Chef Thu Jan 08 2009

Bookslut Interviews Grant Achatz

Jessa Crispin of Bookslut recently interviewed Grant Achatz of Alinea. You can find the video here.

— Gemma Petrie / Comments (0)

Feature Thu Jan 08 2009

Tamales, a Sometimes Food

Every cuisine, every culture, and every family has different holiday dishes that just seem to make the holidays special.

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— Cinnamon Cooper / Comments (0)

Ingredient Wed Jan 07 2009

This Burger Won't Be Impeached

First a cocktail, then potica, now burgers: Kuma's Corner is offering the #!@%¿ Blagojevich Burger as its January special. For $10, you can taste Rod's political desperation in the form of a burger topped with a slice of bologna and sandwiched in a grilled cheese with a hidden dollar sign (written in mustard) nestled under the bread.

— Robyn Nisi / Comments (0)

Restaurant Wed Jan 07 2009

My Holiday Brunch

On New Years Day, a few of my friends and I decided to go out for a holiday brunch. After calling several bars in the Lakeview area and after being let down many times, O'Donovan's (2100 W. Irving Park Rd.) came to the rescue with a brunch special. Let me break it down for you: Multiple varieties of soup and salad, dinosaur-shaped chicken fingers, mac 'n cheese bites, biscuits and gravy, fried chicken, potatoes, scrambled eggs, beans, mini corn dogs, sausage, bacon, mini quiche, French toast, two types of pasta, veggie tray and sloppy joes. That was the first set of tables.

Move across the room to find every kind of fruit imaginable, yogurt, granola (amazing!), muffins, bagels, build your own omelet station, ham and roast beef (freshly carved), waffles (made-to-order), marshmallows, whipped cream. This all topped off with a fountain of chocolate.

I'm sure I'm forgetting a few items but this covers most of it - besides, what else could you ask for? This brunch special takes place every Sunday from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.; all you can eat for $13.95. I highly recommend checking it out.

— Kaitlin Olson / Comments (2)

Chef Wed Jan 07 2009

Gand on Pastry

Gale Gand waxed poetic on her favorite pastry places in Chicago for the Huffington Post, giving props to Pasticceria Natalina, Julius Meinl, and Glenview's Jolane's Cafe.

— Robyn Nisi / Comments (0)

Random Wed Jan 07 2009

What's for Lunch, Girls?

America's First Kids Sasha and Malia Obama attended their first day of school at Sidwell Friends in D.C. this week. Other than the high caliber of education offered at Sidwell, they also have a top-notch cafeteria full of organic and locally grown produce; today's menu [PDF] for the kids includes roasted local squash, spicy organic black bean tortillas, and pineapple Gratin. Yum, but don't they want pizza and chili dogs?

— Robyn Nisi / Comments (0)

Business Tue Jan 06 2009

Sweet Deal: How about $520 for $30?

This is a bit of an old news by now, but I'll post it anyway: sometime in late December, my husband and I went to dinner at Uncommon Ground on Devon. We checked our bulky down jackets, and when the hostess handed me the coat tag, it was weird. It was a credit-card sized thing with cute design on it, in brown-and-baby-blue color scheme. It didn't look like a coat tag at all. In fact, it had a name of a restaurant on the back, with a little description. And that restaurant wasn't Uncommon Ground. Why would they use a gift card for a completely different restaurant as a coat tag? We puzzled over it during our hearty dinner (Millman burger for me, bacon-wrapped meatloaf for hubby). Are they owned by the same people? Are the two restaurants teaming up to beef up marketing (pretty clever, indeed)? When we left, we were still pretty mystified.

As it turned out, the "coat tag" was a piece out of à la card, a deck of 52 cards, each dedicated to an independent, chef-driven restaurant in Chicago. You buy the whole deck for $30, and each card is redeemable as a $10 gift certificate at the restaurant it describes. Uncommon Ground is one of them, of course, and among the impressive assortment are Hot Chocolate, Hot Doug's, Spacca Napoli, Naha and Smoque, covering a pretty wide range of cuisines, neighborhoods and prices.

It's a formidable task to conquer all 52 restaurants in a year (the deck expires on December 31), but even if I can't go through all of them, it seems like a fun excuse to try out restaurants that we've been meaning to go to forever and never have. Or, as Mike Sula at Food Chain points out, you can hand out individual cards to "friends and minions."

— Yu Kizawa / Comments (0)

Restaurant Tue Jan 06 2009

Orange on Harrison Really Closing This Time

An inside source tells us that Orange on Harrison, which announced it was closing back in September and then never did, really will be closing after Sunday's brunch service. The owners plan to open a new Orange outpost near Fullerton and Clark in March.

