1. CH-CH-CH-CHANGES

I leave town for ten days and the world of early 2000s Chicago restaurants—so much of the subjects of my book—changes all over the place!

Nick Kokonas. When I interviewed the head of Alinea Group and formerly of Tock a second time several weeks back, he told me, semi-confidentially, about planning to sell out of his share in everything (except a small piece of Alinea) because, he said, he was at a point in his life where he saw opportunities in other industries to do the kind of disruptive/reinventing stuff he’d done with restaurants. I mentioned this semi-confidentially to someone else in the business, and the response was, Oh, he’s been saying that for years. But turns out it wasn’t just Tock—as he posted on Twitter:

Somewhere at the end of the hall is a door. Earlier today I sold my ownership of The Alinea Group to an investor group led by Chicagoan Jason Weingarten. I remain a minority, passive investor solely in Alinea Restaurant.

20 years of innovation in hospitality, book publishing, and reservation software — along with making 1M+ diners happy and full of wonder — has me feeling very thankful for the many team members who helped make all of that happen.

I look forward to seeing Grant and Jason build on the amazing organization and experiences TAG has in place. Personally I’m excited to work on new ventures and stay as uncomfortable as I dare. That usually leads to the best results.

So who is Jason Weingarten, who steps into what is obviously one of the most high-profile ownership/management positions in Chicago food? Here’s how his Twitter/X bio self-describes:

Co-Owner and CEO of The Alinea Group. Co-Owner of Oliver’s. Previously founded and sold several software companies. Often contrarian sometimes right.

Sound rather Kokonasesque! Weingarten is a tech entrepreneur who, Eater reports, threw a party for one of his companies, Yello, at the Aviary in 2014 (the first time it ever did a buyout, Eater says, though I must say that surprises me if true). So it sounds like he’s been around their world for a while, though it looks like his only previous restaurant investment was with Oliver Poilevey (Le Bouchon) in Oliver’s in the South Loop. (He also founded Entree, a meal kit company.) A likely bet is that they will look into more opportunities to link the Alinea/Achatz name with other partners, such as hotels in other cities, which has not always worked (a New York Aviary didn’t last). But Weingarten and Achatz both say they’re in no hurry:

The expansion initiatives, however, will not just toss the Alinea Group’s brand into any hot pot. Weingarten emphasized that any future endeavors must align with the group’s vision and goals, ensuring that the “magical dining experiences” remain intact. The celebrated chef Achatz, whose culinary artistry has been a beacon for the group, remarked on the importance of internal harmony within the group, aiming to intertwine strategic growth with the group’s ethos in the roadmap for the next decade.

That’s from a restaurant business pub called Hoodline. There are lots of other stories out there if you search Weingarten’s name.

Iliana Regan. I apologize in advance for using a transitioning person’s old name, but if I said Lane Regan, you wouldn’t know who I was talking about. In any case, the former chef of Elizabeth, now operator a glamping resort in Michigan, posted on Instagram:

Happy National Coming Out Day! If you’ve read my books, you’re probably not surprised that I am trans. For most of my life I’ve dissociated from my gender. And in writing about it, as raw and honest as I was about most things, I was still in denial.

A friend of mine said, “this is what national coming out day is for.” I feel it’s important to tell people who I am. I don’t want anyone to wait for another book (there’s definitely going to be more). Plus I’ve got a little mustache coming in, so I can’t hide it.

I’m grateful for my trans and queer friends (you know who you are) who rallied around me and said, “Lane, this is for you too. Be who you are.” And when I finally came out to them they also said, “yeah, duh, we’ve been waiting.”

Indeed, if you read Regan’s first memoir, Burn the Place, this will not come as an out-of-nowhere surprise—they talked in the book about their disconnection from female identity and feeling like a little boy in the woods from an early age. A book about this part of Regan’s journey is in the works, they tell us. For the curious, they included photos so far in the Instagram post.

