The Time Out Chicago blog team

This Thursday, runners will embark on Turkey Trot races and families across the country will gather ’round a table for Thanksgiving dinner. But before those festivities unfold, the Chicago Thanksgiving Parade will step off in downtown Chicago. The 91st edition of the annual tradition will see the return of giant festive floats and helium balloons, including characters like Garfield, Rudolph and the Grinch, as well as marching bands from local high schools, cultural performance troupes, equestrian units and more. This year’s parade will feature special hosts and performers, including 2025 Miss Illinois Nitsaniyah Fitch, Miss Illinois’ Teen Lillie Brown, Marist High School Chicago Marching Band and some special guests from Mexico: Titanes Banda de Marcha and Venados Banda de Marcha. The broadcast will be hosted by Rock 95.5 personalities Maria Palmer and Maris. Here’s everything you need to know. RECOMMENDED: Discover the best things to do on Thanksgiving in Chicago What time is the Chicago Thanksgiving Parade? The parade is scheduled to kick off at 8am and run until 11am. What is the parade route? The procession will start at Ida B. Wells Drive and makes its way north on State Street, ending at Randolph Street. Is the Chicago Thanksgiving Parade free? Yes, the parade is free to attend and watch. Where is the best place to watch the Thanksgiving Parade in Chicago? The best spots to catch the action will be along the east and west ends of State Street. You can also purchase a...

Chicagoans, we’re almost there! Thanksgiving is a mere few days away, which means it’s time to start hammering out those dreaded travel plans. Whether you’re flying out of town to visit friends and family or opting to drive to your holiday destination, Tuesday and Wednesday are expected to be some of the busiest travel days of the year, so you’ll want to plan accordingly. Compounding the holiday travel stress, AAA (the American Automobile Association) estimates that 81.8 million people will be traveling between Tuesday, November 25, and Monday, December 1—a 1.6 million leap from last year’s estimate. With that in mind, we did some research to figure out what the best time to embark on your journey is. What is the weather forecast for this Thanksgiving weekend in Chicago? It’s time to bust out the winter weather gear: After a week of above-average temperatures, Chicago is bracing for a sweeping cold front this Thanksgiving. NBC 5 estimates that temperatures on Thanksgiving and Black Friday will hover around the low-30s.  Chicago could experience polar vortex-esque conditions on or around Thanksgiving day. According to the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center, “the combined effects from the current La Nina, the Madden-Julian Oscillation, and potential for a rare November Sudden Stratospheric Warming event may usher in a significant pattern change later in the month and into early December.”  To top it off, there’s a chance Chicago could be blanketed by snow...

Spin around, pick a direction and walk a few blocks down nearly any residential street in Chicago—you’ll probably stumble into a neighborhood tavern. They’re as much a part of the city’s landscape as the two-flats and bungalows, tucked beneath apartments or wedged between laundromats and taquerias. Step inside one of these neighborhood watering holes, and you’ll find the city distilled: old men arguing in vain about the Bears’ capacity to win any title worth a damn, a jukebox lodged in the liminal sonic space between Sinatra and Styx, and a bartender who’s been pouring drinks and stoking neighborhood gossip longer than most alderpersons have held office. These neighborhood bars are more than places to drink; they’re the city’s unofficial community centers, meeting houses and confessional booths—sometimes all before noon. But what once felt like an infinite supply of corner taps is quietly thinning out. Chicago’s taverns have been on the endangered-species list since the ’90s, victims of the Daleys’ “vote-dry” crusades, liquor-license moratoriums and a nagging capitalist impulse to make nightlife a little more like a River North craft cocktail circus and a little less like your cool aunt’s basement. Still, some of these places endure—dim rooms sprawled across street corners, where the bartender knows your name, your order and your love-to-loss ratio. They’re the places that make Chicago Chicago: where the city’s lines blur for a while and you remember how easy it is to...