— Andrew Huff / Comments (0)

Video Mon Jan 05 2009

Sneak Peek: Obama on "Check Please!"

As mentioned previously, our future president taped an episode of "Check Please!" in August of 2001, reviewing Hyde Park's Dixie Kitchen. The show has released this teaser clip in advance of the Jan. 16 airing.

[via]

UPDATE: Here's a little more, courtesy of Hypertext:

— Andrew Huff / Comments (0)

Drink Mon Jan 05 2009

Flossmoor Station Bottles New Brews

Flossmoor Station Restaurant & Brewery is kicking off 2009 by releasing two new bottled offerings. The first is Wooden Hell, a bourbon barrel-aged barley wine that has won gold twice at the Festival of Barrel-Aged Beer. Only 360 bottles will be available for sale, with a limit of two bottles per customer. See their blog for details on how to pre-order this brew.

The second beer they're bottling will be the Killer Kowalski Baltic Porter, which won a silver medal at this year's Great American Beer Festival. Flossmoor Station will have about 120 cases for sale, and they'll be available starting Saturday February 7th at a release party that starts at 1:00 PM.

On the chance that neither of these beers sells out, Wooden Hell will be for sale at the Killer Kowalski party, and Killer Kowalski might make its way into distribution. However, just to be safe, you should pre-order the barley wine and be there to party with the porter in February.

— Jill Jaracz / Comments (0)

Openings Sun Jan 04 2009

New Wave in Logan Square

New Wave Coffee has opened at the corner of Logan and Milwaukee, and offers Metropolis Coffee and free Wi-Fi (they'll also be serving food soon). New Wave is housed in a building that is close to the site of the Logan Square Farmers Market, which will make it an even nicer destination when the weather heats up. Welcome to the neighborhood, we're glad to see you.

New Wave Coffee
3103 W Logan / 2557 N Milwaukee
773-489-0646
Open 7a-11p daily

— Robyn Nisi / Comments (1)

Review Sun Jan 04 2009

Cupcakes and Board Games

Swings to sit on, a sign promising unattended children an espresso and a free puppy, and vegan and non-vegan cupcakes in a bright and playful storefront full of board game players is Molly's Cupcakes on a Saturday night. I took the vegan chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting - slightly fudgy with a soft, velvety topping - and a cup of decaf Intelligentsia so I wouldn't zip about into the night. I sat at the marble or marble-like counter, snapped a photo through the mirror in front of me, and chatted with a friend, being excited about just having stopped in at Dutch Bike Co. Chicago and the Lincoln Park Conservatory. 2536 N. Clark St., (773) 883-7220. Bus: 22 Clark, 36 Broadway.

— Chris Brunn / Comments (2)

Recipe Sat Jan 03 2009

Mystery Surprise Cake

If the current economic crisis has left you feeling nostalgic for that other Great Depression, why not try making a mystery surprise cake from a vintage 1930's recipe? The surprise is the tomato soup which goes in just before baking and gives the cake that certain je ne sais quoi while keeping costs down. In all honesty, the tomato flavor is imperceptible; the generous quantities of cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg are what dominate, making it taste like your typical spice cake. Unfortunately, after a few days, the cake does dry out quite a bit. Luckily, the ooey gooey cream cheese frosting more than makes up for it.

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— Dana Currier / Comments (1)

Event Fri Jan 02 2009

Soup's On at the Hideout

The Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, is launching a new weekly dining event on Wednesdays from 5pm to 8pm through April 1: Soup and Bread.

Here's how it works: Every Wednesday this winter the Hideout presents a free weekly dinner featuring soup created by Hideout staff, regulars, local chefs, and maybe even a few "celebrities." We're aiming for three soups per week -- but some days there might be more, or less. What goes in the pot is up to our guest soup chefs. Because they are volunteering their time and energy, we're not going to be bossy and tell them what to make (vegetarians, we're doing our best to ensure that there'll be at least one meatless option each week--but no guarantees!).

ALL SOUP IS FREE -- but we will pass the hat each week. Donations will go to the Greater Chicago Food Depository, which can do a better job of feeding the truly hungry than a few well-meaning barflies can.

The inaugural soup chefs on Jan. 7 will be Hideout bartender Anastasia Davies Hinchsliff, Celestial Kitchens pastry chef Celeste Dolan and Swim Cafe.

For more information and updates see the series' website.

— Andrew Huff / Comments (4)

News Fri Jan 02 2009

Guanciale Ruled in 2008

Phil Vettel released his best-of 2008 list (what a coincidence! we did, too), which applauds the opening of L20 (and claims it could possibly be the best restaurant in the nation right now) and the Publican, but claims that even with its warts, the Chicago Gourmet festival was the best food event last year (read Drive-Thru's coverage of the event).

— Robyn Nisi / Comments (0)