Ryan McCaskey. Remember the chef of Acadia (a space, incidentally, that is now Oliver’s?) He’s since moved to Maine, but he had been involved in a lawsuit from a former employee, Cody Nason, who he allegedly harassed in various ways online:

Nason claims that his ex-boss “engaged in a systematic campaign using the Internet to harass and stalk” him in retaliation. The centerpiece of the campaign, Nason claims, was the website CodyNason.com. The site, which appeared August 13 and taken down last week, described Nason as a pedophile, a child rapist, and a convicted sex offender, and claimed that Nason worked for convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. It was also littered with homophobic and racist language, including a link to the KKK, and photos of Nason and his deceased older brother.

That was Eater in 2023, in a piece which credits The86dList—an Instagram account which at that point had been defunct for a couple of years— as a gamechanger in how chefs could treat employees. That’s fanciful, but you know what really changes the game? Winning $4.5 million in a lawsuit, while McCaskey’s countersuit was dismissed:

Chef Ryan McCaskey, former owner of the shuttered Michelin-starred Acadia restaurant, has been ordered to pay $4.5 million to a former Acadia server who accused his former boss of launching an extensive online harassment campaign to retaliate against him for allegedly supplying information to a website that published embarrassing stories about McCaskey and Acadia while the restaurant was closed during the Covid pandemic.

On Sept. 20, a Cook County jury entered a verdict in favor of Cody Nason, who had sued McCaskey for defamation and other charges stemming from the alleged harassment.

The verdict included $1.25 million for defamation and $2 million more in punitive damages against McCaskey.

Tony Mantuano. Compared to the rest of these, this seems small potatoes, but Mantuano, longtime Spiaggia chef and one of the good guys, had been resident the last few years in Nashville, his primary effort being a restaurant in a hotel called Yolan, which got very good reviews. But Mantunao announced on Instagram that he and wife Cathy are leaving Nashville:

Hello All- we’re saying good bye to #Nashville! Been an incredible run.

A huge thank you to all #yolan team members past and present, together we created something very special. How lucky we are to have worked along side of you

To each and every guest that walked through our doors for the past four years, your support has meant so much. We will miss all of you.

Creating Yolan has been a true highlight of our careers. We accomplished what we set out to do.

And now we drop the mic on our way out the door! @infatuation released their best restaurant guide to Nashville today and Yolan scored a 9.5! What a way to go! So grateful for this recognition as well as all the numerous other accolades. Thank you. We are humbled.

Could the Mantuanos be coming back to Chicago? No word yet,  but it wouldn’t totally surprise anybody, as Chicago remains home to two hot restaurants by Mantuano’s protegees from Spiaggia, Sarah Grueneberg (Monteverde) and Joe Flamm (Rose Mary).

One last note: it’s interesting that this food news mostly came not from the Trib or even Eater, but the chefs themselves on social media. Take that as you will.

2. IF A TREE FELD IN THE FOREST…

John Kessler reviews Feld, talking about how he feels owner Jake Potashnick was a bit unfairly treated on Reddit’s r/chicagofood, and perhaps by extension by people like Michael Nagrant,who reviewed it quite critically (though not without some admiration for Potashnick’s mission). That said, Kessler has his own criticisms of his early experiences at Feld:

At the first meal, the desserts were the cherry on an undercooked cake. One involved buttermilk that tasted flat-out spoiled. There were too many flaws, like potatoes that had undergone a complex cooking process that resulted in a dead ringer for raw. Partway through, my spirit of hopeful anticipation was replaced by the feeling I was a DMV inspector on a driving test marking off demerits. Sitting in that room looking at all the other people facing us began to feel less like theater in the round and more like a panopticon. The storytelling also became counterproductive. The more the servers told me about the terroir in a plum, the more my palate went, “Huh, don’t see it.” Potashnick needs to kill his darlings.

So still a work in progress, but generally he feels favorable toward it now:

3. CHAN CAN COOK

But though he started as a cook, Jason Chan has been a manager and entrepreneur at many restaurants, going back to the one where he got his start (and which I interviewed him for my book about), the 70s French restaurant L’Escargot. His latest place is Gavroche, a French restaurant in Old Town. Anthony Todd at Dish:

Gavroche is only 1,100 square feet, with room for 24 diners (plus 7 more at a counter). “I feel like the guy in Up,” laughs Chan. “I’m this tiny space surrounded by all of these huge bars.” But the small space and limited number of patrons means that Chan can do the elevated food and, more importantly, high-end, high-touch service that he thinks is key. “I tell my staff every day — our goal is to be remarkable — that way we are remarked about,” says Chan. “Our goal is blowing the minds of every single guest that comes in here, which we can do because we only have 24 seats.”

