1. TALKING ABOUT MY BOOK IN OLD TOWN

There are a couple of events for The Chicago Way ahead but some are private. One you can go to will be put on by the Old Town Triangle Association on Thursday, April 30, from 6 to 9 pm. Journalist Chris LaMorte will be in conversation with me; go here for the location and to register (it’s free!)

2. DEPT. OF BAD BEHAVIOR, PART 1

Here’s a shocker: a former member of the board that operates Ever restaurant, is being sued by the board for embezzling a million bucks from the two-Michelin-star restaurant from chef Curtis Duffy. Crain’s has the story, and the full complaint filed against manager Aaron Gersonde:

“Gersonde spent years unilaterally violating the operating agreement in order to enrich himself as well as to steal and embezzle from the company and his fellow investors,” the lawsuit states, adding that Gersonde spent “staggering amounts” on a “lavish lifestyle” for both himself and his girlfriend and her family.

Among the luxury charges Gersonde reportedly racked up with a company credit card and by accessing company bank accounts were charges for “strip clubs and for personal expenses such as jewelry, airline travel, hotel stays, rent on multiple homes for his girlfriend, concert tickets, luxury restaurants.”

Reading the actual complaint turns up lots of juicy/scuzzy details—a down payment to a Miami yacht broker, temporarily moving Ever funds to his personal account to make his assets looks bigger than they were while applying for a loan, and:

Gersonde spent $33,481 at a Miami strip club, “Tootsie’s Cabaret.” Approximately 10 transactions were charged to the Company’s American Express Credit Card. After the Company’s bookkeeper accurately entered these charges, Gersonde subsequently accessed the Company’s online QuickBooks and altered the entries to disguise both the name of the lurid establishment and the nature of the charges, cleverly re-naming the business “Too Cabarnet” and itemizing some entries as “Cost of Goods Sold/Food & Beverage.”

Now here’s the capper: Gersonde just released, last week as the lawsuit was being filed, a self-published book… on how to run a restaurant well. Step 1: keep your eye on what other people in the company are spending…

 

3. DEPT. OF BAD BEHAVIOR, PART 2

In other bad behavior news, remember Jared Leonard of The Budlong? He moved to Colorado several years ago, and most recently to Mexico, but he has now pled guilty—in America—to defrauding the government with COVID money. The Daily Mail (h/t Eddie Lakin):

The Department of Justice accused the restaurateur of forging IRS documents when applying for COVID relief loans to inflate the number of employees at his restaurants and the amount he paid them.

The initial indictment accused him of defrauding a total of more than $1.9 million through the federal Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program (EIDL) and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). That figure was elevated to $2.3 million during court proceedings.

…He double-dipped by providing the bank account number for AJ’s Pit Bar-B-Q [in Denver] when he submitted another EIDL loan for a Chicago restaurant called BBQ Supply Co, which had closed in 2018.

EIDL loans required businesses to be operational for 12 months before the filing date. The indictment said the restaurateur was fully aware that BBQ Supply Co had closed far before that threshold.

…At an upcoming sentencing hearing, he will face a conviction of 37 to 46 months in prison.

4. COMMUNE FOOD

When communal tables were first a thing at places like Avec, Lisa Shames wrote about them for Time Out. Many years and fewer communal tables later, she writes about it for the Trib—but now they tend to be at planned events where you’re all sharing in an experience, like the Spanish dinners at Bocadillo Market:

“Our concept was always supposed to be this intimate supper spot,” says chef/owner James Martin, who relocated the restaurant from its original Lincoln Park location last August. “These dinners build community and allow us to connect over food in a disconnected world.”

The food served reflects Martin’s passion for Spanish cuisine — think tortilla española, crispy patatas bravas and paella studded with prawns and mussels — and he finds similarities to the Southern food he grew up on. Bocadillo’s dining style embraces the joy he found at home around the table.

“My parents always found a way to create space for friends and family,” he says.

In other Lisa Shames news, at the Sun-Times/WBEZ she has a piece on what happened with all those people making sourdough during the pandemic:

While some people may have abandoned their sourdough projects, others have not only continued to feed their starters but branched out with interesting flavors (even Taylor Swift has embraced her sourdough era with her blueberry lemon and funfetti breads), using sourdough as a vehicle for experimentation and self-expression. Some of these bakers share their creations through Instagram and pop-ups, and one baker who leaned into sourdough during the pandemic has parlayed a successful Instagram business into a brick-and-mortar bakery opening soon.

5. DINNERSMYTHS

Grimod planned to go to Smyth for the umpteenth time to write about head chef Brian Barker—and wound up going right after Barker moved on, Still, I think he sums up what makes Chicago’s one three-Michelin-star a standout here:

a cuisine (so ruggedly naturalistic in its presentation) where ingredients have no place to hide. Each composition is shaped not only by basic seasoning but by minute applications of all those milks, oils, custards, emulsions, jellies, and seaweeds on which the kitchen’s cookery—love it or hate it—is now based. Too much of this or too little of that and these filigreed dishes can collapse altogether.

