Imagine a dining experience where the cuisine combines food and art, where the food sparkles and crumbles and tumbles and smokes, and you'd have Chicago’s Alinea.According to the James Beard Foundation, Alinea is 2016’s most outstanding restaurant in the county. What would a restaurant like this feel like, sound like and look like? What type of lighting would it have?A few hot summers ago, architect Tom Nahabedian cooked up something cool in Chicago. The Icicle Series for Boyd Lighting features three ceiling flush mounts and two sconces, and was an instant hit with its glowing crystalline “icicles” illuminated by LED. The following year, in 2015, the Icicle Wand Sconcewas honored as a finalist for Interior Design's Best of Year Awards. With its curved backplate showcasing two icicles - one pointing up and one pointing down - and a contemporary, architectural vibe, the Icicle Wand was perfect for lighting, say, the most outstanding restaurant in the country.Located not far from Nahabedian in his hometown, Alinea recently underwent an interior design transformation, and it too was cooking up something cool.

"Much more than a refresh, Alinea underwent a full-fledged facelift,” said Matt Kirouac for Zagat. “The whole space is brand-new, designed to fuse classic architectural influences with contemporary accents. It feels altogether softer, elegant and warmer." In a series of dining spaces hung with large artwork, wired with a five-zone sound system and staged with minimal furnishings, are 14 architectural and modern light fixtures; the Chicago-born Icicle Wand Sconce has found a home in the most outstanding restaurant in the country. Congratulations to Tom Stringer Design Partners on the restaurant's interior design.It’s no surprise Nahabedian and his Icicle Wand were paired with Alinea. Just last year, Nahabedian received the 2015 James Beard Foundation Outstanding Restaurant Design Award for another Chicago restaurant, Brindille. Clearly he knows restaurants. We can’t wait to see what else he cooks up. I have been unapologetically hermitic and haven’t left the house here in Nashville after 6pm in weeks.

But last night I got to try a new speakeasy called The Patterson House. The vibe: roaring 20s in the south. Walnut bar, bartenders in vests and ties, pressed copper ceiling, and dark built-in bookshelves everywhere giving a parlor feel. Beautiful cylindrical glass chandeliers cast a warm glow. And the music is just as I like it in bars: felt but not heard. The cocktails are the best I’ve had in recent memory: perfectly balanced and cleverly crafted without being over-the-top. Classic with a thoughtful contemporary twist. I had The Maisie Day, made with Luzianne infused gin, lemon, egg white, and lemon bitters and it had a lovely lemon creamcicle flavor up front and the Luzianne tea added a nice, subtly tannic finish. The ice is formed into a single perfect sphere (to fit Old Fashioned glasses) or elongated rectangle (for Collins glasses). Patterson makes their own syrups and bitters from fresh fruit and herbs, and they’ve designed 50 cocktails including a Bacon Old Fashioned with Benton bacon macerated 4 Roses bourbon, maple syrup, and coffee pecan bitters—which I didn’t get to try.

Another reason to return. Not that I need it. The small plates: Delicious. The chef is a veteran of The Fat Duck, Craft, and Alinea. The only other thing I have to say about the food is “BBQ pork sliders.” (Photo by Chris Wage)chandelier thong sandal colin stuart Follow me on Twitter and Instagramchandelier moradabad combination of two of winnie’s favorite thingschandelier forest kaufen In the land of the trinacria What’s in your pantry? Subscribe in a reader Richard Alleman discovers Chicago in August is his kind of town—with concerts, mind-boggling architecture, an outsider art scene, and beaches to boot Celebrating its twentieth anniversary, Lollapalooza, now based in Chicago, takes over the city’s downtown Grant Park for three days (from August 5 to 7) of rock, rap, hip-hop, electronica, and avant-garde music.

Among the 130 bands set to perform on eight stages, the headliners include Eminem, Foo Fighters, Coldplay, Muse, My Morning Jacket, deadmau5, A Perfect Circle, and Arctic Monkeys. Chicago star chef Graham Elliot will oversee the festival’s Chow Town food court, serving Chicago specialties like his signature lobster corn dog; Chicago has given the country some of our greatest chefs: Charlie Trotter, Graham Elliot, Rick Bayless, and Grant Achatz, all of whom are constantly reinventing their cuisine and opening new restaurants in their home city. Achatz, for example, whose Alinea in smart Lincoln Park has been called the best restaurant in America, has just launched Next at 953 West Fulton Market, in the meatpacking district. Here you don’t just make reservations; you buy a ticket in advance and let Achatz, who is on to his next menu every three weeks, take care of the rest; . Downtown, Mexican-food maven Rick Bayless has recently added Xoco, specializing in upscale Mexican street food (caldos, tortas, churras), next to his already hugely popular Topolobampo and Frontera Grill;

