What does 20 bucks get you these days anyways? Southport Grocery has quite the answer for that. This Friday night, from 7-10pm, it will get you a no-reservations good time at this unique eatery, grocer and - for the night - art space. Fitfully dubbed, Drink Up Art, the event will feature new creations from local artists as well as the opportunity to partake in an educational wine tasting. Finger foods will be available for purchase (a measly $5 to $8) compliments of the grocery as well. Food, wine, art -- what more could you ask for? Drink it all up! The Southport Grocery & Cafe is located at 3552 N Southport. Tasting and art show run from 7 - 10pm. (773) 665-0100
Lettuce Entertain You is getting into the donut game -- right now. The restaurant group is the financial backer for Do-Rite Donuts & Coffee, which begins serving serving small batch gourmet donuts and coffee at 50 W. Randolph St. -- a small storefront carved out of Petterino's -- at 6:30am on Thursday.
Do-Rite is co-owned by chefs Francis Brennan and Jeff Mahin. Both chefs have a history with Lettuce Entertain You: Brennan created the bread program at L2O and took over as executive chef after Laurent Gras left the Michelin-starred restaurant before making way for Matthew Kirkley in November, and Mahin is chef-partner at Stella Rossa Pizza Bar, one of LEYE's restaurants in Santa Monica, CA.
Do-Rite will be open Monday through Friday starting at 6:30am, and will be frying donuts fresh every hour until 11am -- though Mahin said some varieties may run out early. "We're cooking donuts every hour, 24 to 36 at a time." The shop will stay open after 11am until the last batch runs out. You'll be able to keep an eye on supply and daily selection by following @DoRiteDonuts on Twitter.
Who knows why, but today is National Margarita Day. Warmer than usual weather aside, a margarita is in fact a great way to get a taste of summer in cold and dreary February. And the Drawing Room's Charles Joly has a perfect cocktail to fit the season and the celebration. Eve's Answer is a "cool weather margarita" that Joly won the International Margarita Competition with. It was also selected by Chicago magazine as one of the 20 best cocktails in the city, so you know you're in for a treat.
Eve's Answer
1½ oz. Reposado tequila
¾ oz. lemon juice
½ oz. spiced raisin syrup
1 oz. local cider
mist of mezcal (optional)
cinnamon stick garnish
Most of us know about Rick Bayless from Frontera Grill and Topolobamp and his stint on Top Chef's Masters. And if there's anyone to be associated with authentic Mexican cuisine in Chicago, its him. But how many of us knew that Rick also moonlights as an . . . actor? On March 1st, Chicago Live! returns to its new space in the UP Comedy Club in Old Town with none other than one of our foodie favorites Rick Bayless to discuss his upcoming role in Cascabel. Food bloggers (or Rick Bayless fans) take note, this season Chicago Live has added the new "Tweet Seat" section reserved solely for local writers and bloggers with mad Twitter thumbs skills. Six seats are reserved for every show and a complimentary pass can be won by replying to the weekly Friday callout posted on Twitter by @TribChicagoLive. Tickets for regular seats can be purchased at www.UPComedyClub.com, at the Second City Box Office, located at 1616 N. Wells St., or via phone (312) 337‐3992. General admission tickets are $18; premium seats are $28.
Considering that it would be sacrilegious for me to skip writing about Mardi Gras since I am a born and raised Cajun girl, I thought I couldn't miss the opportunity to write about the quintessential Cajun dish: the gumbo. Unlike any other Cajun dishes, gumbo is the best yet most difficult thing to perfect. If you ask any Cajun how it's done, the first thing you'll hear is, "Well, first you start with a roux, cher." Roux (pronounced roo) is the ubiquitous stock in Cajun cuisine. Oil and flour, browned to the color of coffee, slightly entertaining the fine line of burnt. Mais cher (that's pronounced "may sha," stay with me), that's the start of everything good and right about a gumbo.
