Whether summer temps want to join us or not, it’s Memorial Day Weekend here in Chicago which means we will be marking the unofficial start of summer with commemorative ceremonies, street festivals, and other outdoor activities!  Summer starts now!!

Chicagoans will celebrate the strength and diversity of their community this Memorial Day Weekend with the Wreath Laying Ceremony & Parade on Saturday.  The wreath laying ceremony begins at 11:00 a.m. at the Daley Plaza (50 W. Washington St.) followed by our annual Memorial Day Parade at 12:00 p.m. proceeding along Dearborn Street from Lake to Van Buren Streets in the Loop.  Once again, the parade will honor all fallen service members by featuring veterans’ groups, active-duty service members, JROTC cadets, community organizations and marching bands.  Start your extended weekend here!

Close out your Saturday evening with Summer Fireworks at Navy Pier (600 E. Grand Ave.) in the Streeterville neighborhood.  In fact, enjoy free, award-winning fireworks with dazzling, spectacular displays over the lake and the city’s iconic skyline views every Saturday (10 p.m.) and Wednesday (9 p.m.) through September 5^th!

Continue celebrating your extended Memorial Day Weekend at one or all of the following events!

The 41^st annual Belmont-Sheffield Music Fest helps kick-off this holiday weekend on Saturday and Sunday (11 a.m.-10 p.m.) at 3200 North Sheffield Avenue in the Lakeview neighborhood.  Sing and dance along to Chicago’s favorite local tribute bands who will be rocking it out on the main stage.  Discover a true reflection of Lakeview’s creative talent at the Community Entertainment Stage near Belmont with a mix of DJs, neighborhood performers, and local talent.  Indulge in mouthwatering festival fare and refreshing libations of beer or wine.  And shop one-of-a-kind creations from local artists, makers, and small businesses!

Celebrating their 5^th anniversary this Saturday and Sunday (11 a.m.-10 p.m.) is the Sueños Music Festival 2026 in Grant Park (337 E. Randolph St.) in the Loop.  This festival is strictly 18+ and features over 40 artist performances across three stages featuring a mix of reggaetón, música Mexicana, and Latin EDM; curated local food vendors; art installations; immersive brand activations; over a dozen bars; and more!

Kick off summer at the Randolph Street Market this Saturday and Sunday (10 a.m.-5 p.m.) at 1341 West Randolph Street in the West Loop neighborhood as they celebrate their 23^rd annual Garden Party.  This street market offers a shopping extravaganza that has a festival feel to it complete with continuous live music; DJs; three bars with beer, wine, and spirits; local restaurant vendors; and thousands of top-quality goods presented by dealers from around the country which include art, antiques and vintage décor, fashion, jewelry, and much, much more.  It’s a true shopping destination and a high-profile flea market festival!

Another free and family-friendly celebration this Memorial Day Weekend is the Summer Kickoff at Lincoln Park Zoo located at 2400 North Cannon Drive in the Lincoln Park neighborhood.  Enjoy special rides and attractions including the Ferris Wheel, Fun Slide, the Lionel Train Adventure, the Gorilla Trek VR Experience, the Mini Disco Race Car Ride, and Kiddie Wheel along with free programming for guests of all ages.  Best of all, no advance ticket purchase is required; however, all rides require a ticket which can be purchased in advance!

Enjoy Your Memorial Day Weekend and Let’s Get Summer Started!

Sue Moss and Dean’s Team Chicago

Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month is a time to honor the role AAPI communities have played (and continue to play) in shaping U.S. culture, cuisine and experiences. 

One great example is Saigon Sisters Restaurant, with two locations in the West Loop.  Led by sisters Mary Nguyen Aregoni and Theresa Nguyen, they share their love of Vietnamese cuisine by blending traditional flavors with innovative dishes that reflect their heritage and passion for exceptional food. They specialize in Bành Mi sandwiches, Baos, Pho Soup, Bowls, and Spring Rolls.

Start your adventure with Shrimp & Pork Spring Rolls, colorfully made with lettuce, bean sprouts, carrots, mint, basil, shrimp, pork, and rice vermicelli noodles with peanut dipping sauce. Or, Spring Rolls Tofu in fresh rolled rice paper, with mixed lettuce, herbs, rice noodles, teriyaki tofu, and peanut sauce on the side. For something a bit different, try Nems (meat egg rolls) with pork, mushrooms, egg, carrots, bean thread noodles, and onions in fried rice paper with the side of nuoc cham (Vietnamese dipping sauce) dressing and lettuce wrap. Fried Egg Rolls are vegetarian, with sweet chili dipping sauce.

