Bistro Bordeaux | Evanston | $$$ Pascal Berthoumieux’s picture-perfect French bistro has light mustard walls covered with small framed posters, butcher-paper-topped tables, a dark wood bar towards the back, and servers in black vests and long white aprons. The French classics are covered as well. Escargots de bourgogne en croute, plump snails in individual snail-dish compartments […]
Author Archives: Anne Spiselman
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Simone’s, Abuelo’s Mexican Grill, and ten more restaurants in Pilsen and Little Village
Abuelo’s Mexican Grill | $ Brothers Angel and Hugo Gomez have transformed a grungy storefront across from the Damen Pink Line stop into a sparkling sandwich shop wallpapered with Latin American record jackets and National Geographic covers. Sopes, tacos, burritos and tortas are well conceived and delicious, demonstrating fine attention to detail. The chorizo sope […]
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Dispatches: Illinois’s new artisanal farmstead cheese maker
A globe-trotting dairy specialist gives the state its first raw cow’s milk farmstead cheese
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Cheese, Please: Spots with a fine selection
Avec | West Loop | $$$ At first, sitting on a bench between strangers in this cedar-lined, saunalike room makes me feel a little apprehensive, like I’m wrapped in naught but a sweaty towel. But as the wine flows and the evening grows long, everyone’s gabbing like pals, offering around bits of robust cheese or […]
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Dinner on a Dime, From a Vintage Cookbook
Chef Troy Graves tries out a 115-year-old cookbook, but skips the squirrel.
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The Best Restaurants of 2010
The Girl & the Goat, Kith & Kin, the Purple Pig, Big Star, and more
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Recommended in the Loop
From Everest to the Gage, turkey sandwiches to pheasant
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The Art of the Bonbon
Les Nomades chef Chris Nugent crafts his chocolates brush in hand.
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At Vincent, some Dutch courage
The fortifying food—and booze—of the Netherlands, in Andersonville. Plus: Scott Harris’s new enoteca, and barbecue on the Gold Coast.
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The Cajun ‘Wich
West Loop sandwich vets go NOLA at Mac and Mins; Mia Figlia, a trattoria from a Tizi Melloul vet; and fancy pancakes on Taylor Street at Stax Cafe. Plus: 13 southern restaurants
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Taste of Chicago
Caramels with a sense of place, from chocolate and chiles for Pilsen to beer and peanuts for Wrigleyville
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At the Girl & the Goat, the hoopla’s justified
Stephanie Izard’s Girl & the Goat justifies the hoopla. Plus: above-average Chinese in Bucktown and new twists on an old Evanston Italian favorite.
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The Three Kims
The trio behind Ruxbin’s French-Latin-Asian mashup may be destined for greatness. Plus: Portage Park gets a gastropub and Donatella gets a new cucina.