1. THE BEAR NECESSITIES
Have you heard of this TV show, The Bear? Apparently it’s about a Chicago restaurant. Anyway, there are approximately 1200 pieces out this week telling us about it; here’s Eater with a scorecard of all the Chicago restaurants used as shooting locations; Esquire, which seems to be quite obsessed with The Bear, asks Matty Matheson (the most Chicago-looking cast member, and an actual chef, though he doesn’t play a chef on the show) for his favorite places to eat in Chicago, and Curtis Duffy talks about them shooting at Ever on CBS 2. While perpetually contrarian Slate (“Actually, Boy Scouts Helping Little Old Ladies Cross the Street is Bad”) says The Bear is no good.
And look at Instagram for a nod from everyone who’s in the show’s new opening credits, a group that ranges from Birrieria Zaragoza to Paulina Meat Market.
2. TAMUVE IT ON OVER
Anthony Todd on Tamu, the new, more casual hand roll and omakase spot in the West Loop from B.K. Park (Mako and Juno):
At Tamu, hand rolls are served at a small sushi bar in the front. Customers fill out sheets with their selections (most are $6 to $7), and the rolls are made by the chefs behind the counter and handed off to the patrons one at a time. It’s an interactive experience with an element of spectatorship; one of the most fun things about omakase dining, but for a fraction of the price. Most of the flavors will be familiar to diners (spicy tuna served with masago and soy-marinated salmon served with sweet onion, for example), but there are a few surprises. One roll showcases smoked salmon skin, made in house with a combination of three different chiles (Korean chile paste, Japanese chile oil, and sriracha), while another features candied anchovies, made using dried anchovies marinated in sweet, gluten-free soy sauce, and sautéed until crispy.
3. I LIKE TAMUVE IT
Also going to Tamu is Michael Nagrant, who starts by recalling an early experience with B.K. Park at Aria:
Mid-meal at Aria, BK was called to the hot kitchen. Some loud guy next to me gestured to BK’s assistant and said, “What kind of knife is that? Can I see it?” The assistant raised it up slowly as if he were presenting the Holy Lance.
The sushi-douche started making more inquiries. “What brand? Are they rare? Where can I get one?” I suspect the dude assumed if he bought a knife like BK’s he’d be carving toro rosettes in his Gaggenau-appliance-laden-penthouse kitchen by tomorrow.
The assistant placed the knife back on the counter and started infusing truffle oil into soy sauce. BK returned. His determined stare was replaced with a scowl. He started whispering to the other chefs, “Who touched my knife?”
He also went to Mariscos San Pedro, the new place in Thalia Hall from Oliver Poilevey of Obelix, Taqueria Chingon, etc., which just opened. How early did he go?
I do not normally make a habit of being the second paid customer to walk in the door on a restaurant’s inaugural day. But, also like I said, I was in need. Taqueria Chingon, Le Bouchon, and Obelix have yielded some of my most joyous dining moments in last five years. It felt like a good bet that team would deliver here.
Out the gate, San Pedro was an absolute pool party, full of basket weave lanterns, lobster-adorned bathroom wallpaper, and an octopus swimming across some chalkboard art amidst an azure sea of walls.
So it’s stylish as hell, but he brings the story around to end with a tribute to Oliver’s parents and legacy from Le Bouchon and Le Sardine:
Watching the smile on Oliver’s face as he worked the room, I thought of his father Jean-Claude and his mother Susanne whose Le Sardine was one of the first places I ever ate offal… I thought about the rebellious Oliver challenging tradition by spiking his dad’s bistro classics with fish sauce at Le Bouchon as he recently talked about on the Joiner’spodcast. I thought about Jean-Claude throwing away or hiding that bottle of fish sauce when Oliver was away.
Meanwhile, speaking of Poilevey and his new place in Thalia Hall, Maggie Hennessy has a piece on him at WBEZ:
“One big thing for us here is we want to offer a bunch of different types of experiences,” Oliver said. That means weeknight fish tacos and a beer for $20, hot and cold seafood towers for a crowd, and wood-fired tasting menus on weekends. But even the fancy fare isn’t fussy: “It’s not a lot of knife-and-fork food here.”
