Chicago Gourmet is the Illinois Restaurant Association's chef tasting weekend in Millennium Park each late September, with 100 top kitchens on tents and wine pairings across four days.
Tip: Day passes are $185; the seminar tickets cost less and let you eat the same chef's plate in a smaller room. Book the cheese-and-Champagne pairing first.
Address: Millennium Park, 201 E Randolph St, Chicago, IL 60601
Randolph Street Market Festival in Chicago is the one-weekend-a-month West Loop antiques-and-food fair on West Washington Boulevard, with 200 vendors and 20 food trucks.
Tip: Saturday is the bigger day; the antique-dealer tables fill the indoor armory and the food vendors line the outdoor side lot.
Chicago Restaurant Week is the citywide prix-fixe campaign from Choose Chicago, with 400 restaurants offering $25 lunch and $42 or $59 dinner menus for 17 days each January.
Tip: Book the bigger-ticket rooms (Alinea is not in; Boka, Smyth's Loyalist, Frontera Grill all are) at the start of the booking window, six weeks ahead.
Chicago Ale Fest is the early-June Grant Park craft-beer festival at Butler Field, with 200 breweries pouring on tents, $50 general-admission tickets and unlimited 2-ounce pours for 4 hours.
Tip: The 14:00 session is the better one; better light, the brewers themselves are at the tables. Book at the unlimited-pour tier, not the souvenir-glass one.
Maxwell Street Market food editions are the Sunday taqueria-and-pupuseria edition of the Maxwell Street Market, themed by region each month, with 60 prepared-food vendors.
Tip: May is Mexican-themed; July is Salvadoran-themed. Cash is the rhythm; the pupusas at the centre stand are the value play.
Fiesta del Sol in Chicago is the largest Latino festival in the Midwest, four days in late July across Cermak Road in Pilsen, with food, music and a children's pavilion.
Tip: Free admission. The taco vendors on Throop are the order; the music stages on Cermak are the after-tacos move.
Chicago German-American Oktoberfest is the three-day Lincoln Square neighbourhood festival each early September, with bratwurst and pretzel stalls, oompah bands and a Von Steuben parade on Saturday afternoon.
Tip: Pretzel stand at the corner of Lincoln and Wilson is the queue worth standing in; the Gene's Sausage Shop rooftop biergarten is the right after-festival stop.
