BEST ROLLER-SKATING GURU
Myesha McCaskill
Sure, Myesha McCaskill is an amazing roller skater (her nickname isn’t SmoothGoddess for nothing) and an expert instructor, whether teaching freestyle or JB, the Chicago variety named for the James Brown music that accompanies its dips, slides, and fancy foot-work. But those labels sell short both her and the classes she offers through her business, Inspired by Favor. Originally, McCaskill, 40, taught in rinks on the South Side, but she resisted limiting herself to the city’s traditional skating set. “I wanted to bridge the gap and make it more diverse,” she says. Two years ago, she added Saturday classes at the Rooted Space in North Center and, not long after, monthly ones at Chicago Athletic Association. McCaskill’s motivational messages of falling safely and getting back up extend beyond eight wheels. “I see my classes as more of a ministry. Roller skating is the catch to get people here, but everything else is about the power of love and lifting people up.” —LISA SHAMES
BEST DISHY PODCAST
JOINERS
Curious how Rick Bayless spends his Christmas in Oaxaca? Or how Frontier chef Brian Jupiter cooks whole animals, from pigs to llamas? Then start each Monday the way I do—with the latest episode of Joiners. Hosts Danny Shapiro, co-owner of Scofflaw, the Heavy Feather, and other Logan Square bars, and Tim Tierney, cofounder of the restaurant uniform maker Stock, launched the hospitality-centric podcast in June of last year, and it has quickly become a must-listen. They’ve drawn a steady stream of A-list guests (including the aforementioned chefs), who sometimes drop juicy tidbits: Fifty/50 beverage director Julieta Campos shared how the Aviary discreetly handles guests who come in with mistresses, and Hogsalt Hospitality cofounder Jean Tomaro offered details on a planned Small Cheval drive-through. Tierney and Shapiro’s banter is certainly entertaining, but the podcast excels most in providing a deeper understanding of the fascinating folks running Chicago’s culinary-and-cock-tails scene. —AMY CAVANAUGH
BEST PLACE TO THRIFT SHOP BEFORE A CONCERT
UMBRELLA VINTAGE
Come for the music, stay for the … shopping? As it turns out, the Salt Shed isn’t just for concerts. In the spring, three resellers teamed up to launch Umbrella Vintage on the grounds of the performance venue that opened last year in the former Morton Salt factory. Offering vintage clothing (1930s to Y2K), home wares, trinkets, and artisan goods, the interconnected space feels like a road trip through time. Enter via Rarity Collective, a cottagecore-stocked enclave designed to evoke the feeling of back-roads travel. Next up is Primaries Vintage, where an old Marlboro cigarette display draws you in to explore racks of boldly colored clothing. And at Mister Baby Vintage, you’ll find owner Jess DePaul Ariail, a.k.a. Mister Baby, chain-stitching on her newly refurbished 1940s Singer machine. The chances of leaving with nothing? Zero. 1357 N. Elston Ave., West Town —KELLY AIGLON
BEST ADDITION TO CHICAGO’S COMEDY SCENE
Bobcat Goldthwait
Here’s one of the first things comedian and filmmaker Bobcat Goldthwait learned when he moved to the western suburbs in 2020 after living in Los Angeles for 35 years: “I’m thin in the Midwest.” Or so he jokes at the beginning of his very, which he recorded in late 2022 at the Lincoln Lodge in Logan Square. You may know him for his role in the movies, or for his (long-retired) screeching voice. But Goldthwait, who moved here with his girlfriend in part to be closer to her parents, has found new energy and material as part of Chicago’s standup scene, particularly at the Lincoln Lodge. “I love going there,” Goldthwait, 61, tells me. “Folks there aren’t there to see my act from the ’80s. And making young people laugh without pandering makes me really happy. It’d be pathetic if I were a 60-year-old guy trying to write Harry Styles jokes.”
