Features Best New Restaurants By Dennis Ray Wheaton and Jeff Ruby Twenty-one restaurants, countless thrills. Several of this year’s top new spots bend rules and influences; others give classic genres much-needed shots of adrenaline. Either way, all 21 of them loom large in a booming restaurant landscape where it’s getting harder and harder to do … Read more
For April 2008: Park 52, Schwa, Haussmann Brasserie, Curio Cafe
One’s Greek, one’s Turkish, and never the twain shall meet. But two smart neighborhood spots bring out the glory of their hallowed Mediterranean ground.
We’re Not Gonna Bake It
Our favorite new bakery these days is Twisted Sister Bakery (1543 N. Wells St.; 312-932-1128), which opened three weeks ago in Old Town. “I’ve collected and tweaked hundreds of recipes over the past 30 years,” says Lisa Alexander, a partner. “They are all the things that I love.” She loved them so much that when her husband persuaded her to quit her job as a nurse manager at Illinois Masonic and open a bakery, she did just that, teaming up with her best friend, Doug Lee (who didn’t quit his day job as a gastroenterologist). We loved the chocolate…
Just because I’ll be stuck on the couch nursing an injured knee instead of a cocktail tomorrow on my birthday doesn’t mean you can’t raise a toast on April 15th. Yes, the Tax Man taketh away, but you can drinketh whatever’s left. Read about new bar openings and tax day specials below; then, if you make it out to these or other spots, come back and post comments so that others (ahem, me) can benefit vicariously from your bar hopping…
You may know that The Closer, when he’s not Closing, reviews restaurants. People constantly ask him, “Man, how do I do that?” His answer: Eat like a maniac, and write like you mean it. Oh, and make sure you’re in the right place at the right time.
A look at Mercat a la Planxa, at the newly remodeled Blackstone Hotel
A West Coast quest to find himself led Whiskey Road’s Matt Miller back to Bucktown
LGS will be on the nightlife disabled list for the next few weeks with a
torn ACL. She’ll be scaling back on posting during her recovery, but keep
those comments coming, and check in for bar news and wedding updates. (What
better way to spend doctor-enforced couch time than planning her biggest
party yet?)
My very first beer was a Heineken from a vending machine in a cheap Amsterdam hostel. At the time, I thought the bitter, swill-like flavor was exacerbated by the sweetness of some dried pineapple I was eating alongside it. Turns out that’s just Heineken. But a few weeks later, I had my first sips of something truly inspiring, Brasserie Fischer’s Adelscott, a complex lager brewed with a secret weapon: peat-smoked malt whiskey. Now that was a beer.
That’s not to say I know much about beer—but I’m learning, and I’ll be chronicling it here, in a new weekly Web feature called Get to the Pint…
