Chicago, famous for its soul-crushing winters and deep dish pizza, is also officially the nation’s most mustache-friendly town.

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Inhabitants of the Windy City have a lot to be proud of: Surviving bone gnawing winters; the best Chili in all 50 states; President Obama; being the setting of “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”; Ira Glass. But of all Chicago’s contributions to U.S. culture, perhaps the the most underrated is that it provides an unparalleled safe haven for men with mustaches.

According to the American Mustache Institute (“The world’s leading facial hair think tank and advocacy organization”), Chicago is more welcoming than any other American city to men with mustaches.

According to Time’s Newsfeed, this is how AMI judged mustache friendliness:

“The way they graded it, the top cities had to have a high presence of “mustache-positive employers” such as first responder teams and construction companies, along with a solid number of sports teams, monster trucks, Applebee’s restaurants, and community college graduates.”

Other frontrunners are Houston, Pittsburg, Oklahoma City and Detroit, in that order. If I were heading AMI, I might also consider the population of art school graduates, number of struggling indie bands and bear communities. Given these two additions, both Austin, TX and Provincetown, MA (which is also more accepting than average to mustachioed ladies) would have to be considered for top-ten status.

That said, Chicago’s first-place status makes sense. With such great pizza and chili and such acceptance of mustaches, the only problem they face is trying to keep tomato sauce and chili out of men’s whiskers.