Views & Tunes

New golf course and restaurant launch live music series this summer

Unmatched skyline views, a gentle summer breeze, refreshing beverage in-hand, and a scratch-made meal — what's missing?

Live music, and East River 9 and Riverhouse have it. The golf course and restaurant are introducing a new Live Music Summer Series, and the best part is, it's free.

From 7-9 pm each Friday and Saturday night, June through August, grab a table on Riverhouse's beautiful patio and listen to a wide variety of local and regional musicians playing everything from country and blues to classic rock and alternative.

The diverse lineup is posted monthly on Riverhouse's website, but here's what's on tap for June:

June 16: Cole Stephens
June 17: Western Jelly
June 23: Billi Jo Jones Duo
June 24: Barditch Hippies
June 25: The Cheeney Brothers

“Our new concert series is a laid-back summertime event for the whole family,” says Clayton Freels, founding partner of the concepts. “We are excited to showcase talented, local artists, and we invite everyone to come out and enjoy the free live music, delicious food and drinks, and a fun atmosphere.”

To make the experience even more delicious, Riverhouse recently announced Abhijeet “AJ” Junnarkar as the new event and culinary director.

Prior to founding and operating his own event catering business for the past decade, AJ served as executive chef at the Downtown Aquarium, Hotel Derek, and Intercontinental Hotel.

In his new role at Riverhouse, he's already introduced an elevated private event program that caters to corporate outings, fundraisers, and social gatherings.

He's also helped refine the scratch kitchen’s culinary offerings, curating a new, expanded menu that includes several new Tex-Mex entrees, as well as fine meats and desserts.

Riverhouse is also launching a weekend brunch menu that features breakfast tacos, sweet cream pancakes, and chicken fried steak and eggs. New menu offerings will debut later this month.

For those who haven't experienced Riverhouse yet, the full-service restaurant and patio bar offers plenty of indoor and outdoor seating options for groups of all sizes, as well as a central lawn with a kids playscape and lawn games.

And then there's East River 9, the only public, nine-hole, par-three golf course inside the 610 Loop.

The links-style short course is composed of holes that range from 80-150 yards; a natural grass, 300-yard driving range with a downtown skyline backdrop; a 12,000-square-foot social putting green; and a pro shop featuring merchandise, rental clubs, and refreshments. Two staggered tee boxes play into all nine greens and provide players with the ability to play two unique nine-hole rounds.

The active, outdoor destination also features six pickleball courts. If you haven't succumbed to pickleball mania yet, the easy-to-play mash-up of tennis, badminton and ping-pong is a delight for all ages and skill levels.

Only a mile outside of downtown, East River 9 and Riverhouse are located on the site of Midway’s 150-acre East River development in the Historic Fifth Ward.

For Father's Day weekend, they're doing it up big with coffee, cigars, and cars.

A car show stocked with luxury and classic autos is happening 9 am-12 pm on Sunday, while East River 9 will be rolling custom-made cigars and you can get caffeinated at the gourmet coffee bar inside Riverhouse.

A special Father's Day menu will also be available, with bottomless mimosas and espresso martini flights to really kick it up a notch.

For more info, follow East River 9's Instagram or Riverhouse's Facebook event page.

Photo courtesy of East River 9 and Riverhouse

Grab a table on Riverhouse's beautiful patio.

concerts music golf dinner chefs promoted

Movie Review

Shaun the Sheep welcomes spooky season with PG-scary new movie

Photo courtesy of Aardman / Sky UK LTD / StudioCanal 2026

Shaun the Sheep in Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom.

Since his introduction over 30 years ago, the Aardman Animations character Shaun the Sheep has been almost as popular as the studio’s flagship characters, Wallace and Gromit. There is never a shortage of trouble Shaun can get into as he leads his flock and proves to be a thorn in the side of his farmer and Bitzer, the farmer’s loyal sheepdog.

His antics lead everyone down some slightly spooky roads in the new film, Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom. At first, things are only slightly awry as Shaun and the flock are growing a secret pumpkin patch to have their own jack-o-lanterns. But when the farmer accidentally destroys the pumpkin patch, Shaun tries to regrow it quickly with a Frankenstein-esque experiment.

However, disaster looms when Shaun uses an old bottle of Hair-Gro as the container for the serum he creates. Naturally, the balding farmer uses it on his head, and everyone soon discovers how truly successful it is, with pumpkins growing out of control and the farmer sprouting hair all over his body. Through a series of mishaps, the farmer becomes the titular beast, creating mayhem while Shaun and others try to stop him.

Directed by Steve Cox and Matthew Walker, and written by Mark Burton and Giles Pilbrow, the film goes down just as easy as every other Aardman project has. They get the Halloween vibes started from the opening credits, with things like the sheep doing the “Thriller” dance, and continue the fun throughout, referencing everything from Psycho to Friday the 13th in a nice, PG way.

With no script — every character is mute save for reaction noises — the movie relies on sight gags for its humor, and the Aardman team is endlessly inventive in that respect. Sometimes it’s small things like a sheep using toilet paper rolls as binoculars, and sometimes it’s something like forcing the Bigfoot-like farmer to be shaped into a rectangle as he escapes through a window. But there’s a never-ending stream of such moments, so even if one doesn’t tickle your funny bone, chances are the next one will.

The biggest benefit of the characters not talking is that there’s no need for deep character development. The filmmakers do a great job of giving the basic traits of each character, and then use those attributes to color everyone’s actions for the rest of the film. Shaun is the troublemaker, the farmer is a bumbling fool, Bitzer is preternaturally smart, and the town’s vet is empathetic, and the combination of those characters and others makes for a highly entertaining blend.

Like all Aardman creations, Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom is a fun lark that doesn’t make its audience think too hard. With just enough references to keep viewers engaged but not so many as to be overbearing, the film puts its well-worn characters to good use once again, delivering a Halloween season story that can be enjoyed by people of all ages.

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Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom is now playing in theaters.

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