June 2010
26 posts
9 tags
Sepia Closing For Ron Howard Film
Foodie heard over the weekend that Ron Howard was scouting Sepia to shoot a scene for his upcoming still-untitled movie starring Vince Vaughn, Kevin James, Winona Ryder and Jennifer Connelly and today we stopped by to see for ourselves whether it was true. There were a bunch of film trucks outside, crew setting up scaffolding in front of the entrance and when we popped inside to see the action,...
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Intelligentsia Barista Named Top in World
After being named the No. 1 barista in America in 2009, Intellgentsia Coffee & Tea’s Michael Phillips took the top honors at the 2010 World Barista Championship in London last week.
According to the New York Times, each barista had 15 minutes to prepare four espressos, four cappuccinos and four signature drinks. Phillips, who made his drinks to Electric Light Orchestra’s...
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Bees Brewing Beer Atop Marriott Chicago
Last week Foodie attended a Chablis wine tasting at the Chicago Marriott Downtown on Michigan Avenue. During the intimate seminar, where we tasted through about eight different types of Chablis (all made from Chardonnay in the Chablis area of France, which is technically part of the larger Burgundy region), we noticed something strange outside the window on the tenth floor. Out of nowhere,...
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Custom House Tavern Hires New Chef
Call this the year of changes for Custom House. First, they added “tavern” to their name after owners Sue and Peter Drohomyrecky split from partner Shawn McClain and changed up the concept a bit, keeping the same high-quality food, but adding more of an accessible comfort food vibe, especially in the lower-priced bar menu. At the same time, the restaurant welcomed Chef Aaron Deal,...
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Half Acre Brewing New Beers, Loves Ween
Half Acre Beer Co, one of Chicago’s homegrown brewers, has two new collaborations that are getting us pretty excited. First, they invited Joe Short of Short’s Brewing Company and Jonathan Cutler of Piece (another great brewer in the great city of Chicago) to their Lincoln Square brewery to brew up a batch of Freedom of ‘78, a guava India Pale Ale brewed with 1000 pounds of actual...
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Apple Loves M Burger
Our pal the 312 Dining Diva reported earlier that Apple was giving out free M Burgers, french fries, shakes and lemonade to the devotees braving the heat to get their excited little hands on the brand-spakin’-new iPhone 4. Hopefully that’ll make up for the possibly bad phone service they’ll still get!
Did you wait in line for an iPhone 4 today? Did you get an M Burger? Which was...
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Taste of Chicago Turns 30, Starts Friday
Taste of Chicago, the annual food fest that kicks off tomorrow, is celebrating a huge milestone: It turns 30 this year. It seems like yesterday that Taste was running around in diapers and learning how to walk. And, now with millions of people strolling the food booths between June 25 and July 4, Taste is all growed up.
If you find yourself down around Grant Park, the best times to hit Taste...
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Boka Group Takes Over Tizi Melloul Space
What started with one restaurant and a cell-phone booth is quickly growing into one of Chicago’s hottest restaurant empires. The Boka Group, which currently owns Boka, Perennial and Landmark (all of which always have excellent offers on Foodie) and will be opening the Girl & The Goat with Stephanie Izard in the next few weeks (fingers crossed!), recently took over the River North space...
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Lucky Foodie Winners Going to Supreme Lobster's...
Just a quick note to congratulate Foodie winners Peter B. and Bonnie R. who will join us tonight at the Supreme Lobster Summer Solstice Boat Party (and hopefully post pix to our Facebook page and even tweet from the event). Thanks to everyone who booked reservations in the last 10 days—there were a lot of you. The selection was completely random and the winners were told this morning. Don’t...
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Lollapalooza Nabs Big Star, Kuma's, Sunda, Trotter...
It’s official: Lollapalooza makes us hungry! It was announced this morning that chef Graham Elliot Bowles has pulled together some of the city’s best spots to offer the music-loving masses a higher-quality street food for on-the-go chowing at this year’s music fest—and we do think we’re giving San Francisco’s Outside Lands a run for best festival food. Last year,...
Let Stephanie Izard Get Your Goat
If you have some crazy-ass goat paraphernalia and are willing to part with it, Stephanie Izard wants it. No, the Girl doesn’t have a goat fetish (or does she?), she wants to use your pieces to decorate her forthcoming restaurant, which now doesn’t look like it’ll open until mid July (seriously lady, where’s the Goat?).
Ideally Steph wants a “goat crown,” but...
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Foodie Welcomes New Restaurants
At Foodie HQ, we’re always expanding to bring you the best in Chicago dining, and this week we welcome four new restaurants to the fold: De Cero and Veerasway in the West Loop; Volo Restaurant & Wine Bar in Roscoe Village and Le Colonial in the Gold Coast. What we love about this is the diversity in food, decor and vibe these four restaurants offer. De Cero has an incredibly fresh twist...
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What to Pair with Gazpacho?
