Things You Had No Idea You Could Do in Chicago

Every city has its ploughshare of mystery , but Chicago has enough of them to fulfill a library . So stop snapping photos in front of The Bean and discover the wealth of secrets hiding in plain sight – from sex dungeons to fly boards to late - night dodgeball leagues .

Play ping pong in the back of a flower shop

While East Village diva Happy Village is well known for its back way Ping River pong , you’re able to also hone your table tennis chop in the back of a West Town blossom shop if that ’s your thing ( which it altogether should be ) . tangency the ethnic music atChi - Slam Table Tennis Club , take the air past the uncanny front depot selling blossom and other oddball detail , and behold a glitter Ping River pong Shangri - La in back . If you get really good , you might even be invite to join the uber - secret Chinese Table Tennis Club , which you could access 24/7 though a Chinatown back skittle alley . Best bring your own paddle for that one .

Join a secret late-night dodgeball league

Do you love dodgeball ? Wish you could play it at 11 phase modulation in camber parking oodles with extremity of a secret fellowship ? Well , thanks to the fine common people at theWicker Park High Teaand Dodgeball Association , now you’re able to . The matches go down every Thursday Nox at 11 pm in various undisclosed placement and , according to the group , the secret society dates back to its 1873 founding by former Alderman Charles Wicker ( who has his own statue in Wicker Park . ) We presume by now the tea has been swop with beer , but who the hell really knows for sure ?

Drink fancy cocktails with members of an underground drinking society

Liquor Labis a “ social mixology experiment ” that hold private bulge - up cocktail tastings in various secret locations across the city . Helmed by a crop of A - Joseph Lister in the local nightlife scene , you’re able to require out - there edible drink , cocktail serve well out of smoking decanter , and something described as a smoked woodwind - chipping Manhattan . Sign up for a membership and , if you ’re cool enough , peradventure they ’ll permit you in . If that does n’t ferment , you’re able to always try your destiny at Soho House .

Check out secret concerts in living rooms across the city

If you love live medicine but hate high-pitched ticket prices and rowdy crowd of preteen , sign up forSofar Sounds , where you could apply for a pay - what - you - want slate to exclusive band taking place in coolheaded surreptitious locating like go elbow room , lofts , and wherever the netherworld else the bands finger like playing . The location is revealed the solar day before the show and the events are BYOB .

Attend a 6 am yoga session/dance party

ordinarily when you ’re listening to cutting - bound DJs at morning , it means your buddy ’s bachelor party lasted way longer than it should have . But withDaybreaker , you may commence your daybreak with sunrise yoga and free breakfast before end it with raucous DJ Set and manic dance … just in time for your dawn commute . Sign up online for access to regular event , hold at revolve venue across the city .

Sip drinks from the 1920s in a secret speakeasy

While speakeasies with secret entrance are nothing new in big city like Chicago , it ’s not every sidereal day you have to talk an ever - changing password to a guy behind a small window with bar over the threshold to be permit ingress to a bar . Such is the case atRoom 13 , one of the metropolis ’s most clandestine and bona fide speakeasies , located in the alleyway to the leftfield of the Old Chicago Inn . you’re able to get the password by applying for membership at the hotel and , once deep down , you are regale to a swank scene where 1920s - style drinks are served only using only alcohol that was uncommitted during the Prohibition epoch . So yeah , no Zima .

Rent a flyboard and hover over Lake Michigan

certain , your crony - who - made - it ’s boat is a good time and everything . But if you ’re looking for tangible excitement at sea , rent a flyboard atChicago Water Sportsfrom their Bronzeville harbor and get quick for an experience that puts your days tube Lake Geneva as a kid to shame . First you strap into a wetsuit , then you buckle into a snowboard - esque hoverboard hook up to a jetski . When the jetski is revved up by a stave member , it sends a burst of mogul to your hoverboard and … you’re airborne . Welcome to the future , space dude .

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Race turtles at a local dive bar

If you ’re looking for more inflammation than hanging with grizzled old timers at the blackguard raceway or reckon on the shot glass on Father ’s Day at Arlington , Lincoln Square nose dive barBig Joe’shosts capsize rush every Friday nighttime as your counterpoison to the ordinary . Get a raffle ticket to be arrogate a polo-neck , who will then “ race ” other shield - wear reptiles across an 8 - fundament wide track that resembles a cross between a curling rink and ice hockey game table . It might take five minute of arc or longer for your turtle to cross the finish furrow , which get out plenty of time for , well , normal bar hanging .

Join an underground supper club

launch in 2005 as a once - a - month dinner party between friends , Sunday Dinner Clubhas maturate into a full - feather community supper golf club with 10 - 15 event per month ( and not just on Sundays . ) Whether in the space above Honey Butter Fried Chicken ( which was establish by club members ) or rotating to various location around the midwestern United States from Champaign to Madison , SDC can be counted on to keep matter impudent , with menus that change monthly and revolve around specific themes like ramen , beer , and Judaic food for thought . Usually you need to be referred by a current club fellow member , but send them a finely crafted email and they might be willing to let you in .

Immerse yourself in a flotation tank

Ever marvel what it would be like to float atop 10 inches of water inside a massive storage tank with 800 pounds of Epsom salts dissolved inside ? At Chicago ’s " premier flotation and relaxation center , " you ’ll reportedly palpate so relaxed after spending an hour of closing off in the armoured combat vehicle that it ’ll feel like the equivalent weight of four hour of sleep . After 34 years in Lincoln Park , the longest - running floatation tank core in North America is currently moving to a bigger distance six engine block north so more people can “ get their float on . ” ( Okay , we hold we made that last phrase up . )

Stand where the Cubs last won the World Series (without needing a ticket)

Is this the year the Cubbies at last go all the way ? accord to Vegas , the Cubs ( yes , the Cubs ) are 4 - 1 favorites to win the World Series in 2016 . But even if for some crazy reason that does n’t happen ( what could possibly go untimely ? ) , you’re able to still relive the Cubbies 1908 glory , which acquire place at West Side Park – remember , the Friendly Confines of Wrigley had yet to be built – and is now the site of the UIC Medical Center at Taylor and Wood . The best part ? No bleacher bum will be around to spill their beer on you . in all likelihood .