The Unofficial Guide to Chicago Paperback - 2009 - 8th Edition

LEAD WRITER David Hoekstra is a staff writer and columnist at the Chicago Sun-Times. He won a 1987 Chicago Newspaper Guild Stick-O-Type Award for Column Writing for outstanding commentary on Chicago nightlife. He has been a contributing writer for Playboy and the Chicago Reader and a contributing editor for Chicago magazine. His anthology of Sun-Times travel columns, Ticket to Everywhere, was published by Lake Claremont Press in 2000.

FORMER RESTAURANT CONSULTANT Alice Van Housen (Part Eight, Dining and Restaurants) is a writer, reviewer, and editor for a variety of food-focused publications and Web sites. She has served as Chicago editor for the print and online editions of Zagat Survey since 2001. She has also contributed dining chapters to Frommer's Chicago and Mobil Travel Guides; served as founding editor of Local Palate, a monthly foodie newspaper; and written for numerous local and national publications, including Fast Company, the Los Angeles Times, Wine & Spirits, Plate, Restaurants & Institutions, Restaurant Business, the Chicago Tribune's Metromix and RedEye supplements, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Reader, Chicago Social, and Front Desk Chicago. In addition, she has been a contributing Chicago reviewer for the Citysearch online-entertainment and dining guide since its original incarnation as Chicago Sidewalk in 1996.

JOURNALIST-FICTION WRITER Laurie Levy (Part Nine, Shopping in Chicago) has written locally for the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, The Chicago Collection, Chicago magazine, and Today's Chicago Woman, among others, as well as for national publications such as Business Traveler, Travel Agent, and Four Seasons Magazine. She is the author of three nonfiction books and is an award-winning short-story writer and novelist.