News Thu May 08 2008

Mmm, Midweek Links

• Continuing the coverage of Alinea and Grant Achatz: Not one but two profiles in the June issue of Chicago magazine. Plus Men's Vogue has a profile, and the restaurant landed at #21 on S.Pelligrino's World's 50 Best Restaurants list.

• Time Out runs down the best of outdoor seating.

• Nagrant finally made it to Tufano's Vernon Park Tap, recently honored by the James Beard Foundation, and is disappointed by lackluster food and indifferent service.

• Hungry Mag also has a nice photo set from McWethy Farms, a hydroponic heirloom tomato farm, to go with his Sun-Times article on the place.

• Sepia's Peter Vestinos wrote about his experience behind the bar at the USBG National Cocktail Competition for Time Out's blog.

• It's not just your imagination: celebrity chefs from all over are flocking to Chicago to open restaurants.

• Dish gets an early word on Mixteco Grill, new to the doomed corner of Montrose and Ashland, and talks with food writer Patricia Wells and her husband Walter, and chef-writer Craig W. Priebe.

• The Food Chain reports on fugu liver and the controversy surrounding whether you can eat it.

• I know this looks like a brownie, but it's really gingerbread.

• We're the 8th best restaurant city in the world, according to Food & Wine.

• The Veggie Train debunks some vegetarian myths.

• Chicago Bites tries Bull-eh-dia's Tapas Bar.

• Phil Vettel contemplates dim sum for brunch.

- Andrew Huff