Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2024 i Chicago magazine

FOR CHICAGO DINING CRITIC JOHN KESSLER, WHO ASSEMBLED this year’s “Best New Restaurants” rankings (page 50), the latest crop of newcomers is the strongest in recent memory — certainly since the pandemic. And maybe because of the pandemic. “There’s a new frugality that I feel has helped with people’s creativity,” Kessler says. “A lot of these places offer stripped-down menus. They’re not trying to do everything. They have like 10 items, but make them really well. They’re cooking the food they want to cook.” With that shift has come a certain humility, a marked change from the days of outsize kitchen personalities. “Particularly in Chicago, we’ve lionized big-name chefs, starting with Jean Banchet, Jean Joho, Charlie Trotter, Grant Achatz, Rick Bayless — the chef-as-auteur kind of model,” says Kessler. It’s…

Q: Why isn’t Mount Greenwood Cemetery part of Chicago? Look at a map of the Far Southwest Side, where the neighborhoods of Beverly, Morgan Park, and Mount Greenwood meet, and you’ll see a rectangular - shaped hole. It’s Mount Greenwood Cemetery, a 79-acre graveyard that was never annexed to the City of Chicago and remains part of unincorporated Cook County. The cemetery was established in 1879, when Chicago’s boundaries extended only as far south as 39th Street (now Pershing Road). When the Village of Mount Greenwood voted for annexation to the city in 1927, the cemetery didn’t come with it. “If you incorporate, you’re going to pay taxes for schools, parks,” explains Carol Flynn of the Ridge Historical Society in Beverly. “Those are amenities a cemetery’s ‘residents’ are not going…

NEXT TO GATE 4 OF GUARANTEED RATE FIELD, HOME OF THE WHITE SOX, IS A BRONZE bust of the late governor James R. “Big Jim” Thompson. It’s an homage to the wily politician who in 1988 forged a government-backed financing deal — over significant political opposition — to bankroll construction of that stadium and stop the franchise from bolting to Florida. “He kept the White Sox in Chicago,” reads the bust’s inscription. These days, the White Sox may want to stay in Chicago but not necessarily in their 33-year-old publicly supported stadium, where a team-friendly lease — another byproduct of Thompson’s dealmaking — expires in five years. As we know, the Sox are talking about building a state-of-the-art baseball palace in the 78, a nascent development in the South Loop…

1 SASHA FIERCE Last year, Hawaii native Sasha Colby became the first openly trans competitor to win RuPaul’s Drag Race. The fan favorite brings her Stripped Tour to Thalia Hall. Apr. 6. thaliahallchicago.com 2 PAIGE TURNER Comprising textiles, drawings, ceramics, and other media, the Hyde Park Art Center exhibition The United Colors of Robert Earl Paige surveys six decades of the Woodlawn native’s artworks reflecting on Black life. Apr. 6–Oct. 27. hydeparkart.org 3 ART ALTERNATIVE If this month’s Expo Chicago is too rich for your blood, give The Other Art Fair a shot. Aiming for a more accessible vibe, this show at Ravenswood’s Artifact Events features nearly 150 artists exhibiting works you can take home for as little as $100. Apr. 11–14. theotherartfair.com 4 WASH WHAT HAPPENS Northlight Theatre looks…

ITS INGREDIENT LIST IS SHORT AND ORDInary, but the classic Spanish tortilla (a tender omelet that’s equally satisfying hot or cold, day or night) is a more-than-the-sum-of-its-parts kind of dish. Prior to joining the eggs, the onions and potatoes get a long, luxurious olive oil bath that lends silky softness to every bite. Turning the tortilla in the traditional manner, by quickly inverting it onto a plate, is a maneuver that can foil hesitant cooks. To avert disaster, move decisively, and take a tip from Jaleo head chef José Dávila: “Make sure you oil the plate before for easy sliding into the pan.” JALEO’S TORTILLA ESPAÑOLA Makes 3 tortillas Active time 1 hour 5 minutes Total time 2 hours 15 minutes 3 cups thinly sliced Spanish onions (about 2 medium…

