Bill Kim Tests Out Country Belly at Pop-Up Restaurant

Belly Up

This Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., as part of the Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival, Logan Square Kitchen (2333 N. Milwaukee Ave.; 773-342-2333), a commercial kitchen and event space, hosts a pop-up restaurant with food from Bill Kim (Urbanbelly, Belly Shack) and Jason Hammel (Lula Cafe, Nightwood). Kim says he’s using the pop-up to field-test food for an inkling of a new restaurant called Country Belly. Kim’s menu:

Weekend Photos: Curio

Modeled after a speakeasy and tucked underneath the popular River North restaurant Gilt Bar (230 W. Kinzie St.), Curio opened in mid-June as a welcome spot for sipping hand-crafted cocktails and admiring some Prohibition-era décor. Our photographer dropped by Friday night and caught a small but stylish crowd lounging on the luxurious leather…

The Great Escape: Icy Cocktails, Cool Hangouts

Feel free to remind me of this throughly ungrateful statement sometime in mid-February, but at this very moment I can’t help it: I’ve had it up to here with the heat. I want to take a break from sweating while waiting for a patio seat, sweating while making small talk, sweating while sipping a warmish beer and sweating while eating a link of encased meat…

Dish Flash: Mia Figlia Now Open in Edgebrook

We at Dish are always on the lookout for dining trends, and an odd one just materialized: restaurateurs with Tizi Melloul on their resumés. After Pork Shoppe and The Portage, the newest restaurant from a Tizi vet is Mia Figlia (5304 W. Devon Ave.; 773-792-8300), which opened July 2nd near the Edgebrook Metra stop…

Dish Flash: Lillie’s Q Is Coming to North Avenue

Barbecue is the new black. Pork Shoppe, The Piggery, Smokey Bears BBQ House, Chicago Q, Q BBQ, Brand BBQ Market, and Rub BBQ Company have all either opened in the last year or plan to open soon. Here’s another one to add to the list: Lillie’s Q (1856 W. North Ave.; 773-772-5500)

Boiler Room Opens

The new spot previously anticipated as Nice Slice Pizza Bar—a venture from the folks behind Simone’s, with a similarly eye-popping interior kit out by the same design team—opened Thursday in Logan Square, and our photographer was on site to document the vast sea of pies, the endless pints of craft brews, and the—daylight!—line down the block…

Dish Flash: Brasserie Jo to close in August; Melman brothers to open new French restaurant

Brasserie Jo (59 West Hubbard St.), the popular French restaurant in River North, will close its doors at the end of August, said Jerrod Melman of Lettuce Entertain You in an exclusive interview with Dish. With the lease expiring on the critically acclaimed brasserie next month, Jerrod and his brother, R. J., will renovate and reopen the…