SWIFT & MORE (& MORE & MORE)

Massive, multi-barred and undeniably chic (I say it looks like a Swedish airport lounge in the 70s; a friend called it “the Mos Eiseley Cantina”), Boka Group/B. Hospitality’s steak superstore could be the ambitious opening of the year… now to see how Chris Pandel’s food is. He had one really good steak on the menu at The Bristol, what’s cooking hundreds a night here?

NO TIPPING, THAT’S RAD

The Radler gets rid of tipping. Oh, and some guy in New York did too! (Look for more about The Radler at Fooditor next week—and no-tipping’s only part of the changes.) (NY Times)

I SAID NO TIPPING, NOT NO TIPPLING!

Tippling Hall bites the dust with the partners (the Tippling Bros.) distancing themselves from it—as seems to increasingly be the fate of Mercadito projects.

McMULLEN’S IN THE BAND

I was about to write about Kevin McMullen’s way-above-bar-food at The Brixton a couple of months back when he wound up in the hospital with a badly broken leg. Now he’s winding up at Band of Bohemia, the Ravenswood brewpub restaurant coming soon, as chef de cuisine with Matt DuBois, another veteran of El Ideas. (Eater)

MORRIS DANCING

Congrats to Cory Morris of The Rural Society, who won on Chopped after a bizarre foods challenge. Guess what staff meal has been for the last month. (Chicagoist)

PASS THE DUTCHIE SOME HEAT

Phil Vettel is so smart, he thinks what I thought about De Quay, the Dutch-slash-Indonesian gastropub in Lincoln Park: that the Dutch food is strong (” The smoked sausage is a keeper, the sous-vide pork pink and moist and as meltingly tender as a top-level tenderloin, and the vegetables — mixed cabbage and fried kale alongside Gouda-fortified mashed potatoes — are perfect accompaniments”) but the Indonesian needs more pizzazz (“If anything, de Quay could be bolder with his flavors, perhaps kick up the heat on his Indonesian spices to make those dishes more distinctive. The Euro-inspired dishes he has down pat”), which might lift the place from the one star he gives it. (Tribune)

DEAD BRILLIANT

Spencer’s Jolly Posh Foods is closing as a tea room and specialty market of Brit goodies, but owner Nick Spencer will launch a restaurant in the space shortly after, Kevin Pang reports—and really, there was an Aviary veteran leading the kitchen making knackered chuffs and polly bootkins, or whatever the heck the British eat? (Tribune)

FLOODING THE PORK TENDERLOIN ZONE

The Reader’s Midwestern Cuisine issue this week will give you food for road trips to the states around us for as long as traveling weather lasts.

AND SPEAKING OF MIDWESTERN…

Do we have a Chicago style of fish taco? That’s what Buzz Bait Taqueria, collaboration between the owners of Kamehachi and Lou Malnati’s, claims, and Kevin Pang explores in his review, deciding that “in the end, it’s too much. Everything here feels thick, from the cut of the cabbage to the Sapporo batter on the Alaskan cod…  This is the deep-dish pizza of fish tacos.“

FOODIWHAT?

The Reader and Chicagoist both report that something called Fooditor launched this week. Should check that out.