449 North Clark Street; . Up in the swish Gold Coast area, star-watchers are dazzled by Danny Grant’s RIA, in the swanky Elysian Hotel, which had been open barely a year when it was awarded two Michelin stars; . Meanwhile, rising stars on the Chicago cuisine scene are Stephanie Izard, whose meatpacking-district outpost The Girl and the Goat, despite a challenging small-plate menu offering dishes like confit goat belly and skewered lamb heart, is currently one of the hottest tables in town; 809 West Randolph Street; . . . and Charlie Trotter protégé Giuseppe Tentori, whose just-opened GT Fish & Oyster serves superb seafood as well as interesting sides such as grilled Caesar salad and mains like lobster macaroni and cheese; 531 North Wells Street; Up in the Old (and New) Hotels ), but for a wonderfully retro experience, nothing beats the town’s iconic Palmer House. Dating back to 1873 and now managed by Hilton, this national treasure has some of the most glorious public rooms of any hotel in the country;

its vast lobby lounge, for example, sports 38-foot Grecian-frescoed ceilings hung with 24K-gold Tiffany chandeliers; The (Frank Lloyd) Wright Stuff Legendary American architect Frank Lloyd Wright spent the first 20 years of his professional life (from 1889 to 1909) based in the leafy suburb of Oak Park, west of downtown Chicago. Today, the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio, at 951 Chicago Avenue, can be visited on a 45-minute guided tour. Wright also did numerous private houses in Oak Park, which can be seen (exteriors only) on guided walking tours on weekends or on self-guided audio tours anytime. FLW fans should also not miss his 1910 Robie House on the University of Chicago campus in Hyde Park, considered the ultimate example of Wright’s organic Prairie style of architecture; guided and audio tours are available here as well. There’s more Wright in downtown Chicago, at the 1888 Rookery office building. Although it was designed by famed Chicago architects Daniel Burnham and John Root, Wright was commissioned in 1905 to redo the atrium lobby, which he brightened with Carrara marble and sleek modernist lighting fixtures;

The Architecture Odyssey Continues There’s much more to Chicago’s architectural heritage, of course, than Frank Lloyd Wright. It was here in the 1880s that the first iron-and-steel-framed buildings (which became known as skyscrapers) were erected by the likes of William LeBaron Jenney, Louis Sullivan, Daniel Burnham, and John Root—and Chicago has been raising the architectural bar ever since with dramatic buildings like the mammoth 1931 Merchandise Mart, the 1962 Marina City twin towers, and the 1974 former Sears (now Willis) Tower, at 1,454 feet the tallest building in the world for some 25 years. The best way to see many of these buildings, unencumbered by traffic and pedestrians, is on a leisurely cruise along the narrow, smack-in-the-center-of-town Chicago River; several companies offer architecture boat tours, but best is the one staged by the Chicago Architecture Foundation; tickets are $35 for a 90-minute voyage; President Barack Obama still owns a large Georgian house in the South Chicago neighborhood of Hyde Park, which is also the site of the University of Chicago.

To get an insider look at this now-historic neighborhood, head out to the Hyde Park Art Center on any Saturday between 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. and sign on for a free “InstaGreeter” tour, which uses local volunteers to show visitors around; sights include Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House, the Museum of Science and Industry, the Oriental Institute Museum, and the DuSable Museum of African American History; And Another Happening ’Hood . . . To witness a neighborhood that’s evolving this very minute, check out Logan Square in northwest Chicago. Formerly largely Latino, Logan Square, with its taquerias and bodegas, is now also home to a burgeoning number of sleek cafés, wine bars, restaurants, and even a hip hotel. The get-there-first crowd will want to check out Longman & Eagle, a brand-new gastropub at 2657 North Kedzie Avenue with an extensive small-plate menu; it also has six guestrooms upstairs done in college-dorm casual, starting at $75 a night; . Also just open is Telegraph, with a long wine list, most vintages offered by the glass;

2601 North Milwaukee Avenue; . Meanwhile, one of the area’s original outposts of cool, Lula Café, at 2537 North Kedzie Boulevard, is busier than ever; so is The Whistler, which features art installations and live music along with cocktails and food; 2421 North Milwaukee Avenue; Sure, Chicago is home to the world-class Art Institute and a number of big name galleries, but it’s also known as a center for outsider art (which is defined by works produced by untrained, often on the fringe of the mainstream, artists). Check out Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art to see emerging artists; currently on view are the massive constructions of Raul Maldonado, done with pencil on multiple sheets of poster board (because his work space is too small for anything larger), which are later assembled at the gallery, and the center’s permanent exhibit Henry Darger Room Collection, which showcases the cluttered office of the artist famous for his Vivian Girls series; On a muggy summer’s day, Chicago has the sultry feel of a big beach town.