🫘 Week 1: Spilled Beans!
2026 here we come!
Good morning, Cool Beans!
We hope you had an amazing holiday season—got the rest you deserved and enjoyed all the food you were craving. We’re back and diving into the new year with lots of news to share along the way. In the meantime, enjoy this week’s selection of things to do and try!
Find Simona’s coolest picks for Chicago, this week:
🤤 If you are craving something new: Maxwells Trading is a stunning spot in West Village where the chef team's global experience creates a menu that defies categorization—think Italian, French, Chinese, and Japanese all under one roof. The service was refreshingly chill: no one harassed us every five minutes asking how everything was, no pressure for the check, and at 11pm they weren't passive-aggressively sweeping floors to kick us out. Many ingredients come from the building's own rooftop garden, which is pretty cool. Standout dishes that we ordered included the light-as-air Gnocco Fritto with incredible prosciutto (passed the picky Italian test!), a White Asparagus salad with brown butter vinaigrette that proved first impressions wrong, Japanese Sweet Potato in green curry, and a Basque Butter Cake with rosemary that's still haunting my taste buds. The half chicken was fine but skippable if you're not a chicken person. Fun fact: they also host workshops!
🕺🏻 If your feet can’t stop (won’t stop) moving like Michael Jackson: This Friday California Clipper will host House Prescription a dream DJ set with iamBrandon, T Mixwell, Iváno Lima. Enjoy the House Music deep cuts on Vinyl and Digital. Click here for more details!
🎤 If live music is your vibe: Robert Glasper is at City Winery this week, bringing his genre-blending sound to an intimate setting that perfectly suits his style. A Grammy-winning pianist and producer, Glasper is known for effortlessly weaving jazz, hip-hop, R&B, and soul, creating live performances that feel spontaneous, fluid, and deeply musical. Click here to get your ticket!
🛋️ If the couch (or the armchair) is calling your name: Chicago is back at the CIBC Theatre this week, bringing its sharp choreography, bold jazz score, and iconic Fosse style to the stage. Set in the roaring 1920s, the long-running musical tells the story of fame, scandal, and ambition through unforgettable numbers like “All That Jazz” and “Cell Block Tango.” With multiple evening performances throughout the week and matinees on January 10–11, it’s a classic pick whether you’re seeing it for the first time or rediscovering it all over again. Click here to get your ticket!
🎭 If you feel artsy: This Saturday, January 10th, The Renaissance Society opens Leah Ke Yi Zheng: Change, I Ching (64 Paintings), a major solo exhibition presenting a complete series of 64 paintings inspired by the hexagrams of the I Ching, one of the foundational texts of Chinese philosophy. Rather than illustrating the symbols directly, Zheng works through abstraction, intuition, and light, using materials like silk and hand-built hardwood stretchers to explore transformation and impermanence in a quiet, immersive way. The exhibition runs through April 12, 2026. Click here for more info.
🤔 Still not feeling it? Check these others out:
A week of STRENGTH - From Monday January 5th to Sunday January 11th. Click here for more info!
Community!WE ARE SO BACK! 🔥 We had a wonderful time back home in Italy and traveling around Canada. It was soooo freezing ❄️ , but at least one of the perks of living in Chicago is that we're used to the cold! Enjoy some of the pics below!
Our January calendar is OUT, see it here! We will be publishing soon the link to our Meet Up and we cannot wait. This is going to be a cozy one 💕
Stay tuned on January 13th for a big GIFT announcement! Share with your friends who are not subscribed to our newsletter to get a chance to get it! 👀 🤩
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All typos are intentional, we are expats ;)
We wrote 3 articles in collaboration with 3 great expats around the world. Read them below!
The story of Cool Beans and our take on Community with Emanuela
We registered a podcast (in Italian) with Americanate on the wedding culture in the US from an Italian point of view. Listen here!
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