Category: Food & Drink

Anyone who’s ever spent much time with me could tell you that I love iced coffee, and—somewhat ironically for a person who’s spent half their life in small music venues—I hate tightly packed indoor spaces (the pandemic just made me hate them more). So, naturally, I’ve been raving about Hexe Coffee Co.’s gigantic patio since […]

The first time my girlfriend sent me a TikTok from @plateswithp, she said, “I don’t know why, but I trust everything she says.” I, too, became an immediate fan. Paige Serena started making food and lifestyle content on TikTok in 2022. Born in Chicago and raised in Milwaukee, she fell in love with Chicago’s food […]

Chocolate cake is my favorite dessert of all time. I pick up a slice at Whole Foods at least once every two weeks, and it’s always my litmus test for any bakery. For me, every chocolate cake serves some kind of function. The Whole Foods slice is a biweekly affirmation that life is good, in […]

John James Audubon was a complicated character. On one hand, the French-American artist and ornithologist wrote and hand painted the 435 gorgeous life-size prints that make up the original birder bible: The Birds of America. And yet, he was a despicable human: a racist, vehement anti-abolitionist, and enslaver (among other things), facts that have caught […]

From afar, artist, educator, and organizer Jen Delos Reyes seems tireless. She splits her time between Ithaca, New York—where she works at Cornell as an associate professor in the art department and as the inaugural associate dean of diversity and equity for the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning—and Chicago, where she runs Side by […]

Sylvia Patterson, mom of spooky-silly goth Twitch streamer DJ Patrixia, is an absolute vibe master, and it comes out in her imaginative confections. The self-taught baker owns Sweets by Dragonflies, which is amazingly affordable and has a quick turnaround, with vegan options. And while Patterson can reliably recreate anything you’d find at a grocery store […]

Comfortable, decades-old, family-owned restaurants—the kind in which everyone knows each other, going back generations—are becoming rarer in Chicago. Such places are gems, harkening back to a different, more working-class Chicago, when the moniker “City of Broad Shoulders” was more fitting and neighborhoods were defined by their parishes.  La Villa Restaurant & Banquets is one of […]

“This is your knife. This is your tool. This is what you love. And if something happens to it, it can be heartbreaking. It’s nice to be able to bring that tool back to where you have that feeling of ‘this is mine.’” Jordan Ross is one-half of the Asian stoner food pop-up SuperHai, but […]

Here’s a rule I live by: once a month, take yourself on a date. No phones allowed; bring a book. Last month, I ventured to Ghin Khao Eat Rice, and I can assure you it’s the perfect spot. (And I’ve done this 21 times!) First, it’s truly delicious and authentic, with nearly 200 Google reviews […]

Chicago has a reputation as a foodie city to uphold. For vegans and vegetarians, it’s no different. As more vegan options pop up on menus, Penelope’s Vegan Taqueria decided to open up a second location, this time in Andersonville. Penelope’s has a long enough menu that most vegans would find it cumbersome to look through […]

You can find some of the best scones—flaky, buttery, crunchy, savory scones, not too sweet, not too chewy—in Oak Park, in a tiny storefront just a few blocks west of Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and studio. There you will find Broken Tart, an unassuming Tardis-like coffee shop and bakery, almost invisible from the street. Once […]

I’m not trying to start a fight. I can name a dozen addictively delicious ways to eat green cabbage—in fact, I have a jar of homemade Sichuan-style brine-fermented cabbage in the fridge right now, which I love with my chili oil. I had to say “best” because this is Best of Chicago, but it’d be […]

Chili crisp is a versatile, addicting, savory, and utterly delicious chunky sauce that understandably became a hit culinary trend in 2022. It’s most commonly made with a base of crushed red peppers and neutral oil and then loaded with an assortment of added spices and fried garlic or shallot for crunch. Once I heard of […]

I’m a guy who loves the concept of state fairs, and more specifically the socially acceptable kind of eating that takes place at them. It would be irresponsible for me, a 37-year-old who begrudgingly reads nutritional-facts labels, to make room in my diet for deep-fried ice cream, or a hot dog deep-fried in corn-dog batter, […]