6. THE CRUNCH OF MONTE CRISTO

And from Smyth, we naturally go to Bennigan’s. The quintessential pseudo-Irish pub casual restaurant of the 80s and 90s closed its Michigan Avenue location more than a decade ago, but apparently there’s still one way out in Elgin, the last one in Illiinois, and so Titus Ruscitti heads out that way to see what drew people in the Clinton years by ordering a Monte Cristo:

Bennigan’s didn’t create the Monte Cristo but it’s a big reason why many Americans know of this sandwich said to be an adaptation of the French croque-monsieur, versions of it appeared in U.S. cookbooks as early as the 1930’s. Bennigan’s popularized a very specific and very over-the-top version that went onto become iconic. It starts with honey wheat bread with ham and turkey plus Swiss and American cheese all stacked in a sandwich that’s battered and deep-fried making it more like a savory pastry than a pan grilled sandwich. It’s finished with a dusting of powdered sugar and served with raspberry preserves for dipping.

7. DINNER AT TROTTERS

Kevin Pang has been a decades-long quest for one famous French dish, a stuffed pig’s trotter. He discovered it’s on a Chicago menu:

In Pierre Koffmann’s interpretation, he removes the bones from the trotters until it’s only skin and fat. He would make a mousse out of chicken, which gets piped onto the piece of skin. Sweetbreads and morel mushrooms would get embedded into the mousse, and the whole thing is wrapped into a tube and roasted, then served on mashed potatoes and a rich reduction.

…I never considered making it, as everything seems prohibitively expensive and laborious.

So imagine my surprise when I saw, in January, an Instagram video of chef Jenner Tomaska preparing Koffmann’s pig trotters at his new French bistro, Petite Edith, located at 878 N. Wells St.

I hate to tell him, but I had something very much like this many years ago at Maude’s Liquor Bar.

8. THE CRYING TIGER GAME

Michael Nagrant kind of reviews Crying Tiger, the immensely popular South Asian restaurant from Lettuce and Thai Dang, but does most of it in a chart graphic that skewers the sceniness of the place and suggests what he considers better alternatives for many of the dishes. Example:

Should you eat at Lettuce Entertain You’s Crying Tiger? Yes, if

…You like $4 bowls of pressure-upsold rice.

Meanwhile, The Infatuation, the food publication for exactly the people Nagrant has in mind, gives Crying Tiger 8.0 stars:

Crying Tiger is one of the toughest places in Chicago to get a reservation. And while we get the hype, dinner here demands setting some expectations. The dishes, a mix of Thai and Vietnamese favorites like khao soi and gỏi cá, consistently toe the line between good and pretty good. But the “wow” factor comes from the space itself.

9. WHINE AND DINE

In a similar vein to Nagrant above, John Kessler talks about failures of wine service and pricing at restaurants, including a Lettuce one:

We were having a great meal at Tre Dita, and when the waiter asked if I was ready for a second glass, I asked for five minutes to decide. He took 10, and when he returned, I ordered something. Then I waited a few more minutes, first for the busser to deliver a glass, and then for the server to appear with the bottle to offer a taste. By this point the steak was cold and the voice telling me I didn’t need more wine was loudest. I get it; there are other tables, I wasn’t making his job easy, and the service model here requires several steps, but I expect more from a $400 meal.

10. CH-CH-CHIYA CHAAT

Nick Kindelsperger asks the question that sums up dining in the Loop:

Why on earth would one waste time ordering a chai from Starbucks when Chiya Chai is right there making everything from scratch?

11. WHAT’LL IT BE, HON?

AT WTTW, Daniel Hautzinger and Kathleen Hinkel hang out in one of Chicago’s last 24-hour diners, The White Palace Grill:

Timelessness – an appealing way of saying a stubborn resistance to change – also might play a role, especially as independent diners slowly fade away. Even if White Palace Grill has bowed to some pressures – for instance swapping chicken for veal parmesan and offering online to-go ordering – it still has formica tables at its booths, coin-operated gumball machines by its door, and an exhaustive menu featuring everything from waffles to ribs, club sandwiches to omelettes, all at relatively low prices. The most expensive item by far is a steak for $31.99.

12. WHAT TO DO WITH A MILLION BUCKS

At least, if you’re Rick Bayless:

It is with great pleasure that I am able to annouce The Bayless Family Foundation’s donation of $1 million to The National Museum of Mexican Art. Our family is dedicated to supporting the arts and are thrilled to contribute to this museum’s continued growth and impact. With the expansion of the new West Wing, and the Foro de Artes Bayless, one can expect to experience endless enhanced efforts of creativity and innovation. The upgrades will bring increased foot traffic to neighborhood businesses while expanding access to high-quality performing arts experiences. We are so honored to help preserve history, celebrate culture, and create opportunities for learning and inspiration for generations to come!

Theater buff (and occasional performer) Bayless also announced grants to five theater groups.

