Open season

Monday

Breakfast
Somehow you’ve dragged yourself out of bed early enough to grab an iced coffee at the new downtown Intelligentsia Coffee, and even have a few minutes to spare. Cop a spot on the sidewalk café, munch on one of the freshly baked orange scones and watch the suits scramble by at breakneck speed. (For addresses.)

Lunch
Your boss has some clients in from some cow town and they’re looking for a downtown spot with a quintessential Chicago view, but they’ve been to most of the standbys. Impress them with Fulton’s on the River, a lunch option that didn’t even exist last summer. Skyline from one angle, river view from another…after a couple of king-crab legs and a big grilled steak, you’ll feel like an impressed out-of-towner as well.

Dinner
You’ve heard great things about it, but still haven’t tried chef-owner Carol Wallack’s Hawaiian-influenced eats at Sola. The flower-dotted sidewalk space is off of tree-lined Byron Street rather than busy Lincoln Avenue, so you can actually hear your friend’s futile protests as you steal bites of Dijon-crusted lamb chops off his plate.

Tuesday

Breakfast
Cashing in one of your personal days to soak up some sun? Start the day at one of the tables under the gazebolike awning at Beverly Bean Company. With the scent of six different coffees brewing, a triple-berry-crunch muffin in hand, and flowers and hanging plants decorating your morning retreat, you’ll probably run out of personal and sick days before summer’s over.

Lunch
After strolling around Beverly for most of the morning, you’ve probably worked up an appetite that only a killer burger and jumbo onion rings can satisfy. If you’ve ever lived anywhere that has a Sonic, imagine an indie version—but with better milk shakes—and you’ve got Janson’s Drive-In. Don’t just order from your car and let the carhop get all the fresh air; get your ass into one of the patio chairs and chow down.

Dinner
It’s no surprise that the predominantly Irish-Catholic Beverly neighborhood has a ton of pubs, but it is rare to find an old-school red-sauce joint around these parts. Franconello’s Italian’s huge outdoor patio seems like it’s custom-built for plate-passing, wine-sloshing dinners like those depicted in Olive Garden commercials. Luckily the Vesuvio pork chops and sausage-and-peppers are light years ahead of the food you’ll find at any chain.

Wednesday

Lunch
Some people have hump day; you’re having a mountain day. Catch the cure in the West Loop with a midday margarita at one of the sidewalk tables at De Cero. The tangy hibiscus ’rita is the best of the bunch, especially when paired with limey guac and a couple of ahi tuna tacos topped with mango-habanero salsa. Just remember to grab a mint on the way out so you don’t knock your boss out with your tequila breath.

Happy Hour
Ditch the doof squad from work and hook up with friends for an evening drink at Pegasus. Greektown is the best spot to catch an eastern view of downtown and a couple of glasses of ouzo brought out by servers with accents as thick as their ’staches.

Dinner
You could just stay home and order a pizza, but what kind of loser does that on a starry summer night? For the best Neapolitan pie around, head for Spacca Napoli in Ravenswood Manor. Order a couple of their seasonal antipasti and a sausage–and–rapini pizza from the outdoor patio, then try to ignore the glares from those vultures coveting your table while you ask for another round of limoncellos.

Thursday

Breakfast
Too much limoncello last night. You must remember that you’re not a studly Italian with vino in your veins. Grab a hangover cure in the form of strong coffee and fresh air on the back patio of Kristoffer’s Cafe & Bakery. The cute little Pilsen café is a community hub for local artists, but once you taste the tres leches and flan-topped chocolate cake, you’ll be convinced the art is on the plate.

Lunch
It hasn’t been a great morning at work, so you decide to treat yourself to a little pampering in the South Loop. Find the comfort you seek among the flowers in the garden at Chicago Firehouse. One Caesar salad and blackened catfish later, you’re ready to face the boss again.

Post-work Snack
Your “friends” at work have been pestering you to spend some quality time with them. So you join them after work on the sidewalk café at Rockit in River North, where the burgers have an upscale edge (one is topped with foie gras), but the atmosphere is raucous enough that you can shit-talk the boss at will.

Dinner
Your date has no idea how lousy your day at work was, and you’d like to forget it yourself. Go for a quiet dinner at Kaze in Roscoe Village. Sidewalk dining doesn’t usually mean white tablecloths, but that’s exactly what you’ll find here. After a few courses of Kaze’s seasonal signature sushi—raw fish with cooked seasonal toppings like banana-wasabi purée—you’ll be ready to forgive and forget.

Friday

Breakfast
Knowing—or at least hoping—that a night of hedonism lies ahead, you decide to start the day simply. The sidewalk patio at Hyde Park’s Istria Café is completely shaded, so the sun won’t be in your eyes as you read the paper. And you won’t get too hot while you drink your foamy cappuccino and dig into your organic fruit parfait.

Happy Hour
It’s finally Friday afternoon, and that sunshine you’ve been coveting from your office window all week is calling you again. To get as close to it as you can, head to the Mag Mile for NoMI’s rooftop lounge. There, you take advantage of the new Spanish-inspired small-plates menu, snacking on Catalan flatbread with salt-cured anchovies. As the sun goes down, drink it all in—literally—as you sip on a fruity “Chicago Sunset,” a vodka martini that includes orange and pineapple juices along with amaretto.

