1 Sweetwater 225 N. Michigan Ave. People watchers and sports fans alike will go for the views and the outdoor TVs at this happy-hour fave’s new sidewalk patio. 2 44th Ward Dinner Party 3542 N. Halsted St. This one-year-old bar launches a new amenity: total seclusion at an outdoor table for two, complete with a … Read more
Already the site of the recent openings of Aldino’s and Davanti Enoteca, Little Italy will soon get a new paired restaurant and bar. The restaurant, One.Six One (1251 W. Taylor St.; 312-226-1611), is named for the golden ratio (a.k.a. phi or 1.618 and so forth)…
You don’t have to be an Ayn Rand fan to hang out at Fountainhead, a new bar on the border of North Center and Ravenswood that shares its name with Rand’s 1943 novel—but you do have to like beer. Phil Kuhl, the bar’s manager and beer director, won a local following as the headmaster…
We have a weakness for Moroccan grub. The exotic and sultry native spices don’t hurt, but we are absolute suckers for the fruit, nuts, and honey that show up in most every dish. Shokran’s hospitable owner, Khalid Kamal, offers all that and more in his comfy BYO located a walnut’s toss from the Blue Line … Read more
Innocuous, I thought, as I took in the oak tables and brown leather booths at Nicksons Eatery. So the reach of Nick Baca’s regional American menu—East Coast sea scallops, Colorado elk burger—took me by surprise. The crab cakes were much like the room—pleasant but hardly novel. The andouille gumbo, however, put my spice meter on … Read more
In this town, crowd-pleasing Italian fare is a hop, skip, and a jumbo crab cake away from crowd-pleasing steak houses. So it’s no surprise that Ben-ny Siddu (Volare) latched on to beef. Prime aged steaks, seafood, a global wine list, and signature cocktails sound familiar, but Siddu snagged a star-studded team to execute the plan: … Read more
Any barbecue joint whose menu boasts “No prefabricated crap” had better bring its A game. On paper, Avondale’s Pork Shoppe has reason to be cocky: Its meat, smoked for hours in a blend of hardwoods, comes from local farms in Forreston, Illinois. The chef, Jason Heiman (Tizi Melloul), developed the menu, which includes “hot-out-the-smoker” pulled … Read more
BETTER BETA?: A Bucktown favorite gets a controversial face-lift
TURNING THE TABLES: The idea was simple: I would invite Tramonto (a complete stranger) to our West Town condo to join me, my wife, Jen, and a few friends for dinner.
Monday is the inaugural trip for Flirty Cupcakes, the mobile cupcake seller that managed to find a way to comply with Chicago’s strict food-truck laws. Here’s where the Flirty van plans to stop…
