With fall around the corner, it’s time to start talking about warming sauces. And no sauce is as warming as the Italian-American classic of Sunday gravy, a sauce with deep roots in big city American culture, where Italian-American immigrants tended to settle. Although Sunday gravy didn’t originate in America, all Americans have heard of it…
Category: Chicago
A Brief Guide to Chicago Chinese Food (Reader Question)
The question has come in concerning the conspicuous lack of a bar and restaurant guide for Chicago, my home town: You’ve made semi-themed dining and drinking guides for New York, San Francisco and Denver (of all places). Do you plan to do a similar guide for Chicago in the future? I’ve personally had little luck with most Chinese food…
The Violet Hour, Chicago
Whenever poetry is quoted out of context on a bar’s web site, it commonly isn’t an indication of better things to come. The quote to which I’m alluding, appearing in the “About” section of the The Violet Hour’s web site, is from section III, “The Fire Sermon,” of T.S. Eliot’s long poem, The Waste Land….
M. Henry, Chicago
I used to hate New York City. It may have been my as now overcome preoccupation with cleanliness and order, a sense of overwhelming awe, a bit of Second City blues or perhaps a combination of all of the above. But I hated New York City. My mind changed, however, when I was asked by…
Earth + Ocean, Mount Prospect
View my brunch-only review of E+O from summer 2013. I enjoy faceless corporate manipulation. Not so much because I approve of it, but more because it’s fun to watch just like a zombie film is fun to watch. True, we know what’s going to happen–fools will be separated from their hard earned money just like zombie…
Ras Dashen, Chicago
Chicago offers a multitude of excellent ethnic food. Among the litany, a storied variety includes Ethiopian. There are three big players in this arena: Demera, Ras Dashen and Ethiopian Diamond. As with all purveyors of the food of proud and ancient cultures, their menus tend to be thick and impenetrable to the casual diner. Luckily,…
Gather, Chicago – Autumn 2013 Update
The following is a shortened update to my prior full review of Gather, from Summer 2013. I’m certain everyone will be happy to know that the group at Gather is still doing a fantastic job. My most recent meal from Chef Ken Carter gave a hint at what is coming for the fall. From what I gleaned from…
Earth + Ocean – Brunch Only, Mount Prospect
View my full, one-star review of E+O from autumn 2013. The suburbs of Chicago have historically been a food circus, an unfortunate joke that suburban residents reliably attempt to convince themselves and city-dwellers is at least vaguely comparable to Chicago-proper. The best of one’s hopes for good food in the suburbs are the same hopes…
Hopleaf, Chicago
Chicago has historically had two beer poles: Bucktown’s storied The Map Room and my neighborhood’s own Hopleaf. Although I’ve always loved both bars, my favorite of the two was Hopleaf. After all, Hopleaf has always served excellent Belgian bistro fare, accepts credit cards and has all the beer a brewhead could ask for. The Map…
Fat Rice, Chicago
There are few places that are the epicenter of such a dramatic global diversity of culinary influences as the island of Macau. As flavors meld in the pot over time, so too did influences meld in Macau over the 1,500 years the island was governed as an annex of the Chinese Panyu county and the…
Opart Thai Restaurant, Chicago
Opart Thai offers some of the best traditional Isan-style Thai food in Chicago and to top it off, it’s BYOB. The Western Avenue location is the better of their two locations (the other near Chinatown). Although their menu is extensive and can be overwhelming, I’ve tried most items and I’ll limit this review to some…
Three Dots and a Dash, Chicago
The story of the tiki cocktail and tiki culture dates back quite a while (but probably not as far back as you may think). Its story is wrapped in history, America’s perception of the world and the evolution of that perception. As a result, this will be an unusual review of one such tiki bar,…
Sanjay Keswani 