Amy Cavanaugh: Welcome to Dish From Chicago Magazine. I’m Amy Cavanaugh, Chicago magazine’s dining editor.

John: I’m John Kessler, Chicago magazine’s dining critic. 

Amy: Today we’re talking about John’s column, in which he identifies some trends from the past year and looks forward to the coming one. Plus we’ll talk about the best things we ate recently, which includes a carrot dish at a new steakhouse.

Amy: John, you wrote a column looking back at 2025, and the dishes and flavors and everything that you felt were the dishes and things that kind of summed up the year. 

John: Yeah. 

Amy: I agree with all of yours. All, as I was reading through your column, it was like, yep, yep, yep. I keep hearing about all of these things over and over again. So the first one is bagels. There are bagels everywhere. And I just keep hearing about new ones. 

John: The thing that’s so interesting is it’s interesting, there’re bagels everywhere. It’s like these, oh my God, you’ve got to reserve ahead of time and line up and go to the pop-up bagels, because unless you plan ahead, you’re not going to get these bagels, which is hilarious and weird and so interesting, right?

Amy: It is, and I think because of that, I have not tried many, none of the ones you’ve mentioned. Yeah, I want to go to Zeitlin’s. That is on my list to grab lunch there sometime soon. But can you tell us about the others?

John: Sure. So Holey Dough, I think, is the one that is like top of the heap right now. They have two weekend pop-ups, and the, you have to follow them on Instagram. And there’s a certain day during the week when orders become available, you can only order like, there’re limits on what you can order like something like, only one of each kind of bagel and up to a certain number. People say they’re great, I believe people. And there’s also Beachwater Bagels at Bungalow by Middle Brow, those are available on Saturdays. And again, they have been known to attract quite the line, I hear. They’re good, nice and light, boiled, crispy bagels. Decker’s Sourdough Bagels have been at it for a while. They also show up on pop-ups. I think they’re a little easier to to get a hold of, but again, to find out where they’re going to be and when they’re going to be available, go on to their Instagram account. And finally, yeah, go ahead.

Amy: I was gonna say Decker’s is a Lettuce Entertain You spot.

John: Oh, interesting. So they’re like, Okay, I see what’s going on there. They’re getting into, you know, into the into the game.

Amy: Yeah, smart. And after this came out, I learned about another spot called Rosca, which is Mexican-inspired bagels. In like Pilsen, Heart of Chicago area, and they have, like, mango and pepita bagel, they have a red mole bagel. So— 

John: Wow. 

Amy: So many.

John: And I guess we should also mention Tilly’s Bagels, which opened up a second location. The original is down in the South Loop, and I’ve always liked their bagels. Their cacio e pepe was kind of fun. And Zeitlin’s did start out as a pop-up, and they have a brick and mortar store next to Pequod’s. And I actually just went there for breakfast today, it was, it was pretty good. I think they need a little time to figure it out. The brick and mortar part of it not a seamless experience, but the bagels are kind of nice, and they have giardiniera cream cheese. They’re making, you know, all kinds of other dishes too. They have a bacon, egg, and cheese bagel that looked good. I got a cheddar jalapeno with some like scallion cream cheese. And it was, it was pretty good. I’m gonna, you know, see how it goes.

Amy: All right, great. I will, I look forward to checking that out. 

John: Yeah. 

Amy: All right, what’s our next trend?

John: So our next trend, staying in the food for gluten non-intolerant people, is croissants. They’re all over. The king of all of it is Del Sur. Justin Lerias is a great baker, and I think he’s going to make his mark on Chicago. I love his toasted rice croissant. There’s also Daeji Dough Co. that opened up with Korean-inspired croissants, like, there’s one that has tteokbokki rice cakes in it, and I can’t imagine what the texture is like, but I can’t wait to try it.

Amy: It’s fun. So I, as soon as I heard that there was a new bakery,people were lining up for — one that was, like, not far from my house — I was like, I am going immediately. So I went a couple months ago, and I was like, second in line at like, 10 of 8 and they open at 8 o’clock. So not too bad. But this croissant was super fun. They also had a toasted coconut croissant that I really liked a lot. But yeah, I wasn’t sure about, like, the chewy rice cakes on top of, like, the flaky croissant, but it worked, and it was fun and yeah, and I know that since I’ve been they have added some other new offerings as well.

John: So like having gummy bears on a sundae, or is it like— 

Amy: Not quite like that. 

John: Okay, all right, want to try it. Yeah, and going on down on the list. I don’t know if you’ve heard this Amy, but thin-crust pizza is really in this year. Are you aware?

Amy: It is inescapable right now.

