comments section. Bookmark that page and check back. Or simply decide on a bar, club, or restaurant, visit its Web site, and make your reservations, stat. Keep in mind: Most packages cover eats and drinks until midnight, so if you show up later on, in most instances, you'll just have to pay for cover and a cash bar (some neighborhood bars don't even charge a cover)...

" /> comments section. Bookmark that page and check back. Or simply decide on a bar, club, or restaurant, visit its Web site, and make your reservations, stat. Keep in mind: Most packages cover eats and drinks until midnight, so if you show up later on, in most instances, you'll just have to pay for cover and a cash bar (some neighborhood bars don't even charge a cover)...

" /> comments section. Bookmark that page and check back. Or simply decide on a bar, club, or restaurant, visit its Web site, and make your reservations, stat. Keep in mind: Most packages cover eats and drinks until midnight, so if you show up later on, in most instances, you'll just have to pay for cover and a cash bar (some neighborhood bars don't even charge a cover)...

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Ad Categories: Dining & Drinking

NYE: The Countdown

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It’s crunch time, people. If you haven’t yet started making your New Year’s Eve plans, get to it. Since I first posted about NYE parties in November, notices have been flooding my inbox and this blog’s comments section. Bookmark that page and check back. Or simply decide on a bar, club, or restaurant, visit its Web site, and make your reservations, stat. Keep in mind: Most packages cover eats and drinks until midnight, so if you show up later on, in most instances, you’ll just have to pay for cover and a cash bar (some neighborhood bars don’t even charge a cover)…

Hello, Purgatory; bye-bye, Bubala

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Hot off the Grill
“We just wanted to bring Korean food to Old Town, or downtown, because everything else is located up north,” says Okcha McDonald, a partner at three-week-old Red Top Grill (1507 N. Sedgwick St.; 312-981-1775). RTG is in the old Heat space and the former sushi bar is now decked with built-in gas grills for Korean barbecue. All the classics are on hand—bibim bap, bulgogi, galbi, chap chae—and plenty of kimchi. McDonald admits that parking around there is terrible but they are working on valet service and, for now, the place is BYO with no corkage. Not a bad tradeoff for stowing the car a few blocks away. 

One Down, Two to Go
As reported here last week, Meritage (2118 N. Damen Ave.; 773-235-6434) will close on January 1st. But even before the owner, Chris Peckat, turns the key for the last time, he plans to launch his next venture, Risqué Café (3419 N. Clark St.), an American smokehouse. While Drew Neimeyer (Peckat’s Meritage chef) bones up on ribs, duck wings, turkey legs, and pulled pork, Peckat keeps busy with the selection of 200 to 300 American craft beers to go with the ’cue. But that’s not all…

Jews and Brews

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Despite the sloshy weather and falling ice, I got back to my roots Saturday night and attended the Heeb magazine storytelling event at the shiny-new Spertus Museum. (Question: How does a sign that reads “Caution: Falling Ice” do anything to keep you from getting hit by said ice? Apparently Krueck + Sexton, the architects behind the magnificent new Spertus facility, didn’t think of everything when they designed those slanted glass panels.)

For those unfamiliar with Heeb, it’s a hip, irreverent magazine for young Jewish types (like me). At Saturday’s storytelling event, part of a nationwide series, comedians and writers got seven minutes…

Scene and Overheard: Thanksgiving Weekend

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The Most Creative and Simultaneously Self-Deprecating Birthday Bash Award Goes to … Rockit Ranch’s Arturo Gomez. Upon entering his party last Wednesday at The Underground, every guest was handed a pair of thick, black-plastic eyeglass frames and instructed to wear them throughout the evening, so that everyone resembled the guest of honor, whose ubiquitous Prada specs never leave his face. A roomful of pretty people sporting nerdy glasses? Priceless…. PLUS: quotes & notes, most interesting press release, things to do tonight, more…

E-mail soup, jerk chicken, Mazel Tov martinis

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Cyber Soup
Marcello Cancelli has managed dining rooms and wine lists at places such as Carlos’, North Pond Cafe, and Michael. Now, after years of running OPRs (Other People’s Restaurants), he’s ready to take a chance on his own. Sopa (752 Sheridan Rd., Highwood; 847-433-3434), Cancelli’s place for Mediterranean-influenced comfort food, will swing into action on December 4th. As for the name, “Sopa is Spanish or Portuguese for ‘soup,’” says Cancelli. So will there be soup on the menu? “Yes. One soup will actually be inspired by the customers. When someone tells us their favorite foods, we want to help people reminisce. We will try to get people participating in our e-mail list.” We think this means that if you e-mail Sopa about your favorite soup, some version of it could…