Gapers Block published from April 22, 2003 to Jan. 1, 2016. The site will remain up in archive form. Please visit Third Coast Review, a new site by several GB alumni. ✶ Thank you for your readership and contributions. ✶
Chef Cleetus Friedman called last night at about 8:30, two days after announcing the closure of his beloved locavore deli, City Provisions. "My biggest priority is getting through the next few days of closing up the store. I've had the hardest 48 hours of my life."
For now, the focus is on winding down the restaurant. Chefs have been coming by to purchase the perishables. Friedman said he hopes a restaurateur will come take over the space as a "turnkey" space. Otherwise, he'll have to liquidate the furniture, equipment and fixtures.
Meanwhile, Friedman's less location-reliant projects continue on. His popular collaborations with local breweries will continue, in beer-friendly restaurants and bars like Hopleaf, Fountainhead and Bangers and Lace. "Lillie's Q is friendly with the Dark Horse guys, so we'll likely release the Dark Horse collab ['Hundred Grand Stout'] there."
These days, the launch of a new restaurant is usually preceded by months of buzz and social media-building, followed by even further announcements of "opening soon." Not in the case of Wicker Park's newest opening, The Monarch, which up until a few weeks ago was the very (and I mean very) German bar, Uberstein. In fact, the only possible buzz were the rumors around Andrew Brochu's (formerly of Graham Elliot) new direction into the supposed "revamping" of the place. Before we even had time to ask what Brochu was doing in the bar scene (the German bar scene to be precise), in the likes of a made-for-television restaurant flipping, new owner and former GM Colin Burke closed Uberstein on New Year's Day and reopened on Jan. 11 as The Monarch -- if you're going to have a name like that, what better way to back it up.
On Monday at 6:30pm, chef-owner Cleetus Friedman sent out an email to subscribers announcing that City Provisions, his locavore deli at 1818 W. Wilson, was closed effective immediately.
While I gave everything I had every day of the week to all of my staff, vendors, and guests, in the end I found that sustainability - an undying commitment to what that means - wasn't sustainable. While it looked great from the outside, on the inside we faced many challenges. The praise that hangs on my wall and the Internet speaks to my passion, and that will never change.
I could have bought different milk. Different eggs. I could have used non eco-friendly parchment paper. I could sent everything to landfill. I could have used an inferior product. I could have had a Sysco truck deliver my food and have one person work a deep fryer and microwave. I consciously chose to do things one way. Maybe I was stubborn. I was committed to doing what I believed to be the right thing.
Real food takes not just passion, but labor. And these numbers add up. The fact is, I put the same level of ingredients and labor into a sandwich, chips and pickle that my colleagues are putting into a $25 entree. Perhaps we, as a community, are not prepared to take on the challenge of a $15 - $20 lunch ticket, but I know I tried to do it the best way, true to my ideals and focused on creating the best product possible.
Gapers Block is excited to announce our second annual BBQ Bowl barbecue competition. Join us from noon to 3pm on Saturday, Feb. 9 at Lincoln Hall for a barbecue battle featuring some of the city's best barbecue joints and restaurants, including Barn & Company, Mrs. Murphy & Sons Irish Bistro, PorkChop, Robinson's, Rub BBQ and more to come!
For just $20 you'll get one tasting from each BBQ contestant, plus access to drink specials. We'll also have live music (TBA). Once you've made your way around the competitors, cast your vote for the "People's Pick" award at our polling booth. A panel of esteemed judges -- including Chuck Sudo of Chicagoist, Moshe Tamssot of Cookitfor.us, Juanna Rumbel of the Windy City Rollers, and Rachael Katz of Weber Grill -- will also vote for the "Critic's Choice" award. The champions will be announced at around 2:30pm.
Our first BBQ Bowl was held Feb. 4, 2012 to great acclaim -- more than 120 Chicagoans came to the Bucktown's Club Lucky the day before the Super Bowl to sample and vote on ribs from seven worthy contestants. Honky Tonk Barbecue won the first "Critic's Choice" award and Mrs. Murphy & Sons Irish Bistro took home the "People's Pick." Koval Distillery was on hand to offer tastings of its locally made liquors, and up and coming soul band The Congregation provided the entertainment.
