The idea behind Moda’s reinvention made sense. Shake up the pricey (bottle service), exclusive (booth reservations required), and fashion-obsessed (who’s buying Prada these days, anyway?) approach in favor of something a little less Roberto Cavalli and a little more recession-conscious. The owners’ decision to join up with the team behind the more downscale Barleycorn seemed logical, so when…
She Hearts Art
Ashley Galliart, co-owner of the brand-new Luscious Layers Bakery (2315 N. Damen Ave.; 773-661-1335), has custom-made everything from a Fender Stratocaster–inspired cake for the actor Steven Seagal to a Champagne wedding cake that included one gluten-free tier for the bride. “I went to school for a fine arts degree in textile design,” says Galliart, who rented space for personal orders before…
Bar king Stephen Westman opened the doors of The 44th Ward Dinner Party (3542 N. Halsted St.) to the public on Friday, in the space once occupied by Lakeview Broadcasting Company. Offering six varieties of grilled cheese and half a dozen bottled beers, “The Ward” also featured music from DJ White Shadow, a former partner in LBC…
My bar at home is pretty uneven: We have our pick of a good 40 bottles of wine, some rum remnants, Grey Goose (a wedding leftover), and vermouth (from … college?). As much as I like cocktails, crafting anything fancier than a martini has always seemed like an expensive hassle to me.
Leave it to a man who mixes arugula, heirloom tomatoes, and Iberico ham into his drinks to change my mind. Nacional 27’s master mixologist Adam Seger…
Restaurant Character of the Week
That would be André Christopher, who just opened The Grocery Bistro (804 W. Washington St.; 312-850-9291), a 68-seat West Loop BYO that lives up to its name. “You can find anything on my menu at the grocery store,” says Christopher, the former executive chef of Pops for Champagne and chef de cuisine of Japonais. “It’s amazing what you can find at Dominick’s, Jewel, and Stanley’s. A lot of the restaurants I worked at were foofy and bourgeoisie…
Toasted Ox (2470 N. Lincoln Ave.) helped college hoops lovers ring in the most unproductive month of the year by hosting the Lincoln Park Young Professionals’ March Martini Madness event on Friday. Formerly known as Lucille’s, the recently remodeled bar served hor d’oeuvres to pair with SKYY vodka martinis and wine tasting by…
They say you never forget your first love—that’s true for bars and boys, in my case. Both cemented themselves in my heart on a cold January night, post-dinner, in the Loop. The streets were dead, so when my now-husband Ben and I hopped into a cab I assumed we…
He Said It
“The name is something that I came up with. All the names that were on the table were missing the mark. Think about it. Restaurant MW. That’s just not exciting, is it?” –Tony Mantuano on Terzo Piano (159 E. Monroe Dr.), his upcoming restaurant on the third (terzo) floor of the new Modern Wing of the Art Institute designed by Renzo Piano (scheduled to open May 16th)…
Revelers in green flooded area bars all weekend long to celebrate the patron saint of Ireland, and O’Donovan’s (2100 W. Irving Park) was no exception. On Sunday, the Northwest Side bar chartered a bus down to the South Side Irish Parade, embarking at 10:30 a.m. and dropping off parade-goers back at the bar at 5 p.m.—for even more drinking and celebrating. We caught up with some folks who kept the party going post-parade…
A pair of talented chefs ride to the rescue at Courtright’s and One Sixtyblue
