Front Burner: Graham Elliot Bowles
July 2008: Halibut BLT
Ad Categories: Dining & Drinking
Nightspotted: Izard About Town
Celebrity Beat
Chicago’s Stephanie Izard, whose win on the hit Bravo series Top Chef aired last night, spent Tuesday pre-celebrating at Relax Lounge. She arrived at the West Town spot around 10:30 p.m. and stayed until close, sipping Grey Goose and tonics, and hanging out with friends including Dale Levitski, a runner-up from Top Chef’s previous season and a regular Tuesday-night bartender at Relax…
Italian Kicks, Cheap Tricks
Goodbye Milk, Hello Prosciutto
Carol Watson recently shuttered her Milk & Honey Bake Shop (1543 N. Damen Ave.; 773-227-1167) with plans to spin it into Cipollina, an Italian deli. “Business was fine, but I screwed up, quite frankly,” says Watson. “We don’t have a kitchen on site, so we were dragging everything over from Milk & Honey Café [1920 W. Division St.; 773-395-9434], and it was driving me nuts.” Watson is now working with John Manion (Mas) on a menu of…
Rock Star Bar King
Plenty of bars claim to be rock-‘n’-roll inspired (Rockwell Lounge, we hardly knew ye), but come this summer, Chicago finally gets a spot with an actual rock star leading the charge.
Earlier this year at an Obama fundraiser hosted by Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz, Lakeview Broadcasting Company’s Stephen Westman gave me the heads-up about Angels & Kings, a nightlife venture he’s launching with pals Wentz and Matt Eisler (Elm Street Liquors, Empire Liquors, Victory Liquors). An opening date of sorts has finally been announced for the bar’s Chicago outpost…
Burned: The Story of Grant Achatz's Cancer Recovery
FROM JUNE 2008: Thirty-three-year-old top chef. Stage-four cancer of the tongue. Grant Achatz has been to hell—and back
Just Say Oui
If, on a map of Wisconsin, you drew one line north from Madison and another west from Green Bay, those lines would intersect, allowing for a degree of artistic license, in Amherst, Wisconsin, home to Central Waters Brewing Company.
Until Memorial Day weekend—the bulk of which I spent shivering at a lakeside campsite in chilly Wisconsin—I’d never heard of Central Waters. For me, the ulterior motive behind any Wisconsin trip is restocking my inventory of New Glarus, the beer that first piqued my curiosity in Midwestern microbrews…
More (More, More) SATC
No surprise here: Thanks to females showing up en masse (see Estrogen Fest 2008), Carrie’s Manolos crushed Indy’s itty bitty crystal skull this weekend at the box office.
At AMC 600 North Michigan Avenue, former Illinois Film Office director Brenda Sexton, and her business partner, Suzie Glickman, hosted a private screening of Sex and the City on Friday night…with about 250 or so of their gal pals. (Take that, Dr. Jones.)…
Drink Local
The return of the local bar
5 More Spots to Get Your Whiskey Fix
Delilah’s, Five Star Bar & Grill, Stanley’s Kitchen & Tap, Duke of Perth, Twisted Spoke
Sweet Avenues
A Star Is Born
Dennis Ray Wheaton, Chicago magazine’s chief dining critic, is set to add a new name to the league of extraordinary chefs in Chicago: Curtis Duffy. Duffy, 32, recently stepped into the huge void left at Avenues (The Peninsula Chicago, 108 E. Superior St.; 312-573-6754) by the departure of Graham Elliot Bowles—a daunting task, even for a veteran of Alinea and Charlie Trotter’s. But it appears Duffy is up to the task. “The meal I had was in the league of [Grant] Achatz and Bowles, and beyond [Homaro] Cantu in brilliance of flavors and old-fashioned refinement,” Wheaton says. “Duffy uses a lot of grains, foams, berries, and you get the true…