Unlike many guidebooks, Alternative Chicago (second edition) does not tell you where to stay or how to get around in the city, or even what sights you should see. There are already dozens of guidebooks that concentrate on these subjects. Rather, Alternative Chicago contains neighborhood-by-neighborhood accounts of the out-of-the-way places you want to know about‹resale and vintage shops, record stores and bookstores, offbeat eateries, and cool bars and clubs.

Unlike the "other" guidebooks, Alternative Chicago is not your parents' guidebook. It's for younger, discriminating folk, not necessarily chronologically, but young at heart. Anyone from sixteen to sixty can appreciate this different kind of guidebook. It will not tell you where the nearest Tower Records or Starbucks is situated, but it will point you to local institutions like Bookworks and Hi-Fi Records. Hard Rock Cafe? How about the Heartland Cafe? Water Tower Place? What about Wacky Cats? Never heard of them? Of course not‹but these are all distinctly Chicago places, and that is what you will discover in Alternative Chicago.

Neighborhoods covered include The Loop, River North, Old Town, Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Wrigleyville, Ravenswood, Uptown, Korea Town, Rogers Park, Greek Town, Little Italy, Pilsen, China Town, Little Tuscany, Hyde Park, and more.