4. DORO WOT’S NEW WITH YOU?
I like Ethiopian food but I can’t say I’ve learned much about it over the years beyond a few well-known dishes, So this (in a piece by Mike Sula) sounds really intriguing:
In itself, an Oromo-owned restaurant isn’t that unusual, but among the sambusas, doro wot, atakilt alicha, and other relatively common national, globally known Ethiopian “highland” cuisine, chef (and server) Damme Lemu cooks a handful of Oromo preparations that are exceedingly rare, if not nonexistent, at U.S. Ethiopian restaurants.
The place is called Michuu Ethiopian Restaurant, and it’s in Uptown.
5. LEMONT CRANSTON
Ever been to Lemont? I found myself in that far south suburb once and it turned out to be where some of Chicago’s long-ago Lithuanian population (and restaurants) had gone. Now Steve Dolinsky has another reason to go there: Matt’s BBQ.
The smell hits you before you even walk through the front door at Matt’s Barbecue in downtown Lemont. That’s because the enormous off-set smoker is stationed just outside, on a massive deck that used to be a parking lot and now serves as a smoky alfresco retreat.
“I started doing this as a side hustle and did it out of my garage after a few trips to Texas and falling in love with the barbecue scene, and off I went,” said Matthew Borner, the owner of Matt’s BBQ.
6. HARBOR FREIGHT
Titus Ruscitti visits the harbor country of southwest Michigan—I’ve been to some of these towns, but the places he finds are looking newer and cooler than I mostly remember. Here’s an example I would not have expected on past visits:
The Spicy Fish Kathi at Jovani’s Kitchen is served out of a walkup window connected to a wine bar and it’s a welcome addition to the area. I wish we had a street food option like this in my hood. Fried chunks of hake go into paratha rolled out by an Indian mother who works the register while her son in-law does the cooking. The fish is well seasoned and the sauces take it all over the top. Good samosas too.
He also visits Cairo Kebab, which he says is Chicago’s only Egyptian restaurant. It’s now in University Village, but I went to it when it was on Fullerton, but it didn’t strike me as that different from a million other middle eastern restaurants:
Egyptian food relies heavily on vegetables and legumes but it’s also influenced by the Ottoman empire as well Lebanon and Syria. All of this influence can be seen on their menu which has hummus, falafel, shawarma, kebabs, and baklava among other things. But I zoomed in on two beloved Egyptian dishes. First up is the Hawawshi sandwich – a popular street food in Cairo and elsewhere around Egypt. It starts with pita stuffed with a mixture of ground beef mixed with onions, garlic, hot peppers, fresh herbs and spices.
7. BON YEOVI
At Time Out, Maggie Hennessy reviews Bon Yeon, that Korean beef omakase place:
In a recent article declaring “omakase the new steakhouse” for young, wealthy men looking to convene around exorbitant proteins, the New York Times deployed the term “bromakase,” which its critic, Pete Wells, apparently christened back in 2020. The word reverberated around in my head as I worked through the 10 distinct beef preparations (out of a hefty 14 courses) at Bon Yeon, Chicago’s only beef omakase restaurant. After all, what’s bro-ier than a $300 red meat omakase in the steak-loving former epicenter of meatpacking? At times I pondered the concept’s appeal beyond the well-off beef brah. But clever, ebb-and-flow pacing and storytelling moments teasing Korea’s heritage of pairing beef with raw veg converged to create a nuanced experience unlike anything else in Chicago.
8. READ A NOVEL
Someone was just telling me about Novel Pizza Cafe in Pilsen, and here’s The Infatuation to tell me more:
You might think Chicago’s pizza scene has nothing new to offer, given how many types are practically pouring out onto the streets. But the tavern-style pies at Novel Pizza in Pilsen—which skip the typical cracker aesthetic for a satisfying pita chip-esque crunch—shatter this myth.
