"Chicago’s Avec has made a name for itself over the past 17 years with its reliably excellent Mediterranean-inspired menu, featuring the ever-popular melt-in-the-mouth chorizo-stuffed dates and slow-roasted pork shoulder. Its new outpost in River North will serve up these old favourites alongside new dishes, including baked hake fillet and braised lamb-neck ragu."

"Every detail in this beautiful city bolthole has been carefully considered, from the fresh pastries in the butler’s pantry to the Malin+Goetz products in each en-suite bathroom – and keep an eye out for pugs Angus and Louie. Owner Kimberly Lowery sourced the modern and vintage furniture herself. “I spent two years travelling around the US to flea markets, antiques shops and auctions,” says Lowery. She moved from Melbourne to Chicago in 2014 and opened the 11-room hotel three years later. The name stems from the building’s original purpose: it started life in 1909 as the Free Methodist Publishing House."

"The sparing tagline for this restaurant is “Crusty Bread, Brandy, Fire” and it sums the place up perfectly. “The seasonal menu is built around old-world traditions of bread baking, charcuterie and preservation, applied to products of the Midwest,” says proprietor and sommelier Matt Sussman, who has assembled an excellent wine list drawn from the Alpine regions. On the menu are dishes such as potato latkes with horseradish aioli, duck-liver mousse, and a burger with fontina and cranberry mostarda (an Italian candied-fruit condiment) tucked into a pretzel bun."

"Leaded-glass windows with gold leaf and hand-painted signage, custom woodwork, tin ceilings and twinkling chandeliers: step into this family-run pharmacy and, clichéd as it might sound, you’ll feel as if you’ve been transported to a traditional apothecary in 1800s Vienna. In 1875, Peter Merz founded a small pharmacy focused on herbal remedies and, after being purchased by Abdul Qaiyum in 1972, the business expanded and moved to its current location. Choose between Santa Maria Novella soaps, Byredo fragrances and Dr Hauschka skincare before nipping next door to the more modern The Shops at Merz, featuring men’s grooming specialist Q Brothers."

"This is one of the largest spaces dedicated to contemporary art in the world. Founded in 1967, it moved into this new location – between Water Tower Place and Lake Michigan – designed by German architect Josef Paul Kleihues in 1996. It’s famed for hosting Frida Kahlo’s first US solo show and the first solo show ever by Jeff Koons. Alongside the collection of 2,500-plus pieces from 1945 is a stellar line-up of performance art and talks about contemporary works."

"Against Chicago’s matrix of steel, glass and right angles, Bertrand Goldberg’s twin Marina City blocks – giant, scallop-edged concrete cylinders – are like two fingers held up to the rest of the city. When they were completed in the early 1960s, locals began referring to them as “the corncobs” but there’s far more to the Marina City towers than their shape. Goldberg’s “city within a city” was his solution for affordable urban housing at a time when professionals were moving to the suburbs. The towers start with a helter-skelter of car parks up to floor 19. Floors 21 to 60 are divided into pie-slices of three different variations to create studios and one- or two-bedroom units, each with their own balcony. There’s also a supermarket, launderette, dry cleaner, gym and marina. Marina City offers all the attractions of life in the suburbs for almost 900 apartments in the middle of the city."

"You may think you can’t float but a dip in Aire Ancient Baths’ salt-water flotarium will soon prove you wrong. Book the Aire Experience to enjoy this and five more thermal baths (hot, warm, ice and cold plunges, plus jet pool), as well as an indoor/outdoor pool with a waterfall and a salt-exfoliation station. Exposed brick walls, wooden beams and the highest of ceilings abound in this one-time factory. The baths are lit from below, with flickering candles illuminating the paths between them. Sign up for a full-body massage or a Himalayan salt wrap, or simply waft from bath to bath until your finger pads are good and wrinkled."