One Town That Won't Let You Down

By Melissa Breault

It's all Chicago, all the time, at the Windy City Bed-and-Breakfast Inn, a Victorian house built in 1886 in the Lincoln Park section of town. Owners Andy Shaw, a reporter for the local ABC-TV station, and Mary Shaw celebrate the city in every possible way, save handing out White Sox to their guests.

Ann Sather's famous Scandinavian cinnamon buns appear regularly on the breakfast tray, bottles of Goose Island beer cool in the fridge, and Chicago-style blues, jazz and Irish music waft through the house. One almost expects to see Cubs, Bears and Bulls out in the garden, landscaped with indigenous flowers by the Chicago Botanical Garden.

The Shaws pay their greatest homage, though, to Chicago writers. A guest can curl up in the queen-size bed in the Sara Paretsky Room and get lost in a V.I. Warshawski mystery. Or creep in on little cat feet to the Carl Sandburg Room. The Mike Royko Room, with its antique three-quarter bed, is best suited for the lone traveler, while the Studs Turkel Suite in the carriage house provides a break from Working.

Lincoln Park itself, just blocks away, is a lovely urban oasis on the edge of Lake Michigan, with a zoo and a new nature museum. The bustling Lincoln Park neighborhood has movies, shopping, and restaurants that serve everything from tapas to Thai. The Windy City B and B is only two miles from downtown's North Michigan Avenue--known to serious shoppers as the Gold Coast--not to mention the Art Institute, the Sears Tower and the theater district www.Chicago-inn.com 800-375-7084).

--M.B.