What have you heard about Warlord? No reservations, long waits, super noisy? There’s truth in all this, but let me tell you what I find every time I go back (which is often) to this chef-driven project, where Emily Kraszyk, John Lupton, and Trevor Fleming share equal billing. Yes, the wait can be insane (partly because the restaurant is open only four days a week), but it’s tolerable if you spend it in the vestibule with a smoked apple daiquiri. And sure, the music may be loud, but it’s engaging — tracks that might show up on your Discover Weekly if you’ve ever listened to Brian Eno. Listen to the food, too, because it has so much to say here at the most exciting new restaurant of the year. Do…

Otto Phan’s Kyoten has long set the bar for omakase sushi in Chicago with his tour de force of crafted small plates and the best wild fish the seas have to offer. Yet with an omakase menu starting at $440, it’s not exactly in most diners’ regular rotation. So Phan opened this spot next door, and it became a new kind of benchmark — one that goes back to the origins of omakase. Here, it’s a chef’s choice selection of what’s good, fresh, and seasonal, presented simply as nigiri sushi. Depending on the night, you might find mature buri yellowtail, seductively oily and firm, and sweetly delicate raw sardine that plays with every preconception you have about that fish. There will be melt-in-your-mouth favorites: white-with-fat tuna belly and Ora King…

After 13 years as Ramen_Lord, Reddit’s ranking obsessive übergeek on all things pertaining to Japanese noodles, Mike Satinover opened his own shop to a rapturous welcome. Online reservations disappear in minutes, but there’s often room for walk-ins. The noodles? Very good: snappy and chewy and offered in four meticulously researched styles. The miso ramen, Satinover's specialty, is brash, deep, intense, and so rich the lard pools atop. I prefer the shoyu’s nuanced sardine broth, while the soupless tantanmen unites extra-thick noodles with hot-and-numbing spice, plenty of ground pork, and sesame paste for a carbonara-level indulgence. Whatever you order, it will be supremely slurpable.…

Hello, red sauce, my old friend, I’ve come to slurp you up again. If there’s one constant in Chicago, it’s that every year sees a bumper crop of Italian American supper clubs. Many attempt to update the tired yet beloved genre, but DeNucci’s feels like it actually has something new to say. Some of it is the way it reflects modern tastes (Who wants a Negroni Sbagliato? A branzino piccata?), and some of it is the way it grounds the experience in old-school service and the kind of brass and tile decor that feels timeless. Maybe you won’t be greeted quite like Tony Soprano at Vesuvio, but you’ll be made to feel like your happiness is all that matters, whether you’re just having some calamari and a drink at the…

Imagine your favorite Japanese restaurant as a kid — the place where your dad gave you some of his steak teriyaki, your mom offered a couple of pieces of her California roll, and you got your own appetizer of tempura. Now imagine this restaurant all grown up and living its best 2.0 life. Chef Gene Kato brings his experiences (Sumi Robata Bar, Momotaro) to Itoko’s something-for-everyone menu, from shishito peppers with black garlic mayo and foie-enhanced pork gyoza for starters to rice bowls and a prime strip loin for entrées. The sushi bar (set in the back of a warren of rooms) is top tier and features taco-like hand rolls: crisp nori cradling bliss-inducing centers of tom yum shrimp, XO-sauced scallops, or the signature mecha kucha with chutoro and o-toro,…

ON JULY 1, 1979, JOHN BELUSHI FLEW TO CHICAGO. As a hometown hero and the unrivaled star of a movie in the works based on his and Dan Aykroyd’s Blues Brothers characters from Saturday Night Live, Belushi faced a crucial task: to convince the new mayor to let a film crew tear up her city. Jane Byrne had taken office that spring as Chicago’s first female mayor. Before Byrne’s ascent, Belushi and Aykroyd would have stood little chance of filming their Chicago car-chase musical in Chicago. Precious few films had shot in the city, a prohibition that dated to the early years of Mayor Richard J. Daley. He had assumed office in 1955 and indulged film and television crews until 1959, when an episode of a now-forgotten series called M…

