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Image: Shutterstock
Chi-town is nothing but shy (sorry about that one) on activities for both locals and travelers to take advantage of. At any given time, there are a thousand things to do, hundreds of places to go and scores of free activities to take advantage of. However, it’s easy to get stuck in a rut — hitting the same neighborhood bar time after time and passing by a local mom & pop shop for that Subway sub just because it’s “easy and convenient”.
Understanding all that, we decided to put together a list of city guides that use technology and creativity to approach experiencing Chicago. To give some quick examples of what’s ahead, we’ll feature three apps that can help you: get the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s schedule, drink in a bar with a history richer than any VC you’re chasing, discover a place with an exclusive menu of Slim-Jims and chips, and much, much more.
Whether you want to get sauced, surprise your spouse or switch up the norm, these homegrown Chicago apps are a sure source for a good time.
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History on Tap’s “Taverns and Tales” App
History on Tap began 12 years ago in a pub with a couple pints and a few old-timers. Whether it was the alcohol or great storytelling, founder Liz Garibay was hopped up on the idea to archive these great stories. So she began to record them.
By 2010, Liz had 125 tavern tales in her online database and wanted to share the stories with as many people as possible. “Taverns and Tales”, the app component to History on Tap, was born. The boozy history guide comes complete with witty descriptions, pub contact information and even estimates the cab fare to your desired saloon.
Bonus uses: utilize Taverns and Tales for grown up drinking games like on-the-fly Q&A challenges or bar crawl maps. Or, use as a first-date-crutch by sourcing conversation starters (or distractors if you don’t think the pub has enough brews to get you through).
Built In Chicago caught up with Liz and found out what Chicago’s most interesting tavern tale is and how local pubs are keeping up with the technology times.
MG: In your opinion, what is the most interesting Tavern Tale in Chicago?
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Gosh, asking me my favorite Chicago tavern tale is like asking me what my favorite song or movie might be. That's a tough one. But perhaps it's a story of a bar that no longer exists. In 1833 some of Chicago's local leaders gathered at the Sauganash Tavern in the Sauganash Hotel. It was here that they were to discuss the future of this small, up and coming village. After a few ales, the fellas voted to make Chicago an official town. So, truly, Chicago's beginnings are rooted in a saloon.
MG: In what ways are you seeing Chicago's old taverns adopting new technology practices?
The most significant observation I have made in terms of taverns modern times is that many bars offer free wifi and many are strategically placing outlets underneath the actual bar so that you can belly up to the bar and plug in while you're throwing back a few brews. It's quite practical and while the traditionalist in me is not a fan (pubs were meant to be places where you would share a talk and a beer with someone and that's it. No technology, no TVs, etc) I can't say I haven't taken advantage of the wifi and outlets! I tend to do most of my beer and tavern history writing in a bar, so it's quite helpful for my "office" situation.
And for some live-action, you can check out the History on Tap event coming up on October 30th.
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Hypelocal
If you tend to live life offbeat, then it’s time to get Hypelocal. The app is Chicago’s discerning travel guide where food, drink and super weird experiences collide. Hypelocal began in the fall of 2013 with a frustrated traveler. Founder Raf Miastkowski has always had a knack for finding interesting endeavors in Chicago, but when traveling to places like Seattle, Warsaw, Athens and Boston, he couldn’t always find happenings up to his tastes.
Understanding that he wasn’t alone, he built Hypelocal to help Chicago travelers and locals discover the authentic, adventurous side of the city. The app goes deep and leaves no strange Chicago-experience out. With this resource, you can do things like “find out if you’re going to hell” (on the NE corner of State & Washington), “get giant Nigerian shrimp” where the city’s top chefs do, locate the best hotel pools to crash, get a poetry tour of the Harold Washington Library or learn how The Bean gets cleaned.
We caught up with the founder and witty writer behind Hypelocal and learned about his drone-attempts, junk yards and the fun of getting people out of their comfort zones.
