Posts for May 31, 2012 -- Grub Street Chicago -- Restaurant News, Openings, Chefs

Posts for May 31, 2012

5/31/12 at 3:35 PM
Events
Comment

Hot Hog! Hog Week Coming to Vie

Paul Virant's Vie in Western Springs has been doing whole hog butchering classes for a while, and they've been a huge hit with suburbanites, whom Virant seems to have turned into a pork-worshipping cult of his own. Now he's celebrating the wonderful, magical animal by bringing in five whole hogs for Vie's first-ever Hog Week, June 11 to June 16. "Pork will be featured in every dish from your appetizer through your dessert!" the announcement unabashedly declares, and for $45 a person (kids 12-17, $25, 11 and under pay their age) you get a family-style dinner in which pork will be smoked, cured, roasted and wood-grilled. For reservations call 708-246-2082.

5/31/12 at 1:50 PM on Grub Street Philly
Loco For Locavores
Comment

Backyard Chickens and Farming Blamed for Sickening Hundreds With Salmonella

By Collin Keefe

Live chickens are essentailly raw chickens, and should be treated as such.

Backyard farming may be a means of survival for some, and a neighborhood status symbol for others, but now the trendy practice is being blamed for sickening hundreds with salmonella. Washington Post reports that the Center for Disease Control has determined that more than 80 percent of salmonella cases reported can be traced back to hatcheries that sell chicks directly to consumers for their kids' Easter baskets and/or their experiments in suburban coop-keeping.

5/31/12 at 1:43 PM
Events
Comment

Chris Cosentino Coming to The Publican June 8; Farm Dinner With Louis Slagel June 9

By Michael Gebert

Slagel pork, once The Publican is through with it.

One of the most interesting chefs in America, and a patron saint of the whole animal movement who helped make offal and housemade charcuterie hot, Chris Cosentino, is coming to Chicago. Specifically he's coming to The Publican June 8 as part of the tour for his book Beginnings: My Way To Start a Meal, and The Publican will be serving dishes from the book such as Fava Beans, Strawberries and Pecorino Salad or Pork with Artichokes, Mint, and Lemon a la carte and with beer pairings. The book will be for sale as well. Or the next day, you could go on a road trip with The Publican to the farm of one of Paul Kahan's favorite suppliers, Louis Slagel (hear Paul Kahan talk about Slagel's start with them in this video). You'll leave at noon, see the farm in Fairbury, Illinois (near Bloomington), get a butchering demo by Erling Wu-Bower of Publican Quality Meats and then enjoy dinner prepared by Wu-Bower and fellow Publican Brian Huston. It's $125 and BYOB; go here to buy your ticket.

5/31/12 at 1:30 PM on Grub Street Boston
Comeback Stories
Comment

Todd English on Returning to Boston and Reopening His Flagship

By Kara Baskin

Todd English, pausing to reflect.Photo: 451

Todd English has gotten a drubbing in the national press, and, yes, Grub Street has happily chronicled the fallout. The lawsuits! The rent woes! That wacky Groupon deal! Back home in Boston, he was derided for failing to quickly refurbish Olives after a fire shuttered his 23-year-old flagship two years ago. But Teflon Todd is back, people: Olives is open once more, with a bigger bar and more small plates. And English is in the kitchen, promising to make it a priority. Grub Street caught him in a fleeting quiet moment, primed for a comeback and happy to chat.

5/31/12 at 12:10 PM on Grub Street LA
Video Feed
Comment

Drive-Thru Dining: Eleven Videos of Cars Crashing Into Restaurants

By Hadley Tomicki

This week, an Ohio man used his truck as a battering ram after a Taco Bell forgot one of his 99-cent tacos. Not long before that, an Indiana Chipotle took a major hit from a collision between two cars. Which got us thinking: This kind of thing happens a lot, right? Cars seem to always be slamming into fast-food restaurants, coffee shops, and diners. While it's hard to explain exactly why they make such a vulnerable targets for errant autos, we recommend everyone stay on their toes, no matter how much attention that burger requires. Need proof? Here now, eleven glass-shattering, metal-twisting car crashes caught on video at restaurants through the years.