Hoping that Cajun cuisine had finally made its way to Chicago, I thought I'd take a visit to Big Jones in Andersonville to taste chef Paul Fehribach's version of low country, Cajun, and Creole, which included the holy grail of gumbo and boudin. Boudin ("boo-den") is rice dressing stuffed into casing. It looks like a sausage, and technically, the name boudin refers to cold cut, but it's not sausage. Unlike every other sausage I've met in my life (gutters people, gutters), once you steam it or boil it, you can actually squeeze out the rice dressing and spread it on a nice chunk of bread. But I digress. The menu seemed spot on: Gumbo Ya-Ya, Crawfish Boudin, Andouille, there was even a reference to chow-chow on the menu (a spicy relish) and no one's ever said chow-chow here in Chicago without meaning a breed of dog. I felt at home. I immediately went in for the Gumbo Ya-Ya and Crawfish Boudin and a side of hush puppies for sharing. If Big Jones had got it right, I would be like a Californian boy stuck in Kansas.
The 2012 James Beard Award semifinalists were announced today, and of course several Chicago spots were on the list.
Bistronomic and Next are semifinalists for Best New Restaurant, along with 27 others. That list will be narrowed to five, and if I were to guess, Next might make the final cut but Bistronomic most likely would not. Meanwhile, Next executive chef Dave Beran is a semifinalist for Rising Star Chef of the Year, along with Matthew Kirkley of L2O and David Posey of Blackbird. Bistronomic's Martial Noguier is a semifinalist for Best Chef: Great Lakes. Also nominated in that category are Michael Carlson of Schwa, Stephanie Izard of Girl & the Goat, Martial Noguier of Bistronomic, Chris Nugent of Goosefoot, Brice Sherman of North Pond, Giuseppe Tentori of GT Fish & Oyster, Paul Virant of Vie and Andrew Zimmerman of Sepia. Carlson, Sherman and Virant were finalists last year, but Alex Young of Zingerman's Roadhouse, the only non-Chicagoland finalist, took home the award.
Interestingly, also nominated for Best Chef: Great Lakes is Josh Adams of June in downstate Peoria Heights; it's rare to see such an isolated restaurant receive attention from the Beard Foundation. Adams cooked a meal at the Beard House in New York in 2010, and clearly made an impression.
Uncommon Ground Edgewater along with the Good Food Festival present James Beard award wining video producer Michael Gebert's film, The Butcher's Karma! this Thursday night, Feb. 23. The night includes a dinner of four courses prepared by Chef Chris Spear along with drinks, the film, and a discussion to follow. Gebert's film features three local butchers (Rob Levitt of The Butcher & Larder, Paul Kahan of Publican Quality Meats, and Bartlett Durand of Black Earth Meats), and their mission to source locally farmed and sustainably raised meats for their businesses. Here's the preview that was posted on Gebert's blog, Sky Full of Bacon:
Tickets can be purchased here for $50 a person. Reception starts at 6:30. Uncommon Ground Edgewater is located at 1401 W. Devon Ave. (773) 465-9801
Uncommon Ground on Clark presents a tasting event this Wednesday featuring local midwestern microbrewery, New Holland Brewing. The tasting will showcase a different brew paired with thoughtfully planned dishes across 3 courses. The first course pairs the 'mad hatter' pale ale with a bartlett pear and baby arugula salad, ancho bbq beef ribs are matched with the 'sundog' amber ale, and rounding out with a sweet serving is 'the poet' oatmeal stout accompanied by a mocha chocolate pot de creme. Are you on the phone yet? Seating is limited, so hop to it. Tasting runs from 6 to 8 pm and reservations are $25 per person. Call (773) 929-3680 to reserve your seat today. Uncommon Ground on Clark is located at 3800 N Clark St.
