Chicago

Mike Payne opened the original Byron's Hot Dogs as a manager and soon hired an employee who still works there today, before eventually taking over as owner. Fifty years and a White House visit later, the stand continues on.

From the little-known architect to the over 375,000 terra cotta pieces on the facade, the pioneering radio stations and extraordinary designers that worked there, The Wrigley Building: The Making of an Icon tells the stories of one of Chicago's most famous buildings. 

From snorkeling to a shipwreck to fishing in the lake, observing NASCAR to a rodeo, Geoffrey Baer explores Chicago's lakefront and all it has to offer in his latest special.

Hailee Catalano grew up eating Italian beefs and giardiniera, and was disappointed at the lack of Chicago-style giardiniera outside the city. She has a recipe for it in her new cookbook, By Heart.

Chicago’s own Matt Schulien took magic from the street corner to an actual bar in the twentieth century, and the tradition continues in some spots today. 

Manny’s Cafeteria & Delicatessen is a beloved Chicago institution, serving massive corned beef and pastrami sandwiches alongside pickles, thick potato pancakes, and golden matzo ball soup for nine decades now.

Filbert's Old Time Root Beer was started by Charles Filbert in 1926. His grandson Ron continues to run it today, producing pop on old-fashioned machinery on the Southwest Side. 

From cramped corner stores to big local chains, our audience shared memories of grocery stores in the Chicago area both extant and long-gone. The reminiscences track the changing landscape of grocery stores over the decades. 

The famed writer covered both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions of 1968 in a book called Miami and the Siege of Chicago, witnessing the protests and violence that took place in Chicago. 

As the Democratic National Convention takes place in Chicago after the sitting president suspended his re-election bid, comparisons between today and 1968 abound. A Northwestern professor explains their limits. 

From open-air public markets to big national supermarkets, grocery stores have both tracked and influenced our diets and urban life. The Chicago area has had its share of homegrown companies, from Dominick's to Jewel and all the independents in between. 

"Welcome to Tribuneville" by Klaus is a retro-futuristic cityscape consisting of unbuilt entries to the 1922 competition for a Tribune Tower design. The animated cartoon is on display at 150 Media Stream inside 150 N. Riverside. 

Juan Muñoz started working at Gene & Georgetti in 1979 as a busser. He learned English along the way, got his brother J.J. a job there, and worked his way up to server. He's still there, 45 years later.

The Original Rainbow Cone has been delighting customers with their namesake, five-flavor ice cream treat for 98 years at their iconic original location in Beverly on the far South Side of Chicago. 

The 1893 World's Parliament of Religions that took place during the World's Fair in what is now the Art Institute of Chicago introduced Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and the Baháʼí faith to mainstream America.