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Techno Tapas, No Más Mas

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Way to Go, Grant
Dish adds its best wishes to the growing chorus of food critics and journalists sounding the happy news that, following numerous rounds of aggressive chemotherapy and radiation protocols, the life-threatening cancer faced by Grant Achatz (Alinea, 1723 N. Halsted St.; 312-867-0110) is in remission.

Eat the Macarena
According to John Borras, chef/owner of the three-month-old Macarena Tapas (618 S. Route 59, Naperville; 630-420-8995), Ferran Adrià, father of the techno-chef revolution, accepts exactly 48 participants from the more than 300,000 applications he receives for his annual culinary seminar in Barcelona. Borras was one of…

Celebrity Beat: Duran Duran, Lauren Conrad, Brody Jenner

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Delays, refusals, and artful evasions: it’s pretty much the theme of this past weekend’s celebrity beat. Fortunately, a true LGS takes it all in stride—and still manages to turn up a few celebrity morsels. On Friday night, I chatted up Nick Rhodes and John Taylor of the seminal eighties new-wave band Duran Duran before the group’s concert at the Chicago Theatre… PLUS: Lauren and Brody in town

Gold-plated Bubbly, Celebrities Aplenty

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As if we don’t already spend enough on drinking, here comes a new record-breaking bottle, just in time for New Year’s Eve: a three-liter jeroboam of 1995 Dom Pérignon, dipped in white gold, for a whopping $35,000. Only 17 such bottles will be sold in the United States; Chicago’s single example will be housed at Manor—at least until some poor sucker drops the cash to impress a girl. At Tuesday’s media and VIP party for the bottle’s arrival…

Pizza Identity Crisis and Dancing Turkeys

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Greece Is the Word
Have a taste for revani? Loukoumades? Psaronefri? “You’ve never had Greek food like this, very individualized items,” says Toni Di Meola about the food at her two-week-old Mythos (2030-32 W. Montrose Ave.; 773-334-2000). She and Vicky Zervas—her sister and partner—were born and raised in Athens and they hand-squeeze every lemon and use herbs carried back from Greece by their mother. But the sisters are most proud of the deep fryer that they have never used. “It came with the property, but we pan fry or sauté everything in extra virgin olive oil,” says Di Meola. “We don’t want the smell of the grease.”

BTW: Revani is a semolina flour cake made with 16 eggs; loukoumades are puff balls sprinkled with cinnamon and drizzled with honey; and psaronefri is charcoal-broiled pork tenderloin served with…

Girl, Interrupted

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Our Last Girl Standing is taking a seat for a couple of days while she gets over a cold. She anticipates a full recovery by Thursday; check back then for the latest from the nightlife front.

NYE: The Countdown

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It’s crunch time, people. If you haven’t yet started making your New Year’s Eve plans, get to it. Since I first posted about NYE parties in November, notices have been flooding my inbox and this blog’s comments section. Bookmark that page and check back. Or simply decide on a bar, club, or restaurant, visit its Web site, and make your reservations, stat. Keep in mind: Most packages cover eats and drinks until midnight, so if you show up later on, in most instances, you’ll just have to pay for cover and a cash bar (some neighborhood bars don’t even charge a cover)…

Hello, Purgatory; bye-bye, Bubala

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Hot off the Grill
“We just wanted to bring Korean food to Old Town, or downtown, because everything else is located up north,” says Okcha McDonald, a partner at three-week-old Red Top Grill (1507 N. Sedgwick St.; 312-981-1775). RTG is in the old Heat space and the former sushi bar is now decked with built-in gas grills for Korean barbecue. All the classics are on hand—bibim bap, bulgogi, galbi, chap chae—and plenty of kimchi. McDonald admits that parking around there is terrible but they are working on valet service and, for now, the place is BYO with no corkage. Not a bad tradeoff for stowing the car a few blocks away. 

One Down, Two to Go
As reported here last week, Meritage (2118 N. Damen Ave.; 773-235-6434) will close on January 1st. But even before the owner, Chris Peckat, turns the key for the last time, he plans to launch his next venture, Risqué Café (3419 N. Clark St.), an American smokehouse. While Drew Neimeyer (Peckat’s Meritage chef) bones up on ribs, duck wings, turkey legs, and pulled pork, Peckat keeps busy with the selection of 200 to 300 American craft beers to go with the ’cue. But that’s not all…

Jews and Brews

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Despite the sloshy weather and falling ice, I got back to my roots Saturday night and attended the Heeb magazine storytelling event at the shiny-new Spertus Museum. (Question: How does a sign that reads “Caution: Falling Ice” do anything to keep you from getting hit by said ice? Apparently Krueck + Sexton, the architects behind the magnificent new Spertus facility, didn’t think of everything when they designed those slanted glass panels.)

For those unfamiliar with Heeb, it’s a hip, irreverent magazine for young Jewish types (like me). At Saturday’s storytelling event, part of a nationwide series, comedians and writers got seven minutes…