Grange Hall Burger Bar (844 W Randolph), is a Rockwell painting. It's charming and simple. It's Grandma's prairie barn-- a kitsch dream, touting a farm-to-table ethic, an homage to family farmers and husbandry. Johnny Cash and Hank Williams croon over the speakers and long, communal tables are set with mismatched cloth napkins. Attention to detail is definitely paid here as every item plays a part-- from the cucumber/lemon water to the bar, balanced over old wooden dressers. Angela and Chris Lee, owners of De Cero and Sushi Wabi, truly know how to set a scene. And now, the scene is open for lunch, Tuesday through Friday starting at 11am, with dinner service, Tuesday through Saturday, from 3pm to 10pm. They also offer a Farmer's breakfast Saturdays and Sundays from 9am to 1pm.
The plaid-clad staff is warm and friendly, happy to bring out your local, grass-fed beef burger out on a cafeteria lunch tray, accompanied with cups of ketchup, mustard, mayo and house-made sweet pickle, with options for additional toppings. They also serve a house-ground turkey thigh burger with sage and white onion, and a vegetarian wild rice and sauteed vegetable burger on a toasted house-made bun (gluten-free option available). But, you're there for the beef, which you won't be able to put down due to its tasty factor, and because it's so juicy it may fall apart. You're also there for the many flavors of Faygo, the only soda they carry, and for the Farmhouse chili fries, which you will inevitably order. And when you do, you'll be given a choice of a few local cheeses-- go with the bleu. Your waiter will come to your table to follow up as you, mouth full, are unable to respond and, with Han Solo's confidence, he'll just say, "I know."
They have no doubts about their house-churned ice cream. The rosemary pecan ice cream is strong and clean, incredibly light and not overly sweet. They also have seasonal pies, which they change up monthly-- this month's pie is chocolate pudding pie, and come March, they'll be serving key lime.
Seriously, this place couldn't be more wholesome. Tasty and comforting, worth checking out.
More specifically beer in pancake batter. But not just any beer, and not just plain pancake batter. Bobbi over at Fresh and Foodie created a delicious-looking recipe that utilizes Goose Island's Bourbon County Stout to be the winning flavor behind her Bourbon County Stout Pancakes with Cardamom-Spiced Maple Syrup. I think the thing I like best about this recipe is that there is just a pinch more work with these pancakes compared to plain-jane pancakes, but you'll get significantly more flavor. So skip the brunch-line next weekend and eat fancy pancakes in your pajamas.
For those of you disheartened by Boka Restaurant Group's closing of Landmark Grill last summer, fret no more. Its replacement Balena--Italian slang for "whale"-- a collaboration between Boka and the folks at The Bristol, is on its way in the same location (1633 N. Halsted) sometime this week, or next week...or whenever the paint dries.
The menu concept is based around rustic Italian-inspired food, like kale panzanella and margherita pizza, and fans of mixologists Debbi Peek and Benjamin Schiller can get a taste of their interpretation of the Italian cocktail with an inspired drink and wine menu. But if this place takes off like all the other Boka restaurants have, be one of the first to get in the door.
Man, this season just WILL NOT END, will it? The final four were put through the ringer, and then we learn there's still one more elimination before the finale? Three thoughts on the increasingly interminable "Top Chef."
Natural Light + Padma = Pure Magic. I've been thinking all season that Padma just looked off her game, but put her in a fur hat on top of a brightly lit mountain and hot damn, it's like Season Four all over again. Take that, Texas denim and weird jumpers.
Last night's challenges managed to cover motion sickness and near-murder, as the chefs cooked in gondolas and then hacked their ingredients out of ice blocks with picks and pans. I seriously thought Bev stabbed Paul at one point -- and was then expecting to see Charlize Theron pop out of a nearby snowbank, cackling and rolling in the blood. (Did I mention I'm on some cold meds this week?) If you thought the final biathalon face-off between Chicago chefs Bev and Sarah looked comically easy -- chefs flailing in the snow, knocking each other off their skis and flopping down slight hills -- I would only comment that you may not be familiar with the hyper-demanding full-body workout that is cross-country skiing. Plus, they'd clearly never skied before! All I could think of was how SORE those poor girls are going to be for the rest of the finale(s). Bev showed off her bruises back in the ad hoc stew room, and they already looked painful.