Bánh mì is a popular Vietnamese sandwich served on a light, crispy baguette, combining French and Vietnamese ingredients like pâté, meats (such as grilled pork or chicken), and pickled carrots. It’s also one of my favorite sandwiches! At Saigon Sisters, The Classic is made with mayo, Vietnamese pork, ham, chicken mousse pate, cucumbers, cilantro, jalapenos, pickled daikon, and carrots.Their Sweet Spicy Fried Chicken Bành Mi combines sweet & spicy panko fried chicken with spicy mayo, cucumbers, pickled red cabbage, daikon, carrots, cilantro, and jalapenos. Hot cha cha! The Hen House combines caramelized chicken (halal), mayo, peanuts, limes, cucumbers, cilantro, jalapenos, pickled daikon, and carrots. An interesting vegetarian option is BBQ Jackfruit Bàhn Mi, with vegan BBQ sauce, shredded young jackfruit, pickled red cabbage, cucumbers, cilantro, jalapenos, pickled daikon, and carrots.

But Saigon Sisters is more than their Bàhn Mi offerings. You can also try Laksa, a curry soup with chicken, shrimp, and eggs over vermicelli noodles. Vegetarian Pho is a vegetable broth with rice noodles, teriyaki tofu, carrots, scallions, and side of bean sprout packets (lime, jalapenos, basil, bean sprouts).

For a porkchop like you’ve never tasted before, try Grilled Lemongrass Porkchop, which are grilled pork chops with egg, rice, and side salads.

Holy Thai Basil is an unusual choice, combining  oyster sauce, bell peppers, Thai basil, chilis, onions, garlic, a sunny side up egg, and a side of white rice. Tasty!

Their Signature Dishes are delicious. Bo Luc Lac hasbeef tenderloin cubes, oyster sauce, onions, and white rice, served with a side salad. Bun Cha Hanoi  is a grilled pork lettuce wrap with crispy imperial rolls, vermicelli salad, herbs, and nuoc cham broth. Deluxe Vermicelli Salad is made with curry chicken, caramelized shrimp, crispy nem pork egg rolls, vermicelli noodles, pickled daikon, cabbage, onions, cilantro, Vietnamese mixed salads, and jalapenos.

As we say at Dean’s Team Chicago, where appropriate, save room for dessert! Banana Brown Butter Cake combines brown butter cake topped with brulee banana, Rhum maple syrup, and whipped cream. Mango Sticky Rice is a find, with sweet mango, coconut milk, and sticky rice. Fried Bao Dessert take a sweet turn with deep-fried baos in cinnamon sugar and coffee caramel sauce.

Celebrations 🎊🎉 

Memorial Day Monday May 25^th…Saigon Sisters says to come celebrate the long weekend! They’re open a full 12 hours…11am-11:59pm.

National Egg Day on Wednesday June 3^rd. They’recooking up egg specialties from 11am-9pm.

Saigon Sisters has two locations in the West Loop: at 567 W. Lake Street, where they are open Tuesday to Thursday from 11am to 9pm, Friday: 11am to 10pm, and Saturday from 12pm to 10pm. They are closed Sunday and Monday.

Their second location is at the Chicago French Market, 131 N. Clinton Street. They are open Monday through Friday, 10am to 5pm, and Saturday from 10am to 4pm. For more information, click here. 

Alison Moran-Powers and Dean’s Team Chicago

When Julia Foster Porter’s son Maurice died at age 13, the devastated family sought to honor his memory by making sure no other child would suffer the same fate.

Thus began the Maurice Porter Memorial Hospital in Lincoln Park. Opened in 1882, today it’s better known as the Ann and Robert Lurie Children’s Hospital, 225 E. Chicago Avenue, a nationally-ranked, award-winning, innovative beacon of care for children worldwide. 

“When Julia Foster Porter originally opened the hospital as an eight-bed cottage in Lincoln Park, it was the first children’s hospital in Illinois,” said Thomas Shanley, MD, President & CEO of Lurie Children’s, at their 140^th Anniversary Celebration in a press release. “Her vision was to care for sick children irrespective of race, creed and ability to pay. This is the foundation of our current mission, which has evolved beyond exceptional patient care to include groundbreaking research, inspiring education, and relentless advocacy. “

“This mission continues to motivate us each day,” he concluded. “To achieve excellence in all these domains, so that every child has an opportunity for a healthier future.”

An Innovative History 

Maurice Porter Memorial Hospital expanded quickly. According to Wikipedia sources, Porter built a three-story replacement hospital with 22 beds. In 1896, Porter planned and supported another expansion that increased the hospital’s capacity to 50 beds.

In 1903, Porter was given a large gift that allowed her to purchase the triangular block of land on which the new Maurice Porter Children’s Hospital was built at Lincoln and Fullerton Avenues. It remained there for 130 years.

The hospital underwent further reorganization in 1904, ultimately changing the hospital’s name from the Maurice Porter Children’s Hospital to Children’s Memorial Hospital (CMH). A few years later, in 1907 the hospital was gifted an X-ray machine by local philanthropist, John Borland. In the 1940s, doctors from CMH pioneered one of the earliest pediatric surgery programs in the country. Surgeons Willis J. Potts and Sidney Smith invented a number of surgical tools used to operate on blood vessels and they devised a new surgery to treat ‘blue baby syndrome’(cyanosis). 

