eat here
http://www.longmanandeagle.com/
and you're welcome
make reservations now.
Love Longman and Eagle.. great whiskey, great food, but they generally do not accept reservations. They have a hotel room above the bar ( don't stay there ), and the only way to get reservations is to book that room for the night.
Activities one might also consider:
Drinking:
http://hqbeercade.com/http://hqbeercade.com/gamelist/http://theviolethour.com/If you have a burning desire to get utterly ****faced, my favorite 4 am bars are:
http://ravenschicago.com/ ( My favorite, also next door to a goth dance club called Neo.. which can be an adventure if that is, or isn't, your thing )
http://www.taistil4.com/ ( The diviest of dives )
http://www.yelp.com/biz/carols-pub-chicago ( the only bone I'm going to throw at our friends that skew country. Regardless of your preferences live country music is a fun setting to accompany getting hammered ) .
Fancy Movies:
http://www.musicboxtheatre.com/Music:
I have no idea who this is, but shows at the Metro tend to be awesome:
http://metrochicago.com/towkio-05-16-15/You can also consider the Chicago Theater, the double door, Schuba's, etc..
Comedy, the comedy scene in Chicago is awesome, this is a good choice:
Fancy improv:
http://ioimprov.com/chicago/ ( second city is great but expensive )
Super low budget, 30 people packed into a 10 by 10 room improv:
http://cornservatory.org/ My favorite:
http://neofuturists.org/toomuchlight/ ( Tickets are only at the door, show at 10:30, there will be a line )
Food:
There is really too much to talk about here, but if you're the kind of person that likes to dig, I would recommend using the website of a Chicago pub tv show called "Check Please":
http://checkplease.wttw.com/search/field_price_range/10-15-351If all this is too complicated, you really can't go wrong by taking the red line to belmont, getting out and just walking around (in an eastlerly direction.. which means toward the lake, possibly turning north or south on Clark, Halsted, or Broadway) for a few hours.
If you drive into the city, parking is going to suck. Use the trains ( coming from Skokie you can take the yellow line to Howard, transfer to the Red line to anywhere else along the lake), especially if you plan to drink.