1. EATEN
What’s the biggest Chicago food story that did not appear in Eater Chicago this week? It is, of course, that Ashok Selvam, editor of Eater Chicago and a winner of a James Beard award just weeks ago, was canned by Eater in a 15-person nationwide purge. There’s no reporting on it from Chicago—who’s left to report it?—but here’s the Vox union (remember, Eater is owned by Vox, a prominent liberal/left-leaning online network, as you can tell by their pro-worker actions this week) on what happened, on Instagram:
Today, 15 members of the Vox Media Union working at Eater were notified without warning that their jobs were being eliminated as part of a major restructuring of the 20-year-old brand. This was especially shocking considering that Vox CEO Jim Bankoff told Puck’s Dylan Byers just last week that he did not anticipate any impending layoffs at the company.
D Magazine in Dallas commented on the layoffs in Texas, which explains what happened here as well:
National food website Eater laid off its Texas-based staff on Thursday as part of a company-wide layoff, leaving just one writer on a temporary contract to cover the whole state. Eater says that it will continue to report on restaurant news in Dallas, Houston, and Austin, but has not publicly explained how it will do so. Its downsizing is the latest ill omen in a food media climate that has become captive to search engine AI overviews and hostile to in-depth reporting and commentary.
“Eater is committed to operating all current Eater sites,” a representative for Vox Media tells D… But what will Eater Dallas and Houston look like without any employees? That went unaddressed in the company’s statement.
This comes on the heels of Eater, earlier this year, moving to a model where editors in major cities in the network—like, say, Ashok Selvam in Chicago—handled stories from other cities in the region, like Detroit. It seems pretty clear that what is happening is much like what happened with Eater’s onetime rival Grub Street, which had city versions (including Chicago’s, which I was the editor of) but cut all the regional sites and shrank to a New York focus. It’s a slightly different world, so Eater’s new Chicago editor may be ChatGPT, but basically the trend looks very much the same.
Well, AI might not be so bad at one of Eater’s standbys, which is rewriting press releases. As other news outlets shrank or vanished entirely, Chicago’s PR industry relied on Eater Chicago as the go-to place for the news that Bunch of Food Group was opening a new pan-Latin concept in River North. As the frequent recipient of such announcements, if I saw one in my mailbox, it was pretty much a sure bet that Eater had posted the story exactly one minute before they sent it to me and everybody else. That’s partly why I rarely ran such stories in my newsletter—one, if you wanted to know what was new in River North, you knew where to find it, and two, I was waiting for the next story, by Lisa Shames or Maggie Hennessy, that would go beyond the PR announcement. But it will be curious to see how the PR industry reacts with no default place to go to show their clients that they can get them coverage.
No comment as yet from Selvam that I’ve seen. Only one place had discussion of it that I could find—Reddit’s r/chicagofood—and Redditors had various reactions:
Gadgetluva: I never thought his coverage was very good, Eater Chicago articles felt more like press release aggregator than a real news site. Huge difference in quality comparing LA or NY Eater to Chicago Eater.
Juliuspepperwordchi: The enshittification of everything will continue until Billionaire profits improve.
RhoneRanger_73: Eater Chicago devolved into a sensationalist tabloid and people simply got tired/became bored of it. Everyone needs to understand that if the Eater Chicago team was absolutely killing it and readership was sustained/growing, that this would not have happened.
Oh, I think it would have happened anyway; it’s a financial decision, not one about quality, let alone about serving a perceived civic purpose. Looking for consolation, some people looked to The Infatuation:
Sundeigh:Eater isn’t what it used to be. The Infatuation is pretty good but I don’t need to be giving pitchfork scores to everything to enjoy the Chicago food scene. Food news is just as important to me as tastemaker reviews.
Jasonvincent00: To everyone celebrating the infatuation just be aware that they’re owned by J.P. Morgan (chase bank). They are a cog in the wheel of gentrification (see Avondale). They break their own arms patting themselves on the back for “not taking free meals” while being subsidized by a company with 3 trillion in global assets…. I don’t have an issue with the folks that work there but wow, I’d rather get food reviews from a chase bank teller.
