Last Girl Standing will help judge the fourth annual Finlandia Vodka Cup, a mixology competition featuring some of the city’s best bartenders, tonight at Bella Lounge. Check back tomorrow for a full report. The winning drink slinger goes on to compete in the finals in Lapland, Finland.
Polenta claims the limelight at this Ukrainian Village nook.
New (A Mano), Budget Beat (Winston’s Market), Hotel Haute Cuisine (Lockwood), Retro (Old Town Brasserie
To the nightlife set, Black Wednesday has nothing to do with the British pound being forced out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism back in September 1992. Instead, Black Wednesday—a.k.a. The Night Before Thanksgiving—means one thing: the biggest party of the year. Whether you’re looking to unwind before stuffing yourself with turkey or need an evening off before stomaching those holiday-induced family spats, we’ve rounded up the best ways to spend November 21st…
Truck Stop Gourmet
Jason Paskewitz (J.P. Chicago, Wave), who has been planning River North’s Jackson Park Bar and Grill for ages—now slated for mid-January—is also launching The 621 Diner (621 E. Roosevelt Rd.; Lombard), an old-fashioned Route 66 diner, on December 10th. “Just for fun, we are opening before Jackson Park,” he says. “It’ll be breakfast all day, like truck-stop blue-plate specials: burgers and milk shakes and patty melts and cakes that are like 18 inches high in a round rotating glass display. Just good roadside food.” Paskewitz won’t do the cooking at the 125-seat spot, but will…
Condolences to Kanye West for the untimely passing of his mom, the intelligent and outspoken Dr. Donda West, 58, whom I had the distinct pleasure of meeting this past summer. Dr. West, a former Chicago State English professor whose book, Raising Kanye: Life Lessons from the Mother of a Hip-Hop Superstar, came out last May, died of complications relating to a cosmetic surgery procedure Saturday in Los Angeles, according to people.com…
Thursday night marked the reopening of Le Passage, which changed hands a few months ago when it parted from the Billy Dec brood and joined Three Headed Productions, a.k.a. the masterminds behind Cans, Salud, Junior’s Sports Lounge, and EvilOlive. Under Dec and Brad Young, Le Passage served as River North’s go-to late-night spot for the last seven years, but the business partners sold their share earlier this year to focus on their other haunts, including Rockit, The Underground, and an Asian-influenced restaurant slated to open next year…
Pizza, Budget Beat, Loungestaurant, Big Opening
Into The Wilde
Next from Martin Cournane, the man behind The Kerryman (661 N. Clark St.; 312-335-8121), comes Wilde Bar & Restaurant (3130 N. Broadway; 773-244-0404). His 185-seat “upscale pub food” spot will open November 12th with Alan Katz (Blue Mesa, Cullen’s) as chef. “Alan adds that extra flair to those bar-food favorites [wings, meat loaf, fish and chips, et cetera],” says Cournane. He even serves lemon syllabub, an obscure, centuries-old English dessert that Cournane describes as “white wine, sugar, and lemon made into a syrup, mixed into whipped cream, and served in a glass with sugar biscuits.” Toss in the pub’s 12 draft beers, two fireplaces, and…
Who knew Last Girl Standing was kind of like confession? Here, the most notable quotes from the last week:
“There I was, standing in a room with 700 women and three gay guys.”
–The Boyfriend, in reference to me dragging him to Thursday’s opening party for the new ultra-feminine Nanette Lepore store in Bucktown
“Oh, my god. Do you want to die? I think I lost my virginity to an R. Kelly CD. I think we put the music up really loud.”
–Kim Kardashian, in an interview I conducted…
