1. EATER’S END?

What we know: Vox Media is shuffling things around among its properties, which include the Eater array of local city food sites. In New York, they’ve let veteran critic Robert Sietsema go, reducing the number of veteran critics with the initials “R.S.” to zero (Ryan Sutton departed in 2023). The official statement is impenetrably unclear, as usual for media outlets when they become the story:

Eater is reorganizing its cities coverage into a regional model in order to most efficiently serve its audience’s needs.

What does this mean for Eater Chicago? No freakin’ idea; it’s true that Eater has a lot of city sites that it’s hard to imagine generate enough content week-in, week-out, and they’ve pruned some of them in the past (for instance, Eater Louisville shut down in 2014). Chicago is one that could be a regional hub, but as the editor who flipped off the lights at Grub Street Chicago, I think it’s entirely possible, maybe even likely, that the regional bureau that will cover Chicago and the midwest will be based in a town you’ve probably heard of, called New York City. No word about a future if any for Eater Chicago; the site has published two stories since the Vox news came out (one of them an update to an existing listicle), but who knows what that means, if anything; we’ll get a better sense next week, observing what the publication schedule is—again, if any. So it may not be going away now, but this is pretty much how it will go away, someday. Here’s why.

I was listening to a podcast yesterday for a political magazine/website that was celebrating its 80th birthday; of course the internet has not been around long enough for anything to be anywhere near that old (the website at CERN, said to be the first website anywhere, is 43 years old). But there are plenty of print publications from the 19th or early 20th century that remain alive to this day—the Chicago Tribune dates to 1847, the Sun-Times traces itself to the Chicago Daily Journal in 1844, and of course several of the radio and TV stations in Chicago rank among the first such broadcasters in America. Yet it’s hard to think of independent online publications that have lasted more than a decade. They seem to exist just for the chance to find a rich buyer and shut down—like, say, Serious Eats, which had a clear identity (covering interesting restaurants around town in New York and Chicago) and, once a moneybags buyer came along, completely abandoned that seemingly earnest mission for recipes and sucking up to national brands and advertisers (see this typical current headline).

To some extent I can’t object to publications experimenting with different models to see what works—we’re still early in the internet age, even if it sometimes seems kind like its moment has passed. But it is distressing that in the world of food, the experimentation always seems to come to the same conclusion: do whatever you have to, to attract national advertisers (look at The Takeout, endlessly fascinated by Taco Bell and KFC, where I knew several people who wrote for it but cannot remember ever hearing someone talking about something interesting they read there) and then, as soon as you get the chance, cash out and stop caring about any of those stories you were so committed to covering.

So if Eater goes away, and the Tribune (which has two McDonald’s stories currently leading its food section) continues being much more interested in openings in Naperville than in Chicago, who will cover Chicago food culture stories? The answer—and I’m sorry I don’t have a better one—lies with Substack and things like that, giving people who care about the subject more than money a chance to make a little money and write what they want to write—not what a boss thinks will sell advertising (and then doesn’t, so they get shut down). So subscribe to my newsletter, subscribe to Michael Nagrant’s Substack, subscribe to Ari Bendersky’s and Dennis Lee’s and Emily Nunn’s and Donna Battle Pierce’s, follow writers finding places to sell as much as they can like Maggie Hennessy, Lisa Shames and David Hammond. That’s all I’ve got—as someone who has outlived so many publications I wrote for who were going to be essential to the world, until they just gave up.

2. SHOPPING LIST

I know a PR person pitching me has never once looked at Fooditor when I see a magic phrase: “Are you working on any roundups about…” I suppose there are things I’ve done in the past that count as roundups of a sort, but not the conventional cliched stuff for Mother’s Day or whatever.

Michael Nagrant doesn’t do conventional cliched roundup stuff either—but he’s got one this week well worth a look: it’s a roundup of food gifts for the holidays, ranging from locally-made kitchen knives to Massimo Bottura’s balsamic vinegar (which I think I first discovered at Zingerman’s, and have kept on hand ever since). Go here to read it.

At the Trib, Louisa Chu goes through her favorite cookie cookbooks for the holidays; the interesting one to me is one about Asian cookies, Breaking Bao.

2. HUNGRY TRUFFLE HOUND

Steve Dolinsky went to Croatia to hunt for truffles. Check out his video report here:

There are black and white truffles, both impossible to grow, so they must be sniffed out by trained dogs in the wild. Italy’s Piedmont region is world famous, but lesser known is the Croatian region of Istria, a peninsula that juts out into the Adriatic Sea across from Venice.

The area is known for three things: wine, olive oil and truffles, which are not easy to find, as Dolinsky discovered one morning near the village of Šćulci.

Closer to home, he went to two South Side spots doing pastry and desserts, including a new Bronzeville c0bbler specialist, Classic Cobbler.

