“People keep sewing their eyes together to stop seeing things. . . . If we don’t open our eyes we are blind, and we can’t do anything to help Puerto Rico.”
Author Archives: Martha Bayne
Posted inFood & Drink
Perennial Virant’s rustic farm-to-table minimalism
Creative, clean flavors—at a cost
Posted inFood & Drink
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 […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Three Aces, Antico, Sable, and five more restaurants with new outdoor seating
Antico | Wicker Park/Bucktown | $$$ Tucked into what used to be an antique store just off Armitage in Bucktown, the aptly named Antico is by all appearances a typical neighborhood restaurant. Yet the unassuming facade masks a crack staff and kitchen under the direction of server Trinna Schramm, a former expediter at Alinea, and chef-owner […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Good eats in West Town
Search the Reader‘s online database of more than 4,300 Chicago-area restaurants—and add your own review—at chicagoreader.com. Bia for Mia $$ It’s a ballsy move to open up an Italian place along a stretch of Grand that includes Bari, D’Amato’s, La Scarola, and Bella Notte—even if you are Mel Markon, restaurateur de sass circa 1995, and […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Next, Ing, Haymarket Pub & Brewery, and other Fulton Market restaurants
Carnivale | $$$ We started with the ceviche tasting at this theatrical pan-Latin offering from Jerry Kleiner; our favorites were the scallop, flavored with coconut curry and basil oil, and the crab, glazed in habanero jelly and served in a tomato, mango, and horseradish sauce. The main courses we tried were homey: rum-glazed pork shoulder […]
Posted inFood & Drink
With food policy a plank in Rahm Emanuel’s new platform, neighborhood food councils are starting to organize
When neighborhood politics threatened to derail the Logan Square Farmers’ Market earlier this month, more than 100 people showed up at City Hall in protest. The issues at stake—which involved allegations of improper activity on one side and abuses of aldermanic power on the other— were, frankly, murky. But as the worry and outrage spread […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Cheese, Please: Spots with a fine selection
Avec | West Loop | $$$ 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 […]
Posted inBlogs
A Break for Shared-use Kitchens
A shared-kitchen ordinance has been approved by the city’s licensing committee.
Posted inFood & Drink
Eight spots for spring
Strictly Seasonal Search the Reader‘s online database of more than 4,300 Chicago-area restaurants—and add your own review—at chicagoreader.com/food. Browntrout | North Center | $$$ The most unfortunate name, Browntrout (see urbandictionary.com), in fact commemorates a simply prepared rod-and-reel-caught fish that sustained chef Sean Sanders and his wife while they honeymooned in remote New Zealand. Sanders, […]
Posted inFood & Drink
What’s New: Coming Up Aces
Ex-Fianco chef Matt Troost scores again
with a Taylor Street bar. Plus: Zenlike Italian in Lincoln Square, a downtown steak house that’s dinner and a show, and eight more new restaurants.
Posted inFood & Drink
The Best Restaurants of 2010
The Girl & the Goat, Kith & Kin, the Purple Pig, Big Star, and more