Meanwhile, with Khmai Cambodian Fine Dining having reopened near Loyola, they review it too:
Other old favorites appear, like tangy tamarind short rib stew and chicken and taro egg rolls, alongside newcomers like an ASMR-worthy crispy fried snapper drizzled in sweet soy sauce.
9. LOOPY BURGER
Generally I find the sandwich counters in grocers to be lesser makers of sandwiches—okay, some of my favorite subs come from places that could fit that description (J.P. Graziano being the most obvious example) but really, you can tell just by inventory who’s primarily a sandwich place, and who just dabbles in it as a side. Anyway, Dennis Lee expresses some admiration for the things on bread (including the burger) at South Loop Market, or at least its paradoxical Logan Square store:
You know, I’m generally not an Italian sub person, mainly because eating a shitload of processed meat all in one go always seems like something I should avoid. That’s just a Dennis-specific hang-up thanks to my need for blood pressure medication, eat what you want! But I can’t deny the fact that there’s a ton of immediate joy eating that combination of salty meat, rich cheese, and oily dressing all at once.
The ratios here are good, too. It’s not an unhinge-your-jaw experience, nor is the meat so thick that shreds get permanently trapped between your teeth. If I’m around and I need a sandwich in a hurry, this’ll be the one I get.
By the way, our sympathies to Dennis and his family on the death of his father.
10. BBQX
Not that kind of X… just a reference to the subject of Lisa Shames’ piece on ten years of backyard barbecues at Sportsman’s Club:
In theory, taking a dive bar and giving it a thoughtful facelift doesn’t sound like a recipe for long-term success in today’s fickle nightlife scene. But that’s exactly what the group behind Sportsman’s Club — Heisler Hospitality (Matt Eisler and Kevin Heisner) along with managing partner Wade McElroy and partner and VP of operations Jeff Donahue — did.
More than 10 years later, Sportsman’s is still going strong, as are those backyard cookouts. Spotlighting 16 restaurants per summer and drawing in a hundred-plus fans for each, the Backyard BBQ series, which starts late May and ends early September, has welcomed thousands of guests.
11. HALL AND OATS
Eater answers a question I’ve long wondered (but not enough to do anything about). Shortly before lockdown I went to a preview for Hayden Hall, a rather posh food court in that bright red office building on Wabash (in the days when food halls were all the rage), run by DMK (David Morton and Michael Kornick). I talked to Kornick quite a bit that night, who was as always filled with enthusiasm. But then COVID happened, and it was shut down; and when I spoke for my book with Kornick, a major figure on Chicago’s food scene for thirty-plus years, who had opened multiple restaurants, from MK to County BBQ to DMK Burger Bar, he had moved to Golden, Colorado, and honestly sounded like COVID had taken the wind out of his sails. The short-lived food hall had been closed all this time, but:
The current owners of the building — affectionately known as “Big Red” — New York-based real estate development and investment firm SHVO, have partnered with The Budlong Hot Chicken owners Craveworthy Brands to reopen the space to provide meals for area office workers.
SHVO purchased the building around the start of COVID, attracted to the “Big Red” skyscraper’s dramatic appearance and views of Lake Michigan and Grant Park. The office tower’s occupancy is now at the same level as it was pre-pandemic, so SHVO CEO Michael Shvo felt it was finally time to reopen the 25,000-square-foot food hall.
Can the food hall, sensation of c. 2018, come back? Stay tuned.
12. UPTOWN SATURDAY NIGHT
Remember the Strange Foods Festival? Fooditor contributor Keng Sisavath launched it in the mid-2010s to highlight local restauranta offering lesser-known, mostly Asian cuisine. Well, Sisavath is involved with a new version of roughly the same idea—an Asian food hall in Uptown, Uptown Food Exchange, which just got a nearly $2 million grant from the city to fix up the building where it opens to open. Block Club:
Uptown Food Exchange, 4833 N. Broadway, would be inside a two-story commercial building that sits vacant in the heart of the neighborhood’s entertainment district. Once the 8,680-square-foot building is restored, it will be home to an array of food stalls featuring Asian cuisine.