Also in Dish while I was gone: Todd check out Journeyman Distillery’s new complex, including a brewery and an event space, in Valparaiso.

4. VOTE EARLY AND OFTEN FOR PEDRO

Steve Dolinsky has good words for Mariscos San Pedro from the Le Bouchon crew:

“Traditional” isn’t necessarily a word you’d attach to the menu at Mariscos San Pedro, the latest incarnation of the space next to Thalia Hall, along 18^th Street in Pilsen. That’s because co-chef and owner Oliver Poilevey and his partners hail from different countries.

“Inspired by different coastal eateries in Sinaloa and even Mexico City,” said co-owner Oliver Poilevey. “My background is French, our other partner – his background is Mexican – and we have an Italian partner as well,” he said.

5. PASTRAMI AND LONDON

Titus Ruscitti does a roundup on pastrami:

There was a time when pastrami was mainly associated with New York City where places like Katz’s Deli have been serving it as long as anybody. It spread out from there as Jewish delis began to open elsewhere across the country but only recently has pastrami gone completely mainstream. Nowadays you’re as likely to find it at a bbq spot in Tulsa as you are at a deli in Boca. It’s even trending overseas in popular food cities like Paris and Rome. I’ve seen a big uptick on menus in Chicago too. So I’ve put together this little post on five places where you can find a good pastrami sandwich in the city.

Which reminds me of the last time I met up with old friends in a town not unlike Tulsa, Wichita. They suggested a place offering housemade pastrami and a good Belgian beer list, to which I replied, “Wait, I thought we were eating in Wichita.” But this is how food has changed all over America, as food TV shows us things we had to travel to try, and people say, we could make that here, too.

Meanwhile in London… that’s where Titus went recently:

When it came time to fly back I was already plotting a return trip. Of course it was the food that I really fell in love with – that and all of the exploring one can do thru the food in one of the world’s most diverse cities. It’s a wonderful mix of old and new. I could’ve spent the entire time eating nothing but South Asian food and I would’ve been happy as it’s the best place to eat Indian food outside of India and the same goes for Pakistani food outside of Pakistan. But I didn’t want to miss out on so many other international offerings so I tried to squeeze in as many different places in as I could.

Not exactly the stodgy old London I went to when I was in high school, and London was the least exciting dining destination in Europe by most accounts.

6. KIE MASTER

There’s a second Kie-Gol-Lanee in the former Masa Azul space, which sends Michael Nagrant down a nostalgic path:

Masa Azul was the first place I ever reviewed when I became what would eventually be the last and final Chicago Sun-Times food critic.

But let’s talk Kie-Gol-Lanee, which I’ve always liked as upscale Mex (or “square plate Mex” as I call it—such places always seem to serve on square plates):

You don’t get to two locations if the first one sucks. I can report that that the second Kie-Gol-Lanee not only doesn’t suck, but it has some of the best regional Oaxacan food I’ve eaten in Chicago.

When you think of Oaxaca, mole sauce likely comes to mind. There’s plenty of that at Kie-Gol-Lanee. Skillet enchiladas are enrobed in a mind-melting rich and nutty chocolate red mole.

He also went to the new iteration of Parachute, Parachute Hi-Fi:

Friday night is old school country night. [Co-owner Johnny] Clark works the turntable like a griddle, flipping sides of Hank, George, and Loretta. This stretch of Elston in Chicago, an antiseptic quiet commercial corridor already has a frontier feel. The music reinforces the ten gallon-hats-in-hand-club vibe.

…The food at Hi-Fi is pornographic.  Everything drips, glistens, spurts, and slips. It’s the closest you can get to doing the dirty with food short of watching Tampopo (the following clip may not be safe for work unless you are a short order breakfast cook).