Last week, we had friends over for dinner and to prepare, we pulled a couple of fantastic-sounding recipes out of Cook’s Illustrated (which we now receive because we donated to Chicago Public Radio, thank you very much). To start, we served a creamy gazpacho soup, which tastes even better than it sounds. There’s actually no cream, but rather olive oil that’s emulsified and...
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Kith & Kin Adds Lunch
Ever since opening in the fall of 2009, Kith & Kin has been making Lincoln Parkers happy—and the rest of us who travel to devour chefs David Carrier and Andrew Brochu’s casual American fare prepared with a nice Southern accent. If you’ve been on a weekend, you know how crazy it can be, but now’s your chance to check it out during a more relaxed time: lunch. Ok, so you may...
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Pasteur to Reopen in Edgewater
A couple of weeks ago, we drove by the shuttered space at 5525 N. Broadway that once housed Pasteur, one of Chicago’s best spots for upscale Vietnamese cuisine, and wondered aloud why, since it’s been closed for three years now, don’t they take down the sign? Well, someone clearly heard us because last Wednesday, news broke that the Nguyen family, who also own Rogers...
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Chicago's Most Expensive Entrees
Ever wonder where you could drop the most coin on any one single dish in Chicago? Thanks to Grub Street, we now know. Coming in at No. 1 is Tru’s caviar staircase featuring a sampling of sturgeon caviar for $280. That’s just one dish. No wine. No other entrees, starters or dessert—or the promise of sex afterward (well, maybe you can guarantee sex). Following that, the items, no...
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Win Tix to an Exclusive Chefs' Boat Party
We’ve always said it: A friend with a boat is a friend for life. And a friend with a boat for even a day … still a pretty good friend. So when Supreme Lobster asked if we wanted some tickets to give out to Solstice, Supreme Lobster’s Sustainable Seafood Soiree, we said “hells yeah!”
So, what’s in it for you? Access to an invite-only industry party on June 21...
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Sneak Peek: Inside Stephanie Izard's Girl & The...
Foodie took a trip to Stephanie Izard’s hotly anticipated new restaurant the Girl & The Goat and we can happily report that it’s beautiful. Izard, her partners (Kevin Boehm and Rob Katz of the Boka Group) and their design team, 555 International, have thought of everything. From the reclaimed wood, exposed brick, half-wall of glass, sliding ladder (yes, there’s a sliding...
11 tags
Common Threads Culinary Crosstown Classic
If you’re in an altruistic mood and have $150 burning a hole in your pocket, consider buying a ticket to the Culinary Crosstown Classic benefitting Common Threads, the organization started by celebrity chef Art Smith. This annual event takes place Friday June 11 at Seasons restaurant and will see chefs Kevin Hickey (Seasons) and Bill Kim (Urban Belly, Belly Shack) pull together a...
16 tags
Chicago Chefs Go to Washington
A group of Chicago chefs traveled to Washington, D.C., last week to attend an event headed by First Lady Michelle Obama for the Share Our Strength campaign to end childhood hunger. As it’s been widely reported, Mrs. Obama has made battling childhood obesity her main concern and has teamed with Share Our Strength to help bring awareness to both causes through the new initiative Chefs Move...
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Wine Tip: Beckmen Vineyards '09 Grenache Rosé
Every so often we’ll offer a recommendation on a great wine we think you should enjoy as much as we are. And this one we’re enjoying as we speak. Beckmen Vineyards Grenache Rosé (actually also has some Syrah and Mouvedre blended in) is a great summer sipper with tart cherry and watermelon on the nose (and there was something else we were smelling in there that reminded us of cotton...
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Sola Moving to River North
After years of enticing diners in North Center, Sola is going to be moving downtown to 340 N. Clark. The move will hopefully be a good one for chef/owner Carol Wallack, but we’ll miss having her Japanese- and Hawaiian-influenced American menu in the heart of the North Side. Sola is currently only open for lunch a couple days a week, but with the new location near the Merchandise Mart...
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Ever Need Help Opening Wine?
If you ever find yourself without a corkscrew or wine key, this video might offer some assistance. Even though Foodie was in France last week, we still have no idea what he’s saying, but the context is pretty clear. If you’ve ever tried this or check it out now, let us know how it worked out for you. Honestly, we’d likely break the bottle and lose the wine…
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Get Smarter About Your Spices
Some people think browsing the Interwebs is a mindless waste of time. Usually it is but then every so often you stumble upon something pretty cool and want to tell others about it. What’s better than going to your favorite coffee shop and using those sleek, little packets of raw sugar or other sweetener, knowing you’re likely getting just the right amount? Well, sure, there are lots of...
Bon Appetit: Love that Chicken From Big Jones
We just learned that the Southern-style fried chicken served up at Big Jones is a favorite of the editors of Bon Appetit. The magazine, which is also the new title sponsor for the 2010 Chicago Gourmet food and wine festival in Millennium Park in September, named Big Jones’ cornmeal-breaded fried chicken one of the Top 10 best in the U.S. alongside other spots in Ohio (Bar Symon),...
