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"I tried to keep it quiet in case anything happened," Alexander Brunacci. "It did— the first night the order system was only sending about half the tickets back to the kitchen." A little word of The Peasantry's opening last week did sneak out, but mostly Brunacci, the owner of Frank N Dawgs, has had the last week and a half to gear up as simply a neighborhood place. "We had about 85 people on Saturday, but I think they were pretty much from the neighborhood." It's easy to see why people walking on his busy stretch of Clark just south of Diversey would be attracted by this cozy spot with a fireplace for the winter, an open front for nice summer evenings, and the owner pouring wine at the bar. Brunacci calls his menu "elevated street food," which means it pretty much starts out according to a plebeian food paradigm— burgers, flatbreads, sausages— but takes a more upscale twist as in the beef and bone marrow burger, the baby octopus gyro, or the triple truffle fries. The Peasantry is open now; the menu is below.

In a city of extravagantly-bearded, rock and roll-living chefs, Andrew Zimmerman looks like the rare grownup, cleancut, levelheaded and (so far as we have ever observed) tattoo-free. Ironically, he actually was an aspiring rock musician who goofed around in kitchens for a long time without getting serious, but his career from some point in his 20s has been the classic one of hard work, seizing opportunities when they presented themselves and steadily rising to better and better positions. He took over Sepia in 2009 and guided it through the period after its opening hype when many restaurants falter, winning a Michelin star the first year they were awarded in Chicago (which he has retained since). And now he's nominated for the first time for a James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef: Great Lakes, alongside some heady Chicago competition— Michael Carlson, Stephanie Izard and Bruce Sherman. In advance of Monday's award ceremony, we spoke with Zimmerman about his long and somewhat meandering path to his present success and acclaim, which turned into a conversation about young chefs, culinary school and how he mentors the next generation of chefs as well. The first part of our conversation is below; it will continue Monday.

"I'm not a foodie," Courtney Love tells Grub Street, "but I am a foodie." And so begins the amazing and exasperating New York Diet tell-all, as Love weaves in and out of the Fred Torres Gallery (where her racy-femme show, "And She's Not Even Pretty," is getting rave reviews), subsisting on Dean & Deluca takeout, daily cake deliveries, gallons of lemon water, and anything by Mario Batali, whom Love calls "the only friend you really need." Read on as Love takes less of a what-I-ate-this-week approach to her New York Diet and instead freely reflects on her body, refrigerator, testosterone levels, and "fuckin' Portandia-like" mixology skills.