Any shop that offers a free beer when you buy a pretzel rod gets an A-plus in my book. Granted, at $3, it’s the most expensive pretzel rod you’ll ever buy. But, the beer. This quirky little lure is one of many reasons to drive an hour southwest to the town of Morris and shop at True North (539 Bedford Rd.). It’s surprising that a place with such a big personality remains a secret to many Chicagoans. With 125 vendors from across the Midwest selling everything from artisan soaps and margarita mixes to vintage clothing and disco records, it scores major kid-in-candy-store points. Make that candy factory; the spot is 10,000 square feet and merchandise changes every hour. Shopping is not the only thing to do here. On my last…

WHY DO SOME THINGS stick in our memory, while others are completely forgettable? That question is at the heart of research being conducted by the University of Chicago’s Brain Bridge Lab, led by assistant professor Wilma Bainbridge. To answer it, the lab is focusing on art. It has built a machine-learning model called ResMem, which mimics the way we process visual information and can analyze the features of an artwork to predict whether it will be memorable. In its latest effort, the lab is hosting a contest, in which both amateur and professional artists can submit original pieces. Those works predicted to be most memorable, as well as those thought to be most forgettable, will be displayed April 27 to May 25 at Connect Gallery in Hyde Park and put…

Chicago Tribune reporter Gregory Royal Pratt is out with the first — and probably only — book about Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s single term. The City Is Up for Grabs (the title comes from a text she sent to an alderperson during 2020’s George Floyd riots) follows Lightfoot from her years as a federal prosecutor to her 2023 reelection loss. The morning after that defeat, Pratt received this damning text from a longtime Lightfoot aide, explaining the boss’s downfall: “You can’t run on a platform and then completely abandon it. You can’t run against the status quo, and then fill your administration with the status quo. And you can’t be mean to everyone who tries to help you.” See page 100 for Lightfoot’s own take on her mayoral term.…

> TWO MILE COFFEE BAR “It was started by an architect friend of mine, and it’s a nicely designed space. I always order a cortado. I’m a bit of a coffee snob, and this place does it right.” 1766 W. 95th St.; 9907 S. Walden Pkwy. > BEVERLY PHONO MART “This record shop opened a few years ago and has an awesome vibe. It’s run by a husband-and-wife team who have great taste in music. I’m into jazz and rare blues and some eclectic things, and they’ll special-order records for me.” 1808 W. 103rd St. > BEVERLY RECORDS “It’s where you go for something vintage. This shop holds a special place in my heart because they connected me with someone who sold me an entire personal collection of Chicago jazz…

Brunch, Four Ways SCOFFLAW 3201 W. Armitage Ave., Logan Square Brunch service: Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The crowd: Day drinkers and chill neighbors Going sweet? New chef Fred Chung revamped the bar’s daytime menu; get his Hong Kong–style French toast, stuffed with honey sesame and topped with milk tea butter and berries. Or savory? You’ll want the umami-bomb steak sandwich with avocado, nuoc cham, crispy shallots, cilantro, and mint. Fancy a drink? The gin-based Red Snapper is Chicago’s best Bloody. Or try the Garden Era, a fresh, fruity sparkler. Tip: Stretch out Sunday brunch so you can roll right into the $8 drinks happy hour at 5 p.m. Will you need a nap after? ZZZZ THE LOYALIST 177 N. Ada St., West Loop Brunch service: Sunday,…

EVEN THE MOST EXTROverted homeowners need a place to escape. So when Dave Patel, a Dunkin’ franchise operator, and his wife, Gauri, a homemaker, first discussed their dream-home concept with architect Orren Pickell, he understood that these serious entertainers would need a residence that delineated public spaces from private family areas. The tricky part was meshing two distinct living styles under one roof in a fashion that felt organic, stylish, and not too precious — no easy feat in a 10,000-square-foot contemporary abode whose owners requested a shark tank, a golf simulator, a kids’ play area, and a worship room. Even from outside you will notice that the dual-function notion extends to dual entrances: A porte-cochère at the side of the house leads to the owners’ two single-car garages, while…

