Since I began writing The Chaser a year ago, I’ve become a regular on the cocktail-contest-judging circuit. It seems I’m now a booze expert (I know, Mom: It’s really not the best thing for maintaining youthful-looking skin or long-term health)…
Penny’s Love-Hate Relationship with Chicago Cut Steakhouse
Pollack popped into Chicago Cut Steakhouse (300 N. LaSalle St.; 312-329-1800), the city’s newest meat emporium, for a first impression of the contemporary American steak house from David Flom (14 years at Rosebud) and Matt Moore (12 years at Smith & Wollensky…
The third-annual Rib-A-Que Smoke-Out was scheduled to pit pitmaster against pitmaster in the parking lot of Wicker Park’s Moonshine on Saturday, rain or shine, and though skies hovered closer to the former, we spotted plenty of smiles from finger-licking patrons…
It never ceases to amaze me: the phenomenon of the reality-TV star. One minute she’s throwing back shots at some dreary college bar; the next minute she’s throwing back shots on a runaway MTV hit, an object of fascination for millions of target-market viewers ages 12 to 34 (I’m totally making up that age range, by the way—clearly skewing the…
Riding home on the back of The Creative Director’s motorcycle last night, I passed bar after bar, and with nothing else to do but hold on and occasionally admire the Super Harvest Moon, I peered in all of those bars’ windows and played my favorite game: Been There. John’s Place (been…
Chicago’s hottest restaurants this month
As the Stomach Turns
After a lot of big words and fewer than three weeks of work, Christian Fantoni is already out at Pensiero Ristorante (1566 Oak Ave., Evanston; 847-475-7779), and the owner, Michael Pure, sounds steamed…
PEER REVIEW: Anthony Bourdain is wrong: The food critic is not dead
The underground lair Watershed officially opened last week in the basement of Pops for Champagne. What was once a groovy jazz room is now an artisanal cocktail and craft beer den that our nightlife scout likens to her grandparents’ rural rec room—in a good way. With a drink list of 40-something…
Aren’t you simply exhausted by the endless efforts to be so unchicly chic? Grannies have taken over the runways; nerds are everywhere; and all the new bars are loosely modeled after barns. One more bite of down-home pork and I’ll explode…
