When Perilla started selling meal kits based off of the Korean comfort dish chapaguri (Chapagetti black bean noodles, Neoguri ramen, plus steak cubes) featured in the Oscar-winning film Parasite, it got us thinking. Which Chicago restaurants could create take-home dishes based off of other movies? Turns out, there’s a bunch.
Hook, Alinea
While Alinea is already doing high-brow takeout services, we thought, how can we make it more haute cuisine? Coq au vin and beef Wellington is one thing, but here’s an idea: recreating the food fight scene from Hook. Take an array of brightly colored dishes and throw them against the wall and at each other. And, uh, eat it that way. Every experience will be different, Jackson Pollock–esque, and conceptual. Curbside pickup available on Tock.
Lady and the Tramp, Club Lucky
Club Lucky is a classic red-sauce kind of place in Bucktown. At a time like now, what’s more comforting than a classic bowl of spaghetti and meatballs? Let’s turn your takeout into a romantic scene from Lady and the Tramp with a single, very, very, very long noodle that you and your lover can suck down, end to end, until you meet in the middle. There’ll be a weird amount of chewing to get there, and a mouth full of noodle bits, but it’s all part of one big, gross journey of togetherness. Delivery and curbside pickup available.
Back to the Future Part II, Jimmy’s Pizza Café
Pizza rules, but it’s not something you can shove in your pocket and just, like, snack on. That is, unless you’ve got a dehydrated pizza like the McFlys do in Back to the Future Part II. Take a tiny pizza, put it in a machine, and then — voila! An entire full-sized hot pie, ready to go. There’s nothing quite as dramatic as a whole New York–style pizza, so if we get the technology, you can store a dozen Jimmy’s Pizza Café disks in your cargo shorts pockets. Pickup and delivery available on multiple platforms.
Cool Hand Luke, The Loyalist
If you’ve ever seen Cool Hand Luke, you already know where I’m going. Just thinking of the 50 hard-boiled egg scene is making me feel… something. Perhaps The Loyalist, home of a beautiful French omelette, can send you off with 50 beaten eggs, a pint of caviar, and a giant non-stick pan for the biggest omelette ever recorded. The kicker is, you have to eat the entire thing in one sitting, otherwise you have to pay double. Operating hours limited, with weekly deals announced on Instagram.
Pulp Fiction, Kimski
Food references abound in this Tarantino opus, like $5 milkshakes and coffee. But boy, is there a lot of talk about burgers. Royales with cheese and Big Kahuna burgers, specifically. While they don’t exactly say what goes on a Big Kahuna burger (I researched this), whatever we determine it is, we can turn it Chicago-style by using pizza puffs as buns, just like Kimski does on occasion. A DIY kit complete with the regional pizza-ish snack could do the movie plenty of justice. Delivery and curbsite pickup available.
Blues Brothers, Mini Hut
Blues Brothers is a Chicago classic. Jake’s favorite order? Four fried chickens and a Coke. Not wings or legs, but four entire fried chickens. So why not at Mini Hut, home of some of the best fried chicken in the city? You’re going to need to carry the order home on a forklift, but at least the side of dry white toast won’t take up much space. Delivery and pickup available over the phone at (773) 586-2115.