NEW OPENING IN LONDON

French Café
French Café is the new shopping theme at London concept store Few and Far [242 Brompton Road, London, +44 (0)20 7225 7070; www.fewandfar.net ].The shop, which opened earlier this year, is the project of Priscilla Carluccio (wife of restaurateur Antonio Carluccio and sister of Terence Conran). Few and Far sells a mixture of furniture and miscellaneous accessories from jewellery to toys, and to keep customers on their toes, the stock and the look of the interior changes radically every few months. French Café, which runs until September, means the chance to buy contemporary French furniture by Tolix and Drucker but also handmade clothes and ceramics from India, Italy and Morocco.

OLD FAVOURITE IN CHICAGO

The Chicago Theatre
It opened in 1921 as a cinema named Wonder Theatre of the World, introducing the idea of the picturehouse as a grand and gilded venue. Today, The Chicago Theatre (+1 312 462 6300, 175 North State Street;www.thechicagotheatre.com ) hosts not just movie screenings but live theatre, music and comedy, too. This month it’s the venue for Glamorama 2008 (22 August), a benefit concert for the Art Institute of Chicago featuring Cyndi Lauper. Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday you can take a $10 tour to learn about its influence on the city’s entertainment scene and see the backstage areas where Dustin Hoffman, Frank Sinatra and Neil Young, among others, have written messages on the walls.