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...

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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...

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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...

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Le Passage Lives! Plus, a New York Invasion

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…

Lemon Syllabub, Horses, and Bobby Flay

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…

Scene and Overheard

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…

Plan Your NYE Now

I received this e-mail the other week from an LGS reader:

Sarah,
Can you give us your thoughts on a good New Year’s Eve party this year? We are all single, professional women, different ethnicities, and in our 30s. All suggestions are welcome. Thanks!

That’s a question I’m plagued by every year—along with just about everyone I know. “I’ve never had an amazing New Year’s Eve here,” one friend said to me recently. “How sad is that?”…

Thin-Crust Pizza Has Its Day

A Tale of Two Pizzas
La Madia (59 W. Grand Ave.; 312-329-0400), a long-awaited contemporary pizzeria, opened on October 17th; four days later and three blocks away, Pizzeria Via Stato (620 N. State St.; 312-337-6634) fired up its new Wood Stone oven and baked its first Roman-style pizza. So how do these two River North competitors stack up? La Madia’s crust has great personality—tender chewy, an eense of salt, and lots of soul. Via Stato’s is no slouch, however, with its lighter-than-air blistered collar and crackery texture. Topping for topping, La Madia’s artichokes were light on flavor but the…

Time Tables

The West Loop’s gorgeous Sepia is a good restaurant that could someday be a great one; Café 103’s tiny BYO charms the taste buds off its Beverly neighbors

Halloween for Grownups

Forget long road trips stuck in the car with squabbling siblings (although we had some of that, too): My 10-day trip to Italy completely redefined “family vacation.” We spent a chunk of the trip holed up in a Tuscan villa, but we were officially there for my uncle’s wedding, which took place in Rome at the magnificent Borghese Castle . Who knows? The next wedding I attend could be my own…

PLUS: A few spots to get your own trick-or-treat on