Looking for a perfect Valentine’s date? The Chicago Board Game Café (which I covered a few months ago) opens on February 14. From the great minds behind Cards Against Humanity, this café will boast a huge selection of games (along with game curators to help you pick the right one), plus a full food and cocktail menu.
The Board Game Café isn’t the only exciting opening on V-Day this year. An under-the-radar sushi spot inside a hotel room also opens on the 14th. Hiding in Sushi Suite 202 of the Hotel Lincoln, the six-seat restaurant will offer a relatively fast (one hour) omakase menu, with fish flown in straight from Japan. Dinner will cost $125, including tax and gratuity.
More Valentine’s goodness (hey, ’tis the season): If you want to really impress your Valentine, you should send them a “taco-gram” from Big Star. From February 12 to 16, you can order tacos for $1 on DoorDash, along with fun Valentine’s Day messages. Make sure to use the address of your Valentine — and maybe make sure they’re home first.
Philip Foss of El Ideas has been writing a lot lately. He’s been posting to Medium about his own mental health struggles and his thoughts on restaurant ownership — and he has a lot of the latter, since he’s been in the business (successfully, for the most part) for quite a while. He’s now turned to professional writing with an essay for The Takeout. While his advice for would-be restauranteurs may be a bit wonky to some, it’s full of useful insight into the business.
Breakfast at Ina’s, the awesome documentary about Ina Pinkney’s namesake West Loop restaurant, as well as her incredible life, is now streaming on Amazon. If you haven’t been to a screening of the documentary, and you care even a little bit about food in Chicago, this is absolutely mandatory watching.