Years ago I lived in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. One of the many things I was stunned by during my time in New York was just how many people I met who were later (reluctantly) revealed to be Canadian. These Canadians, contrary to reports, weren’t any more polite, kind, generous or humble than the…
Category: Restaurants & Bars
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…
What to Eat & Drink in New York City
New York is among the most dynamic food scenes in the world. I couldn’t hope to keep up with it, even if I tried. And trust me, I’m not trying. That said, I used to live there, I often travel there and I still love to eat there. One clever lie that New Yorkers tend to heap onto unsuspecting tourists is that there is no end to the good food in New York City, that you can walk into almost any restaurant and the forces that conspire to make New York “the greatest city in the world,” co-conspire to ensure that any restaurant you enter will serve you very good food. That’s bullshit.
How to Find a Better Restaurant (Or My Collected Restaurant and Bar Guides)
I’ve been traveling fairly regularly to San Francisco for years. Yet, until recently, I’d mostly dread those trips. San Francisco is expensive, its people half kind and generous, half aggressively irritating and it’s food scene, pretentious, fickle, boring (or so I thought). As it turns out, and to my delight, there is some good food in…
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…
Hiking and Dining in Salt Lake City!
I don’t ask a lot of my vacation time. If I’m able to eat at least some delicious food, have an adventure and see something breathtakingly gorgeous, I’m happy. On my recent trip to Salt Lake City, we managed not only to find a glorious mix of delicious fast food and casual fine dining, but…
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…
Sanjay Keswani 