“We want to create something permanent where people can get street-style food that’s down to earth, affordable and can be streamlined,” said Keng Sisavath, one of the local business owners leading the project. “It’s not a cookie-cutter food court. It will have character and be a place for people to hang out.”
13. PIZZA CITY USA
The New York Times did a listicle of the 22 top pizza (a type of tlayuda) places nationwide. Chicago has one of them, Bungalow by Middlebrow. One. Not due… uno.
Meanwhile, an organization called 50 Top Pizza USA 2024 did its own list, and Robert’s Pizza in Chicago placed #10, followed by Spacca Napoli at #23 and Coda Di Volpe at #27. They also did a top 10 slice pizza list and Jimmy’s Pizza in Chicago placed #9.
14. HOT DOG CITY TOO
The old Sears at Irving and Milwaukee has been turned into condos, and as part of the opening festivities, a hot dog cart that used to play their trade at the pot was honored with a plaque. But the interesting part is in the details, as Nadig Newspapers reports:
When he was 9 years old, Wayne Kurzeja was helping his father Stan with the push cart, and he was given money to go buy salt at Hillman’s, a grocery store that was once in the basement of Sears.
…at the store Kurzeja spent an extra nickel on a nice container with salt that would not have the moisture issue. However, it was celery salt and his dad was not impressed.
“It took 1 1/2 months to get rid of all the celery salt,” Kurzeja said.
However, a short time later a customer says, “load it up with celery salt” and “my dad gives me a dirty look and said, ‘you started something.’”
Is that the invention of the celery salt thing on Chicago hot dogs? It could be! Another interesting factoid that might explain another bit of Chicago hot dog orthodoxy:
The neighbor gave at least one important tip: don’t offer ketchup as a condiment, and Kurzeja said that it put a different twist on the belief ketchup is unacceptable on a hot dog.
“Ketchup has sugar. You’re going to have ants everywhere,” the neighbor warned, according to Kurzeja.
Personally, my theory about the ketchup thing has always been that back in the day, hot dogs came mainly from German vendors, who did not use ketchup—as simple as that. But who knows?
15, ASTOR PIZZAIOLO
No, they don’t actually have pizza, but what Astor Club, the new incarnation of 1960s glam spot Maxim’s, does have is a new chef: Trevor Teich, formerly of Claudia in its various incarnations. Check out his post about his new gig at Facebook, which includes a number of gorgeous photos of the art nouveau interior, originally designed for the 1963 opening and restored by the new owners (after it sat decaying under the ownership of the city in recent years). Since it’s a private club, this might be your one chance to see inside…
16. ARGO MATEY
Long ago I wrote about a venerable pizza place in Argo Summit, a town with multiple histories—gangsters, literary (Hemingway’s The Killers), industry (it was a major producer of corn starch, hence the Argo name), and—per friend of Fooditor Cynthia Clampitt—football:
Another entrepreneur, one Augustus Eugene Staley, bought a cornstarch plant in Decatur in 1909, and by 1912, he was processing 3,000 bushels of corn daily. But as his fortune grew, Staley turned his attention to another love: sports. In 1919, he started a little football club that he called the Decatur Staleys. Initially, the players were all men who worked in Staley’s plant. They played teams from other major industries. Then, Staley brought George Halas on board, to both play on and better organize the team. In 1920, Halas moved the team to Chicago, and they changed the team name to the Chicago Bears. So, no cornstarch, no Bears.
IN MEMORIAM
It never occurred to me to wonder who the Gloria Jean behind 90s mall coffee chain Gloria Jean’s Coffee Bean was, but she was not only a real person, she was a Chicagoan: Gloria Jean Kvetko, who died earlier this month. Eater has an obit here.
LISTEN UP
A tasting menu restaurant called Feld has just opened; I don’t much about (beyond the fact that owner Jake Potashnick and Wilson Bauer of Flour Power are having a spat over it on Instagram) but it has gotten a fair amount of media attention, including talking to David Manilow on The Dining Table.