Chicago is renowned for its fabled meat-fed brawn, sports lunacy and deep-dish pizza. But it’s also a legendary trader’s town, and one of those trades is in art. Art Chicago drew 94 galleries from 11 countries to its enormous tent on Chicago’s waterfront last year, a benchmark it aims to surpass with the 2006 edition (April 28–May 1). That same weekend, the 9th annual Chicago Antiques Fair, sponsored by Art & Antiques magazine, rounds up more than 100 international antiques dealers at the massive Merchandise Mart, exhibiting everything from Chippendale chairs to Chinese jade carvings. In addition, visitors to these two annual collectors’ shows will find the entire city is an exhibition. Let us show you the ways.

1. Dine and drink with art.

Chicago’s acclaimed restaurant scene—home to famed chef Charlie Trotter and avant-garde innovator Grant Achatz—is bolstered on the aesthetic front by fine-art collections. Chief among the artful diners, NoMI in the Park Hyatt Chicago houses some of the over $22 million collection of the hotel, including “Goddess,” an abstract aluminum sculpture by Isamu Noguchi, and Dale Chihuly glass pieces suspended above the tables, which overlook the city’s landmark Water Tower.

At Alinea, chef Grant Achatz incorporates science in his cooking and an artful flair on the plate to create thinking- man’s food; for example, a course may arrive on an aromatic lavender pillow to boost the sensory experience. In custom work for Alinea, designer Martin Kastner challenges the utility of knife and fork by creating spindles that spear food and mini morsel pedestals meant to be held by the stem like a wine glass and tippled. Works loaned from Belloc Lowndes Gallery provide two-dimensional distraction.

In the Wicker Park neighborhood, Bin Wine Café displays works on loan from the Roy Boyd Gallery. Several Richard Serra paintings adorn mk restaurant in the gallery-rich River North district. Downtown’s Tru restaurant complements the creativity on the table with a geometric painting by Peter Halley, a blue torso sculpture of Venus by Yves Klein and a Marilyn Monroe silkscreen by Andy Warhol, among others. Everest Restaurant tops its tables with Ivo Soldini sculptures.