Hopping across the country, airport to airport, isn't the same kind of fun it used to be. If you can't travel light and efficient it's hardly worth making the effort to get to the airport. Plus, our society's ongoing mallification brings the same stores and restaurants to the same gallery-style cattle chutes we call "airports."


PHOTO BY ANTHONY HEAD

As a frequent flyer, I'm just saying that I'd like to encounter some authentic character sometime. Even though Harry Carry's doesn't really feel like the original River North steakhouse, and even though I know I'm paying about three bucks too many for my Maker's and rocks (because there isn't time to get to the original location on West Kinzie), it's always good to be somewhere that feels local. The real wood bar is a noble surface to rest an elbow and sip a pre-flight cocktail, as well as a refuge from that flying nursery school we call "coach class."