That was, of course, Jason Vincent, the owner of Giant and Chef’s Special. Chefs will, I think, have mixed reactions to the news about Eater and Ashok. He tended to pick a bugbear and ride it, often in the most early-2020s-political-correctness-run-amok way—the obvious example having to do with Fat Rice, going after Abe Conlon for cooking the Chinese food that “wasn’t his” (remember when that was a thing among, well, Vox readers and other such tender young souls) and playing the hiphop music he grew up on in his restaurant. As I did the interviews for my book, I remember a very prominent chef, a bit surprisingly, expressing his hope that I would go easy on them (there was nothing in their story to be particularly concerned about) and then out of nowhere saying, “Now Ashok, if you want to go after him, fuck that guy.” (Ashok is not in my book.)
I was interviewed once by Eater—not by Ashok but a freelancer—for a story about the Banchet awards, which I’m involved with tangentially, and it was obvious within seconds that the angle they were hunting for was that the Banchets weren’t nominating enough women chefs. I had to explain that beyond the already nominated ones, there really wasn’t a list of overlooked female chefs of stature—for instance, Margaret Pak of Thattu would probably get nominated the next year (she was), but she was in between restaurants at that particular moment, so she couldn’t be nominated. (I offered my full response to the piece here.) The awards are, like so many things, a reflection of reality, not its driver.
But let’s be fair to Ashok—for many years he cranked out the topline coverage of what was happening on the Chicago food scene. Everybody at least looked at its headlines on Twitter to know the latest scoop, and feel informed. That is an achievement, and I wish him well with whatever his next gig will be. We’ll appreciate him more now that he’s gone.
A Dallas site called Culture Map has more to say about what happened there—and here:
Some of those let go were part of Eater’s cities network, which provides local coverage of 23 cities across the U.S. including bureaus in Dallas, Houston, and Austin.
One staffer speculated off the record that the layoffs would erode city-specific coverage, a continuation of the paring-back on local stories that’s been ongoing at Eater since 2021. “Basically, all of Eater cities are toast,” the staffer said.
So what next for Chicago food coverage? Is it all going to be Substack? Surprisingly, I think the best coverage we’re getting these days is from a different medium—podcasts. My recap of the latest podcasts in this newsletter gets longer and longer (though ironically this is a light week), and they put us in direct contact with the people who are making the scene what it is. A half hour conversation is not exactly an efficient way to get basic news, such as Eater specialized in, but if you want to know what a hot chef is up to, it’s the medium where there’s the least barrier between you and the chef. So as John Wayne says in Rio Bravo, when asked if that’s all he’s got, “It’s what I’ve got.”
2. HOUSE OF THE DEAD
Louisa Chu on Cerdito Muerto, a new bar-restaurant in Pilsen, built in the family’s Chicago Fire-era home:
Speakeasies were sometimes known as blind pigs or blind tigers or striped pigs during Prohibition, as a front for illegal bars that would charge admission to see fictional animal curiosities, then offer a free drink. Hence the curious dead piglet, or cerdito muerto.
“This has a very speakeasy feel to it,” said Oceguera, who was general manager at Chicago Cut Steakhouse for a decade. “But I do not advertise myself as a speakeasy.”
In fact, when asked about the best-selling items so far, he mentioned the food program that’s constantly changing under chef Becky Carson, previously the opening executive chef at the reimagined Ramova Grill and Taproom. Carson has brought a branzino to the menu, with chimichurri, citrus and fresh oregano.
“But (the menu) does have a few of my mother’s staples,” said Oceguera.
3. KID ‘N’ PLAY
Anthony Todd talks about Class Act, a new tasting menu joint which just opened in Bucktown:
“I love cooking, but the thing that really drives me is the idea that people from all walks of life are getting to meet each other and have a sense of connection because of this dinner party.” That sentence, from chef Nicolai Mlodinow, could be a mission statement for Class Act, his new tasting menu restaurant in Bucktown (1737 N. Damen Ave.) that builds its concept around the idea of bringing people together.
I’ll be honest; lots of chefs have told me over the years that they want to create “the perfect dinner party” or are committed to the idea of “bringing people together through food.” But when you look at what was being offered, it wasn’t all that different from any other restaurant. At Class Act, Mlodinow has designed the entire experience, including the space, menu, and arrangement of the dishes, to encourage social interactions between guests.