Tickets to the BBQ Bowl may be purchased in advance on EventBrite or Lincoln Hall's website, or at the door day-of. This is an all-ages event.
UPDATE: Harmony Grill joins the barbecue lineup, and Marko Casso will be our live entertainment! We'll also have a raffle and drink specials at the bar. All for just $20! Stay tuned for further updates.
Revolution Brewery celebrates its third birthday this Saturday with a "Crazy Party" at its brewery site (3340 N. Kedzie); your $50 ticket gets a nine-course meal with beer pairings, a souvenir glass, and a 22 oz. bottle of a special beer to take home. The evening session is sold out, but the afternoon (1-4pm) still has a few open seats left.
Billy Sunday, a new Logan Square cocktail lounge from the team behind Yusho, officially opens tonight at 5pm, according to a note posted on its Facebook page. Details magazine went out on a limb and declared it one of the country's best new bars, presumably sight unseen and drink untasted.
The bar is named for White Stockings (which became the Cubs) player turned evangelist and temperance activist William Ashley "Billy" Sunday. Look for cocktails ranging from classic to contemporary -- some familiar to those who do at Yusho -- and a food menu that's mostly small plates, heavy on pickles and preserves.
Billy Sunday is located at 3143 W. Logan Blvd., next to Dunlay's on the Square. Hours are 5pm to 2am every day.
Delivery food never tastes as good as when temperatures outside drop to surreal-sounding levels (0 degrees? What does it even mean?), but this upcoming February, get ready to dust off your long underwear--Restaurant Week 2013 will give you a reason to venture beyond the warm confines of your living room.
The Haute and the Dog, an upscale hot dog, pulled pork, chili, and hand-cut fry kind of place which replaces Bagel on Damen (1252 N. Damen), will be opening tomorrow. Let's hope no cars crash into it. Again.
The Goddess and Grocer announced Monday that it will open its fourth location at 901 N. Larrabee St. in River North in early February.
The 1,600-square-foot space will include seating 36 at communal and bar tables, and will offer all the usual Goddess and Grocer specialties, including both made-to-order and premade sandwiches, salads and soups; prepared foods like appetizers, entrees and side dishes; and housemade cookies, cakes and desserts. The shop will also offer a selection of mostly locally made specialty grocery items, such as jams, pastas, sauces, chips and salsas, and a collection of wine and beer.
Eli's is making a cheesecake, natch (pictured), Baltimore's Charm City Cakes is also in on the fun (I hope you like fondant, fondant and fondant), and the post-Inauguration luncheon menu features steamed lobster, bison tenderloin, and apple pie with a sour cream ice cream. Full menu after the jump; Obama Foodorama has the recipes.
Being a cask ale virgin, I wasn't sure what to expect from Thursday's Cask Night at Smallbar. All I knew was that cask ale was a very old, traditional method of making beer, which is why it is referred to as "real ale." For me, that meant an association with medieval England and bearded men in dark, cave-like taverns.
So naturally, I half expected to walk into a scene from the Canterbury Tales, complete with corrupt clergy, vernerial diseases, and drunken knife fights. While none of these were immediately obvious when I arrived, I took the number of bearded men as a sign that at least I was in the right place.
Dish reports that former L2O chef Francis Brennan and Jeff Mahin, chef-owner of Santa Monica's Stella Rossa Pizza Bar and M Street Kitchen, are opening two restaurants in the former Tilli's space at 1952 N. Halsted St. One will be a clone of Stella Rossa (under a new name), while the other will be a "California restaurant," by which I presume means more Wolfgang Puck than California Pizza Kitchen. Both projects are backed by Lettuce Entertain You.
This is not the first teaming of Brennan and Mahin. The pair are the driving force behind Do-Rite Donuts, which opened last February, kicking the gourmet doughnut competition into high gear. You can also watch Mahin compete on ABC's new cooking competition show "The Taste," which debuts Tuesday, Jan. 22.