5/31/12 at 11:50 AM
Politics
Comment

Felony Franks Struggling To Continue Its Dogs-and-Second Chance Mission

By Michael Gebert

Felony Franks is, quite simply, a good thing. Owner Jim Andrews opened his hot dog stand in 2009 with the mission of giving felons a chance to prove themselves at a legitimate job. And promptly spent two years fighting with his alderman, Robert Fioretti, for the right to have a sign saying his business's name. Alderman Fioretti, with that keen insight that marks Chicago's political class, apparently believed that people might get the idea that there was a lot of crime in the vicinity of Jackson and Western if there was a big sign saying "felony" on it. (Since of course that was the only visual indicator that the area was not Winnetka.) Andrews eventually won that fight on first amendment grounds, and according to an article in Austin Weekly News, business has picked up since the place started looking more like a going concern with an actual sign, but the fight still strained his financial resources (minimal) and he doesn't know how much longer it will last. So if you think it's a good thing that ex-felons learn to be something non-felonious, go to Felony Franks— yes, the area looks a little sketchy, but we've been eating barbecue and who knows what all in sketchy places for years and the only trouble we ever got into was in Lincoln Park and involved two 80-year-old women and the syrup for our Belgium waffle— and spend some money there. You'll get more for it than just a hot dog and fries (though they're pretty good). [Austin Weekly News]

5/31/12 at 11:00 AM on Grub Street NY
Overnights
Comment

Around the World in 80 Plates Recap: David Rees Is the Only Person Watching This Show

By David Rees

Can you name even one of these contestants?Photo: Virginia Sherwood/Bravo

In solidarity with the spirit of adventure that drives Around the World in 80 Plates, I’m recapping this week’s episode from my friend’s apartment in Brooklyn, one of the most famous boroughs in all of New York. I'm a long way from home! And at the risk of blowing your mind even wider open: By the time you read this recap, I will be on an airplane flying to yet ANOTHER distant city — the city of Los Angeles, currently located all the way over there on the other side of the continent in the sun-dappled, doomed social experiment known as California. As much as I hate to admit it, I’m a bit of a jet-setter. My only home is the open road; my only love is the smell of airplanes in flight; my only allegiance is to the next vista on my horizon. Basically, what I’m saying is: I might literally be the only person in America who appreciates what our friends are going through as they compete on Around the World in 80 Plates. As far as I can tell, I am definitely the only person in America who is watching the show.

5/31/12 at 10:44 AM
Fast Food
Comment

The Sbarro of Tomorrow! Coming to Chicago (Ridge) June 12

By Michael Gebert

Okay, we have to admit we fell for this press release as soon as it contained the phrase "Sbarro of Tomorrow," because it conjured up two of our favorite things, that future-that-never-was of jetcars and robot maids and instantaneous communication about nothing via computer, and pizza. (Just not Sbarro pizza.) Though come to think of it, applied to fast food pizza, we kind of think we're close enough to dining a la Matrix as it is and we'd just as soon turn back the clock to the pizza of yesterday.

5/31/12 at 10:00 AM
Benefit
Comment

Eat Pie at Big Jones. Benefit James Beard Foundation Scholarship Program.

Talk about a win-win. Go to Big Jones now through Labor Day, finish your meal with Black Walnut and Chocolate Bourbon Pie for $8. And $1 of that will go to the James Beard Foundation Silver Anniversary Scholarship Drive, which supports aspiring culinary students. It's a fitting choice given that Beard was such a proponent of traditional American cooking— and the distinctive flavor of black walnut is as unique to America and representative of pre-WWII American cookery as anything grown here.

5/31/12 at 9:04 AM
Events
Comment

Go to The Bedford Tonight. Meet the Market.

By Michael Gebert

The Bedford's vault.

The Green City Market Junior Board is a group of chefs, media people, PR folks, and other people interested in helping the market serve its mission in better and more creative ways. One of the newest members is chef Mark Steuer of The Bedford, and he and his place will be hosts tonight for the return of the Junior Board's Meet the Market series of events this spring— and you're invited. The farmer guest of honor will be Peter Klein of Seedling, and you'll see fruit from him and others at the market in Steuer's passed apps and in the $8 cocktails using FEW spirits ($6 goes to the market as a donation). The event itself, from 6 to 8 p.m., is free, and if that wasn't cool enough, it's in the very cool bank space at The Bedford. Find out more about it here.

5/31/12 at 9:00 AM on Grub Street NY
Liquid Assets
Comment

Pressing Matters: Are Juice Bars Putting the Squeeze on Customers?

By Kurt Soller

Photo: Danny Kim for New York Magazine/Food styling: Suzette Kaminski

Anyone who has walked by a juice bar over the last couple of years — in other words, almost everyone — has noticed the strikingly high prices, often $9 or $10 per nutrient-laden beverage. How can this be? Have juice-bar owners figured out a way to swindle the kale-enraptured masses?

Or Search By:

Neighbhorhood

Cuisine

Feature

Advertising

Recent reader reviews on MenuPages

Taco Burrito King See the menu

“I love TBK”
Open super late and great food especially for the intoxicated!
Atino's Pizza #1 See the menu

“Try the Steak & Potato Pizza!”
Can you say philly sandwich on a pizza?
Sunrise Cafe See the menu

“Good Overall, just that greasy smell”
The problem is that my clothes smell like grease after every visit. They need to do something about that.