1. LULA WINS IN THE STRETCH
We went 0 for 1 at the James Beard media awards, and the restaurant awards weren’t looking much better—no win for Anna Posey of Elske in pastry, or for the two Chicago nominees in Best Chef Great Lakes, Jenner Tomaska (Esmé) and Sujan Sarkar (Indienne). The last one left was Lula Cafe for Hospitality… and perhaps because they knew what a good speech the ever-thoughtful Jason Hammel gave when he won Chef of the Year at the Banchets in 2018, he won this one too.
“My kids are here, and when your kids grow up, sometimes you’re holding their hands across the street, guiding them to school. and then you realize that one day, they’re not going to hold your hand,” he began. “Honestly, in the last ten seconds, my kids and my wife and I were holding hands. As restaurant families, we’re tight, and it meant so much to me to have this moment.”
It seemed an appropriate way to talk about Lula Cafe, which made a family out of not only a generation of cooks and servers—as Jason has joked, nobody at Lula doesn’t have a painting or a screenplay or a novel they’re working on while they’re working there—but also, as much as anyone it made Logan Square a neighborhood with its own character and artistic temperament. So even if the Beards have never been to that part of town*, for a moment they actually acknowledged that the city they drop into for a weekend every year exists beyond the West Loop.
(*My favorite new example of this: Ruth Reichl tried to go late to Au Cheval, even flashing her Beard medal for status, and couldn’t get in. If she’d stepped out of her Beard bubble and actually met a native or two, at least she could have had trouble getting into somewhere more real and Chicago-y, like Warlord! As Friend of Fooditor Rob Gardner points out, there’s an Au Cheval in New York; she might as well have gone to Shake Shack.**)
(** Look, I know it’s hard to find late night food in Chicago, including in the West Loop. But if she’d, say, contacted Titus Ruscitti, she’d at least have gotten some good late night tacos. In any case, apparently she went to Girl & the Goat, and the Boka team, strong supporters of Beards in Chicago, hooked her up. As Michael Nagrant points out, this was pretty much the opposite of her famous experience going in disguise to Le Cirque or wherever and showing how New York City dining really works if you’re not somebody special… like a writer with a freshly awarded Beard medal around your neck.)
2. RAW FISHY DETROIT
Native Detroiter Michael Nagrant should be happy that a Detroit sushi chef, Hajime Sato of Sozai in Clawson (near Birmingham) won Best Chef: Great Lakes. But it’s not that simple:
Sozai represents one of the only omakase sushi experiences in the state of Michigan, and frankly it still serves a la carte maki (no California rolls tho!) too, probably because the market doesn’t support omakase only. I can think of at least ten omakase places off the top of my head in Chicago alone.
If we compare some of those spots to Sozai, they have significantly higher Yelp ratings, arguably higher levels of hospitality (read Sozai’s 1 star Yelp reviews, they’re wild, but also consistent that chef Sato’s admirable principles rankle the Michigan masses), similar commitments to using sustainably acquired fish, and better interior builds.
…Given that three other regions’ voters are likely to outweigh the Chicago contingent, they also have the opportunity to create a bloc or gang up against Chicago for their own agenda. Which means despite the lower number of truly Beard-eligible restaurants in these states, you end up getting a higher proportion of nominees not from Chicago.
That’s one issue—and an ironic one, given that Chicago tended to shut out the other parts of the region in recent years. But then he dives into how Sozai comparsd to Chicago nominee Esme in terms of supporting the things that the Beards, as I said last time, “like to be seen liking”:
For example this year, one of the Great Lakes Beard finalists up against Sozai was Esmé. Esmé is one of the most extraordinary restaurants anywhere, not just Chicago. There is nothing like it at all in Michigan. It is co-owned by Jenner Tomaska and his wife Katrina Bravo. It is an absolute art project in every way.
…It’s very clear that the James Beard Awards, which now go to a significant number of women, LGBTQIA, and BIPOC folk, are also using the awards as a means to correct the lack of representation in society. They’ve stated this goal. You can see it in the award outcomes. 20 years ago, the Beards were the domain of the straight white European male. Only a few won this year.
