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Kate Schwartz never tried out for the cheerleading team in grade school, which is good, because she and her weak splits wouldn't have made the cut. But if the city of Chicago sponsored a group of pom-pom girls to tout the city's best features, she has no doubt that she'd make the squad. Yes, she has a Pollyanna view of the city, and it grows by the week (with giant spurts every time she heads to dinner in Heart of Italy). She considers herself a raver, not a critic, and will happily spout off one of a hundred lists of Chicago favorites. And though she's had a $600 dinner at Blackbird, she's much more excited about Buona Terra's $19.95 prix-fixe menu on Thursdays. Kate signed on to Centerstage in 1999 as an art gallery reviewer and latched on to the editor position a few years later. She served as editor-in-chief through early 2007, and is just a plain ol' freelancer now, having left the team for a job with the Sun-Times. She's a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and freelances for a number of publications on topics that range from the Dandy Warhol's love of Bordeaux wine to the finicky world of dietary licensure. | 