1. OLDIES BUT GOODIES

Let’s start with a couple of classics: happy 87th birthday to the place that feeds the workers of the West Loop, J.P. Graziano & Sons; it started as a wholesale grocer in 1937. Here’s longtime Friend of Fooditor Jim Graziano talking about its long history on Twitter.

And happy to see that the south side’s Calumet Fisheries, opened 1948, has reopened after a fire several months back. Louisa Chu has a piece on their reopening here, and  a Twitter account I follow made this observation about Anthony Bourdain having been there.

2. NO AWARDS FOR YOU!

There’s a couple of chances that chefs from Chicago could win on Monday at the James Beard Awards at Lyric Opera, but Chicago had exactly one nominee at the media awards Saturday night—the Trib’s Louisa Chu—and went home, it will not surprise too much, with exactly zero awards. I’ve chatted with a couple of media people locally in the last couple of weeks at various events, and honestly most of them seem to be at the point of shrugging off any excitement at hosting the New York-based organization, who first came here in 2015 and will be here through 2027. We’ve been good hosts, I think, throwing parties for folks in from out of town at various venues, but I’ve seen little sign that it has led to much interest or interaction with our city from the community of Beard bigshots and well-connected media figures who swim in those lofty circles. Apart, that is, from some very gracious pieces (he said sarcastically) over the years about how Chicago is boring as a dining destination, brought to you by big names who evidently never got north of Fulton Market or west of Ashland… or met an actual Chicagoan. (I did go to one very nice event, at the Violet Hour, for Danny Childs’ bar book Slow Drinks, which won the next night in the Beverage category—congratulations!)

I heard more than a few comments, too, that the awards are predictable. I don’t mean to sound like somebody yelling “they’ve gone woke!”, and I don’t think that’s how the people I heard this from were thinking either—but it was pretty easy to spot who the winners would be, just by subject matter (hint: your chances of winning improved this year if you worked the word “migrant” or “immigrant” into your entry’s title). As an organization of wealthy white people, the Beards know what they like to be seen liking, and like Leonard Bernstein, they are far from subtle about it.

3. GENO’S EAST

Michael Nagrant went to Manchamanteles, the new restaurant from Geno Bahena. which I found to have many of the virtues of his previous spot, Mis Moles, together with some of the flaws of the big 24-hour maker of indifferent tacos (Lalo’s) that it took over. Anyway, he goes deeper into the history of Bahena, from sous chef at Frontera Grill to well-remembered spots like Ixcapuzalco and Chilpancingo:

In the early 2000s Bahena left to forge out on his own. Coincidentally when I first move[d] to Chicago in 2002, my friend Aamir and I would trade emails about going to Bahena’s hot spots Ixcapuzalco and Chilpancingo. I was so obsessed with his food, I taught myself to make mole and cook with fresh masa just so I could replicate Bahena’s sope trio at home. If you came to a dinner at my house between 2005 and 2010, you probably had sopes.

This began a run whereby Bahena would open and close a new restaurant every few years before shuttering in a relatively short time. I went to almost every spot, including Mis Moles, his last place which ultimately fell prey to the pandemic. Bahena himself contracted long-haul Covid which limited his work for a few years.  No matter how many spots opened, I left almost every single one of my meals happy and satisfied but also mystified at their lack of staying power.

Bahena felt like a Don Quixote-chef-figure tilting at success only to find himself churned and spit out by the windmill of the failing restaurant life-cycle.

4. MIGOS BEATY BIGOS BOUNCY

Titus Ruscitti went to new Fooditor fave Migos Fine Foods in Portage Park, and offers a good capsule explanation of what it’s about:

Migos is a joint collabo between Chef Brian Jupiter (Frontier and Ina Mae Tavern) and Azazi Morsi (chef de cuisine at Frontier). The main theme is Halal food but you could also call it a mix of Black Southern food and Mexican. Tacos made with jerk cauliflower show up alongside chicken al pastor and more. Fried chicken and biscuits (ala Ina Mae) and fresh fried donuts also make appearances on the menu as does a lamb smashburger.

5. CALL MI ANY TIME

Banh mi shop Nhu Lan won’t be new news to most, I suspect, but Dennis Lee’s appreciation of this classic Vietnamese place is worth reading, and you may find something there you’ve overlooked, like $20 worth of red pork:

There’s also containers of roasted meat up by the register, and it was hard for me to resist the call of this crimson-tinted char siu-style barbecue pork (charged by weight; this was $19.05).

I know $20 seems steep for one package, but this was a lot of meat, ranging between tender and fatty to supple and lean. It comes with a side of the same sweet red sauce it’s glazed in, and I’m really glad we picked it up. Davida and I enjoyed the leftovers throughout the week; all you need is a little bit of rice and side of veggies, and you’ve stretched a quick few lunches out of it.

