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Metromix (of all places) is reporting that Rick Tramonto and Gale Gand are on the verge of announcing a new restaurant, possibly a steakhouse. Anyone know any details? Edited to ask: With the number of steakhouses already open, and with the addition of David Burke's new place later this year, does this seem like a wise move? I suppose it's better than another "small plates" restaurant.

I think that's a very fair statement chef. I really felt a sense of that at the Beard dinner. Now, if only that could get out to a broader audience, or with more regularity...

There was an event kind of like that last year. It was a James Beard benefit dinner at Charlie Trotter's, which featured 7 CT alumni. Fantastic event, which I think raised a pretty good chunk of change for the Beard Foundation. Although this is a great food town, there doesn't seem to be anything unifying the restaurant community here. At least nothing visible (or well publicized) to the general public (going back to the whole restaurant week discussion). I don't know what the answer to this is. It seems like the Banchet awards are a good start, but the PR on the awards was just about nill. In any event, if there ever is anything like the Beard House here I would hope the dinners at the "House" would be far better executed. I went to a dinner at the Beard house in NYC a little more than a year ago and it was disappointing to say the least.

One more thing I forgot to add... Brittanie mentioned last night that they read eGullet all the time and they are extremely appreciative of all of the support they've gotten from members here. To the crew at Schwa - keep up the outstanding work. You guys are all dope!

When I went I wore a suit with no tie. I felt perfectly comfortable.

Another great dinner at Schwa last night. We did the tasting menu with 2 other couples and had a great time. There were a number of new menu items last night that we hadn't had yet (bean soup, veal cheeks, seared duck breast & confit), and all were hits. The biggest hit of the night, IMO, was a new dessert item...the truffle milkshake. I tried to get one to go, but no luck.

Oh no. Oh hell no. ← So, does this represent rock bottom? If not, it's gotta be close. I think this is like putting the runner up from "Survivor" on "Jeopardy".

The girlfriend took me to Custom House last night for my birthday and wow, did we love it. Her original choice was Matsumoto, but due to the uncertainty surrounding that restaurant we made the switch. We arrived for our 8pm reservation only to be shown into the bar, things were running a few minutes behind. Not a problem, since it gave us the chance to enjoy a couple of glasses of bubbly and soak in the atmosphere. The space is truly beautiful. After about a 10 minute wait we were shown to our table. For appetizers I started off with the beef tartare, advertised as the best in the city in Phil Vettel's recent review. It was very good, but I don't know about the best. The beef itself was of very high quality, but I thought the dish overall was a bit underseasoned. It was served with some grilled bread which had just a tad too much olive oil on them. A nice touch was the quail egg, sliced in half, cooked so the yolk was barely held together. The whole thing was tasty, if not a bit challenging to eat. The GF had the tuna tartare. Served with the same grilled bread, the tuna itself was gorgeous and pristinely fresh. The tartare had a nice citrusy background which complimented the tuna nicely. For our main courses I went with the braised veal cheeks and the GF went with the scallops. We ordered two sides, truffle risotto and salsify. The veal cheeks were absolutely outstanding. The dish was advertised as "Veal cheeks, tomato and anchovy". I couldn't pick up the anchovy in the rich sauce, but that didn't really matter since the whole thing was just so darn good. They gave me a steak knife to eat the cheeks with, but it wasn't even close to necessary. The dish also included diced carrots and celery which were fresh and crisp. The truffle risotto was a layup. Perfectly rich, buttery and truffley. The salsify was interesting. It was prepared with vanilla and orange. The sweetness was almost a bit too much, but provided a nice foil for the richness of the veal cheeks. I thought it would have been nice to have a couple of extra plates for the side dishes, since there isn't a whole lot of room on the main plates to hold sides, but it didn't bother me enough to say anything. I only got one bite of the scallops, but they tasted great to me. Dessert was baked alaska, which was also delicious and one of the cooler looking desserts I've ever seen. Someone needs to go and get a picture of this thing. Similar to the other McClain restaurants there is a nice selection of tea. I went with the Monkey Picked tea (how could I resist)? The kitchen also sent out a plate with a slice of banana and a couple of truffles for my birthday, a very nice touch. Custom House has been categorized as McClain's "steakhouse", which may or may not be a fair description. The menu is in the style of a steakhouse, with selections of raw/cold seafood for appetizers along with soups and salads. Main courses are mostly meats (roasted or braised) with a few fish dishes. But everything is stepped up a couple of notches from your basic steakhouse. Those who aren't meat fans certainly aren't left out in the cold, with only plain old boring pieces of salmon and/or tuna. Custom House still has something for everyone, and is certainly firing on all cylinders.

Having eaten at Custom House last night, I will happily second Ronnie's recommendation.

If money is no object, the Ritz-Carlton has the best brunch in the city IMHO. As an alternative, the brunch at NoMI in the Park Hyatt is also very nice. Not sure how much brunch at the Ritz is, but it's $50 per person at NoMI (which also includes a spectacular view).

Definitely the former. The quality of their fish is excellent, and the condiments sometimes get in the way. I've had to go out of my way to tell them on a few occasions, "no really, I just want the fish, don't put anything on it".

