Celebrity Beat
Chicago’s Stephanie Izard, whose win on the hit Bravo series Top Chef aired last night, spent Tuesday pre-celebrating at Relax Lounge. She arrived at the West Town spot around 10:30 p.m. and stayed until close, sipping Grey Goose and tonics, and hanging out with friends including Dale Levitski, a runner-up from Top Chef’s previous season and a regular Tuesday-night bartender at Relax…
Goodbye Milk, Hello Prosciutto
Carol Watson recently shuttered her Milk & Honey Bake Shop (1543 N. Damen Ave.; 773-227-1167) with plans to spin it into Cipollina, an Italian deli. “Business was fine, but I screwed up, quite frankly,” says Watson. “We don’t have a kitchen on site, so we were dragging everything over from Milk & Honey Café [1920 W. Division St.; 773-395-9434], and it was driving me nuts.” Watson is now working with John Manion (Mas) on a menu of…
Plenty of bars claim to be rock-‘n’-roll inspired (Rockwell Lounge, we hardly knew ye), but come this summer, Chicago finally gets a spot with an actual rock star leading the charge.
Earlier this year at an Obama fundraiser hosted by Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz, Lakeview Broadcasting Company’s Stephen Westman gave me the heads-up about Angels & Kings, a nightlife venture he’s launching with pals Wentz and Matt Eisler (Elm Street Liquors, Empire Liquors, Victory Liquors). An opening date of sorts has finally been announced for the bar’s Chicago outpost…
FROM JUNE 2008: Thirty-three-year-old top chef. Stage-four cancer of the tongue. Grant Achatz has been to hell—and back
If, on a map of Wisconsin, you drew one line north from Madison and another west from Green Bay, those lines would intersect, allowing for a degree of artistic license, in Amherst, Wisconsin, home to Central Waters Brewing Company.
Until Memorial Day weekend—the bulk of which I spent shivering at a lakeside campsite in chilly Wisconsin—I’d never heard of Central Waters. For me, the ulterior motive behind any Wisconsin trip is restocking my inventory of New Glarus, the beer that first piqued my curiosity in Midwestern microbrews…
No surprise here: Thanks to females showing up en masse (see Estrogen Fest 2008), Carrie’s Manolos crushed Indy’s itty bitty crystal skull this weekend at the box office.
At AMC 600 North Michigan Avenue, former Illinois Film Office director Brenda Sexton, and her business partner, Suzie Glickman, hosted a private screening of Sex and the City on Friday night…with about 250 or so of their gal pals. (Take that, Dr. Jones.)…
The return of the local bar
Delilah’s, Five Star Bar & Grill, Stanley’s Kitchen & Tap, Duke of Perth, Twisted Spoke
A Star Is Born
Dennis Ray Wheaton, Chicago magazine’s chief dining critic, is set to add a new name to the league of extraordinary chefs in Chicago: Curtis Duffy. Duffy, 32, recently stepped into the huge void left at Avenues (The Peninsula Chicago, 108 E. Superior St.; 312-573-6754) by the departure of Graham Elliot Bowles—a daunting task, even for a veteran of Alinea and Charlie Trotter’s. But it appears Duffy is up to the task. “The meal I had was in the league of [Grant] Achatz and Bowles, and beyond [Homaro] Cantu in brilliance of flavors and old-fashioned refinement,” Wheaton says. “Duffy uses a lot of grains, foams, berries, and you get the true…
There are two kinds of people in this world: those giddy with anticipation in advance of Friday’s premiere of Sex and the City: The Movie and those who’d rather poke out their eyeballs with a six-inch stiletto than hear fictional sex columnist Carrie Bradshaw croon “Hellllloooo, lover” on the big screen. Everyone’s in luck! There are plenty of things to do this week, some of which are all about Sex and others that have nothing to do with it. (No shocker here: I fall into the fan camp and have a SATC-themed girls’ night out planned for Friday; more on that next Monday)…
