Be my guide: Taste of Chicago and a helping of blues music at Kingston Mines

My arrival in Chicago on my two-week, cross-country road trip happened to line up with the city’s annual Taste of Chicago. I grabbed my dinner samplings there before heading north to Kingston Mines to get an earful of some authentic blues music.

The food festival, at Grant Park, has booths set up for local restaurants around the city to showcase their wares and for locals and tourists to snack on a variety of foods.

Reader Mike P. wrote that I should definitely check out “gluttonfest,” as he called it. Another reader disagreed. “Stay away from the Taste of Chicago,” Mike Klempin wrote, calling it “way overrated and too expensive.”

I can’t really argue with the price criticism. It can cost $12 to $18 to get a sizable meal over the course of the day. When you factor in that you’re walking around the streets retrieving those plates yourself instead of a waiter doing it, you might think you’re better off sitting down at a restaurant.

But Taste of Chicago is great for visitors who want to try a bit of the city’s offerings. Unsurprisingly, tourists probably made up a sizable chunk of the crowd on the first day of the week-long festival.

My highlight at Gluttonfest was an Italian beef sandwich. Ask for it juicy with sweets (sweet peppers),  advises Ben Meyerson, a former classmate and an intern at the Chicago Tribune with whom I toured the city. I wasn’t very impressed with the Chicago-style, deep-dish pizza at Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria booth — a statement that I hear can get you tarred and feathered in parts of the city.

After leaving Taste of Chicago, we strolled to Millennium Park, which readers Joleen Domaracki and @photoenrichment on Twitter said was a must-see. It hosts some architectural wonders, including a mesmerizing giant silver bean called Cloud Gate. My obligatory bean photo is at left.

We walked by Tribune Tower, home of our sister newspaper, the Chicago Tribune. It has a historic lobby, and a section of the exterior is embedded with bricks and pieces from other legendary buildings and artifacts, including the Berlin Wall. Still, the Los Angeles Times building is way cooler.

Finally, we arrived at Kingston Mines, a cornerstone of the Chicago blues scene. The first act, led by front man Linsey Alexander, emanated a classic blues sound. It covered songs like Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay,” which was somewhat overshadowed by Alexander’s mostly failed attempt at hitting the notes during the whistle solo.

Still, the deep-throated singer, who walked around the sizable crowd during songs while singing into an earphone mic, had a special sound. And his guitarist really knew how to make a solo scream.

The audience wasn’t what one might expect from an authentic blues joint. “Man, there’s a bunch of Caucasians in here,” Alexander said in a raspy voice when looking around the room between songs.

By the time the next act came on, Meyerson and I were pretty far into a drink-for-drink showdown, which we eventually called a draw. (Clearly, L.A. had it won anyway. But I didn’t want to embarrass the Tribune punk in his own city.)

This second band, Chris Beard, was solid—almost lacking imperfection. Every note, every keyboard riff, every drum solo—no mistakes. It wasn’t because I was getting drunk. They were really that good.

The blues was so authentic and so classically executed, in fact, that it sort of took away from the human imperfections of blues music.

I must sound incredibly pompous knocking a band for being too practiced, but I just couldn’t get over the flawlessness of the performance. Although the genre has been around for decades, musicians still have a lot to learn from the blues and stand-up acts like Beard.

My next stop is in Music City: Nashville. To provide travel tips for my two-week, reader-driven road trip, inspired by music, send e-mails to mark.milian@latimes.com, leave comments on the Los Angeles Times Daily Travel & Deal Blog or, for those on Twitter, send tweets to @mmilian. To follow my road trip status live, visit http://twitter.com/mmilian. For the trip schedule and cities, check out earlier posts.

– Mark Milian, Los Angeles Times staff writer

[Top photo: Chris Beard at Kingston Mines. Credit: Mark Milian / Los Angeles Times. Middle photo: Milian at Cloud Gate on AT&T Plaza in Millennium Park. Credit: Ben Meyerson / Chicago Tribune. Bottom photo: Chris Beard at Kingston Mines. Credit: Mark Milian / Los Angeles Times]

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This entry was posted on Saturday, June 27, 2009 at 5:18 pm by Mark Milian and is filed under Arts & Culture, Be My Guide, Chicago, Festival, Midwestern States, News, Tips & Advice, Restaurants, Summer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.