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MG: The audio-guide component of Hypelocal is really interesting. At what point did you start integrating these guides and how successful has the feature been so far?
RM: I had added some weird stuff to the app, like a drone flyover video of Buckingham Fountain and a first-person video tour of Clark Park boathouse, but the audio-guide function just seemed to be the most intuitive. After all, if you're exploring, you don't want to look at your phone all day. Also, some of my former bosses from Groupon went on to start Detour in San Francisco, and I thought, hey, I can try this audio-guide thing out on Hypelocal without too much fuss. I started integrating them a few months ago, and a bunch of them are basically WBEZ Curious City clips that are geolocated to the topics they are discussing. I think they're pretty neat and so do some of my friends that have tried them out, but I think the word is still out on whether anyone wants to turn the outside world into an audio tour.
MG: In your opinion, what's the most offbeat experience Hypelocal has promoted thus far?
RM: I think maybe the weirdest spot in the app might be U-Pull-It junkyard. It's an auto-salvage place and all these cars are lined up in rows. It looks like a Mad Max sequel. Basically, you bring tools, remove anything you want, and pay at checkout. Quite the experience. I know there's no way most users will actually make a trip there, but I do hope they get a kick out of knowing that they could if they wanted to. I think some of our best memories are made outside our comfort zones.
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Choose Chicago
Choose Chicago and the city of Chicago are pretty tight - actually, they’re officially tight because the company is the city’s official marketing destination and resource. Founded in 2012, Choose Chicago features all the city’s happenings from LGBT events to brewery tours to museum & art shows. It’s used by both locals and incoming visitors alike — they’ve even partnered with Chicago-based travel website, Orbitz, to help people get and stay here. Insider tip: be sure to take advantage of their “Deals." For instance, right now for $22 you can score a six-course lunch special at the West Loop’s Nia Mediterranean. And there are a few hotel deals at the Waldorf Astoria, Fairmont Chicago and Holiday Inn.
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Built In Chicago caught up with Michael Samm, Choose Chicago’s PR Manager, about how local digital startups can utilize Choose Chicago (and there are a quite few routes) and how the company is using video in new, innovative ways.
MG: Talk about your Choose Chicago Partner Program. Are there ways for local digital startups to take advantage?
MS: Any local technology start-up whose customers (B2B and/or B2C) touch or impact the visitor industry could benefit from aligning themselves with Choose Chicago—the official destination marketing organization for Chicago. Their business could greatly benefit by leveraging the many resources made available to partner organizations to develop and grow mutually beneficial business relationships within the industry. Moreover, as a leader in the tourism industry, Choose Chicago can be a huge asset in helping understand the ever-changing landscape of the industry and identify trends, opportunities and potential threats to their business. Finally, as an organization whose primary focus is to drive economic development to the city, Choose Chicago eagerly strives to align itself with new, innovative and emerging technology companies that can help its partner organizations grow their business.
MG: Choose Chicago is expanding into video with notable series like "Beyond the Loop". In what ways do you plan on using video over the next year?
MS: Choose Chicago is focused on developing innovative video content to drive leisure tourism and convention business to Chicago. We invest in in-house video production and social media talent, which allows us the flexibility and creativity to deliver on timely messages for our leisure and business customers. These video assets are used in a variety of ways, whether it be to reach meeting planners or promote our valued partners.
This year we launched our Beyond the Loop online video series. It is the first video series of its kind produced entirely in-house by a convention and visitors bureau (CVB). The series features acclaimed Second City Main Stage actors as the hosts, who take viewers on an educational and humorous tour of Chicago's most vibrant communities. This original video content gave us an opportunity to showcase the personality and diversity of Chicago’s neighborhoods.
Over the next year, we’ll continue to develop compelling original content for social and work with our local agencies to produce commercials for our regional marketing campaigns and pre-roll for our digital video campaigns.
