Pro ballers fill out brackets, too. On Thursday, the Chicago Bulls’ power forward and 2009 first-round draft pick Taj Gibson hosted a March Madness kickoff party at the River North sports bar Bull & Bear—and while Gibson was gracious enough to sign autographs, he kept one eye on…
A green Wednesday night may an even greener Thursday morning make, but judging by the St. Patrick’s Day crowd at Chief O’Neill’s, it was well worth it. Our photographer headed to the Northwest Side pub, one of our 100 best bars, to snap the Triallta Irish Dance Company, the Emerald Society Pipe Band, and legions of Irish (and Irish-ish) revelers…
How stale bread soaks up the glory: our favorites from M. Henry, Pitchfork, Hearty, Mrs. Murphy and Sons Irish Bistro, Southport Grocery and Café, Suzette’s Crepêrie, and Gaetano’s Restaurant
Roll Out
Steven Song, who owned Tsunami, the Gold Coast sushi temple that closed last spring, returns to the scene with Masu Izakaya (1969 N. Halsted St.; no phone yet), scheduled to open late this month in the space that housed Minnies. It’ll be the second izakaya—Japanese after-work bar—to open in two months (Izakaya Hapa was first). “Izakaya dishes are a little bit…
There are miles and miles of endlessly sprinkled, technicolor-green grass in Palm Springs, and staring at it as I lounge by the pool shall be my ode to this over-hyped holiday. You see, I’m on vacation. It’s the first time in my nine Chicago years that I have missed St. Patrick’s Day—the bead-tossing, beer-guzzling, river-dyeing, midday-puking excuse for debauchery that, truth be told, I’ve never much understood…
“Chicago is too vibrant a town not to have more performance venues,” says the jazz violinist Diane Delin, who, with her husband, the jazz guitarist and singer Greg Pasenko, opened Club Blujazz on the eastern edge of Bucktown-Wicker Park last Friday. The couple run a recording label, also called Blujazz, and are drawing on their experience both behind the scenes and onstage (“We’ve been performing forever, and I’m old enough to say forever,” Delin says)…
Finagling our way into Chicago’s most exclusive new hot spot
A tip sheet for planning your visit
There’s a competition for everything, I guess—ugliest dog, extreme ironing, worm charming—but it never crossed my mind that somewhere, some people are going head-to-head over beer pouring. Tonight, that somewhere is Chicago, as the St. Patrick’s Day festivities swing into action and Guinness brewmaster Fergal Murray presides over a “pour the perfect pint” competition at Grace O’Malley’s in the South Loop…
”I wanted to do a little gourmet bagel shop that would utilize all these unique cream cheeses I came up with,” says Dion Antic, a partner at Wicker Park’s new bagel place. Cream cheese flavored with white truffle oil and pine nuts or with horseradish, Cheddar, and dill may sound gimmicky, but BoD also shakes … Read more
