nsxtasy

Changing Cleveland's culinary landscape, indeed. There's an article in today's Chicago Tribune about how Cleveland is getting national attention as a hot new dining city: Cleveland?!?

There is one Italian restaurant in Chicago that towers over all the others, and that's Spiaggia, with cuisine served by award-winning chef Tony Mantuano. This is one of the very top restaurants in the entire city, and is priced accordingly (i.e. very expensive). It's also a gentlemen-wear-jackets-and-ties place. Exceptional, if this is what you're looking for and money is no object. In addition to Spiaggia, which is in a class of its own, there are numerous casual mid-priced Italian restaurants that are wonderful. The best include Cafe Spiaggia (the casual sister restaurant of Spiaggia, next door), Coco Pazzo and Coco Pazzo Cafe, its slightly lower-priced sibling a half mile away, Vivere (the fine dining restaurant in the Italian Village complex - I recommend Vivere but the others are just so-so), Trattoria No. 10, Pane Caldo, and if you happen to be headed north, Va Pensiero in Evanston and Gabriel's in Highwood. There are many, many more, but (with the exception of the last two) these are the best in the greater downtown area. If you happen to be in another part of the area, let us know where, as there are good Italian places in many other city neighborhoods and suburbs. I've typed their names with links to their websites. All show their menus and most show prices on them too, in case that's a concern. I haven't been as impressed with the Francesca chain of Italian restaurants (4 locations in the city and 12 in the suburbs). They're okay, but I've found that the previous group is far better.

For those who are asking what the Restaurant Week menu consists of, for Naha at least, their website says that "menus will be posted on this website by the end of the month for this special event."

I know; I've felt the same way about numerous places, in Chicago as well as out of town. And what compounds the problem, here at home in Chicago, is that there are so very many good restaurants, and so many new ones opening all the time, that none of us gets a chance to try all of them. I bet every one of us has a list (at least mentally) of at least a dozen places, maybe many more (I know I do), that we've never been to and want to try. And going back to a place where we've had a bad experience almost always loses out to the prospect of trying one of those places, and also loses out to returning to a place that we've liked in the past (of which there are many as well).

The ones chosen are representative of what I like to call our "casual fine dining" restaurants - maybe not our very best, but reasonably good choices, especially if (for whatever reason) you are restricting yourself to the downtown area. I'm not familiar with DC dining - it's been quite a few years since I've been there - but the one name that's familiar to me is the Oceanaire, which I've visited at their Indianapolis location (and like a lot), and corresponds fairly well to Fulton's, which is part of the Restaurant Week here. (As an aside, I hear the Oceanaire is planning to open a location in the Chicago area in the near future. Which I consider very good news.) Are you saying that DC's version includes the fancy splurge type restaurants corresponding to our Alinea, Avenues, Everest, Tru, Trotter's, NoMI, Moto, and Spiaggia? With the exception of NoMI, one possible reason for the exclusion of this group is that none of them is open for lunch. I would. Yours is the first negative report on Naha I've heard, after hearing and reading many positive ones.

Actually, I think the list of restaurants isn't bad. While the previously-mentioned Naha's and Burke's are good, there are plenty of other worthy choices, including Aria, Atwood, Carnivale, Fulton's, the Lobby, Park Grill, Smith and Wollensky, etc. They may not be the very best in town, but they're good places, better than average. What strikes me about the list, though, is that with the exception of the hotel restaurant at McCormick Place, they're all downtown, in the tourist area basically from the Loop to the Gold Coast. That's a very small area. Clearly they are gearing this event to visitors from out-of-town. I think the geographic concentration is the reason for the lack of diversity in types of restaurants. However, this raises the opportunity for you to spend more for dessert than for your dinner, if you follow a specially-priced dinner at the Lobby with their Chocolate Bar for dessert. The Vettel-reported event that Josh mentions is far more interesting. This other group of restaurants consists of non-chain, independent restaurants. It's a short list (of 12), but it's a nice group, with a fair amount of diversity, with restaurants in downtown Chicago, several Chicago neighborhoods, and even a few suburbs, and food choices including French bistro, Mexican, Italian, and seafood (the marvelous Oceanique). These are places that don't attract a big tourist business.

For me, that generally depends on what kind of information you're looking for. For factual information - restaurant location, hours, what's coming or going - I've found that the print media (including their internet versions) tend to be pretty accurate, usually more so than word of mouth. For subjective information - reviews and opinions - I tend to put more trust in some individuals (including personal and virtual acquaintances as well as media sources) than others, based on prior experience. There are some people whose opinions I've grown to respect and trust, and others with zero (and sometimes even negative) correlation to my own taste.

I ate there some time ago and had the absolute worst service experience in my entire life. It was so bad that the friends I was with still joke about it. I would never go back there and never recommend it to others.