7. JONES’ BARBECUE AND FOOT MASSAGE

The name Sanders BBQ Supply always makes me think of that bit of internet humor. Anyway, I gotta check it out sometime, though since it apparently sells out most days, it requires getting your act together and down to Beverly in time to still catch food. Anyway, two longtime stalwarts (as Eater would say) talk about it this week. First, Steve Dolinsky:

“I definitely wanted to do something different. I traveled to Texas and for probably the last three or four years, trying different barbecue, and I just wanted to do a craft barbecue and bring it to the South Side of Chicago,” said James Sanders, owner of Sanders BBQ Supply.

Sanders has assembled an all-star team of like-minded pitmasters. They acknowledge their location, and realize tips and links are always going to be in demand. But that doesn’t mean they have to limit themselves.

Then Titus Ruscitti at Chicago mag:

Chicago’s barbecue history dates back to the Great Migration, but a new Beverly spot is looking to the future. Sanders BBQ Supply Co., which James Sanders opened in June, is the first new-school ’cue joint on the South Side. Sanders, who previously worked in catering, tapped pitmaster Nick Kleutsch for a menu that’s Texas-forward but with inspiration from other regions.

8. THEY CALL IT THE HAWK…SMOOR

The Infatuation is underimpressed by British steakhouse import Hawksmoor:

Despite being well-cooked, most dishes are bland enough for you to grab at the salt and pepper shakers on your table. Pickled mushrooms don’t add much flavor to steak tartare, and mac and cheese is more bechamel than cheese. A saving grace for the nicely seared but underseasoned steaks is the option to add a side of bone marrow gravy, and well worth the extra $6. In fact, that rich, sweet sauce drastically improves anything it touches.

It’s also funny to see what old favorites get added to their database when they do a listicle. Here’s one no one has done in a while: Best German restaurants, with new reviews of places like Himmel’s and Laschet’s Inn (my pick when I feel like schnitzel I can walk to).

9. GASLIGHTING

We have to have a story about this one about every 7 years or so—ever heard of a club where waitresses in skimpy outfits serve businessmen, and you have to have a key to get in? Yeah, yeah, the Playboy Clubs, you say, and they’re all long gone. True, but before Playboy, there were Burton Browne’s Gaslight Clubs, and one still survives in the Hilton at O’Hare. Block Club tells you all about it, if you don’t remember reading the last story about it….

10. EAT, BUBBELE

Is there anything more primal than our desire to make our hospitality overflow? You can imagine cave men roasting an extra large woolly mammoth for guests, and we do the same today. At Food & Wine, Maggie Hennessy looks at the roots of our instinctual form of potlatch:

“I think abundant food is very often utilized as an expression of love and hospitality,” [clinical psychologist Meryl] Pankhurst explains. “Overpreparing is our tangible attempt to articulate love and the way in which we feel it: authentically and in abundance.”

At its deepest, most primordial level, feeding the people we love in excess emerges from a need to create comfort and security — two feelings we can never get enough of in this often uncomfortable business of being human, Pankhurst says.

11. MEATY AND BROWN

Friend of Fooditor Meathead Goldwyn has exciting news: he has another book coming out (after his stellar barbecue book Meathead), The Meathead Method, coming in the spring. And he has more exciting news: Alton Brown has written the foreword to it. Here’s how it starts:

I am seriously not happy with the author of this book. When he sent me the most recent version, I opened it and, after reading about ten pages, slunk to my office, retrieved the first three chapters of my own manuscript on outdoor cooking, and shredded it.

Meathead got there first. The Meathead Method is his grand opus, which is saying something considering his output on the subject. What’s worse (for the likes of me) is that it’s probably the only book on outdoor cookery you’ll ever need.

So watch for it next spring, and in the meantime, here’s a video with Meathead talking to Foodscience.org about, well, food science.

12. WE HAVE EVENTS

Chef Geno Bahena (Manchamanteles) will be celebrating the Day of the Dead with a family-friendly sugar skull painting party with costume contests on Saturday, November 2, and a late-night taco party with live DJs, Friday, November 1. You can make reservations here.

Table, Donkey and Stick will be holding firepit parties in its backyard, beginning Monday night with guest collaborators from Lardon and Katherine Anne Confections. The admission is $20, but no reservation necessary—just show up.