John: It is so inescapable. Oh my god, it’s insane. I am gonna still insist that Domino’s thin-crust pizza really is not bad, but it is certainly at a far lower level than some of the great ones out there now, like Pizz’amici, Zarella, I hear Dimmi Dimmi has got a thin-crust pizza. You’ve tried it, right?

Amy: I’ve tried it. It’s fun. I think that I like the like crispier tavern, and theirs is a little bit softer but I thought that the toppings were absolutely delicious. We did nduja and caramelized onion. I just saw that Giordano’s has a new tavern style, and Kenney tried it, and he is a real pizza aficionado. And he said, pretty good, pretty good. 

John: Okay.

Amy: Yeah. He’s like, it is certainly not in your, you know, Middle Brow or Pizz’Amici discussion, but he’s like, compared to, you know, kind of your everyday neighborhood joints. He’s like, worth trying.

John: Wow, interesting. Okay, good to know. So yeah.

Amy: And then I just went back to Pizz’Amici, and it was excellent. And yeah, one of Esquire’s Best New Restaurants in America. So this tavern gospel is really being spread.

John: The tavern gospel is being spread. All hail Chicago handshakes and thin pizza. All right.

Amy: What’s your next trend. 

John: So, and I’m sure this is something you can speak to more, but bars have been kind of moving from their obvious locations in restaurants into vaguely hidden ones. I mean, I always thought of a restaurant bar as being that crowded room that you walk through to get to the dining room in the back that as sort of the traditional restaurant design, but now they’re, you know, all over the place. There are, of course, speakeasy bars that have opened up. I can never keep them straight. But there’s Laberinto under Trino and Clandestino under Matilda. I’ve been to Laberinto, but not to Clandestino. How about you?

Amy: I’ve been to Clandestino, but not Laberinto. 

John: Okay, what’s so— yeah, tell me. 

Amy: Yeah. I mean, I agree with you that I, you know, I think restaurants are realizing that the bar is a destination into itself. It is not, you know, just the place where you grab a martini and, while you wait for your table or put your name in. It is a destination, a separate destination. And so I think that, you know, having this extra space is super smart. I mean, you know, we went to Class Act, and that has its own bar that anyone can go to that’s a, you know, separate entrance. You have your meal and you end there with a shot, but anyone can just go in and get cocktails. And it’s like, I think that’s a really smart way to use your space as having a secondary— 

John: I think so too. And everyone loves sort of a hidden bar. You know, the Class Act bar, which is called Nightcap, is accessible by a side door to the building in the alleyway. And you know, it’s also, you can go through the restaurant, and after the meal, they take you back there and pour shots. And it’s very fun. But I would be very curious to try some of the cocktails there. They look interesting. They’re just so expensive. 

Amy: I know.

John: We’ll see, I know it’s like, I’m just not sure I’m ready to see that three at the beginning of a two-digit number for a cocktail. I’ll get there maybe. But who knows, they could be great.

Amy: What’s your next trend?

John: So all-day cafes, which were supposed to be a trend a few years ago, but it’s kind of like the way Filipino food was supposed to be a trend for a long time, and it wasn’t and it wasn’t until it was. I feel like Chicago is finally getting hip to all-day cafes. Cafe Yaya opened, that’s Zach Engel from Galit, he opened it next door. And other name chefs are really getting into the all-day cafe thing. There is The Radicle from Joe Frillman and the Daisies team opening on Milwaukee Avenue in the old Daisies space. And Bar Tutto from Joe Flamm in the West Loop, and we’ll see how it goes. The idea of a place that you can just go to any time during the day, get the drink, whether it’s coffee or wine that you’re feeling, get the kind of food you want. I really like the idea of it, so we’ll see how they go.

Amy: I do too. And I was, you know, looking at the Bar Tutto menu, I found it really appealing. There’s a lot of stuff I want to try there, so I’m excited about this trend. I feel like I’m often out and about during the day and just need somewhere to pop in, answer a few emails and get a drink, and so all these spots will fill it.

John: All right, so moving on. I always feel like there’s some flavor that you just start seeing all over the place. And this year for me, it’s been French onion, not French onion soup or French onion dip, but just French onion as its own damn thing. Caramelized onions that are kind of sweet, oftentimes paired with gruyere cheese. There’s a great French onion fondue at La Serre. There are a bunch of French onion croissants out there. Did you try the one at Daeji?

Amy: No, I don’t think that was on the menu when I went there, but I’ve had French onion croissants other, in other cities, and so I’m eager to have one here. 

John: Yeah. Cafe Yaya does that really really good miso labneh caramelized onion dip, which is probably like the grown-up cousin to that, you know, Lipton soup and sour cream thing that my mom made and served with Ruffles. Yeah, yeah. It is so good. I mean, both are so good,

Amy: Yeah, right! Yes. I love an old-school onion dip.