In the 1960s, Children’s Memorial Hospital’s Department of Anesthesia first established a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) at CMH with the capacity of 10 beds. 

In June 1979, former McDonald’s CEO, Ray Kroc made a donation to the hospital that funded the addition of a three-story building named the “Ray A. Kroc Diagnostic and Treatment Center” in his honor. The building included new operating rooms, a new 25-bed emergency department and a radiology suite.

The hospital continued expanding through 2012, when it moved to its current location in Streeterville,  following a $100 million gift from philanthropist Ann Lurie.

The new 1.25-million-square-foot facility allowed the hospital to be closer to its academic partner, the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Now with 360 beds, the hospital provides comprehensive pediatric specialties and subspecialties to infants, children, teens, and young adults aged 0–21 throughout Illinois and surrounding regions. 

During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Lurie Children’s Hospital loaned out many of their ventilators to adult hospitals in the area (including neighboring Northwestern Memorial Hospital) to help deal with the adult ventilator shortage.  

“All, for your one”

Lurie Children’s rallying cry sums up its mission: Whether it’s cutting-edge research, community advocacy or the very best clinical care, everything is driven by an intense passion to help kids become healthy, happy adults. Each year, more than 266,000 children receive  medical care at Lurie Children’s.

Specialties and Services Today 

The Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago has a variety of patient care units to care for pediatric patients aged 0–21:

• 48-bed general medical & medical observation units
• 40-bed pediatric intensive care unit (PICU)
• 48-bed pediatric hematology and oncology unit
• 44-bed cardiac care unit
• 64-bed neonatal intensive care unit (NICU)
• 45-bed emergency department
• 23-bed pre and post operative
• 12-bed psychiatric unit (ages 3–17)

In addition to the pediatric patient care units, Lurie Children’s Hospital has 21 operating rooms. Their sky garden helps relax families at the hospital. The hospital affiliated with a nearby Ronald McDonald Children’s House to help support families during a child’s critical illness. 

Sibling Support

Siblings are often the most overlooked part of the equation when a child is hospitalized. Yet their emotional well-being is essential to how the entire family copes. When caregivers must focus much of their attention on the sick child, siblings may feel lonely, angry, jealous, fearful, or confused. These responses are normal, but they still require care and understanding.  Special attention is paid to siblings of critically ill children to ensure “whole-family” health and wellness. 

Leader in LGBTQ+

Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago was recognized as a “Leader in LGBTQ Healthcare Equality” by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation, the educational arm of the country’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) civil rights organization.

 In 2017, they earned the Business Leadership Award from Equality Illinois, an organization dedicated to advancing equal treatment and social justice through education, advocacy and protection of the rights of the LGBT community.

For more information on Ann and Robert Lurie Children’s Hospital, and its myriad specialties and services, click here. 

Alison Moran-Powers and Dean’s Team Chicago

Most of us tend to consume more salt than recommended. Much of this comes from processed snacks and other foods like frozen meals. This is a little harder to control, so trying to limit these is your best option. But, we still want our meals to be flavorful while cutting down on the salt. Here are a few ways to boost the flavor without salt:

Add acids while cooking. Citrus juice or zest during cooking or just before serving can brighten and heighten flavors. Vinegar, wine, and spirits give a great boost to the flavor also. Cooking for just a few minutes will burn off any alcohol residue.

Start with a strong flavor base. Sauté aromatics like onions, leeks, carrots, celery, peppers, fennel, garlic and ginger. These will give you a strong flavor base to build from. 

Take advantage of herbs and spices. Fresh herbs add so much flavor to any dishes you are cooking! It’s always best to add near the end of cooking to preserve their flavor. Dried herbs can take longer cooking. When using spices like cumin, curry or chili powder, toast them first in a dry pan for maximum punch. Watch them closely, they can burn quickly! 

Intensify flavor with technique. Brown, sauté, pan-sear or roast meats and vegetables. Reduce and intensify flavors by simmering sauces, stock, wine and balsamic vinegars.  

Save the brown stuff. All those little brown bits on the bottom of your sauté or roasting pans are called fond, and it is marvelous and so full of flavor. Capture all of it by deglazing. You can use just about any liquid, including water – but using wine, stock, or cider will add much more flavor. Sauté a tablespoon of tomato paste in the pan before deglazing for maximum punch to any sauce. 

Utilize condiments. They aren’t just for adding before eating! Mustard, pesto, salsa, kimchi, gochujang, Worcestershire or red pepper spread can jazz up sauces, soups, casseroles, beans, vegetables, pastas and proteins.  Mustard is especially good and can range from smooth, spicy Dijon to grainy. 

What are some other ways you boost flavor?

Kathleen Weaver-Zech and Dean’s Team Chicago