Brand New: Cibo Matto
By August all of Chicago could be hooked on this restaurant’s promised roasted whitefish with peperonata, balsamic, and parsley oil.
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Coming Soon: Happ Inn Bar and Grill
Assets include a bucolic outdoor patio, old family recipes, and organic grass-fed beef.
35th Street Café
If the casually charming 35th Street Café served nothing but its superb, just-made chips, we would still be fans. But there’s also actual food, protein and vegetables and things.
Recreational Drinking
Heading to Andersonville on a beer mission is nothing new, but steering past Hopleaf is—and yet, last night I managed to close my ears to its sudsy call and continue on to a new microbrew destination: Mary’s Rec Room.…
Hearty Boys Town
Moral and Hearty
Steve McDonagh and Dan Smith, a.k.a. the Hearty Boys, are quietly moving forward with plans to turn their catering facility/TV studio (3819 N. Broadway; 773-244-9866) into a full-service restaurant, Hearty. “We’re calling it that, because that’s what the food will be,” says McDonagh. “It’s all twists on American comfort-food classics, like a deconstructed tuna casserole, which is…
Singled Out: Strawberry Shortcake
Sean Sanders, the chef/owner of Browntrout, loves to play around with familiar flavors from his past to bridge the gap between adolescence and maturity.
Weekend Photos: The Red Canary
Although its official opening date is still in flux (our source says as soon as midweek; stay tuned for updates), we scored a sneak peek of The Red Canary, a new “gastro-lounge” in the old Avenue M address, at a preview party late last week. Gone is the previous tenant’s airy interior; the look is now…
Nine Questions for the Smallbar Guys
I spent Monday night engaged in just about the best possible Monday-night activity: drinking $4 Allagash Whites on Smallbar’s dreamy patio. I named the Logan Square spot my favorite bar in my very first Chaser post, and things haven’t changed much since then—for me. But for the guys behind the bar, and its sibling location on Division Street, change is afoot: namely, a third location, slated to open in…
Dining Out: Greek Revival
A Wicker Park spot breathes new life into an old cuisine; the Ravinia crowd finally gets a good dining option
Dining Tidbits
MINI REVIEW SALUTE WINE BAR An Italian wine bar. Piatti piccoli, panini, formaggi. Cutesy patio. Spumantes and chiantis galore. Did we have to? But Salute, barely noticeable between the sports bar madness of Jake Melnick’s and curlicued kitsch of 1492 Tapas Bar, charmed the pants off us. For starters, we expressed interest in a glass … Read more