FWIW, I love deep-dish pizza - and I grew up in NJ too. (What exit? 153.) Sol de Mexico is extremely inconvenient geographically for anyone staying in the Loop, particularly if you don't have a car. Personally I found Sol de Mexico disappointing; while the menu is exciting - I love moles and they have a nice assortment - I found the execution rather bland. I think the Bayless places and Salpicon, which are all convenient to the Loop, are equally good. The very best Mexican restaurant that I've been to in the Chicago area is Flamingo's Seafood in suburban Mount Prospect, not far from O'Hare, which unfortunately is also inconvenient geographically if you don't have a car. The Bayless places are closed Sundays; the others mentioned here are open Sundays. For a more lengthy discussion of our most creative Mexican restaurants, click here. I think that the food is more impressive at North Pond or Custom House than at the Mexican places (other than Flamingo's, anyway) - IOW you're more likely to think back to what a fantastic dinner you had there - but the Mexican places are more different from what you have available back home.

And I must take exception to these comments. I think most Chicago thin crust pizza is BORING!!! Whether it's cracker crisp or bready or authentic neapolitan, it is just not worth wasting time on in a short trip to our city. Deep-dish pizza, OTOH, is our unique local specialty, what made Chicago famous for its pizza. You still can't get it anywhere else (whereas you can get all the different styles of thin crust anywhere you go). It's FAR more interesting for a New Yorker to try the delicious deep-dish pizza our city is famous for, than to waste time on thin-crust pizza you can get in thin crust specialty restaurants you can find any other big city, including at home in New York. Again, it's no wonder most Chicagoans prefer our wonderful deep-dish pizza to thin crust. If you're coming to Chicago for the first time, deep-dish pizza is THE thing to try. Wasting your time on thin crust here is like asking where you can find the best hamburger. Sure, some places have a better burger than others, but you really ought to try the food a city is famous for, the food you can't get anywhere else. And that's deep-dish all the way.

Avec is a small plate restaurant that is next door to its sister restaurant, Blackbird. Both serve contemporary American food. Avec is open Sunday; Blackbird is not. Avec does not accept reservations, and wait times can be long at prime times. Also you should know that they have communal seating, so don't be surprised when you're seated at the same table as strangers. The food is excellent, but I find those other aspects off-putting; maybe you won't mind. Yes, it makes sense. When you're here, trying to fit in as much as possible when trying our foods, you can have some of our delicious deep-dish pizza for lunch, then do something else for dinner. However, if you follow this strategy, beware of portion sizes, as our pizzas are thicker (obviously) and denser than New York style thin crust pizza. The portion sizes shown on the menus of our places are full dinner portions. Two slices of pizza in New York are a light lunch. Two slices of Chicago deep-dish pizza will leave you FULL. So go early and/or don't stuff yourself if you want to leave room for a dinner somewhere else later the same day. Oh, and don't waste your time here on thin-crust pizza. You can get plenty of that at home. You can't get our delicious deep-dish pizza in New York. No wonder that most Chicagoans prefer deep-dish to thin crust (as noted in a recent Chicago Tribune poll). That's at 172 W. Adams in the Loop, the commercial center of our greater downtown area. The nearest place for deep-dish pizza is Giordano's, only about a block away at 223 W. Jackson. They serve the "stuffed" double-crust style pizza. (It's my favorite of all the Chicago deep-dish pizzas, although I like all of the ones I mentioned.) If you're looking for single-crust "pan" pizza, the nearest place is Pizano's on Madison, two blocks north and four blocks east of the W. Pizano's is particularly convenient if you're walking east to the Art Institute (our largest and most famous art museum) and/or Millennium Park (our new, beautiful downtown park, home of "the bean" Cloud Gate sculpture, Frank Gehry-designed bandshell, "face obelisks", etc).

Walker Brothers is indeed a true gem. It's a small chain of locations of the Original Pancake House franchise which seem to take quality to a higher level. However, their real specialty is their huge apple pancake, pictured below. It's simply spectacular. That being said, their locations are all in the north and northwest suburbs, not particularly convenient to downtown Chicago. The OPH chain has a location in the Gold Coast (on Bellevue) and one at Clark and Armitage which are more convenient and where the food is similar. Another place I really like for breakfast is the Bongo Room. There are two locations, one in Wicker Park a few miles northwest of downtown, and another in the South Loop at Roosevelt and Wabash. There are also lots of places that do Sunday brunch of various sorts, including the previously-mentioned North Pond, Custom House, and NoMI.

