Navigating the Windy City
Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse. It’s a cold October evening, one of the first really cool nights of the year. I’m walking into one of the private rooms upstairs next to the top of the Wine Tower when their Master Sommelier, Amy Lutchen, hands me a glass of 2017 Darioush Viognier and my ability to describe …
Freaking Out For Five Darioush Wines at Del Frisco’sRead More
I’m standing in the doorway of the stunning private room at the Fig & Olive in the Gold Coast. Waiters are scooting around me with trays full of dishes that look like they are plated just so someone can take their picture. A charming hostess is pouring me another glass of an Italian Rosé and I’m …
The noise is deafening. I say noise, but most of it is music, some of it is clapping, a little bit is stomping, and the rest is over a thousand people screaming in a call-and-response chant led by a portly man in lederhosen and an alpine hat festooned with enough badges to sink the Bismark …
The Slurping Turtle’s new Summer Menu was spread out before me like a perfectly realized staging for furiously likable foodstagramming. The Pride Roll, the Poke cones, their fiercely delicious cold brothless ramen and its hot sister, with the shrimp and the pork belly and the nom nom nom. All there staring at me, daring me …
How to order a custom steak and what happens when you do I’m sitting in the Chicago Chop House’s second-floor dining room at a table draped in white linen, with glimmering wine glasses lined up, framed historic Chicago images looking down from the forest green walls, eyeballing their menu. There are some serious steaks staring back …
Custom Steaks and Killer Service at Chicago Chop HouseRead More
Dear reader: gastroeuphoria is a dangerous food-induced syndrome and should only be attempted by professionals under the supervision of grown-ups. There is a possibility of too much of a good thing. I’ve never reached that limit but Monday night at Revel Fulton Market, wandering from table to table hosted by 30 name-brand chefs from Chicago …
In Which Your Humble Reporter Experiences Gastroeuphoria at the Great Chefs GalaRead More
The wine cellar at Benny’s Chop House is immediately behind the bar. It’s tall and narrow. Just wide enough for two people to pass each other if they’re really close friends. We’ve scooted all the way back, past the working end of the bar’s soda machine that hisses and scares the daylights out of everybody. We’re …
Wine industry database superstar SevenFifty launched their industry-only tasting event, Too Legit to Spit, at Morgan Manufacturing Monday night. Twenty-five top Illinois distributors showed up to serve their best bottles of booze to Chicago buyers, sellers, and beverage managers. Big Star’s staff offered trays of walking tacos and pork balls as a DJ mixed 70s blue-eyed …
The Beer Dinner Social at River Roast, featuring beers from 5 Rabbit Cerveceria and special dishes from Chef Cedric Harden is outstanding. In one of their handsome semi-private rooms, I recently enjoyed their debut of a beer pairing and blah blah blah I’m not even going to try to maintain a pretense of journalistic integrity here. …
The 5 Rabbit Beer Dinner Social at River Roast is Insanely GoodRead More
The Diner Grill suffered a fire in December 2016 that shut it down. Almost two long years later, it’s reopened. No Michelin stars will be obtained for the Diner Grill. You’re not bringing your S.O. here on Valentine’s Day. This is not where you celebrate your wedding/birthday/anniversary/divorce. It’s where you sit down at one of the generous …
The sommelier at Eno Wine Bar is weird. He divides his duty between recommending giant steak-supporting cabs in Michael Jordan’s on one side of the lobby of the InterContinental Chicago to pushing oddball single vintage naturally fermented low production wines in Eno, on the other side of the lobby of the Hotel Intercontinental. While I …
I am convinced far in the future, culinary scholars will look back on the late 20th century as a hallmark of innovative cuisine based not on the floating balloon desert at Alinea, nor the revolutionary Oysters and Pearls at the French Laundry, not even the spherical melon caviar from El Bulli. Oh sure, you’ll be …
The Wings at Jake Melnick’s Corner Tap are HistoricRead More