13. ASHOK TO THE SYSTEM

Former Eater Chicago editor Ashok Selvam had an announcement this week—he and some other ex-Eater folks, let go in the big purge of the site owned by progressive, pro-worker site Vox, are launching a new site for food writing called Ravenous. It’s not clear what direction it’s going to take—though the announcement did promise “You want a “best of list?” Go elsewhere” (so much for where Eater is in 2026):

We’ll taste the food. We’ll talk to the people. We’ll tell you why something is a big deal. I’ve been polishing my sniper skills; we’ll apply the appropriate side eye when needed. Without those pressures, we can actually deliver food writing worth reading. Cultural pieces that tell you the full story. Legal stories that hold folks accountable. The restaurant industry is the biggest employer in America. The sector deserves better coverage. Especially for and from the melanated set. Leave your agendas at home.

They’re currently trying to raise money up front in advance of actually posting any content—not sure how well that will work, but if you want to support them just on the principle that any ambitious new food media is a good thing, go here and the links at the bottom will lead you to either a free subscription or paying for one.

14. LAST DEPOT

I’ve seen chefs mention their disappointment that mega-giant Sysco just gobbled up Restaurant Depot. Eddie Lakin explains why this matters:

What I would do was try my best to play a few vendors against each other. I was in touch with reps for Sysco and US Foods, sometimes Gordon as well, and then I’d go to Restaurant Depot with my little list of my 10-12 key items, things that comprised the bulk of my food cost, and I’d compare prices.

If the Depot’s price was lower (it usually was), I’d use that info to try and negotiate with my vendors to get them to match the lowest price.

…This is why Sysco is buying Restaurant Depot. To remove this option from the toolbox of small restaurant owners. Oh, they’ll dress it up in all sorts of BS language about “expanding their footprint so as to better serve small communities” or whatever, but the bottom line is that they want to take away this option so little guys have no choice but to pay what Sysco thinks they should pay. Sure, it’ll still be cash-and-carry, but it won’t be a cheaper option.

15. ANOTHER ONE RIDES THE BUS

Robert Simonson (New York cocktail writer who has moved back to his native Great Lakes region, specifically Milwaukee) raises two related questions at his Substack. One, what do you do when you enter an empty restaurant and they immediately lead you to the lousiest table in the (again, empty) room? And two, are you getting the terrible spot, usually opposite a bus station ((the kind for the busboys, not Greyhound) for a reason?

There has been, of late, some very intelligent reporting about ageism in the restaurant business. These stories typically address this bias as it affects restaurant and bar staff. But there is another kind of ageism, one that targets customers.

This can express itself in many subtle and not-so-subtle ways. A bartender can look right through an older customer, even though they’ve been occupying a stool, unserved, for 15 minutes. A gatekeeper with an iPad can pretend there is no available seating for the next two hours, and offer to take your name; then, once you finally gain entry, you’re faced with a half-empty bar. Or the front of house folks can lead your old feet back to the table near the bus station or restroom where, hopefully, you won’t cramp the style of other, younger, more desirable diners.

I tried to think if I’ve experienced anything like that here, being of a certain age by now and never especially pretty or hip. I really could think of only such incident locally, at a quite famous and popular place (rhymes with Snow Shovel—if you say with a French accent), where I had to fight the (young and very pretty) hostesses for the seat at the bar I could plainly see six feet away. I remember getting the worst table in the house at a semi-famous chef’s restaurant in Orlando, but I think that wasn’t ageism (not least because it was two decades ago) but mainly that restaurants in Orlando don’t care about any tourists.

So I tend to think it’s more a New York thing and not a Chicago thing (outside a few achingly trendy hotel bars or whatever). But it’s still worth reading the whole piece or a savvy picture of the dynamic you can face going into a restaurant—even outside of New York:

A few weeks ago, we checked out Mother’s, a new restaurant in Milwaukee that was recently nominated for a James Beard Award. It is located in a beautiful old building that was once home to an ancient saloon called the White House Inn. The room still has the beautiful old dark-wood back bar and walk-in freezers with wooden doors.

About a half of the dozen tables in the main dining room were still empty when we checked in. Still, we were seated at the far end of the room at a table that faced a large wooden cupboard that looking suspiciously like a bus station.

“Is this an active bus station?” Mary Kate asked. The host assured us it wasn’t.

That was a lie. Every staff member in the place used the cupboard to fetch napkins and glasses and silverware, forever passing behind us. Not only that, they frequently walked in front of us as well in order to go in and out of the old walk-in freezers.

…It was a shame, because the meal at Mother’s was excellent and inventive. They are doing great culinary work there. But our first experience was colored by that seating fiasco. They had put their worst foot forward.

And that’s the real issue. I can only remember a few such incidents in my life—but I definitely remember them.

16. LISTEN UP

Joiners talks to Roderick Markus of Rare Tea Cellar.

The Chef’s Table gossips about the James Beard nominees.