talking about the inside of Shedd Aquarium we're not even talking about the architecture looks like it was designed by King Triton beautiful neoclassical building it is a super rare example of a blend of neoclassicism with aquatic architecture anybody could have a good time here from the kids all the way to your bubby foreign [Music] we've talked a lot about Grant Park on the channel and that's definitely one of the biggest things to do in South Loop it's the city's oldest Park it's humongous a big part of downtown it could be Chicago's Central Park except for it's got all these roads and expressways chopping it up into a million pieces but what I want to talk to you all about is the Grant Park skate park near the intersection of Roosevelt and Michigan this is where skaters can come wearing their Paul Rodriguez shoes to show off their Tony Hawk moves and do kick flips with the skyline of one of the world's greatest cities as the backdrop imagine you're a skater and you get these amazing photos videos with the Sears Tower in back of you must be pretty dope so let me know drop some skateboard emojis in the comments if you want Lewis and Marissa to dust off your longboards we work Big Time skaters back in our College days and we'd love to put together something for the channel [Music] the South Loop is home to lots of beautiful street art and incredible public sculptures like Agora here on the southern end of Grant Park walking through here these giant Lakes it kind of makes me feel like I'm a giant walking amongst the skyscrapers like if Nema Tower were just a little bit taller than me and speaking of the name of tower do y'all think we should move there we could get amazing views of Lake Michigan Grant Park and the northern part of the skyline [Music] thank you we had a great big breakfast we did a couple of great activities in the South Loop now you know we have a big dinner plan but we had to eat something in between plus get caffeine so we're at overflow coffee in the South Loop right on Michigan Avenue I got the Kyoto black cold brew which is a coffee that I've had quite a number of times they actually Brew it locally it's a Japanese style cold brew and to go with that got a turkey club panini yeah just a little bite I cannot wait to show you what we got lined up for dinner but for now it's sandwich and coffee time or if I were in New York time for some coffee all right I would take a bite of my turkey club [Music] got some cheddar avocado bacon and Turkey Lurkey I'm liking it [Music] behind me is one of the oldest monuments in all of Chicago it's a man on a horse that man happens to be John A Logan for whom Logan Square's name now this wasn't the best guy in all of history he's not exactly the type of dude that you'd want to invite to meet your parents but the statue is cool it's a horse and a dude [Music] yeah as if it weren't already obvious by now narissa and I are really into photography and videography it forms the basis of our composition for our films I know a lot of people look at these as simple travel guys or Wikipedia articles being regurgitated but we put a lot of care into our art so coming to a place like the Museum of Contemporary Photography in the South Loop is a really really amazing thing for us to do even better that it's completely free there are three floors of exhibitions it's part of Columbia College and they're frequently rotating what they have on display [Music] sure foreign like this you're not going to find traditional photographs of Landscapes or horses what you'll find though are photographs that are going to make you think I'm going to show you New Perspectives and kind of reframing old ideas of colonialism like some of the exhibits that are on display today I personally took some notes because I want to do some more studying on my own time but that's my own business y'all don't need to know about that thank you now we're our friends here we all know about the Chicago grid we also know about the Manhattan grid but there's a key difference between New York's grid and Chicago's Grid in New York Houston is the dividing line and as you move north the East West streets are numbered but in Chicago Madison is the dividing line and as you move South the East-West streets are numbered however there's a huge monkey wrench in the Chicago grid because when they created it they were already presidential streets in the loop and they didn't want to impeach those streets if you know what I mean so what should be first street is actually Monroe and you've got Monroe Jackson Adams Van Buren Harrison so the first numbered street that you'll encounter here in the South Loop is 8th Street but it used to be 7th Street what happened to that well they renamed it after overall good Italian guy Balboa not really a good guy but they renamed it out to him anyway but really as you move west in the city the first numbered Street you generally encounter is 13th Street and now we come to the part of my Chicago neighborhood films that you're all waiting for how did the South Loop get its name it's actually not what you're thinking this neighborhood got its name because it's the first neighborhood south of the loop I just blew your mind didn't I [Music] earlier I hinted that we had a big dinner lined up and now I'm at my first official seafood boil here in the South Loop neighborhood we're at low country which is inspired by the seafood boils of South Carolina they're also known as Frogmore stew or Beaufort boil this is all new to me I have never had a seafood boil like this they saw an opening in Chicago for an entry-level low brow Seafood value spot and I could definitely get down with this we're loving the decor it smells incredible in here I don't know how they're not making a low country candle because I would definitely buy that and light it every single day and what we got here is a feast fit for Kenny Powers himself we got the Payday Two snow crab clusters a pound of shrimp two pieces of corn three potatoes with cornbread and on the side we got fried pickles fried shrimp we got a couple of sauces to dip and with that we got our Biz we got our gloves we got our bucket we're not going to be doing too much filming as we eat because we're not trying to get Seafood juice all over the camera but it just looks incredible we're gonna do what we can to portray this experience to y'all out in Gusto Nation fried shrimp time [Music] gust donation who has the better claws the snow crab or Moi this is the Nike lab x Low Country collab we've got the nice crab on the bib got a couple of gloves to keep our hands nice and clean all right I've never done a seafood boil normally my butler heals all my Seafood for me but he's out of town right now check out this Crab Claw just like a tiger claw but in Crab form this is going to be a good feast [Music] just wanted to show you all the aftermath of this seafood boil if y'all are still watching comments and crab and shrimp emojis down below I wanted to show y'all my content creator pants from gu in SoHo these are some nice baggy green cargo pants that was a time when I threw all my cargo pants and shorts into the garbage you know in Florida we like to wear them a lot but then they went out of style well their back says gu Tokyo so I got a pair I could fit a whole shotgun mic in one of these cargo no joke check it out look at that that's a whole ass shotgun mic in there that was an incredible day exploring the South Loop make sure you subscribe and if you work for Nema Chicago we'd love a unit on one of the top floors overlooking Grant Park in Lake Michigan Peace all right foreign

Channel: Gusto Films Collection

Views: 14,575

Keywords: south loop chicago, downtown chicago, south loop neighborohood tour, chicago neighborhood guide, chicago television, chicago comedy, chicago podcast, chicagos best restaurants, chicago things to do, grant park chicago, chicago travel vlog, chicago illinois 2023, luis gusto

Id: 42ksB6nCW1Y

Length: 20min 13sec (1213 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 15 2023