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Event Wed Jan 28 2015
The Best of Restaurant Week
Chicago Restaurant Week, the annual event that kicks off this Friday fot twelve days of specially priced prix-fixe lunch and dinners at over 300 restaurants in the city, was a real novelty when it first began several years ago. I could now eat at restaurants that I normally couldn't afford to even walk past, so I felt pretty classy when I rolled up to Naha for my table for one. I marveled over every course in the exquisite dining room as I ate my lunch surrounded by suits with fancy job titles. I was so charmed by everything that when I mindlessly left my camera in the cab that took me back to work afterwards, I promptly ordered its replacement. Life was too short for bad food and no way to take photos.
The event has grown in size, but still has good competition. Naha's Restaurant Week menu this year looks as good as ever, with extremely intriguing offerings from Table 52, Balena, West Town's Two, Wicker Park's Trencherman, and River North's Nico Osteria. Even culinary schools are getting into it, with the dining room at Kendall College and the Washburne Culinary Institute-staffed Parrot Cage at the South Shore Cultural Center offering menus. And if all this overwhelms, you can even eat at the grocery store. You can sample some of this year's participating restaurants at Thursday's First Bites Bash at Union Station, which doubles as a benefit for Inspiration Corporation.