Dove’s Luncheonette will host an event to support Manna Food Bank in Asheville, North Carolina on Thursday, November 7. Mitchell AbouJamra, Chef-Owner of Evette’s, and Dove’s Chef Thomas Hollensed and Culinary Director Chris Millerare will all collaborate on a menu blending their Southwest-inspired menus. Guests can make reservations at Dove’s Luncheonette between 5-9pm online via OpenTable.

Chef Sangtae Park owns Omakase Yume and Bonyeon (the Korean meats place) so it’s not terribly surprising that he’ll be doing a omakase dinner featuring items from both from November 7 through 10. Go to Resy to book it.

Paul Virant’s Petite Vie will hold a dinner in honor of one of the places Virant learned his craft, Everest, with an Homage to Everest and chef Jean Joho on November 11. Go here to make a reservation.

Flagship Foods is a nice little fish shop I’ve stopped in a few times when passing into Michigan. (Officially, it’s in Lakeside, Michigan, but mainly it’s on Red Arrow Highway.) Anyway, longtime Chicago chef Didier Durand will be there this Wednesday from noon 5 pm offering lunch delicacies from his native Perigord. Go here for details.

IN MEMORIAM

Smak-Tak was my favorite Polish restaurant—I mean, they’re kind of all the same, but with its hearty food and hunting lodge decor it was always fun to hit in the dead of winter when you needed food to warm you inside out. And if there’s any place I can make a plausible claim to having “made,” it’s this one—early on in LTHForum days I was the first to write about it and it became an LTH favorite. A few years later, when Michelin was filling out the Bib Gourmand list with representatives of various ethnic cuisines, they picked Smak-Tak to represent Polish food.

But that was twenty years ago, so I wasn’t surprised to drive past it and see that it had closed. Searching at home for more info, I found the reason: owner Piotr Lakomy, a photographer as well as perennial figure sitting at his table at Smak Tak (I think his mother-in-law was the cook) had passed away back in July 2023. Here’s his obituary (though no mention of the restaurant—this confirms that it’s him).

LISTEN UP

Michael Nagrant talked to Tatum Sinclair (pastry chef at S.K.Y. and Valhalla) and also to Zubair Mohajir (Waxwan, Lilac Tiger, Mirra).

David Manilow at the Dining Table talks to the family behind one of Chicago dining’s great success stories, Gibsons—f9under Steve Lombardo, CEO Steve Lombardo III, and Director of Marketing Liz Lombardo Stark. Another recent episode deals with a couple of philosophical questions: have Chicago restaurants gone too retro, and is Michelin a curse more than a benefit?

While Joiners talks to Max Robbins, ex of Longman and Eagle and now with Lettuce Entertain You. No link, just use your podcast app to find it.

WHAT MIKE ATE

Bagels are the Texas barbecue/ramen/whatever of the moment, with new places making bagels popping up all over. Two in particular are in Evanston, offering classic bagel styles (so no funny flavors, at least beyond cinnamon raisin):

Mensch’s Deli goes for a quite convincing old school deli look, like a second location of Manny’s or something. I had a pastrami sandwich and a bowl of matzoh ball soup that I liked just fine—not as fat or as salty as a Manny’s sandwich, but it also didn’t leave me in need of a nap. I also picked up some bagels to take home; they’re nice fat bagels with a skin on them, similar to New York Bagel’s. They tasted and had the texture of homemade bagels more than professional ones, but that’s not a bad thing. In general, Mensch’s doesn’t break new ground—it seems to be happy on old ground—and I will go there again when I’m in Evanston and want something besides Edzo’s.

In contrast to the New York-style bagels at Mensch’s, Lefty’s Righteous Bagels does Montreal-style bagels—bigger hole, an exterior that snaps like a Vienna hot dog. I had one for breakfast with lox and cream cheese, which was fine, and then looked to buy some to take home. They’re pretty expensive—I think it was $28 for a dozen, vs. about half that at NYB&B, but there’s a way to save—they offer yesterday’s leftover bagels at half price. Of course, they don’t have every flavor—when I went the only day-old ones they had were onion—but that was fine by me, and with some cream cheese from Lefty’s and some smoked salmon from Fresh Farms, I’ve been enjoying them all week.