Dinner
Now it’s dinnertime, and it’s time to see and be seen at Japonais. You’d like everybody to believe that you’re heading to the River North spot for the modern, Zen aesthetic of the beautiful patio, but who are you kidding? There are too many beautiful people around for you to notice the design. And in case nobody catches your eye, you can count on the Kobe carpaccio and delectable toro (fatty tuna) to keep you enrapt.

Dessert
Of course, you can only take so much Japonais before you start feeling like an extra on the set of Entourage. To end things on a low-key note (with desserts and drinks), head to West Loop’s Dine (the patio is slated to open in June). Snag one of its coveted outdoor-cocktail-lounge spots and order one of pastry chef Kate Milashus’s fun, retro desserts. Unlike the food at Japonais, they’re anything but pretentious. While your drunk-ass friends drink their desserts in the form of summer martinis, you can dig into the brown-butter strawberry shortcake with abandon.

Saturday

Brunch
You wake up late and a little woozy, but you promised your parents you’d join them for brunch in Bucktown. Thankfully, you’re meeting them in the lush garden at Meritage Café and Wine Bar, where the apple beignets and biscuits and gravy with roasted pheasant are all the motivation you need to get out of bed. Considering last night, you probably shouldn’t drink anything more. But after your cup of coffee, a mimosa sounds just right—this is a wine bar, after all.

Dinner
A few hours and a long nap later, you’re ready for more. The warm weather jogs memories of summer evenings spent on the sidewalk patio outside MOD in Wicker Park—painful memories, since MOD no longer exists. But then you remember its replacement, Del Toro. You’ve heard a lot about its new sangria lately anyway, so you imbibe a glass, along with some fried chick peas, some serrano ham and a plate of Rioja-braised veal. It’s just like the old days, only a little more European.

Nightcap
Turns out the sangria has merely whetted your appetite for more drinks. So you leave the busy stretch of Damen and park yourself in the urban garden at Avenue M (slated to open in June). Surrounded by high, ivy-covered walls in River West, the garden is outfitted to seat about 100 people—all of whom are downing Avenue M iced-tea cocktails and scrambling for a seat under one of the tall magnolia trees.

Sunday

Brunch
Grease. You need grease. And bread, and sugar, and caffeine—anything, really, that will sop up the martinis in your stomach and make you feel even a little bit less dead. The obvious choice is a plate of fried chicken and Belgian waffles at Parlor. It’s sunny and bright in the backyard, which would be great—if only the faintest rays of light didn’t give you a throbbing headache.

Lunch
Brunch made you feel better, but you still look like ass. So you put on your Nicole Richie sunglasses and slink over to Volo for a midday lunch of wine and small plates. If you get there early enough, you can pile into one of the cabanas, complete with a sheer privacy curtain. Now you and your friends can share a bottle of Grüner Veltliner and a cheese plate in peace—and nobody will be able to see how badly you need a shower.

Dinner
A hot shower, a little eye cream, and now you’re ready to get some dinner. With the horror of Monday morning looming, you join your friends at Bistro Campagne for oysters, the French salt-cod spread brandade and roasted chicken. You hope that the serene, twinkly, newly renovated garden (slated to be completed in June) will help keep your mind off everything you have to do in the morning. And for the most part, it works—though those Belgian ales you’ll put down certainly won’t hurt, either.

The Details

Avenue M695 N Milwaukee Ave, 312-243-1133
Beverly Bean Company2734 W 111th St, 773-239-6688
Bistro Campagne4518 N Lincoln Ave, 773-271-6100
Chicago Firehouse1401 S Michigan Ave, 312-786-1401
De Cero814 W Randolph St, 312-455-8114
Del Toro1520 N Damen Ave, 773-252-1500
Dine733 W Madison St, 312-602-2100
Franconello’s Italian10222 S Western Ave, 773-881-4100
Fulton’s on the River315 N LaSalle St, 312-822-0100
Intelligentsia Coffee Millennium Park53 E Randolph St, 312-920-9332
Istria Café5020 S Cornell Ave, 773-955-2556
Janson’s Drive-In9900 S Western Ave, 773-238-3612
Japonais600 W Chicago Ave, 312-822-9600
Kaze2032 W Roscoe St, 773-327-4860
Kristoffer’s Cafe & Bakery1733 S Halsted St, 312-829-4150
Meritage Café and Wine Bar2118 N Damen Ave, 773-235-6434
NoMI Park Hyatt Chicago, 800 N Michigan Ave, seventh floor, 312-239-4030
Parlor1745 W North Ave, 773-782-9000
Pegasus130 S Halsted St, 312-226-3377
Rockit22 W Hubbard St,312-645-6000
Sola3868 N Lincoln Ave, 773-327-3868
Spacca Napoli1769 W Sunnyside Ave, 773-878-2420
Volo2008 W Roscoe St, 773-348-4600