…[Esmé] has collaborated with a long list of BIPOC artists. And when I say collaborated, this isn’t just hanging their pieces on the walls for rich diners to consider buying. The walls at Esmé are painted with examples of their work. Installations are made on the plate. The cuisine is inspired by the artists’ style, and they are full-fledged team members. Arguably, Esmé has created opportunities and promoted those previously underrepresented more than any other restaurant in the category.
But judging Esmé more worthy than Sozai would require having to think and evaluate one against the other. And honestly, do they do that or do they pick the most obvious, visible choice promoting their identitarian virtues for all to see? Another friend of Fooditor attended one of the Beard after parties and wound up talking to two of the judges, who were appointed not because they knew jack about food, but apparently because they’re professional friends from marketing and such of Dawn Padmore, VP of Awards, who joined the Beards in 2021:
They both told me that the restaurants’ stories and the chefs’ advocacy work in their communities factored much more heavily into their decisions as judges than the experience of dining at the restaurants. Hence, an omakase with miso soup served in melamine bowls robbed Jenner Tomaska of his well-deserved award, because Hajime Sato of Sozai in Clawson, MI advocates more actively for sustainable seafood.
So there you have it, direct from the judges: good PR counts for more than actually tasting the food. This is not how an award retains credibility for the long haul.
3. IN OTHER AWARD NEWS
Compared to the Beards. Michelin naming six new places seems downright abundant—but six what? Not stars, or even Bib Gourmands, but “recommended restaurants”—places worth checking out, places to assure you that Michelin is checking out new things even as they prepare to release another minimally adjusted, parsimonious list of star-holders. The only one I think has a real shot at nabbing a star is Mexican tasting menu Cariño, but the others, all worthy, are John’s Food and Wine, Maxwells Trading, Sifr, Taqueria Chingon and Warlord.
The Robb Report, the Magazine For People Waiting to Get Their Car Detailed, listed its ten favorite new restaurants. Guess which Chicago ones made it? Think meats for men: Brasero. Also, Maxwells Trading. Check it out here.
And congrats to Rick Bayless for getting the very long-named The Marshall Field Making History Award for Distinction in Corporate Leadership and Innovation, given by the Chicago History Museum.
4. HOW NOW HOT POT
One thing I don’t care for much about Hot Pot is that it often seems haphazard, a bunch of stuff in a pot, picked off a sheet of paper. John Kessler makes a case for Shabu Plus Rotary Hot Pot in Wicker Park, where at least you can see it before adding it:
The midrange package includes beef brisket and chuck roll as well as pork, chicken, and all the goodies zipping by on the conveyor belt: corn, snow peas, four kinds of mushrooms, a dozen different greens, tofu, and fish cakes. Also included are desserts (mochi ice cream, crêpe cake) and a trip to the DIY sauce bar, which brims with so much cut fruit, soup, and other treats it’s like an old-school salad bar.
But as modest-priced Asian meals go, I’m more intrigued by another place he writes about: Torizen, a Japanese neighborhood place in Schaumburg:
Torizen is the only restaurant I know well that brings me back to the two years I lived in Japan after college. I ate a lot of lunches at counters in restaurants that looked exactly the same. My job as an English teacher took me to different neighborhoods around Osaka every day of the week, so I spent my lunch hour scouting out the best and/or cheapest teishoku meals.
5. DEAR JOHN’S
Steve Dolinsky checks out John’s Food and Wine, focusing for once on the food, not just the serving model:
Much has been made about the service model at John’s Food & Wine – an American restaurant in Lincoln Park with a great wine list. But at the end of the day, you’ll be coming back for the food.
“We try and keep up with what food is coming out of the ground to put food on the plate so our guests know what time of year it is,” said co-owner and co-chef Adam McFarland.
6. JOOK SING IT LOUD
Titus Ruscitti checks out five newish places: Gemma Foods, Un Amor, Brasero, Nettare, and Jook Sing:
Their menu is an ode to the Night Markets across Asia and they also sport a bar and serve food and drink until midnight on the weekend. Jook Sing is probably the oldest spot of these five featured as it opened in December of 2023. They’ve switched up the menu a few times already so a few of the things we had on our visit are no longer available but I enjoyed their rendition of the famous New Orleans noodle dish Yaka Mein. It had a bit of a Taiwanese beef noodle soup element to it that I really like.