6. GO ASK ALICE

Sometimes you read about a place you know and it’s so grand in its praise that you wonder—did I just miss all that, or is it overstating everything? Sweet Rabbit is a bakery on Belmont in Roscoe Village, not far from my house, and I go there happily for their buckwheat kouign-amann and a few other things, but I’ll admit, their breakfast sandwich (which the Trib depicts in a lovingly bisected photo, like something out of Modernist Cuisine) is one of the ones that inspired me to say, last week, that I’m not really sold on most breakfast sandwiches. And owner-baker Andrew Cheng seems a good, sincere guy with a long resume (Floriole, Bittersweet, Hewn). But then Louisa Chu at the Trib says this:

“I started this place as a serious contemplation and meditation on grains and the role of pastries,” Cheng said. Now he’s thinking more about what items will keep his customers coming back, all while maintaining his own standards and minimalist style.

It’s harder to appreciate the simple beauty of his radiant house croissant, made with heirloom Turkey Red whole wheat flour from Janie’s Mill. Especially when compared with its chocolate-almond croissant cousin, made with deep, dark cocoa-infused spelt dough rolled around a silky Valrhona couverture.

Well, I guess I’m the simple guy who didn’t quite get all that.

7. WASSA MATTA

The Infatuation has mixed feelings—or experiences—about Pizza Matta, owned by its next door neighbor, Giant: “The cook of the pizzas is hit-or-miss—they might come with a nicely charred edge but undercooked center, or be just a little too well done.” Go here to read it.

On the other hand, they seem kind of wowed by Omakase Shoji, which despite what most people will asssume from the O-word, is not so much a sushi joint: “The hot small plates outshine everything else. While the quality of fish used for nigiri is excellent, cuts sometimes lack precision and the sushi and sashimi aren’t as memorable as the hot dishes.”

8. PEACHY KEEN

But when I run into food media people, we don’t only talk smack about the Beards—we also talk about the peach truck! Which is a truck full of Georgia peaches, Michigan blueberries, and usually pecans and pistachios, which turns up for an hour in various parking lots so you can buy a box of terrific peaches, etc. and enjoy them at the peak of season. They used to go to the Menard’s on Clybourn, but for whatever reason, they no longer go into the city, so you have to pick a destination in the region to meet the truck—for me, it’s always an adventure picking some distant suburb and making a day out of getting my peaches and whatever lunch is to be had in that area. (Last year I went to Epic Deli in McHenry; in other years it’s been the occasion of finally getting to places like Chicago Culinary Kitchen for barbecue. And then there was this place I found one year…)

Anyway, you can see the locations here; the earliest meetups will be in the Milwaukee area and other parts of Wisconsin, but they’ll start hitting the far burbs in the end of June, so check out the dates and make your plans for a visit to Hoffman Estates, Crystal Lake or Glendale Heights. (For those who don’t want to make a trip out of it, they’re shipping smaller quantities to home addresses this year—unlike last year, when they were in somewhat short supply, they say this year’s is a bumper crop.)

9. PATIO DADDY-O

I have my own backyard patio with which I am well pleased, so I pay less attention to the annual round of best patios stories we get every summer. I’m probably missing out on some cool spaces. Anyway, Anthony Todd has four new ones to check out.

10. GETTING FOXED

There are stories all over this week that the original founder of Foxtrot plans to reopen it. Which raises a question—why would anybody go there now, after they screwed over many beloved local vendors like Pretty Cool and Tortello? I never liked the place anyway, but I especially don’t after that—the brand seems thoroughly trashed, and reviving it seems as fruitless as the multiple attempts at resuscitating Finch Brewing, which made beer no one liked but several tried to take over (stop trying to make Finch happen!) Anyway, you can read about it at Block Club, for one, here,  although Eater Chicago’s piece is worth reading for original founder/new re-owner Mike LaVitola talking like he had nothing to do with all those people getting laid off and all those vendors getting screwed, just because he got rich attracting VC investors who, shocker, turned out to suck it dry and let others take the hit:

When asked if he had a message for workers who suddenly lost their jobs, LaVitola says that he’s “sorry that they found themselves in that situation and we want to do what we can to be there for them now in this new version of Foxtrot and really provide opportunities.”

…“It’s the right thing to do — I mean, that’s the end of it, right?” LaVitola says of reopening.

No, it’s just the beginning of reviving a trashed brand, if it can be done at all. “Found themselves in that situation”—or as Otter said to Flounder, “You f—-d up! You trusted us.”

