From a tadpole comes a frog: Now open, from the mother-and-son owners of Blue Frog Bar & Grill (676 N. LaSalle St.; 312-943-8900), River North’s charmingly scruffy go-to karaoke dive, is Blue Frog 22 (22 E. Hubbard St.; 312-527-1200), a more polished and spacious second location stocked with board games, 14 flat-screen TVs, an expanded menu—and, yes, karaoke…
Adding to the string of good restaurants closing lately, Tizi Melloul (531 N. Wells St.; 312-670-4338) will shut its doors May 15th after 11 years of business. One of Tizi’s owners, Steven Ford, says it was sold to as-yet-undisclosed parties for another restaurant concept.
Yes, the Kentucky Derby still bills itself as "the fastest two minutes in sports," despite the fact that the not-so-recent invention of motorized vehicles left the poor ponies in the dust a good while ago. And with the Louisville forecast calling for an 80 percent chance of "strong storms" all day tomorrow, the bound-to-be-muddy 136th Kentucky Derby isn’t likely to break any land speed records…
Last weekend, prior to dinner with friends at The Wit’s Cibo Matto, The Creative Director and I rode the elevator up to the 27th-floor bar Roof for one round of cocktails (a Manhattan and a vodka soda, to be exact). “That’ll be $23,” said the bartender, right before I picked my jaw up off the floor. Talk about sticker shock—that’s half the amount it takes to…
Brik Layer
The well-loved West Rogers Park Italian spot La Cucina di Donatella closed in 2008, but the chef/owner, Donatella Majore, is back, this time with a partner, Paolo di Costanzo, for the upcoming Donatella Mediterranean Bistro (1512 Sherman Ave., Evanston; 847-328-7720), slated to open in May. The most popular dishes from La Cucina will…
Just ask our nightlife writer Amalie Drury, who lives nearby: Old Townies and Lincoln Parkers alike spent the better part of winter drooling in wait for this new wine bar to open—and finally, last week, it did, with a list of 21 varieties available both by the glass and the bottle, plus a menu of Southern European small plates. Our photographer dropped by Friday night and found a chic crowd in a…
STEPHANIE IZARD, INC.: In the two years since the curly-haired Chicago chef won a TV reality show, she has managed to turn her 15 minutes of fame into the launching pad for a celebrity brand. Her $1.5-million, 130-seat restaurant in the West Loop is racing to open next month. Will the crowds come?
RELATED STORY: STEPHANIE IZARD PROFILE »
The design directive: the words “quirky,” “rustic,” and “badass.” With those marching orders, the Chicago-based design firm 555 helped incorporate the following elements.
There’s an art to sitting at a bar alone, and I’m still mastering it. (Mom: “Sweetie, if I were you, I wouldn’t spend too much time in bars alone. So unhealthy.”) I don’t know if women can pull it off as easily as men, who always have the option of hunching over some huge beer while staring with laser focus at a hockey game on the nearest flat-screen. But…
