Not an opening, but a long-awaited re-opening: Hubbard Inn closed back in May for a serious renovation, but the restaurant opens again on Friday. In addition to an extensive refresh of the interior, there's also a new team in charge. Eric Babula is the new executive chef (he’s got a long resume with stints at lots of popular restaurants), and one of my favorites, Meghan Konecny (Scofflaw and Sportsman’s Club), is handling the opening bar program. There’s an entire second floor lounge, Blue Violet at Hubbard Inn, which means that Hubbard Inn is probably about to get a cocktail program worth watching.

Given the horrid weather, I’ll take any excuse I can get to celebrate, which is why I’m fairly enthused that it’s almost Chicago Champagne Week. There are $15 Champagne pours at a ton of different restaurants around town, and some special events, including one dinner at Pizzeria Bebu that sounds amazing. Check out the whole lineup and buy some tickets.

Are you a Krispy Kreme fan? If so, this is a red letter day, as the first Krispy Kreme location in the city in over a decade is now open. Eater Chicago reports that a new location of the popular donut chain has opened in Block 37.  

While I still think that Saint Lou’s converting themselves into an Olive Garden is the best Halloween restaurant stunt of 2019, Young American comes in at a close second. The restaurant is teaming up with the Sao Song Lao pop-up series to do a sendup of the uber-nightclub Tao. Jokes aside, it’s just $60 for five courses and looks pretty amazing. Tickets are available now. 

Etta just launched a happy hour that is a genuinely awesome deal, especially if you like to do some hard drinking after work. From 5 to 6:30 p.m. on weekdays, they’re offering $15 bottomless (!) beer, wine, and cocktail carafes, as well as $1 roasted oysters. I don’t know of a happy hour deal better than that right now.

The Tribune is working on another massive collection of awesome dishes around a single theme — this time, it’s Indian food. Every day all month, they release a new dish. As always, if you printed the entire thing out and just went to a restaurant a week, you’d have a really good year of dining in front of you.