Matt Kirouac

Read the latest articles by Matt Kirouac at Thrillist

Contributor

Chicago

Photo courtesy of Osito's Tap

Drink

Find the best spots daily to eat and drink in hipster neighborhoods. Hit the roof, drink a beer and eat delicious at top-tier restaurants. Plan your nightlife adventure with maps and reviews of unknown micro-brews, rooftop parties, and independent drink.

Best Restaurants & Bars - Places to Eat & Drink - Thrillist

Once upon a time, in the year 1920, speakeasies operated out of hush-hush necessity, providing a secretive escape during the dark days of Prohibition.

How to Get into Chicago’s Best Speakeasies and Secret Bars

Choose Chicago

Travel

Explore adventure guides and design a custom itinerary for the destination of your choice in and around the city.

Best Travel Guides, Cool Hotels and Interesting Events - Thrillist

The 9 Best Neighborhoods in Chicago to Spend a Weekend

Nation

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Swapping gas station protein bars for the green chiles and blue corn of Santa Fe was a very necessary decision.

Why Santa Fe Is the Perfect Repeat Vacation Destination

Don’t let Illinois’ reputation as the second flattest state in the country fool you—in addition to Chicago’s towering architecture, you needn’t venture far to immerse yourself in captivating nature.

20 Underrated Hikes Near Chicago We'll Be Taking This Spring

Beverage Director

Beverage Director: Find the Best Bars to Drink at in Your City

Chicago has come a long way since its Prohibition days, when Al Capone and his band of merry mobsters used to patrol speakeasies.

The Best Bars in Chicago Right Now

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With a landscape so lush and vast that it inspired mythical water monsters, the sport of golf, and the Harry Potter franchise, Scotland is a place of scenic beauty so staggering it feels almost fictional.

Scotland’s Mountains and Lakes Are the Stuff of Fairy Tales

Eat Seeker

Eat Seeker helps you find the best restaurants in your city. Check out our articles to help you find the best places to eat near you, now.

Eat Seeker: The Best Restaurants in Your City Right Now

The Best Restaurants in Chicago Right Now

Visit Bloomington

It’s not often that wineries and Buddhist temples share a zip code with bald eagles, Afghan restaurants, queer dance clubs, and sexologists—and that’s what makes Bloomington, Indiana the EPCOT of mid-sized American cities.

This Queer-Friendly Midwestern City Is Way More than a College Town

Design by Maitane Romagosa for Thrillist

Walt Disney once said, “Laughter is timeless, imagination has no age, and dreams are forever.”

The True Confessions of a Disney Adult

Photo courtesy of Old Town Pour House

In Chicago, sports aren’t just a leisurely pastime or cultural hobby—they’re a timeless tradition taken as dead seriously as hot dogs.

The Best Sports Bars in Chicago

Kevin Gorton/Moment/Getty Images

Like New York City or Disney World, London is a destination so major, so epic, and so iconic that it can be downright daunting to distill it down to a few paragraphs, especially when the London bucket list is a mile long.

Think Outside the Buckingham Box with This London Itinerary

Riverbend Hot Springs

Geothermal springs are, literally, hot tub time machines.

Latest Posts From Matt

How to Get into Chicago’s Best Speakeasies and Secret Bars

From celebrity chef-backed cocktail dens to bonafide Prohibition-era holdovers.

The 9 Best Neighborhoods in Chicago to Spend a Weekend

Dive headfirst into the City by the Lake.

Why Santa Fe Is the Perfect Repeat Vacation Destination

One travel writer’s case for visiting a favorite city again and again, when you just can’t get enough.

20 Underrated Hikes Near Chicago We'll Be Taking This Spring

Leash up the pup and prepare to stretch your legs along Illinois’ most picturesque trails.

The Best Bars in Chicago Right Now

These are the dives, cocktail emporiums, distilleries, and wine bars serving the best drinks in Chicago.

Scotland’s Mountains and Lakes Are the Stuff of Fairy Tales

Though no monsters in these lochs.

The Best Restaurants in Chicago Right Now

Here are your must-hit new restaurants. Make a reservation ASAP.

This Queer-Friendly Midwestern City Is Way More than a College Town

Get to know the Hoosier’s State’s top restaurants, outdoor adventures, live music, and more.

The True Confessions of a Disney Adult

Inside the enduring appeal of the Most Magical Place on Earth

The Best Sports Bars in Chicago

If you're deciding where to watch the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles faceoff in Super Bowl LVII, look no further than these sports bars.

Think Outside the Buckingham Box with This London Itinerary

It’s all that and a bag of crisps.

Soak Your Winter Blues Away in America's Most Beautiful Natural Hot Springs

You deserve it!