When Iliana Regan closed Elizabeth to decamp for Michigan, the restaurant's manager, Tim Lacey, took over its shoebox space and brought in chef Christian Hunter, renowned for his work at Community Table in Connecticut, to devise a tasting menu where he’d workshop new dishes every night. And for a while, the place seemed just that — a work in progress. A meal last July felt like Chopped: Props to the explosive Korean beet soup, thumbs-down to the rubbery jerk sweetbreads. It also came off as stiff, with the kitchen staff three feet away never acknowledging the cluster of guests. What a difference a few months make. At a recent meal, the faux-rustic room, with its rough-hewn wooden tables and chunky silverware, perks up to the lively crowd that has since…

A green-and-gold zakusky tower wheels toward your table looking like something from a 1950s department store. Combined with the carnival glow cast by overhead lights shaded by multicolored felt, the effect is almost campy. You’ll laugh at this three-tiered display of various fried, marinated, pickled, and stuffed bites to enjoy with your cocktail, then appreciate it as a canny icebreaker. Chefs Beverly Kim and Johnny Clark have fashioned Anelya (which took over their previous restaurant in this location, Wherewithall) as an ode to Ukraine and named it for Clark’s Ukrainian grandmother. Relax, have fun, you’re here to eat, they’re saying. But explore. Clark, leading a kitchen team of primarily Ukrainian immigrants and refugees, brings his estimable skills and deep research to this project and serves food you won’t find elsewhere…

The regional cuisines of the Indian subcontinent are as varied as those of Europe, but if you ask an Indian food expert to call out one in particular, they’ll likely speak of Kerala with the same adoration Europeans from Ireland to Moldova talk of Italy. Margaret Pak fell hard for this cooking when her husband, Vinod Kalathil, took her home to the Malabar Coast to meet his mother and learn some of her recipes. So hard, in fact, that Pak trained as a chef and persuaded Kalathil to open this love letter of a restaurant, set in a brick-walled former factory down an artsy side street and decorated with Kalathil’s colorful photography. The first order here should be Pak’s Kadala curry, made with nutty black chickpeas and roasted coconut gravy,…

Decorated in an explosion of colors and materials that evoke the cacophony of an Asian night market, this always busy but never chaotic restaurant offers some of the best and most flavor-amped Thai food Chicago has seen in years. Its menu explores the Isan region of northeastern Thailand, renowned for its vibrantly dressed salads and grilled meats. That’s where you should start, with tum thai, a heaping, juicy green papaya salad popping with teeny dried shrimplets and peanuts. Better yet: the version called tum kao pod, which is made with sweet corn fresh from the cob. Perhaps you’ve had laab made with ground pork or chicken, but have you had laab moo krob featuring crispy-meaty-fatty chunks of pork belly brightened with lime dressing? If you don’t stuff yourself, finish with…

Four years ago, Bethany Barbouti found a way to put her master’s in sustainable food systems to use by opening the Eco Flamingo, calling it the city’s first “zero-waste” general store. No plastic bags here: Shoppers bring in their own containers to help themselves to bulk-bin items ranging from coffee and spices to laundry detergents and shampoos. Elsewhere in the sunny shop, you’ll find unique kitchen goods like reusable food pouches and bamboo-and-sisal dish scrubbers and organic bath and body products like limoncello soap and lavender Earl Grey Lip Butter. The latest twist: At the new Sustainability Center two doors north, the store hosts the Eco Farm Stand on Sundays and workshops covering the likes of waste reduction, bike repair, and mending. 4750 N. Rockwell St., Lincoln Square…

New Jersey artist Joe Ciardiello has never been to Chicago, but he’s drawing it a lot these days. As he worked on his illustration for our book excerpt on the making of The Blues Brothers (page 76), the U.S. Postal Service released a stamp he designed honoring Chicago writer Saul Bellow. “They wanted a sense of Chicago without being too specific,” Ciardiello says. “It seemed like including the L made the most sense.” He chose another Loop backdrop for our story: Daley Plaza, featuring, naturally, a car crash from the movie.…