Tickets are still available for Monday night's Farm Dinner at Lula (2537 N. Kedzie). While the event is something the Logan Square restaurant has been doing for over a decade, they are bringing on some very exciting talent for this next occasion.
"Top Chef" and Aria alum Beverly Kim and husband John Clark, who briefly took over (and closed) Bonsoiree last fall, along with some out-of-towners -- Sarah and Evan Rich of San Francisco's Rich Table -- will be contributing "surprise" canapes in addition to parts of the three-course meal (the entree is roast chicken with miso, rutabaga and bacon). Tickets $45 ($25 for wine pairings). Call call 773-489-9554 to reserve.
The first wave of the chefs and restaurants (125 in all) participating in April 20th's Baconfest at the UIC Forum (725 W. Roosevelt Rd.), was released today--and it looks good: Slurping Turtle and Glazed and Infused are among some of this year's newcomers. VIP tickets ($200) are still available; general admission ($100) will be on sale Feb. 20th.
A friend and I planned a visit to Oiistar for a Wednesday night dinner. I met up with him at the door. "I'm not feeling it," he said immediately. "It's like a club in there. Too noisy." I glanced through the window to assess the interior: full, but not packed. Atmospheric, minimalist decor with lots of woody accents. Classic cartoons projected onto a far wall. The word "trendy" came, almost instantaneously, to mind.
But this being Wicker Park, and Oiistar being one of the newest additions to a specific trend set -- fusion cusine gastropubs -- I decided that my friend's fear was just symptomatic.
On Monday, Jan. 14, DMK Burger Bar (2954 N. Sheffield Ave.) and Oskar Blues Brewery are teaming up for a four-course dinner benefiting the Chicago Recycling Coalition. Guests will have a spicy beet soup paired with Ten Fidy Stout; a caraway-scented pork burger, Granny Smith apple sauerkraut and potato pierogi paired with Dale's Pale Ale; an "unstuffed cabbage" burger and fries paired with Mama's Little Yella Pils; and a caramel caraway beer float made with Old Chub Scotch Ale. The dinner is $40 per person; there's an encore on Jan. 28. Reserve a spot by emailing ewinter@dmkrestaurants.com.
Whiskey joins art at Lillstreet Art Center this winter in an exhibition entitled Neat: The Art of the Whiskey Vessel. The exhibition celebrates the long tradition of ceramic artists who make liquor flasks, cups, bottles and jugs. If you're accustomed to drinking your poison of choice from a Solo cup or liquor store flask this should rock your mind. Chicago-based Koval Distillery will help bring out the warmth of the work with a whiskey sampling at the opening reception on February 1 from 6-9pm.
More than 14 artists will present new work for this special exhibition. "Neat" is supported in part by Koval Distillery Chicago. The exhibition is free and runs February 1 - March 1. Lillstreet Art Center, 4401 N Ravenswood.
Photos Courtesy of Lillstreet art center Artist credit (from clockwise): Jerome Murphy, Matthew Hyleck, Matthew Long, Jason Hess
Did you know that it is national pizza week? I didn't either. In fact, I wonder if this is an officially sanctioned holiday at all, or if it is more like the Milkshake Mondays and Champagne Thursdays that I like to celebrate.
In any case, most of us don't need any encouragement to eat more pizza, official or not. But if you do, consider it your patriotic duty to partake in one of America's favorite foods this week. To make it easy to participate in this delicious holiday, we've gathered some options for you and arranged them in order of effort required:
Option One: I am too lazy to get up, but I will eat pizza if it is brought to me.
We've been telling you about how Chicago's beer scene has made serious headway, but it may be time for you to get out there and get a good smattering of local options yourself next Thursday, January 17. Head over to SmallBar Divison, 2049 W. Division St., at 7pm to taste a pretty stellar looking sample size, replete with newly distributed beers and new breweries on their cask pulls.
