former classmate stephanie was in town from new york for the green-build conference. this was her first trip to chicago so i took her to the mother of all tourist dives, the house of blues. good food, live music, overpriced drinks, and an obsessively decorated interior -it was perfect. we then went to a real dive, billy goat tavern.

you can always tell a true dive bar by the french fries and cigarettes perma-stench the place possesses and the billy goat's certainly got it.