For our delicious deep-dish pizza, which of course is a unique local specialty, the chains are excellent and very consistent across their locations (with the one exception noted below). There are two major kinds: the double-crust "stuffed" pizza served at Giordano's, Bacino's, and Edwardo's, and the single-crust "pan" pizza served at Lou Malnati's, Pizano's, Gino's East, and the original location of Uno's and Due. All of these places are excellent and you can't go wrong with any of them. If you tell us where, exactly, you're staying, we can tell you which place(s) are closest. (Saying that you're staying "staying downtown" in Chicago is like visiting New York and saying that you're staying in Manhattan. ) At any of them, you can avoid waiting 30-45 minutes for your pizza to bake by looking at the menu on their website and phoning in beforehand to give them your pizza order. As for Sunday dining, some places are closed, but many, many others are open. Sunday dining in Chicago is not a problem at all. And many of our nicer restaurants accept reservations on opentable.com which makes it easy to see what's open on any given day. Alinea, where you're already going, is open Sundays; other such "top tables" open Sundays include NoMI and Spiaggia. For dining that's a bit more casual but still very creative and delicious, places open Sunday include North Pond (notable not only for its spectacular food but also its exquisite setting in Lincoln Park), Custom House, and Spring. There are many, many more places, but these are a few of the most interesting ones food-wise. Personally, on a short visit, I wouldn't waste my limited time and meals here on hot dogs...

As I have never had them anywhere other than at Pannenkoeken Cafe in Lincoln Square, I can't vouch for their authenticity, one way or the other. However, they left me yearning for some other pancake specialties in Chicagoland that I enjoy much more - such as the apple, German, or Swedish pancakes at Walker Brothers, any one of which blows away the pannenkoeken IMHO.

Same here.

Okay, now that 2007 is over, let's see how I did (repeating from the first half where necessary)... 1. Lose weight: Not done. This is my ONLY specific goal for 2008. 2. Quince: Done. But disappointing. 3. Fine dining: Done! I hit a bunch of places on my "to try" list: Sweets and Savories, Avenues, Vie, North Pond, Shanghai Terrace. 4. Tallent: Done. But disappointing. Fortunately, I found several excellent places in Indiana. 5. Thai food: Done (Thai Pavilion 2, TAC Quick, Sticky Rice). None as good as Thai Sookdee, my favorite and standard for comparison. At this point I'm done trying other places, and henceforth I'll be happy to keep going back to Thai Sookdee. 6. Pizza: Done (Burt's Place, Pequod's, Ricobene's). But disappointing. Then again, I'm happy to keep going back to Giordano's and Lou Malnati's, both of which continue to be outstanding. 7. Barbecue: Done (Smoque). I liked their barbecue, although not quite as much as Carson's, but reasonably close. Smoque's is much more smokey flavored, whereas Carson's has more sauce flavoring. Both are nice and meaty, not much fat. I was really disappointed with the sides at Smoque, though. 8. Hot Chocolate: Not done. 9. Chocolate Box: Done. But disappointing. However, I tried a lot of chocolatiers in the area, and found others that I liked a lot. See separate topic. 10. The Lobby Restaurant in the Peninsula: Not done. Funny, because this year I went to both Avenues and Shanghai Terrace in the same hotel. 11. Close by places: Mostly done (all of those mentioned except Chef's Station). In a mid-year post above, I listed the highlights and lowlights of the first half of the year. Here's how the second half turned out (excluding brunch visits, fast food, etc): Wow, Incredible (worth traveling long distances to dine): one sixtyblue (Chicago IL) Lola (Cleveland OH) Everyday People Café (Douglas MI) Oakley's Bistro (Indianapolis IN) Vie (Western Springs IL) North Pond (Chicago IL) Margaux (Sheboygan WI) Oceanique (Evanston IL) (All of these places were simply marvelous. Tallgrass wins the award for best meal of the year.) Very Good (worth recommending to others): The Cabin (Ashland OH) Flamingo's Seafood (Mount Prospect IL) Stoney River (Deer Park IL) Va Pensiero (Evanston IL) Buttonwoods at Sycamore Farms (Terre Haute IN) Oliveto (Oakland CA) Passionfish (Pacific Grove CA) Melange (Pacific Grove CA) Bistro 22 (Lake Zurich IL) Lao Sze Chuan (Chicago IL) Thai Sookdee (Evanston IL) Pete Miller's (Evanston IL) Giordano's (Evanston IL) Lou Malnati's (Evanston IL) Just Okay (worth visiting if you're in the neighborhood): Light Bistro (Cleveland OH) Sun Luck Garden (Cleveland OH) Kincaid's (Fishers IN) Revolver (Findlay OH) Smoque (Chicago IL) Restaurant Bloom (Grand Rapids MI) Sol de Mexico (Chicago IL) Thai Pavilion 2 (Skokie IL) Journeyman Café (Fennville MI) Pannenkoeken Café (Chicago IL) Disappointing, seriously flawed (worth forgetting): Real Seafood (Toledo OH) Siam's House (Niles IL) Claim Jumper (Wheeling IL) Dreadful (worth warning others away): Nothing that bad, thank goodness. Honorable mention to the breakfast/brunch places I most enjoyed (at least two visits each): Walker Brothers (Wilmette and Glenview IL) M. Henry (Chicago IL) Bongo Room (Chicago IL)

What??? They weren't serving their ethereal veal cheek pierogies???

