Opening

Boka Group is at it again with Bellemore (564 W. Randolph St., West Loop), a luxe spot in the space that formerly housed Embeya. Chef Jimmy Papadopoulos (recently of Bohemian House) is serving up dishes like an already-Instagram-famous oyster pie topped with caviar, venison tartare, and dry-aged duck with farro and beets.

Morsels

It’s holiday time, and for spirits geeks, that means local distilleries offering limited-edition seasonal spirits. This year, Letherbee Autumnal Gin is lightly pink and features flavors of rosemary and cranberry, which sounds like an amazing boozy Christmas tree. Up at North Shore Distillery, they’ve just released a spirit called Eye of Newt, a savory liquor with mustard, garlic, dill and turmeric, which they’ve incorporated into a recipe for a mustard old fashioned.

One of Chicago’s best dining guides has just come back with a second edition. The Fooditor 99, edited by James Beard Award–winning writer (and expert on every storefront restaurant in Chicago you’ve never heard of) Mike Gebert, lists the 99 restaurants that make Chicago, well, Chicago. More than a third of the book has been revised for the second edition, and, at only about $7, it’s the perfect foodie holiday gift.

After years of making “Best Steakhouse” lists all over the city, including the 2013 version of ours (and creating a ton of slightly strange memories of tipsy trips into a dry-aging room lined with trendy pink Himalayan sea salt), Primehouse (616 N. Rush St., River North) is closing its doors. At one point known as David Burke’s Primehouse, the expensive power-steakhouse will serve the last beef on December 9, per a Tribune report.

Tickets for the next iteration of Next (953 W. Fulton Market, West Loop), the ever-changing restaurant from the Alinea Group, are on sale now. While frequent diners will recall some exotic and playful themes of the past (Vegan, Hollywood, the Alps), in 2018 Next seems to be doing some fan service. The first half of the new year will be French, and the second half will be a retrospective on the first decade of Alinea. Which means, for a least part of 2018, on one side of town, Alinea food from 2005–2015 will be coming out of one kitchen while Alinea food from 2018 will be coming out of another—Alinea everywhere!