I've had mixed experiences at Kaze. While I feel like they have very high quality fish, sometimes that quality gets lost when they try to "doctor" things up with truffle oil, banana peppers, etc.

I've always wondered why there is no "Sushi in Chicago" thread given the number of new places that have opened in the last few years. Anyway, I haven't had any truly outstanding omakase experiences in Chicago the likes of which I've read about in the NY forum. While there are some places that have pristine quality fish, I don't think we have any places in Chicago that would compare to Masa. That being said, I would be willing to put myself in the chef's hands at two places: 1. Tsuki - Located towards the SW end of Lincoln Park (just east of Sweets and Savories on Fullerton). This is my favorite Japanese restaurant in the city. I've done the omakase a couple of times, but all you really get is a bunch of dishes from the menu, plus the chef's selection of sushi/sashimi. It's nice when you don't feel like thinking about what you want to order, but there's nothing magical about it. 99% of the time I will order a la carte. On the weekends they have a pretty good selection of items flown in from Japan (monkfish liver, horse mackerel, toro from the cheek of the tuna, etc). IMO, they have some of the best quality fish in town. The otoro is some of the best I've had. 2. Mirai - Located in Bucktown. Quality is on par with Tsuki. I've never done omakase there, but I'd imagine it would be pretty good. It's a bit of a scene and service sometimes suffers. A lot of people seem to like Meiji down on Randolph St. quite a bit. Granted I've only been once, but I wasn't really a fan. People will also recommend Katsu, but I've never been there myself so I'll leave that to others. Everything I've ever heard about it though has been excellent. Finally, Matsumoto had been getting rave reviews, serving kaiseki style meals. They were closed during January, but I'm not sure if they've reopened. There's a thread about it around here somewhere.

We went in the Fall and had a very good meal. There were some service issues at the table next to us that I thought were handled quite poorly, but I'd rather not get into it since I wasn't directly involved. I can't remember my appetizer, but my main course was monkfish with crispy sweetbreads and it was outstanding.

Then do I get to pay for my "food" with "money"?

This was probably the only thing that bothered me on my only visit to Per Se. I knew I wanted to do the tasting menu no matter what was on it, so I gave up on trying to decipher all of the quotation marks. Looking back, some of it does seem pretty silly, like: Now, come on. Under what circumstances is Haricots Verts not Haricots Verts?

(Please see above for disclaimer, but...) I had a fantastic dinner at L'Atelier a couple weeks ago. One of my top five of all time. Went for the 9 course tasting at $105 and every dish was amazing. Expensive, but really worth it. Be warned that most of the seating is at a long counter that gives a great view of the action in the open kitchen. Sort of sushi bar style. There are a few regular tables as well, but I don't think they take reservations for them. ← How formal is the room? We'd be going pretty soon after arriving so I don't think people are going to want to spend too much time getting ready. That being said, we certainly won't show up in sweatpants

Has anyone been to L'Atelier yet? We'll be in Las Vegas in March and I'm considering it for our first night there since I don't think we'll be up for the full Mansion experience.

The whole concept of Jewish people having an affinity for Chinese food isn't really anything new. I think at least some of it has to do with the fact that we have nowhere else to go out for dinner on Christmas Eve. Article from CNN talking about Christmas Eve dinner. Another article "Safe Treyf": New York Jews and Chinese Food From Mimi Sheraton in the above article: Again, this is not a revolutionary or obscure concept.

Oh yes, by no means under any circumstances eat at the Signature Room. But if you want a $12 martini and a view, it's a winner.

I know that this is completely cheesy and touristy, but you may want to consider the Signature Room on the 95th floor of the Hancock Building for drinks. It's very close to Tru and kind of a fun thing to do the first time one visits Chicago, especially if it's a clear night. As for me, between the food and the wine, my favorite post-Tru activity is finding a nice, comfortable couch or bed and remaining in a horizontal position for the rest of the evening.

Mmmmm, bureau minced meat idea powder (tilts head back and gurgles).

I'm not saying they're not trying their hardest. I'm also sure that they take it seriously. But I wouldn't think a loss would keep them up at night either.

I don't think having Jewel and that Insider lady on as judges is any worse than when on ICJ they would have a "lower house member", some actress, a baseball player and the psychic. This would roughly be the equivalent of ICA having Nancy Pelosi, Katie Holmes, Derek Jeter and Miss Cleo as judges. Wouldn't that be worse? Edited to add: I guess my point is that I think we need to lighten up a bit. I don't think anyone's reputation is on the line here. I would hope that chef's appearing on the show take it as a given that the whole thing is somewhere between a WWF match and a Harlem Globetrotters game on the "honest competition" scale.

Chef, First of all, congratulations on the early success at Alinea. My question is, on the off chance you are not at the restaurant, what do you like to cook for yourself and/or others on your own time? I'm sure your home kitchen cabinets aren't full of anti-plates and antennae. Also, what are some of the other restaurants in the Chicago-area that you think are putting out great food right now? Thanks for your time.