1 Former House speaker Michael Madigan’s racketeering trial starts April 1. The last boss faces 22 counts, including extortion. The convictions of the “ComEd Four” for conspiring to bribe him bodes ill. 2 For 2017’s total solar eclipse, sun-head Chicagoans road-tripped to Carbondale for prime viewing. That will again be the case April 8, when Southern Illinois University hosts a watch festival. 3 The blues. Jet magazine. Soul Train. Oprah. In We Are the Culture: Black Chicago’s Influence on Everything, out April 16, Arionne Nettles explores how local Black culture has shaped all culture. 4 The Chicago Palestine Film Festival opens April 20 at the Gene Siskel Film Center. Political? You bet. Example: The Law and the Prophets is an exposé on the ways “Israel exploits and oppresses Palestinians.” Expect…

HIGHLY MEMORABLE “Perhaps the clear depiction of a singular central figure makes them easier to process,” says Wilma Bainbridge. “Also, faces are incredibly memorable.” HIGHLY FORGETTABLE “They’re sort of fuzzy, with no central eye-catching object. That might make them harder to process and harder to remember.”…

FOR A NEW YORK CITY resident, actor Jon Michael Hill spends a lot of days in Chicago. Several times a year, the Waukegan native checks in on two families: his relatives in the suburbs and his artistic kin at Steppenwolf Theatre, where he became an ensemble member at the startlingly young age of 20. His roles there include a lead in 2008’s Superior Donuts, which moved to Broadway and earned him a Tony nom. He currently stars in Steppenwolf’s world premiere of Purpose, running until April 28. On TV, he was a regular on CBS’s Elementary, and he’s appearing this spring in the Netflix series A Man in Full. At 38, Hill keeps active, although a type 1 diabetes diagnosis five years ago meant lifestyle adjustments. MUSHROOM MOTIVATION “I’ve been…

AN AMATEUR ARCHIVIST.” That’s what curator Thea Liberty Nichols calls the late artist Christina Ramberg, who will get a retrospective at the Art Institute of Chicago starting April 20. Ramberg was an artist and a teacher, but, as Nichols learned from months sifting through her ephemera — diaries, postcards, 35 mm slides, a doll collection — she was also a kind of historian. The objects that inspired Ramberg “didn’t exist in a library, or in an art history book,” Nichols explains. “She really needed to collect the material for herself.” A member of the Chicago Imagists who came out of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the late 1960s, Ramberg is best known for her glossy acrylic-on-Masonite paintings of women’s torsos cinched by lingerie or of hands…

1 BRASERO What The new hot spot from John Manion (El Che Steakhouse & Bar) brings the flavors of South America — done up with his signature live-fire cooking — to the former Funkenhausen space. Why Work your way through the Caipirinha menu at the bar, then explore the range of the continent’s cuisine through dishes like green curry garlic prawns, moqueca (fish stew) with coconut broth, and guava barbecue pork ribs. Where 1709 W. Chicago Ave., West Town 2 PUBLICAN QUALITY BREAD What An outpost of Greg Wade’s local-grain bakery lands in Oak Park. Why You already know that Wade’s loaves are top-notch; this location stays open in the evenings, with Roman-style pizzas plus beer and wine to make it a party. Where 211 Harrison St., Oak Park 3 MAO BAR…

WHY SIMPLY SOD YOUR BACKYARD when you can transform it into a bona fide social space? Sean Kelley, owner of landscape decorator Reveal Design in East Garfield Park, made the barren area behind an Elmhurst home into a fully equipped outdoor dining room, bar, and kitchen — right down to the atmospheric lighting. “It’s made for gathering and relaxing,” he says. Here are some key takeaways.…