4. DREADFUL SYMMETRY
The Infatuation goes to Mister Tiger:
Everything on the menu is inspired by food from the owners’ childhood home. Slices of galbi channel the flavors of an excellent sweet and savory marinade and sit pretty on top of a giant bone, practically begging you for a photoshoot. Bubbling bowls of soondubu come with silky tofu and rich anchovy broth. And then there’s our favorite dish, galbijjim. The beef stew is full of carrot chunks that look like meticulously handcrafted dice from a game of D&D, a labor-intensive human detail that emphasizes why the dish is traditionally reserved for special occasions.
5. NADU NADU
Titus Ruscitti goes to Nadu, the more casual regional Indian restaurant from the chef of Indienne:
It’s not too often that a new and trendy restaurant offers up one of the best dining deals in the city but that’s exactly what Chef Sujan Sarkar and his team at Nadu are doing, in the heart of Lincoln Park at that. Nadu opened at 2518 N Lincoln Avenue this past May. It’s a sister restaurant to Indienne – Chicago’s only Michelin starred Indian restaurant. Nadu is a bit more casual with an ala carte menu though they’re also offering a $55 tasting menu that I thought was well worth the price of admission.
6. HOSPITAL FOOD
Back in my day working in ad agencies, I would occasionally hunt for oddball placees to eat lunch, like the cafeterias of other office buildings. They were rarely that exciting, though not terrible, but it was exciting to sneak into them and pretend you worked there. Hey, you took what fun you could find working in an office building. Anyway, Dennis Lee does a little better than that when a doctor’s appointment on the Rush campus leads him to where the staff eats, a fifth-floor cafeteria:
It becomes clear that things are a little nicer here when you look closely at it. I immediately noticed a Creole shrimp, mango, and avocado salad, which doesn’t seem like regular hospital fare. The entree side had some pretty nice-looking sandwiches, like an ahi tuna BLT, along with things like burgers and clubs. Those things, I think, are generally available for takeout.
But the main entrees were where things get a little more unexpected, because there were things like entire roasted half chickens with demi-glace and Maryland crab cakes on it. A roasted half chicken? At a hospital?
7. PROOF IT
Chicago mag runs an excerpt from Curtis Duffy’s book Fireproof, talking about his time at Charlie Trotter’s.
8. PIEROGI BEAR
That would be my suggestion for making Whiting’s Pierogi Fest cheesier and more fun, but it sounds like they’re fully on top of that goal, to judge by this WTTW piece on Pierogi Fest 2025:
There’s Mr. Pierogi himself, along with his entourage of 11 Pieroguettes. Miss Paczki and Halupki Guy are life-size versions of filled donuts and stuffed cabbage, evidence of the other Polish dishes on offer. Women adorned in curlers, headscarves, pearls, and brooch-studded aprons hobble around 119th St. in brightly clashing housecoats, ready to pose for a photo and maybe even plant some crimson lipstick on a cheek, just like the Polish American grandmothers or “buscias” they’re honoring.
9. LISTEN UP
Joiners talks to Alexis Readinger of LA’s Preen, which designs restaurant spaces.
The Chef’s Cut talks to Erick Williams of Virtue, etc.
WHAT MIKE ATE
Mister Tiger is the popular Korean restaurant, said to be based in homestyle Korean food—though maybe I don’t know enough about what Koreans eat at home to be able to know what makes it different from a zillion other Korean restaurants in Chicago. I liked pleasingly light fried chicken, a chive pancake, bulgogi my wife ordered and the (heavily sauced) spicy pork I got; I just wouldn’t say it took me anywhere new for Korean food, or old but homey. Doesn’t matter, with a more non-Korean than Korean customer base, it seems to have found its audience that wants those flavors without having to head up north/northwest (it’s in the space that I think was most recently Two, on Grand Avenue).
Monkey King Jiangbing was in Chinatown at one time but for some reason it chose to move to Skokie to a strip mall on Dempster near McCormick Boulevard. But it’s still offering the same thing—jiangbing, a sort of Chinese burrito-like object which can be filled with various items, from veggies to seafood, but which mainly exists to wrap some crunch (appears to be fried dough, maybe fried tofu skin) in a “tortilla” made of various flours like black sesame seeds. It’s eminently scarfable, check it out.