7. DITA DITA DITA-DO
The Infatuation spends J.P. Morgan Chase’s money on Tre Dita, and not on a $300 steak:
The Tre Dita Experience begins in a hallway that’s basically the menu’s hype man, showing off staff in the “pasta lab” artfully rolling, slicing, and shaping dough, while dramatically lit beef sits pretty in a dry-ager like it’s posing for GQ. Ultimately, those steaks are fine and other large proteins are forgettable. But the pasta is pure saucy luxury. When you’re diving into meaty duck ragu, creamy cacio e pepe, and buttery taleggio-filled tortelli that all have a harmonious balance of flavor and a perfect firm-yet-tender texture, it’s euphoric.
They also visited Bayan Ko Diner:
Like its sister restaurant Bayan Ko, this larger spot in Ravenswood serves great Filipino and Cuban food—just with a whole lot more eggs. Their menu has tasty traditional dishes, like longanisa garlic rice plates and flaky empanadas, plus twists on American breakfast classics, like a sisig hash with juicy chunks of pork and potatoes.
8. CHENGDU, CHENGDON’T
Dennis Lee checks out the latest spot from the Chengdu Impession mini-empire, Chengdu Bistro:
When we got settled in, the server brought us a complimentary plate of what he likened to cabbage kimchi.
That’s a fairly rough estimation of what it tastes like, however. It’s more like a salty cabbage salad with some kick to it, sans the fermented flavor kimchi has. I wanted to eat all of it, but we had a lot of things coming our way. Also, with three other people at the table, that would have been a dick move.
9. CONTINENTAL OP
When I saw that John Kessler had done a piece for The Bitter Southerner on continental cuisine, my first thought was, you had to go all the way to Florida to eat like it’s the 1960s when Wisconsin is just sitting there? “Continental cuisine” was a kind of postwar quasi-French cooking rooted in 1) the unavailability of actual European produce (so everything was frozen, leading to Calvin Trillin’s crack that the continent in question must be Antarctica), and 2) the unavailability of French chefs (so your continental chef was probably Mexican or Serbian). But Kessler offers a nice piece on a place called Miguel’s French Continental Cuisine in Sarasota, where time has stopped, apparently in the middle of an episode of the Dean Martin Show:
Have you ever opened a door and found a portal to another dimension? That was Miguel’s for me. The A/C hit like a force field as I tried to make sense of all the information overloading my brain. It was infinite: a mirrored warren with no beginning or end, mustard walls, and potted devil’s ivy hanging from the ceiling as far as I could see. It was busy but not loud: Murmuring folk used their inside voices between thick carpet and black ceiling tiles. It was erupting in blue flames: Bananas Foster prepared on a butane burner on a rolling cart went whoosh, to the delight of all. It was crammed with booze: bottles topping every railing, bottles slotted in racks lining every wall, bottles stacked sky-high behind the bar, unpacked crates and boxes on the floor. Châteauneuf-du-Pape here, Southern Comfort there. A woman edged her walker past us as I stood agape at the door.
Sounds like my childhood.
10. INDIAN INDEED
“When did Indian food first come to Chicago?” begins this Trib piece that looks at the early days of Indian and Pakistani cuisine in Chicago. The answer is, surprisingly early:
There is plenty of evidence that Indians have been present in Chicago for over 100 years — it seems likely that some may have started restaurants or hawked food. At the very least, the Chicago public was interested in Indian food as early as 1907, when several articles explaining the cuisine appeared in the Chicago Daily Tribune.
11. LISTEN UP
En Process talks to the thoughtful and creative Ed Marszewski (Maria’s, Marz Brewing, Kimski, many others), including about creating community in a community that may not always want you (ah, Bridgeport).
At The Dining Table, David Manilow talks about going to Briny Swine and to Tre Dita, and he talks about Lula Cafe winning that Beard award with a few recent guests.
If you’ve watched HBO’s Julia, you know Judith Jones, the Knopf editor who guided Julia to the bestseller lists, among other things. Culinary Historians of Chicago hosted Jones’ biographer, Sarah Franklin; go here, and you don’t have to watch, you can just listen to it like a podcast, as there’s not that much in the way of visuals.
Buzz List will be off next week and return on July 1.