A great neighborhood restaurant must do several things. First, it has to fit into its surroundings like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle. Second, its kitchen should make, better than any other, something you love as well as something you never knew you loved because you’d never had it before. And finally, its prices should be low enough to keep you coming back. That’s John’s, a classic long-bar bistro squeezed between boutiques. Chef-owners Adam McFarland and Thomas Rogers are the kind of great cooks who can blow you away with a salad — say, one with beets, pistachios, and aged Gouda that takes your palate to a new place. The pulled pork sandwich with Thai vinaigrette on the lunch menu is the urbane cousin of western North Carolina ’cue, and…

Journeyman Chicago chef Joe Fontelera (formerly of Arami) tested the waters for his heritage Filipino fare at Revival Food Hall before opening this handsome BYO. The amber lighting, knotty pine paneling decorated with old family photos, and wafting intoxicant of garlic rice all pull you in and prime you for the transportive experience the kitchen delivers. Fontelera bends and interprets Filipino recipes to create memorable dishes, showering the tomato ferment called burong kamatis over grilled eggplant or turning the sweet-sour braising liquid of adobo into a glaze for charcoal-grilled chicken thighs. The must-order is the sizzling sisig, a wobbly-looking pork hash topped with a raw egg that transforms into a crisp, gooey flavor bomb on its superheated iron plate. It’s like watching bacon fry.…

What is that flavor? Fried onions? Cumin? Oregano? If you’ve been dining in Chicago this past year, chances are you’re tasting nigella seeds, their intriguing pop showing up in a beet salad at John’s Food & Wine, an egg mayo at Anelya, and a freshly baked pita at Sifr. If this is a small trend, then a huge one is cacio e pepe, the pasta sauce made with pecorino cheese and black pepper that runs through the veins of Chicago’s chefs, which has jumped the noodle and now appears on bagels (Tilly Bagel Shop) and tavern-style pizza (Bungalow by Middle Brow). Trout roe — beadier and milder than salmon roe — is also everywhere; just check out Donald Young’s Duck Sel pop-up or Anelya’s memorable tartelette. While we’re on fish…

I often feel about tasting menus the way I do about fixing scrapes and dings on my SUV — they’re a lot of money for precision craftsmanship that ultimately doesn't matter that much. Then, when I visit a place like Maman Zari, I’m reminded they can be delightful. Co-owners Mariam Shahsavarani and chef Matteo Lo Bianco offer a gently priced ($85) eight-course meal that tours the flavors of Persia, from saffron and rosewater to tart pomegranate molasses, dusky fenugreek, and vegetal herbs. The flavors are bright, the presentations eye-catching. Along this journey, which zips by over a quick two hours, you’ll encounter some of the hallmarks of the Persian table, like tahdig (rice crust) rendered like a fritter, and mirza ghasemi turned into the best stuffed eggplant you’ll ever taste.…

AFTER 15 YEARS ON CLARK STREET, FRANKIE’S ON the Park is tugging the hearts of high schoolers to new digs on Webster. The more intimate space has more to offer, including a lounge and a VIP fitting room for special occasions. That’ll come in handy this prom season, when girls can make a date with a dress specialist who will curate an assortment of frocks, plus make tailoring suggestions. “Prom these days is more than the dance,” says owner Lisa Burik. “It’s about the whole weekend, from the night-before hangout to the after-party.” Even as the sequined curtain closes on prom, Frankie’s aims to satisfy the fashion obsessed. “Our clothes are on trend and mom approved,” says Burik, pointing to not overly revealing staples like sweats, jeans, and sweaters. Of…

Being a big-city mayor is a really, really hard job. There are a lot of people shooting at you. You’ve got to know who your enemies are and know that they’re working every single day to undermine you. I don’t know that I totally appreciated that early on. You’ve got to make sure that what you’re doing reflects the lived experience of the people you’re supposed to be helping. That means going into the community and listening — and sometimes facing a lot of hostility, because people are cynical. They’ve watched others come and go and make promises that are not kept. But if you really want to get to the heart of things, you’ve got to be willing to take your licking. Going through COVID made me a better…