I was sitting at the window table at the Bongo Room in Wicker Park, having a lazy Valentine’s Day brunch with my husband, when I saw a pop of red walk by on the other side of the street. Even though it was a bit of a sacrifice to abandon my pear and dried cherry […]
Tag: Vol. 51 No. 12
Issue of March 17, 2022
A Viagra Triangle dive rises under chef Amanda Barnes
After nearly a half century, Pippin’s Tavern embraces crafty, chef-driven, farm-centric food.
by Mike Sula
Windy City Times special quarterly insert (PDF) inside! (The insert is also included in the full issue PDF.)
Find a print copy of the Reader.
←Previous issue | Next issue→
Posted inArts & Culture
Lynda Barry is the North Star
One of my prized possessions is a 1989 playbill from Lynda Barry’s The Good Times Are Killing Me. Before the play’s award-winning off-Broadway run, it was produced here in Chicago by City Lit Theater Company at Live Bait Theater. My sister plucked the playbill from the magical chaos of Ravenswood Used Books and gifted it […]
Posted inFilm
The Outfit is a layer in Chicago’s storied past
“I think the Chicago gangland history is something [that] falls like the snow in Chicago.”
Posted inArts & Culture
They Call Us and we answer back
Twenty-three-year-old Morgan Kail-Ackerman was catcalled three separate times near Fullerton in Lincoln Park. “Fuck you lady,” “Bitch,” and a familiar, cringeworthy wolf whistle accompanied her walk near DePaul University. As she held the door open for a man at Lou Malnati’s, she was objectified. “He thought that because I opened the door for him, he […]
Posted inStaff notes
A note on this week’s cover story about chef Amanda Barnes
A few weeks ago there were ten raw half chickens “dry-aging” at the Kedzie Inn in Irving Park, their skins exposed to the ambient cold of the cooler. Those scare quotes are a tell that this isn’t quite the same lengthy process as the one used to concentrate beefy flavor in fine steaks, but it’s […]
Posted inCity Life
Nito Café seeks to create community for local anime lovers
In Japan, manga cafes are innumerous. They are places where manga or anime fans can enjoy snacks and refreshments while reading or spending time together. Somehow, despite the culture’s popularity in the United States, there are none of these types of cafes around—until now. Chicagoan Tayler Tillman wants to bring these Japanese mainstays stateside with […]
Posted inMusic
Hemlock wants us to stay in touch
Carolina Chauffe doesn’t like to stay in one place for very long. Some of the most dramatic turns on her life’s path have been unplanned—she’s driven by what she calls “Coincidence with a capital C.” She thrives in uncharted territory, lured by a stretch of road, a door held open six states away, or the […]
Posted inMusic
Angel Day, aka producer and vocalist Yesterdayneverhappened and Daybreak party promoter
Angel Day, 23, is a visual artist, pop musician, and show promoter. They make eclectic underground tracks that draw from experimental dance and hip-hop, using the name Yesterdayneverhappened; they also organize a party called Daybreak, which showcases Black and Black trans artists. In January the Empty Bottle hosted the most recent Daybreak, titled “Frostbite,” whose […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Collective healing
Queer bars are more than just bars that happen to be queer. They can be a refuge, a meeting place, and, quite literally, a safe space. They’re also places where our history has been written: from the Stonewall riots to the Pulse Nightclub shooting. Sam Mueller’s latest production unpacks what happens when the safety and […]
Posted inTheater Review
The art of the steal
When their brother Arthur dies, leaving behind to the world a lone splatter canvas from the heady foray into abstract expressionism that preceded his embittered art teacher years, Alex (Michael Appelbaum) and Andy (Rick Yaconis) decide to right fate’s wrongs and get the—to their minds—worthless and incomprehensible painting accepted to a prestigious gallery. This turns […]
Posted inTheater Review
Meta Miller
Eleanor Burgess’s Wife of a Salesman, now in a world premiere at Writers Theatre under Jo Bonney’s direction, starts out with a “what if” premise: namely, what if Linda Loman, the long-suffering wife of Arthur Miller’s tragic American Everyman, Willy, met “the woman in Boston” with whom her husband had an affair and asked her […]
Posted inTheater Review
Far from a drag
It’s been nearly 50 years since the first iteration of La Cage aux Folles flew from the nest in the form of Jean Poiret’s 1973 play of that title. Since then, there’s been a 1978 French film, remade in Hollywood in 1996 as The Birdcage (starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane) and an oft-revived 1983 […]
Posted inTheater Review
King James explores basketball and male bonding
I’ve always been ambivalent about the use of land acknowledgements in the arts sector, but as I am not of Indigenous descent, I can’t speak for Indigenous opinions on the matter. At the world premiere of King James at Steppenwolf, the audience was treated to not only a land acknowledgement, but also to what I […]
Posted inOn Culture
A resonant Tosca
There’s a war raging in Europe. A brutal clash that includes an entrenched repressive autocracy and ordinary civilians determined to fight for their freedom. Tyrannical power is vested in one man—a deranged “security” professional who cares only about his own twisted agenda. He decides who lives and dies; everyone trembles before him. Someone needs to […]