Posted by Matthew Amster-Burton, June 9, 2008 at 10:15 AM
The good news is, someone in my family is eligible to enjoy a prix fixe menu at Chicago's Frontera Grill, Osteria di Tramonto, One Sixtyblue, or Coco Pazzo Cafe for $4. The bad news is, I have to pay $20, and we don't live in Chicago.
If we did, however, I'd be all over Kids' Restaurant Week in Chicago, which runs June 21-28. Nineteen of Chicago's top restaurants are participating. The rules are: (1) come in between 5 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.; (2) kids under 12 pay their age; and (3) adults and older kids pay $20.08.
The web site doesn't say anything about the menus, so I called a couple of the restaurants to find out what kids should expect to eat. Read the menus, after the jump.
Continue reading »
Posted by The Serious Eats Team, May 4, 2008 at 9:00 PM
Cinco de Mayo is a day of national pride for Mexicans around the world, commemorating Mexico’s victory over French forces in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. We join in the celebration with our favorite Mexican food and drink.
- Best Tacos in Chicago: when it comes to finding the best regional Mexican dining outside of Mexico, Chicago is the best spot in America.
- I Drove 40 Miles for a Taco: In the suburbs of Chicago one finds Bien Trucha, an iconoclastic taqueria.
- Chi-Mex: A New Frontier: Mexican Inn turns out to be a very inspired delicious meshing of cultures, a unique Chi-Mex blend, and holds the middle ground between Bayless and Taco Bell quite nicely.
Posted by Melissa Hall, April 25, 2008 at 3:30 PM
Southern Foodways appears on Fridays as part of our collaboration with the Southern Foodways Alliance, an organization based in Oxford, Mississippi, that "documents and celebrates the diverse food cultures of the American South." Dig in!
Photographs taken by Amy C. Evans
SFA oral historian Amy Evans just returned from a weeklong fieldwork-gathering trip to the Windy City, looking for stories of transplanted Southerners who left their homes but held on to family recipes. Some of the people she visited include:
- James Lemons of Lem's Bar-B-Q, who left Indianola, Mississippi, as a young man, following his brothers to Chicago and into the barbecue business.
- Barbara Ann Bracy, who laughed as she remembered her Mississippi-born father opening the barbecue joint she still runs on the South Side and naming it after her.
- Edna Stewart, who recalled the moment when Civil Rights workers first visited her restaurant, Edna's, and when the Reverend Jesse Jackson fell for her sweet potatoes.
Continue reading »
Does the name Rosscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles in Chicago sound a little too similar to that of the long established Roscoe's House of Chicken 'n Waffles in Los Angeles? Just a tad, perhaps. Besides the extra "s," other similarities include their logo designs and names of their menu items. The Chicago Tribune says that the original Roscoe's is sueing the Chicago imitator and gives some of the history behind the chicken and waffle restaurant.
Posted by Ed Levine, January 10, 2008 at 3:45 PM
Yesterday I asked whether the world needs any more fancy-pants French restaurants. Today, our Chicago correspondent, Michael Nagrant, alerted me to his take on the issue, which appeared last year in Newcity Chicago:
Aren't [Alain] Ducasse and [Joël] Robuchon culinary carpetbaggers taking advantage of our Midwestern hospitality and standing upon the labor of our pioneers? Despite our success, the Tribune's Good Eating section still features a syndicated column from Wolfgang Puck. Hasn't Charlie Trotter or Paul Kahan at Blackbird earned a voice in our local pages? Legends, especially French demigods, cast long shadows, ones that may shroud our own identity.
Photograph from iStockphoto.com
Posted by Ed Levine, August 13, 2007 at 8:40 AM
On the way back from Greenwood, Mississippi, we stayed in Memphis. We arrived in downtown Memphis at 10 p.m. to find ourselves in a sea of Elvis impersonators. They were having a huge Elvis impersonator concert and contest. I'm not kidding. There were two Elvis impersonators checking in ahead of us at the Peabody Hotel. We were not there to see faux kings, we were there to eat barbecue.
In the name of research, because Bon Appétit had named Charlie Vergos' Rendezvous one of its three finalists in its search for the best baby back ribs in the country, and also because it was a two-minute walk from our hotel and it was too late to eat at someplace like Cozy Corner (the best all-around barbecue joint in Memphis), we had a couple of racks of Rendezvous Room ribs. Now I have eaten these ribs many times, and maybe at one point they were really good.
But last Saturday night the Rendezvous Room ribs were not even worthy of a top three designation in downtown Memphis, much less the nation.
Continue reading »
Posted by The Serious Eats Team, June 15, 2007 at 12:00 PM
Ladies and gentleman, today we talk with the food and drinks editor at Chicagoist, the Windy City–obsessed website that keeps readers up-to-date on what's going down in the City of Big Shoulders.
Continue reading »
Posted by Lia Bulaong, May 7, 2007 at 4:00 PM
My friend Andrew found this beautiful bus stop ad in Chicago recently. Designed just like a World War II-era poster, of a caped nurse cradling a corn dog in the crook of her arm like a baby and feeding it from a mustard bottle, it urges you to visit Springfield's own Cozy Dog Drive In, the birthplace of the corn dog. It's part of a series of vintage-styled advertisements from the Illinois Bureau of Tourism for their Offbeat Illinois campaign, meant to highlight quirky attractions around the state.
I love the corn dog poster best and am planning to get one for my wall, but you can buy any of the other advertisements (the Butter Cow and World's Largest Catsup Bottle are very nice) printed on t-shirts, tote bags, notebooks and all kinds of merchandise from the Enjoy Illinois CafePress store.