CASK LIST:
Three Floyds: Zombie Dust
Solemn Oath: Kidnapped by Vikings
Jolly Pumpkin: Maracaibo
Half Acre: Daisy Cutter
Oskar Blues: Double Dry-Hopped G'knight
SmallBar Division is also making available 30 VIP tickets whereby the tastings will come with food pairings and a chance to mingle with the brewers from Three Floyds, Half Acre and Solemn Oath. That portion will run from 5 to 7pm and you can get those tickets here.
Dunlay's in the Square (3137 W. Logan) celebrates its eighth birthday tomorrow by offering each of its menu items for $8; I highly recommend the cookie skillet for dessert. If the wait is too atrocious, head north up to Milwaukee to Friendship Chinese (2830 N. Milwaukee) for their weekly deal ($9.95 for any dine-in menu item) or south to Revolution Brewery (2323 N. Milwaukee) for their weekly four course prix-fixe ($30-45).
Crain's reports that Great Lake (1477 W. Balmoral) is closing its Andersonville location at the end of this month, reportedly due to repair-related gripes with their landlord. Their new location is unknown at this point, but I'm sure it doesn't mean the wait will improve. Additionally, Logan Square's Knew (2556 W. Fullerton), the second act of the former Think, has closed. Elsewhere in the neighborhood, Brand BBQ (2824 W. Armitage) has closed--although the sign in the window says it's just for renovations, I have a feeling that it's for good.
RUB BBQ, 2407 W. Lunt Ave., will be moving in a few months around the corner (or just a few steps away if you go out the back door and past the smoker) to 6954 N. Western Ave. They're going to have an 800-square-foot kitchen (how big is your apartment?), which will be large enough for them to cook up a whole mess of the tasty barbecue they've been doing and still have plenty of room to serve it up to an even larger set of tables. But they're also looking forward to adding fried chicken, house-made chips, and house-brewed root beer.
Based on some of the recipes available on their Tumblr, I suspect there are going to be new desserts as well. Not that there is anything wrong with their Texas Sheet Cake, but with this case, more options can only be better.
The second episode of Moto and iNG chef/owner Homaro Cantu's online video series, "CookiNG Under Pressure," debuted this week. This episode focuses on Cantu's work with the miracle berry, a West African berry that messes with taste buds and makes sour things taste sweet. Moto and iNG have both featured dishes that showcase the miracle berry, and Cantu has written a new diet book, aptly named The Miracle Berry Diet Cookbook, to promote its use as a means of reducing sugar content in the American diet.
This week Cantu also announced a series of cooking classes featuring the miracle berry, from Jan. 2-12 (except Jan. 4 and 10). For $100 per person, attendees attend the class and receive a signed copy of The Miracle Berry Diet Cookbook and a six-course miracle berry-oriented tasting menu at iNG. Each class is limited to 30 people. Call 855-834-6464 to reserve your spot.
On the cusp of a new year, and in the midst of a wanderlusty conversation with one of my close friends, he reminded me that "It's not a bad thing to hit the 'reset' button every once in a while." And while my travel budget might be a bit tight, it's the endless possibilities for meeting new people--and getting acquainted with different local haunts that make Chicago so unique--that has me the most excited to begin this new year. If you're looking to break out of your social comfort zone this year, here are some foodie ways to satisfy your cravings.
In 2009, food blogging, social media and Yelp were gaining popularity, and America's revered gastronomic magazine Gourmet shuttered after 68 years in business. Former Cook's Illustrated editor-in-chief Chris Kimball followed with an editorial, stating that "The shuttering of Gourmet reminds... Read this feature »
Chef Cleetus Friedman called last night at about 8:30, two days after announcing the closure of his beloved locavore deli, City Provisions. "My biggest priority is getting through the next few days of closing up the store. I've had the hardest 48 hours of my life." 
Gapers Block is excited to announce our second annual BBQ Bowl barbecue competition. Join us from noon to 3pm on Saturday, Feb. 9 at 
Revolution Brewery celebrates its 
Eli's is making a 
Tickets are still available for Monday night's Farm Dinner at Lula (2537 N. Kedzie). While the event is something the Logan Square restaurant has been doing for over a decade, they are bringing on 
The 
Crain's 
