Nightlifers, meet Amalie Drury (less like “ah-ma-LEE,” the fictional Frenchie; more like “Emily,” with a Kentucky accent). Once you’ve mastered the Southernese, say hello if you see our new girl-about-town—a Louisville native and longtime CS vet—on the scene. She’ll be scouting the city’s best spots to drink and people watch, not necessarily in that order, then reporting on it Thursdays here in The Chaser. We asked Amalie a few questions to break the ice…
Italian wanderlust in a boutique hotel
Doughy, delicious Neapolitan pizza is served at this brick oven pizzeria
Two Floors of Japan
After a year of business, Farmerie 58 (58 E. Ontario St.), a massive Gold Coast space with an identity crisis (farm-oriented bistro? Raw bar? Pub?), has closed. The current plan calls for the ground level to reopen later this fall as a sushi bar with Ming San (formerly of Rise) as the sushi chef. If all goes as expected, the upstairs will eventually unveil as a
Good dining in a museum and a department store? It’s true
What’s good for the gander is good for the other gander: Oscar Wilde gets his due at East Lake View’s Wilde Bar & Restaurant; now Samuel Beckett earns a similar tip of the cap with Beckett’s Public House (3210 N. Lincoln Ave.; 773-880-9620), a new Irish pub in West Lake View from the Wilde team of Paul Sheahan (“He says it ‘SHEE-han,'” explains general manager Rob Potter) and Martin Cournane (“He says it ‘COR-nan’: They’re…
Quick Hit
We’ve heard the buzz on Chilam Balam (3023 North Broadway; 773-296-6901), a new cash-only Mexican BYO run by Chuy Valencia, an alum of Frontera Grill, but Pollack was skeptical. Especially when the halibut seviche ($9.25) and guacamole and chips ($7.25)—both recommended by the gregarious waiter—arrived in a flash and looked small, especially the guac, even by small-plate standards. Pollack’s upsell alert bell went off, but both were…
Lederhosen, lager, Lincoln Square: Must be the North Side hamlet’s German Day Festival (a.k.a. Oktoberfest). Our photographer caught folks midpolka on Friday, the first night of the weekend-long fest, before heading inside the neighborhood tavern Huettenbar…
Maybe they didn’t get the memo: Despite the chance to don their white kicks one last time before Labor Day Fashion Police put the kibosh on said footwear, a Sunday night crowd showed up to Hub 51’s White Shoes Party largely white shoe–free. Oh, well. At least this way folks weren’t crying over spilt wine on their sparkling Choos…
Neapolitics in Downers Grove
Parkers’ Restaurant & Bar (1000 31st St., Downers Grove; 630-960-5700), a new farm-friendly American revamp of Parkers’ Ocean Grill, also happens to serve Neapolitan pizza so serious that it received Naples’ treasured VPN (Vera Pizza Napoletana) certification. “We had a wood-burning oven since we opened as Parkers’, but we didn’t really utilize it…
