Frommer's Chicago 2004

I was surprised just now to find this Frommer’s Guide to Chicago still on my bookshelf—I thought I had purged all Frommer’s products from my home years ago. I guess it was tucked all the way on one side of a shelf, hiding from me. But I have found it, and it will go straight to the recycling bin once I’m done writing about it.

Every year, Frommer’s prints a guidebook specifically for the attendees of BEA. It’s basically a regular Frommer’s Guide to whichever city is hosting the convention, with an advertisement about their booth on the back cover and some extra convention information. Every registrant gets one, and I used to look forward to receiving a brand new travel guide for a different exciting city every year. Until 2004.

That year, E traveled with me to Chicago for the convention. Even though it was not exactly a vacation, I still spent way too much time reading all the restaurant recommendations and imagining us eating in each place. I finally singled out a restaurant that sounded perfect: a tapas eatery called Café Iberico that was within walking distance of our hotel.

Thus it came to pass that, after getting up at 5:00 in the morning to catch a plane from Oakland to Chicago, traveling with our luggage directly to the convention center to wait in line for an hour to get a seat for Bill Clinton’s keynote speech then waiting again afterward for another hour to catch a cab and checking into our hotel, we found ourselves with Frommer’s Guide en route to what I had already built up in my head as the meal of the year.

And so it was that when we arrived at the restaurant’s address, I was somewhat distressed to find no restaurant.

We walked up and down the street. We double-checked the Frommer’s. We looked down the side streets. We asked a lone pedestrian hurrying along in the dark, quiet neighborhood. No restaurant. After half an hour, the truth was painfully clear: Frommer’s had made a big mistake. And I was mad.

Maybe if it had been just this one transgression, I could have forgiven Frommer’s. I might have even been able to overlook the other faulty address I found in the very same guidebook. But my trouble with Frommer’s goes back much farther. I have used several editions in various cities, and have always found it difficult to navigate and frustrating to get the information I need out of it.

The Frommer’s Guides are divided by topic, such as lodging, dining, and attractions. Within these chapters, there are subdivisions by neighborhood. So far so good (unless you are not familiar with the neighborhoods, and which tourist is?). Now, take the dining chapter, which is of course the most important one: there is a separate detail map for each of the neighborhoods, but the maps are not grouped together at the beginning of the chapter. They are interspersed throughout the chapter, but not necessarily on the first page of each neighborhood section either. The neighborhood descriptions do not list the page number where its map might be found, so it always takes at least a few page flips to even find a map. And here’s the most infuriating part. Each map features numbered markers for its restaurants. They are numbered geographically; the restaurant in the bottom left corner is #1, and the numbers increase as you move up the page. So, I have found the spot on the map where my hotel is. I notice that restaurant #23 is close by. Which restaurant is #23? I look to the side where the names of the restaurants are listed—alphabetically. It takes me about a minute to find #23, because now that the restaurants are alphabetical, the numbers are randomized. Now I know the name of restaurant #23, so I have to find the text section in the book for that neighborhood, and then find the restaurant listed alphabetically there to read about it. But you know, #24 is also close to the hotel too… another five minutes wasted flipping around in the book.

All, in the end, for the wrong address.

That evening in Chicago, after eating in the least offensive restaurant we passed that was still open, we returned to the hotel to ask the concierge about Café Iberico. Sure enough, the correct address was completely different from the information in Frommer’s, though it was still in the neighborhood. So the next night, we tried again with much success. It really was an excellent restaurant.

Frommer's Chicago 2004

tags: books book reviews travel guides Chicago Frommer's