Friday, November 7, 2008
News / Chicagoland Obama errata watch continues
Posted by Whet Moser on 11.07.08 at 01:31 PM
Sorry if you're getting bored, but as a U. of C. grad the rediscovery of Hyde Park via the Obama phenomenon is pretty entertaining. Apparently 57th Street Books is now a tourist destination (?!). It's a fine institution, but don't believe the hype--its sister store, the Sem Co-Op, is the real world-class bookstore in the neighborhood. The former is an outstanding general-interest bookstore with a great fiction collection and allegedly a good children's book section (I am not an informed judge of such things). It's better than most bookstores in the city; the Sem Co-Op is better than most bookstores in the world.
My new favorite Election Day celebration, incidentally, is the news that Valois served free breakfast for 2,000, although I have to call that article out for this sentence: "It's a community of used bookstores lightly perfumed by old, musty volumes." That's cute, Hemingway, but there are two used bookstores in the neighborhood, down from three when I was a student. There are also two liquor stores. There are more Thai restaurants than either.
FWIW, if you go on the Obama tour and swing by his house, I highly, highly recommend stopping at the gorgeous nearby Kenwood CPL branch, if only for the glass floors.
Comments (6)
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Two liquor stores?! Where's the other one?? There's just Kimbark, and Treasure Island sells booze but I wouldn't call it a liquor store. Hyde Park does have sick bookstores, used or not. I'm fine with the Sem Co-op not being a tourist destination. Lines are long enough already, especially during the first few weeks of the quarter.
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Maybe you're thinking of Magic Mart? That shit lost its liquor license for selling so much booze to minors, which, as a minor, I am very sad about. Now it's just a bogus cigar-and-bootleg-perfume store with what appears to be a 10-year-old girl in a halter top on the sign.
1) Is Chalet Wine & Cheese Shop still there (on 53rd)? 2) I agree the rediscovery of Hyde Park via the Obama phenomenon is generally entertaining, but Japanese TV takes it to a whole nother level (speaking of Valois): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tym919wvUhs
you can get booze at treasure island, or you used to be able to when it was the coop, you can get beer at village foods on 51st, then there's binny's and kimbark. the cove and jimmy's have takeout beer. but don't forget the afrocentric bookstore in harper court. i think the religious book store is done for, now that it's been replaced by a church that was subsequently replaced by a pet store.
@ptb: Is the pet store that place that's called "wheels and things" or something like that and the window is full of enormous parrots? I suspect that it's in the midst of a transition from selling pets to selling...wheels? @ Dunl: The chalet is now Binny's, the second straight up liquor store in Hyde Park, but it closes so early it probably should only half count. You can also buy alcohol in Market in the Park at Regents.
yeah Wheels und Things is the one that has a very old german shepherd and a huge parrot (or several). Those were there before it moved into a pet store's location. Also Wheels and Things is the only store i know of in existence that has a blown up copy of a newspaper article in the window about how the owner/operator of the store is a huge jerk and hates women.