4. SEMPER HI-FI

Maggie Hennessy took two tries to get into Parachute Hi-Fi, but digs the mix of Parachute’s modern Asian food and chef Johnny Clark’s record collection:

Much of HiFi’s snackish food menu changes in breathless step with the record selections. The night we turned up (Wednesday) was coincidentally the only time each week when Parachute reprises its beloved baked potato bing bread. This fluffy potato and cheddar loaf studded with scallions, smoky bacon and sesame seeds remains prescriptively delicious, especially when swiped through sour cream butter. Then again, I’m not sure I’d miss it on, say, a Friday or Saturday. HiFi’s menu zings, pows and zaps with a panoply of textures, brackishness and heat—balanced by supple richness and tantalizing ribbons of sweetness.

5. TORA-SAN

It’s not secret that the authentic Japanese stuff in town tends to be out in the suburbs near O’Hare—serving the people who work at Japanese companies who want close access to the international airport—and I’ve checked many of them out over the years, but I can’t swear I’ve ever been to Torizen in Schaumburg—I just know that John Kessler (who lived in Japan at one point) talks about it a lot, and now, writes about it:

If you sit at the counter at Torizen, a Japanese restaurant in Schaumburg that serves quick lunches during the day and izakaya dishes at night, you get quite the show. Amid the burners, ovens, and prep tables lies a tonkatsu station, where cooks bread and fry both chicken and Berkshire pork cutlets to order.

Go read it, you can practically taste it.

6. HOTLANTA

Titus Ruscitti passed through Atlanta but finds its sprawl and traffic makes it hard to get a handle on:

On my most recent visit last May I had a whole eating itinerary planned but I had to scrap it due to the crazy traffic which was so bad I decided we would only stay one day instead of two. So I don’t really know much about Atlanta except to say it’s not for everyone. As far as the food scene in Atlanta I don’t know much about that either. It’s harder to read than most food scenes and because I’ve never spent more than a day there it’s still a bit of a mystery. That said ‘ve always said there’s good food to be found in every metro area including the Metro Atlanta area.

Despite finding food hard to find, he still produces half a dozen places worth checking out.

7. MR. BEAR

Not to be confused with The Butcher and the Burger a few blocks away, Butcher & the Bear is a new steakhouse in Lincoln Park, which did not impress The Infatuation’s Nick Allen:

Like a lot of restaurants in Chicago, Butcher & The Bear is a pricey steakhouse with average (at best) food. For Lincoln Parkers, it’s a three-level series of small dining rooms ready for a low-lit anniversary dinner. Or, a birthday for someone really into tall framed pictures of stern-looking bears smoking cigs. But any special occasion here won’t be related to the food.

8. THE ‘SPHERE

Restaurants have always been about atmosphere as much as food. At NewCity, Sylvie Kirsch on how that works today:

Social media and the pandemic further transformed how restaurateurs envisioned design while accelerating the expansion of outdoor dining. These days, an authentic and personal environment, seen as an extension of the food—while also highly primed and perfected for Instagram feeds—signifies fine dining far more than a white tablecloth. For many diners nowadays, phones eat first.

9. CAPUTO’S FOR CHRISTMAS

During COVID I went to Caputo’s in Elmwood Park a lot, because grocery stores were one of the few acceptable ways to get out. I’ll hit it sometime this month to pick up a pannettone, among other things. David Hammond talks about more of the delights offered by the near west suburban grocery chain:

Christmas has its rituals: the trimming of the tree, the opening of the gifts, the holiday table. For me, a trip to Caputo’s is one of our rituals and has been for decades. Once located in a much smaller space further north on Harlem Avenue, Caputo’s now has a sprawling store as well as nine other locations in Chicago’s suburbs. I’ve been to some of those newer spots, but a ritual requires the repetition of specific and traditional steps. So I keep visiting Caputo’s in Elmwood Park, every year.

10. LISTEN UP

Back in LTHForum days, I remember us talking about Filipino food being the next hot thing—one of these years. But it might finally be true. David Manilow talks about Filipino restaurants with the brothers behind Cebu and Genie Kwon and Tim Flores of Kasama.

Again, their page is way behind, but your podcast app will have Joiners talking to James Martin of Bocadillo Market, and Adam McFarland of Johns Food and Wine.

Michael Nagrant talks to Sandwich King Jeff Mauro.

11. LA LISTEICLE

I never heard of La Liste until a restaurant owner mentioned it to me last week, but apparently it’s another one of those voted-on lists of top restaurants around the world honoring the Robuchon restaurant in Macau and other things I honestly don’t care about and will never go to. Anyway, here it is, and though they don’t rank them except by some scale of 100 points, calculated to the second decimal point, which has no resemblance to any way I actually think about food, Chicago restaurants on it include Smyth (95.50), Alinea (95.00), Ever and Oriole (92.50), Boka (81.00), and The Dining Room at Moody Tongue (75.50). Suffice it to say that “number one” (which is merely the first, alphabetically, of the nine places to get a 99.50 score) is some place in Basel that I’ve never heard of, that is in something called The Grand Hotel of the Three Kings. (I’m about to get a nosebleed just reading the name.) More interesting than that is that one of the “Talent of the Year” awards went to… Genie Kwan and Tim Flores of Kasama. It is the year of Filipino food!