A Perfect Pair: Paul Virant's Haute Farm Food and Craft Beer

Hey, Chicago, did you hear? Craft beer in the Windy City is kind of big now. With last month’s Stout Fest, last week’s Craft Brewers Conference, and the opening of three breweries in the past two years (Metropolitan, Half Acre, and, most recently, Revolution in Logan Square), it’s easy to feel a bit saturated—in suds…

Kitty Kelley's Oprah Winfrey Tell-All Shockingly Unshocking

I’m still slogging my way through Oprah: A Biography, Kitty Kelley’s latest O-pus (524 pages in length), which hit bookstores yesterday. So I don’t profess to know all that she spills therein. However, I do know the Kitty Kelley methodology, which I studied extensively in the spring and summer of 2008…

Live Bates

Our top five picks for things to do this week: The CSO hires its first DJ in residence (or close enough), plus a new Aaron Sorkin play at Timeline, Hot Chip, Neil Gaiman, and more

Fans of Minnesota Twins Baseball Say 'So Long, Metrodome!'

This year, the Minnesota Twins inaugurate Target Field, a new baseball-only venue to replace the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. Last weekend, I attended an exhibition game between the Twins and the St. Louis Cardinals at Target Field, and saw outdoor Major League Baseball in Minnesota for the first time since the Metrodome opened in 1982…

Books We Like: 'Grounded' by Seth Stevenson

If you’re a fan of the Ad Report Card at the online magazine Slate, then you’re already familiar with the writing of Seth Stevenson, who has been the column’s main contributor since 2003. Today, his first book—an epic travelogue titled Grounded: A Down to Earth Journey Around the World—came out…