But even with those war wounds, it wasn't enough to claw her way back to the top -- Bev's final dish of slow-roasted artic char with earthy celery root sauce and onion crust was deemed lesser than Sarah's braised rabbit with cherries. Chicago salutes you, Beverly Kim, for your tenacity! And you, Sarah Grueneberg, for repping our fair city into the final three. (And both of their home restaurants, Aria and Spiaggia are on the Restaurant Week list, if that pesky TV screen is getting between you and your Top Chef-quality eating.) Only two (?) more episodes to go...
Have you ever actually watched someone eat popcorn? Watch a rational human being become a ravenous animal. It's home and you're comfortable, watching a movie while thoughtlessly stuffing your face, kernel after kernel. What about when you're at the theater? You paid your first month's rent for that movie-goers snack combo #4 and, damn it, you're going to make sure to get your money's worth.
Popcorn can be pretty intoxicating. Once popped, heads perk up like little meerkats in the Kalahari.
"Is someone popping popcorn... anywhere?"
Well, let me tell you, there are ways to make it better still.
Remember how fat makes everything delicious? Remember how everyone (except vegetarians and vegans and folks keeping halal and kosher, and...) loves bacon? Remember how anything cooked in bacon fat is at least 50 percent tastier than before? Well, Revolution Brewery figured it out and jumped on the bacon bandwagon, except they go the extra mile,
not only cooking their popcorn in bacon fat, but adding pieces of delicious, crispy bacon on top, with a veritable snow fall of Parmesan cheese and fried sage leaves. It works. So well.
"The Mediated Plant" is the seventh installment of our short film series, The Grid. These documentaries are posted throughout Gapers Block and compiled in their own multimedia feature section.
An examination of how The Plant -- Chicago's Vertical Farm and food business incubator -- has been represented in the media. Learn more at plantchicago.com.
The Grid co-creators Ben Kolak and David Nagel have been documenting The Plant since 2009. More information about their work towards a feature-length documentary is available at vimeo.com/plantchicago.
About The Grid
This video is part of a series profiling Chicago businesses, subcultures and landscapes. These short, lyrical documentaries aspire to be art cinema, ethnographies, and experiments in form. Producer Ben Kolak's directorial debut, Scrappers, won Best Documentary at the Chicago Underground Film Festival and made Roger Ebert's list of top documentaries for 2010. Editor Dave Nagel is a recent University of Chicago graduate. Graphic Designer Akemi Hong is a recent graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago's graduate program in Visual Communication Design. Jenna Blackburn, an undergrad at University of Chicago, and Victor La Porte, an undergrad at DePaul University, also contributed.
Considering that it would be sacrilegious for me to skip writing about Mardi Gras since I am a born and raised Cajun girl, I thought I couldn't miss the opportunity to write about the quintessential Cajun dish: the gumbo. Read this feature »
What does 20 bucks get you these days anyways? Southport Grocery has quite the answer for that. This Friday night, from 7-10pm, it will get you a no-reservations good time at this unique eatery, grocer and - for the night - art space. Fitfully dubbed, Drink Up Art, the event will feature new creations from local artists as well as the opportunity to partake in an educational wine tasting. Finger foods will be available for purchase (a measly $5 to $8) compliments of the grocery as well. Food, wine, art -- what more could you ask for? Drink it all up! The Southport Grocery & Cafe is located at 3552 N Southport. Tasting and art show run from 7 - 10pm. (773) 665-0100
Who knows why, but today is 
The 2012 
More specifically beer in pancake batter. But not just any beer, and not just plain pancake batter. Bobbi over at 
