Have I mentioned lately how much I love my job? I get to interview chefs, bartenders and musicians about their favourite spots in their own backyards. Recently I spoke with Matt Peters, the lead singer behind Winnipeg's Juno-nominated Royal Canoe, about the town he calls home. 

You can catch them on the road -- currently on tour for Today We're Believers -- or follow Peters' guide to  Winnipeg's urban essentials. And for a bonus 'Peg fix, check out the band's video for Exodus of the Year, a grainy, black-and-white homage to workaday Winnipeg. My own favourite Winnipeg sign, Nutty Club, makes a cameo!

Ready for a good-time escape to Chicago? Meet Paul McGee, one of the city’s top mixologists, whose latest venture, Three Dots and a Dash, is a tiki bar that mixes pink-umbrella fun with a list that heavily favours rum. Starting out in Houston and moving on to big-name casinos in Las Vegas, including a stint with the Wolfgang Puck empire, McGee has had a long run behind the bar. But it has been in Chicago, where he opened his own places, that he has found a home.

In this Insider with The Globe and Mail, McGee shares five places to bookmark for your next Chicago adventure. As for his own joint, he recommends trying the namesake Three Dots and a Dash, a concoction of rhum agricole, Guyanese rum, honey and lime. "It's got these cool winter baking spices -- cinnamon, clove -- but it's still very refreshing," McGee says. Cheers!

Note: Since this first ran, Billy Sunday's Snakes on a Flag dropped off the menu (you can still ask for it at the bar), but the folks there suggest trying the Nevada -- also based on rhum agricole, "but more appropriate for fall." Billy Sunday photos, below, by Matthias Merges.