Nagrant picks up reins as Sun-Times dining critic

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Oct 7, 2011 1:15PM

It's been a week of bold moves here in Chicago, from sass taped to windows eight floors up at the Board of trade to the White Sox hiring a man with no coaching experience to be their new manager.

The Sun-Times also made their own bold move, bringing their restaurant coverage into the 21st century with the announcement of Michael Nagrant as their new dining critic.

When I joined the Good Ship Chicagoist six years ago, food writers who could combine of old school ethics and being comfortable writing in different media like Nagrant and the Reader's Mike Sula were who I wanted to model my own writing after. I've joked with Nagrant about his personal code of food journalism ethics, downright Orthodox Catholic in the age of the Yelp! Elite Squad. More than his sharp writing, it's Nagrant's ethics I admire most. He may eat the same thing twice, but he'll never be accused of reviewing the same restaurant twice and, unlike recently the recently deposed Pat Bruno, Nagrant will pay more than cursory attention to the depth and quality of Chicago's world class dining scene.

Nagrant's maiden review in today's Sun-Times is Logan Square's Masa Azul, which is chock full of the experiential narrative and solid background we've come to expect of him.