The media got the story wrong. It was supposed to be about the urbane chickens in Chicago. Our avian residents are impeccably (or impeckably) polite and sophisticated, often telling stories and witty jokes. They are also extremely well-educated, thanks to their family members who reside at the main campus of the University of Illinois, and are called...

Assuming you're referring to Crystal Lake, Illinois, its biggest attraction to food-lovers is that downtown Chicago is about 55 miles away (about 85 minutes by commuter train, a little over an hour by car if it's not the prime commuting hours). In Crystal Lake and nearby communities (Woodstock, Barrington) you will find some okay neighborhood type restaurants of various kinds - not the great ones that people would drive long distances for, but passable places offering geographical convenience along with decent food and value. You'll also find the usual food purveyors, butchers, etc, but again, you'll be driving a while if you need to go to the Spice House or other specialty shops. Your dining and shopping options increase as you get closer to the city, so you will find more variety and quality in suburbs like Schaumburg and Arlington Heights (which are roughly half the distance from Crystal Lake as downtown Chicago). And, of course, if you're willing to travel, there is the city of Chicago itself, including the greater downtown area as well as its outlying neighborhoods. Bottom line, Crystal Lake is not the best place in the Chicago area for a food-lover to live. But usually there are other reasons to consider one community over another (housing prices, proximity to work, quality of schools, etc). I would also expect food options in the Crystal Lake area to be increasing in coming years, as the surrounding area is developing rapidly.

Actually, Fox and Obel is a single location gourmet grocery store; their only location is on East Illinois Street in River East, near Michigan Avenue. I have heard that they have plans to open a second location in the Loop (Chicago's commercial downtown), about a mile from their main store, but AFAIK it hasn't happened yet. You can read more about them on their website. I have found that they are very responsive when I have contacted them about various and sundry things; I would expect that they would at least respond to any inquiry (regardless of whether or not they happen to be suitable for your needs). In other words, they act like a small business making personal contact with customers, and not like a faceless corporate bureaucracy - which I suspect is what you're asking.

I doubt it. Lots of restaurants have been flourishing in and around that area. Just a few blocks to the south are long-time stalwarts Blackbird and Avec, relative newcomers Moto and Otom, KDK places Red Light and Marche, and many others (as you can see, often appearing in pairs - which is a reflection of good business, since they only open a second restaurant if the first one is doing well). It may appear to be an industrial area, but it is a short cab ride (or a somewhat long walk) for office workers in the Mart and the Loop as well as tourists staying in River North and Michigan Avenue. Also, Timo survived (including under its previous name, Thyme) for ten years, which is a really good run for a restaurant (not just my words, but also those of John Bubala, the owner, as reported in Chicago Magazine's Dish column). If it were a location issue, they would have closed a long time ago.

Fox & Obel? They carry lots of those high-end chocolate bars, as well as truffles from several chocolatiers. Granted, they - like Hannah's Bretzel - are not only a chocolatier. Fox and Obel is instead a complete gourmet grocery store, selling produce, meats, prepared foods, etc, with a cafe in the rear. They also host culinary classes so they have the facilities to host a demonstration/tasting such as you envision.

You'll probably find better advice in the Kitchen Consumer forum, such as the topic titled Choosing Cooktop & Oven for a New Kitchen. You can also find great advice in Consumer Reports. If you don't subscribe, you can find it at your local public library. The August 2007 issue featured kitchen remodeling and has many relevant articles, including one on cooktops.

Alas... Salbute says Adios to Western suburbs (from today's Sun-Times)

I just noticed this topic, which sounds fun. I thought I'd contribute my two cents. And more. I agree with the implication in several other posts that it's not fair to compare restaurants in vastly different price categories. So I won't. I'll also assume that this is for places in Chicago and its suburbs. So without further ado... (Prices quoted are per person including moderate alcohol, tax, and tip.) $200-300+ 1. Alinea 2. Avenues 3. Everest 4. Charlie Trotter's 5. Tru $100 1. Tallgrass 2. one sixtyblue 3. Michael 4. Oceanique 5. Vie $10-50 1. Thai Sookdee 2. Flamingo's Seafood 3. Giordano's Honorable mention for breakfast 1. Walker Brothers 2. Bongo Room 3. M. Henry