Got Twenty Bucks?

Eat Here. Now.
More often than not, we know all about any remotely promising restaurant months before it serves its first meal, but every now and then, a true gem comes out of nowhere. Han 202 (605 W. 31st St.; 312-949-1314), a chic 38-seat Amercian/pan-Asian BYO that opened two months ago in Bridgeport, is just such a place. Guan Chen, the chef-partner and his wife, Yan Ruan (former owners of Evanston’s Nine Fish), push the envelope with their prix fixe menu (five courses; $20. “That’s nice value, right?” asks Ruan, in the understatement of the year). On a recent visit…

Dish Flash

Playing the Piano
Pollack and one of her favorite Dish spies couldn’t resist checking out lunch at Terzo Piano a few short weeks after the long awaited spot—touting a Tony Mantuano (Spiaggia) menu—opened its doors. A full review will appear in…

Shanghai Surprise

While I pretty much love any place that serves a good drink, restaurant-bars (hello, Lula!) are a personal favorite: better chance of grabbing a seat, good food at the ready, ample wine list. So I was primed to try the year-or-so-old Wang’s (3317 N. Broadway; 773-296-6800), a sort-of restaurant bar attached to the Lake View sushi spot Wakamono that’s been on my to-do list for too long…

Three Big Piggies Go to Market

Purple Hearts
Get ready to pig out. Scott Harris (Mia Francesca) and Jimmy Bannos (Heaven on Seven) (plus a third well-known chef who wishes to remain anonymous for now) are at work on The Purple Pig (500 N. Michigan Ave.), a Mediterranean “cheese, wine, and swine” spot. Bannos’s son, Jimmy Bannos, Jr.—a veteran of various Mario Batali places in New York (Esca, Lupa, Del Posto) for the past five years—will be the chef at the 65-seat Mag Mile spot on the ground floor of what some people know as…