Grub StreetChicago

• New York
• Los Angeles
• San Francisco
• Chicago
• Philadelphia
• Boston

It's so rare that we get to write about our own neighborhood, Roscoe Village (or as we call it, Breakfast Village, since that's kind of what our local restaurant scene is all about). But we've got two, count 'em two openings, both chains, but small, pretty admirable ones. Meatheads, which we've had when out in Mallburbia and is an entirely respectable modern burger chain in the Five Guys/Epic/etc. subgenre of neo-retro-pomo-classical burger joints, is coming to the mall at Roscoe and Western, which instantly improves its offerings which are... so nondescript that we can't even tell you. (There might be a Wingstop.) The chain's first city location, it's having its grand opening on Monday, and it has a pretty amazing deal to commemorate it: the first 50 customers to buy something there will win a free burger a week for a year. (Gonna be a lot of burgers being eaten by the boys in blue of the 19th district, we suspect.) They open at 11.

"When I worked at Leo Burnett, I had to go out for lunch. Every time I went, I thought the options weren’t that attractive," says Florian Pfahler, explaining where the idea for Hannah's Bretzel came from. Yeah, we wouldn't know anything about that feeling. Pfahler, who had been involved with internet startups, decided to do something about it, specifically, he invented a sandwich chain that would serve the quality of meats and other ingredients he saw people like himself shopping at Whole Foods for. Rachel Gillman interviews him for NBC Chicago about his transition from ad guy to sandwich guy, and it's an interesting piece— he makes it clear that Hannah's is well thought out from a marketing and concept standpoint, but also that it comes from his genuine desire to bring the European love of quality food to America, and that's why it's succeeded as a startup food chain that's slick but sincere. [NBC Chicago]

As Graham Elliot was being honored by the Chicago Culinary Museum and Hall of Fame last night, he was having to deal with the loss of the highest-ranked chef in his flagship restaurant's kitchen... for the second day in a row. On the heels of Andrew Brochu exiting the kitchen on Tuesday, Bryce Caron, who joined three months ago after being let go at Blackbird, quit on Wednesday. Eater reports two sides of the story: Caron's is that he was talking about moving into Brochu's spot but that he was unhappy with the idea of the restaurant moving back to a la carte items as well as the tasting menu which had been the cornerstone of its effort to reinvent itself as a top-level fine dining spot. Elliot's is that he wasn't ready to move Caron to that spot yet and he felt piqued and quit.