Grub Street Chicago -- Restaurant News, Openings, Chefs

2/9/10 at 11:30 AM
Openings
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What to Eat at Leo's Coney Island, Opening Monday

We're guessing a real Coney is going to look a lot less pristine than this studio job.Photo: courtesy Leo's Coney Island

Now that Leo's Coney Island is finally, finally, finally ready to open in Lakeview on Monday, it's time for us to start getting excessively excited about the menu. The Chicago-specific menu has been revealed, and much like the national menu, it's as varied as your standard diner. The "favorites" section alone a mishmosh of genres reminiscent of the "featured!" steamtable at our college dining hall: Fish & chips are side by side with beef stir-fry, alongside cheese ravioli and mac 'n' four-cheeses. Still, what everyone's there for are the Coney Islands: a basic variation (a dog topped with chili, mustard, and onions) runs $2.59, with cheese for thirty cents more. A "loose hamburger" (Coney-style ground beef, chili, mustard, and onions) is $2.89. And then there's the Special Coney, the unnatural hybrid of a Coney cross-bred with a loose burger, in which the hot dog is topped with Coney-style beef and chili. Sweet heaven, this might have been worth the wait.

Leo's Coney Island menu [PDF, via Thrillist]

2/9/10 at 10:00 AM
Openings
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Flo & Santos Bringing Pizza to the South Loop

The South Loop restaurant that we (and Sloopin) hypothesized would be called something along the lines of "Flo and Santo" is, in fact, going to be called Flo & Santos (1310 S. Wabash). The restaurant is partially backed by the owner of Zapatista Cantina, and we know absolutely nothing else except that the combination of the tagline ("Pizza & Pub") and the degraded typeface in their logo (on the right) implies that there is a good chance of the menu involving fancy sausage in some way. [Sloopin; Flo & Santos]

Appetizing Apps

Today in tech land, the Telegraph reports that Foursquare has signed a deal with Zagat that will allow you to pull up the little red book’s ratings, and Num Num Chronicles points out StreetEats, an app that lets you find out where your favorite food truck is parked.

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2/9/10 at 9:00 AM
Mediavore
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Eating at the Auto Show; Foursquare Goes Foodie

• The Chicago Auto Show might ostensibly be about the cars, but the food on offer is pretty exciting too. [Tribune]

• Location-based social media app Foursquare has signed a deal with Zagat to include a "Foodie" badge. [NYT]

• The Tabasco Community Cookbook Awards program is folding after 20 years. [The Stew]

• In an effort to solve budgetary woes, some states are looking to privatize liquor stores. [WSJ]

2/8/10 at 4:20 PM
Recipes
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Tempt Your Lady Love with 'Oysters Enveloped in the Scent of a Woman'

This particular oyster has not yet been shucked. Shucked hard.Photo: iStockphoto

For Valentine's Day, the incorrigble Phillip Foss of Lockwood has perhaps outdone himself with a dish he calls Royal Miyagi Oyster Enveloped in the Scent of a Woman - Aloe, Pomegranate, Ginger. The "scent of a woman" in question here is, specifically, rose-infused tea that spills out across the table in a haze of misty nitrous, and we presume that the recipe's name certainly is not meant to evoke any other sort of female aroma, particularly anything that might be directly or indirectly implied, either visually or associatively, by the oyster wrapped in said scent. The oysters, after all, are already fully shucked. There is absolutely no need to slurp them. Just make sure, as Foss notes in the handily provided recipe, that the oysters "appear moist and look plump." We suppose if all else fails, you could always switch shellfish and turn to Foss's advice about mussels. At the very least that photo is awfully instructive.

Royal Miyagi Oyster Enveloped in the Scent of a Woman [The Pickled Tongue]
Recipe: Royal Miyagi Oyster Enveloped in the Scent of a Woman [PDF]

Inside the Bocuse D’Or USA Finals

The Bocuse D’Or USA finals yesterday in Hyde Park resembled Iron Chef. The twelve-chef tournament is a kitchen-versus-kitchen competition in front of a live audience, judged by culinary luminaries, with a limited set of central ingredients (salmon, lamb) and a stressfully restrictive time limit (3.5 hours). But the converted gymnasium at the Culinary Institute of America was no Kitchen Stadium: Instead of engaging with the audience and performing for the cameras, competitors worked in stoic isolation, separated from the audience and one another in Plexiglas kitchen cubicles, while in-house video crews caught every move for the large projection screens hanging overhead.

2/8/10 at 2:03 PM
Openings
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Leo's, at Last

Kevin Pang promises, no, like he really promises, he means it this time, really baby, come on, this isn't like all those other times, this is real, that Leo's Coney Island will be opening on Monday. It's about darn time — we've been waiting for this since July. Pang, we hold you to this. [The Stew]

Alice Waters’s Lazy Sunday

"I sometimes come by the restaurant and talk to the cooks. I sometimes walk to a bookstore... Mostly I just stay home. It’s the one time I feel like I can exhale, and just get ready to begin again." — Slow-food evangelist and Chez Panisse proprietor Alice Waters in the Times' Sunday Routine column. [NYT]

2/8/10 at 11:43 AM
Awards
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Calumet Fisheries Named an American Classic

A big hurrah for Calumet Fisheries, which has been named one of the James Beard Foundation's 2010 America's Classics restaurants. Given to just five restaurants nationwide each year, the award acknowledges places "with timeless appeal, beloved for quality food that reflects the character of their community" — qualifications which Cal Fisheries embodies and then some. Per the Beard Foundation (and probably per plenty of its avid fans), "Calumet Fisheries remains the best reason to cross the 95th Street Bridge." [Inbox]

2/8/10 at 11:08 AM on Grub Street NY
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Bill Murray and Anthony Bourdain Go on a Man Date

Bill Murray tends to show up in unexpected places, and his appearance on tonight’s aforementioned Hudson Valley episode of No Reservations is no exception. Here's a clip of Bourdain and Murray at X20 in Yonkers, and check out Tony’s blog for his story about riding shotgun with Murray (in an SUV, not a golf cart).

Plan Your Valentine's Day with the Chandon Concierge

valentine.chandon.com

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