Posted by Adam Kuban, March 28, 2007 at 4:45 PM
In the Chicago Tribune's "Dinner and a Show" column, which pairs an entertainment event with nearby dining choices, writer Chris McNamara hits upon a perhaps too literal combo of ribs and ribs: "I kept the graphic 'Body Worlds 2' brochure tucked away while eating my meaty meal, but the memory of some of the unhealthy corpses we'd just seen crept into my consciousness toward the end of my slab."
Posted by From Roadfood.com, February 19, 2007 at 6:00 AM
As is the custom on Mondays here at Serious Eats, we asked our friends Jane and Michael Stern to help us get the week rolling with their take on the best foodstuffs in the nation. Instead of focusing on a single food item like we have in the past, we asked them to focus on a region. Here, we have Illinois—well, Chicagoland mostly, but a treat nonetheless. Happy eating! —The Serious Eats Team
Continue reading »
Posted by From Roadfood.com, January 8, 2007 at 7:00 AM
We asked our friends Jane and Michael Stern over at Roadfood.com to give us their top five hot dog picks. Here are their choices, with tasting notes.
SUPER DUPER WEENIE | 306 Black Rock Turnpike,
Fairfield CT 06430 [map]. 203-334-DOGS. superduperweenie.com
Formerly a mobile truck selling hot dogs by the side of the road, Super Duper Weenie is now a stationary restaurant with indoor seating. As you might suspect from its name, the house specialty is a hot dog. It is a firm-fleshed, locally-made weenie that is split and cooked on the grill until its outside gets a little crusty but the inside stays succulent. It is sandwiched in a lovely fresh-baked roll and adorned with utterly amazing condiments -- homemade condiments, including relish made from pickles that Chef Gary Zemora has himself made from cucumbers! The sauerkraut, the hot relish, the meat chili, the onion sauce are ALL made from scratch. (Gary used to be chef at the esteemed South Norwalk Italian restaurant Pasta Nostra. When his passion for hot dogs brought him to Super Duper Weenie about eight years ago, he lost none of that restaurant’s perfectionism.)
Non-dog lovers who find themselves at this jolly joint can get good hamburgers, a sausage and pepper sandwich on a Portuguese roll, a cheese steak, or a grilled chicken sandwich. Amazingly, S-D-W even accommodates vegetarians with a tuna salad sandwich or a veggie burger.
Whatever else you get, you must get French fries. These are beautiful, fresh cut twigs of potato that are utterly fresh from the fry-basket and made extra-delicious by a perfect sprinkle of salt AND pepper. Dine indoors at the always-crowded counter, where you cannot help but feel part of the counter-culture kibitzing that never ends; or choose a picnic table by the side of the eatery, which is also always crowded! Originally reviewed by Michael Stern on Roadfood.com
Continue reading »
Posted by Meg Hourihan, December 28, 2006 at 1:30 AM
Ruth Reichl once famously called the French Laundry "the most exciting place to eat in the United States." Until very recently, I agreed with her. Then I ate at Alinea in Chicago.
Alinea's chef, Grant Achatz, is a protégé of Thomas Keller and rose to the position of sous chef at the French Laundry before his departure. Keller's influence is apparent in his food, from menu titles like "Hot potato, cold potato" to the portion size to the perfection of every detail. But at Alinea, chef Achatz takes all he's learned and somehow makes it better. As my husband, Jason, said during our dinner, "He's out-Kellered Keller!"
I could write paragraphs about the meal itself, the "hot potato" course served with a thick slice of truffle balanced on a warm potato ball, skewered by a thin needle overhanging a perfectly cold potato soup (pictured, left). Or the meaty rich squab, or the lamb buried beneath eucalyptus leaves. But you can read a better description of Alinea's food elsewhere. I'd like to focus on what else made the meal outstanding.
Continue reading »
Posted by Ed Levine, May 9, 2006 at 3:14 PM
I'm exhausted. The night of the Beard Awards I end up hanging out at various after-parties until three in the morning. A couple of things I wanted to mention:
The Beard Awards were much more emotionally resonant this year because we dedicated them to New Orleans. The live music was great (for the first time), the recorded music they used to accompany the winners' stroll to the podium was all amazing old New Orleans r and b (think Louis Jordan's Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens), and the food (all from New Orleans chefs) at the reception was real, honest and soulful. I had way too much of Willie Mae Seaton's transcendent fried chicken, and I would have had seconds and probably thirds of Leah Chase's gumbo if I had the chance.
The Beard Awards are interesting for another reason. Unlike the Oscars and the Grammys, where admission is restricted to members, anyone willing plunk down the money can go to the Beard Awards. What you find if do spend the money is a pretty boring three hour ceremony punctuated by moments of real emotion, and a crowded reception in which you stand on-line for tasting plates of foods from a dozen or so chefs. But the fact that anyone can go means that real people get to hobknob with the greatest chefs in the country and the world. You can clink glasses with Thomas Keller or Tom Colichhio or Todd English.
Continue reading »
Posted by Ed Levine, April 27, 2006 at 7:29 PM
According to today's New York Times, Chicago's City Council yesterday became the first city in the country to outlaw the sale of foie gras. According to the Chicago Sun Times Chi-town mayor Richard M. Daley had this to say in response:
"We have children getting killed by gang leaders and dope dealers. We have real issues here in this city. And we're dealing with foie gras? Let's get some priorities." Finally, a politician I can get behind. Richard M. Daley for President! He's a decider. And a prioritizer.