John: And then I just thought it was interesting. I haven’t tried it, but Shake Shack recently debuted a French onion burger, and it’s, apparently, it’s been a huge success for them.

Amy: Yeah, I will admit, I don’t think I’ve eaten Shake Shack in probably a decade, but I did go and look up this French onion burger.

John: Yeah, all right. Well, if I try it, I’ll, I’ll let you know.

Amy: And then you, you wrapped up your trends list with a couple awards, right?

John: And by awards, I mean, like, you know, do not hang this on the wall. Do not go looking for a cash prize at all. These are awards in the Vegas sense only. But yes, I find every year there will be a steakhouse and there will be an Italian restaurant that does that thing where it’s totally old school. It’s totally the thing you want it to be, but it’s also new in some way that fits in with, like the current vibe. So starting off with the It’s Not Just About the Steak Award: I give that to Trino, which is Stephen Sandoval’s restaurant in the West Loop. It is a steakhouse. You do get steaks there. There’s a very nice picanha, you know, like a Brazilian-style rump steak, a picanha, but it’s cooked very slowly, like prime rib. Delicious. There’s some other steaks there. But when people go to Trino, they don’t talk about the steak, they talk about that amazing crab tostada, or the lobster dish that is so good there. Have you been?

Amy: I haven’t. I kind of took a break from steakhouses after we did our steakhouse feature — but you will see that I just went to a new one in our bites of the week. But yeah, you you have sold me on crab and lobster, two of my favorite things. So I’ll have to get there soon.

John: So very interesting menu there and then I’m going to give the Nonna’s Spatula award to Dimmi Dimmi Corner Italian. There is always some red sauce Italian restaurant that people lose their collective shit over in this town every year. This is it this year, I’m not quite sure why. It seems like a very fun place. I have not been. I’m trying to get in, but it’s impossible to, like, get a decent reservation. I hope to get one soon, maybe because it’s good red sauce Italian and thin crust pizza. You’ve been, right?

Amy: I have, yes. I think that, I think it’s a combination of both, and I think it’s also the dining room is really cozy. The bar is fun. I liked some of the cocktails we had there as well, so — but I had an 8:45 reservation on a Sunday, which is very late for me, and so I was like, Let’s go early. And we ended up actually being able to grab bar seats at like 7:30. So worth, you know, yeah, maybe going on an off night, like a weeknight, or a Sunday or something a little bit later. Yeah, trying to walk in. Like, I probably wouldn’t try right at open, but maybe give it a little bit.

John: So give it some time. Okay, I’ve tried to walk in a few times to no avail. And last time we tried, we really thought we had it, but it was like, they quoted us something like a three-hour wait, my God. So we went to John’s and had a great meal. So you know,

Amy: That’s a Bavette’s wait time.

John: Three hours. Oh my God.

Amy: John, what’s the best thing you ate lately?

John: So, I finally made it to Atsumeru, the new tasting menu restaurant in the old Tempura space run by Devin Denzer. Really enjoyed it a lot. I felt like it had kind of a baby Oriole quality to it where, 

Amy: Okay. 

John: You know, you start with a nice some bites in one room downstairs, and you move around the place. And it’s very, you know, very seafood-heavy menu, which I love. And it was, there was a lot of, you know, just clean, good flavor in all the dishes. Really nice technique. And the dish I’m going to call out is their supplement. It’s caviar over sunchoke chips and this hazelnut cream with mead. And it’s just, it’s interesting, that little bit of boozy honey flavor, the nuttiness, it means all the different aspects of the caviar kind of play off of it. And I thought it was, you know, it was funny, because my wife didn’t like it. She thought she couldn’t taste the caviar. And I’m like, no, no. All these flavors are bumping on the caviar, in a way. That’s really cool. So I loved it. How about you?

Amy: I look forward to trying it. 

John: Yeah. 

Amy: I went to Adalina Prime, so one of the new steakhouses that unfortunately did not make the cut for our steakhouse issue, and I had a really nice time. It is just an absolutely gorgeous dining room. Really great crowd. Really feels like a place that, you know, that you want to be. I think the highlight, though, was a bit of a sleeper for me. It was the carrots à la orange, which the chef at Adalina Prime is Soo Ahn, who previously worked at Band of Bohemia, and this was a dish that he made there, and I never got to try it, but the friend I went with remembered that dish very fondly. So she’s like, we have to get this. And it was terrific. It could serve as your veggie side with your steak. Just beautiful carrots with orange wedges, miso caramel. There’s like, a crunchy element, so really tasty and a really fun carrot side. Or it can make it, you know, make it your vegetarian main, but either way, like, just really a solid dish.

John: Wow, carrot call out. You don’t hear those often. That’s great.