11. KWITCHERBATCHIN’

Well, that’s not exactly what David Hammond advises, he says when premixed cocktails can be good, but starts here:

Years ago, I was sitting at the Long Bar in Raffles, Singapore; it was a steamy afternoon, and I was eager to sip on a Singapore Sling, a cocktail invented over a century ago at this very location of the international luxury hotel chain. My heart sank when I ordered, and the bartender grabbed a plastic jug and poured the bright red liquid into a Hurricane-type glass. I drank it (of course!), but it didn’t blow me away, far from it, and as I recall it was expensive. (On the current Raffles menu, the Singapore Sling is around $30, because nostalgia costs.)

I guess that’s my feeling—you’re giving up much of the magic of mixology, so it better come with other compensations and virtues.

12. CH-CH-CHANGES

Food & Wine’s new list of game changers has a couple of Chicago connections—Erick Williams (surprised he wasn’t on last year’s), and also the former Chicagoans behind The Bear. You’ve heard of creator Christopher Storer, but maybe not his sister Courtney:

Thanks to her extensive experience in the restaurant industry (she previously worked with 2007 F&W Best New Chefs Vinny Dotolo and Jon Shook as the culinary director of Jon & Vinny’s), Courtney Storer is an extremely hands-on culinary producer, turning the actors into credible professional cooks and cooking all the food that appears on screen herself. “I’m elbow-to-elbow with these actors, cooking with them, stepping out of the scenes that you’re seeing, and then I come back in when they say ‘Cut,’” she told Variety in 2023. Her tireless attention pays off, with food that looks hot and delicious and real on screen.

13. WE GOT OPINIONS

OA Dining, the later incarnation of an online site called Opinionated About which now tries to out-Michelin Michelin by gathering the opinions of guys with money who eat out a lot globally, and being somewhat less hidebound, published its assorted 2024 lists. If you qualify to judge the hoitiest of the toity, go here—it’s the places you’d expect, though I’m impressed that unlike, say, the World’s 50 Best, Chicago made the top ten: Smyth is #7, while Oriole and Alinea both make the second ten.

More fun for me is the two lists of places a step below each in what it costs to go there: there’s the casual list, which  is not so great for Chicago in that the highest spot, at #23, is our version of Miami’s Joe’s Stone Crab. There’s more interest in the Cheap Eats list; Birrieria Zaragoza nabs #11, with Pequod’s and Small Cheval also placing in the top 100. You could argue with any or all of that, but I like seeing sych hyperfoodies judging things besides fancy-schmancy food.

14. DUCK SEASONALITY

Galit’s Zach Engel will be hosting New York chef Chintan Pandya and partner Roni Mazumdar this month for a collaboration Indian-Middle Eastern dinner, and Resy got them to interview each other:

Engel: Unapologetic [Pandya’s group] is inspired by the idea that one can cook food and operate one’s restaurant on one’s own terms. Do those terms ever get in the way of your progress as a group?

Mazumdar: No! We have historically always gotten in our own way by never serving the real food that is in our soul. We see this as an opportunity to energize our entire community and share with the world what food means to us. An obstacle is a matter of perspective, and our view is that we should always do what is true to us.

In other Resy news, I ran into Donald Young, ex of Temporis and Venteux, now doing his own popup dinner thing called Duck Sel, at Green City Market on Wednesday. Good timing for this piece by Amber Gibson about him:

Young launched Duck Sel during the pandemic for more flexibility and creative freedom, and the name pays homage to what has become his signature dish: dry-aged duck. “The freedom of doing what I want, when I want it is the best part of Duck Sel,” Young says. And his efforts have paid off: this year, he was a James Beard semifinalist in the Best Chef: Great Lakes category.

15. BILLY AND BING

Is that Monkey Jiang Bing place still going? It already moved once, from Chinatown to Skokie. Anyway, few things seem to come and go more quickly than places doing jiang bing, the crepe-like stuffed thing that I guess qualifies as a kind of sandwich. Well, it did for Sandwich Tribunal, anyway, back at the end of April but I just now saw it:

A thin layer of crepe batter is spread around the griddle surface, then an egg is cracked on top, roughly broken, and spread around as well, maintaining the separation of egg yolk and white rather than being fully scrambled. Sesame seeds and scallions (or sometimes chopped cilantro) are sprinkled on top and adhere to the tacky egg. Then, once the crepe is sufficiently set, it’s flipped. A brown sauce containing some combination of bean paste and chili sauce, perhaps even some hoisin sauce, is spread around the surface of the jianbing, then 2 crisp fried crackers (bao cui, though sometimes long cylindrical Chinese donuts called Youtiao are used instead). Along with the crackers, other toppings/fillings are usually added, such as lettuce or meats or pickled mustard greens. In this particular case, red cabbage, pulled pork, and mayonnaise. Then the jianbing is rolled up and folded over and cut into sections and slipped into wax paper or, in this case, a cardboard clamshell container.

Good pics of how to get the form right, too.