It's starting to become anticlimactic in what, for us, has been an underwhelming season of "Top Chef." We really tried to get sucked into the show, with its local setting and local contestants. But it just seems as though all we've seen is the inside of the Boystown Whole Foods week after week, as if it's the only one in the city. Now Nikki is gone, which brings the remaining contestants down to seven.... [continue]

From Brew Blog comes word of a new "American ale" being readied for market in the fall by Anheuser Busch. "Budweiser American Ale defines a new style of ale – the American Ale – created by Anheuser-Busch brewmasters to deliver robust ale taste that’s full-bodied, but not too heavy nor too bitter.” It's just another way of saying that they're repackaging Budweiser for folks who wouldn't touch the flagship beer with a dead man's... [continue]

Those of you heading to Millennium Park this evening to see Don Giovanni might want to head to the Artisan Cellar at Merchandise Mart from 4-6 p.m. this afternoon for a free tasting of Andre Clouet Champagne, which the Artisan Cellar touts as their most popular sparkling selection in recent memory. a member of the Clouet family will be on hand to discuss the champagne. Saturday at Provenance Food and Wine's Logan Square location,... [continue]

Ten years ago last week Cheap Trick played a four-night stand at Metro to celebrate their 20th anniversary, playing one of their first four records each night in its entirety. Local H, wrapping up a week's worth of shows at Beat Kitchen this week, was just starting to break onto the local and national scene. One of the things that makes Cheap Trick so enduring is that they can rock hard with the best... [continue]

We know that Chicago is a restaurant hot spot. While out-of-town writers particularly tend to maintain the clichés (earned, mind you) of Chicago being a steak and potatoes, deep dish pizza town, out-of-town chefs know the real score. The cover story to yesterday's Sun-Times food section was about the flood of celebrity chefs opening restaurants here in the upcoming months. Laurent Gras is opening L2O, Jose Garces' Mercat a la Planxa is one of the... [continue]

Beer is made from four ingredients: water, malt, yeast and hops. It's the hops that provides bite and spice to the mix. Hops also help preserve beer, making it last longer. Back in the days when the sun never set on the British Empire, brewers working in India would add extra hops to their English bitter in order to survive the trip home around the south African Cape Horn and ensure its drinkability when it... [continue]

From Crain's comes word that Le Lan Executive chef Bill Kim is leaving behind the river North French-Vietnamese outpost to open a noodle shop/casual eatery in Logan Square. Urban Belly, a casual, BYOB eatery at 3053 N. California, is set to open in mid-June. It's also fulfills a longtime dream of Kim's to open a chain of casual restaurants and to highlight noodles on to show that there's more to them in Asian cuisines than... [continue]

Remember when prom night meant spiking the punch bowl, renting a hotel room on Lincoln and packing it with liquor, then drinking until sunrise and taking what was left to Great America? Good times. There's this new thing out called Pocket Shots. As you can see from the photo above, it's a single serving of alcohol in a tiny flask-sized plastic pouch. The target audience is most likely folks who want to sneak their... [continue]

WGN didn't lead off last night's 9 p.m. newscast with more Clinton/Obama drama. Instead, they started the newscast with Jackie Bange's discovery of an advanced rodent civilization in Terminal 1, Concourse C of O'Hare Airport. We're prone to hyperbole. Actually, it's just a pretty serious infestation centered around the terminal's food kiosks. The report, highlighted by video of WGN camera crews setting up cookies like a game of Jenga at a key party for the... [continue]

Last year we dedicated our "Beer of the Week" columns for the month of June to highlight selections by you, the readers. The responses from you, both in recommendations and response after we made our selections, actually surprised us. We liked doing the readers choice selections so much that we decided to do it again. Next month's "BotW" columns will be readers choice selections. In order to have your selection qualify, you need to e-mail... [continue]

We'll let Mark Simmons get in his shots at Padma and company this week. Watch enough reality television and you have a sense of who's leaving at the beginning of the episode. As bad as many of you wanted to see Lisa be the one packing her knives last week, we knew that Mark was leaving as he was scraping his razor across his face; apparently in Middle Earth they teach men to shave... [continue]

Don't forget that this evening is Blue Sky Inn's "The Sky's the Limit" Spring fundraiser at the Esquire Theatre. The event runs from 7-10 p.m. and cost is $25. ChicaGourmets is hosting an Italian Dinner at Trattoria Roma (1535 N. Wells) this evening, with a reception beginning at 6:30. The five-course dinner, with wine pairings, costs $59 per person. Pastoral's downtown location is having an infused vodka seminar Saturday at 6:30. The vodka used... [continue]

DN-0058422, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago History Museum. Usually it's a straight line from late winter to summer in these parts. But in April 1912 a cute little towheaded kid managed to enjoy some classic spring weather, towing a toy car down the street in Lincoln Park.... [continue]

From today's Tribune, Chris Borelli does a fine job interviewing George Motz, the man behind the film "Hamburger America" and its new companion book listing the top 100 burgers in the country. Like most on the East Coast, Motz thinks that Chicago is too "hot dog crazy", not to mention being hung up on "that stupid pizza thing," to have a hamburger identity. The next time Mr. Motz is in town, we invite him... [continue]

We've long thought that barbecue is going to be the next big trend in Chicago dining, largely on the rise of places like Smoque, Risque Café, Honey 1 and Honky Tonk. We've covered Honky Tonk before, and still cannot get enough of Willie Wagner's beef brisket sandwich. The meat is tender, juicy beyond belief, and seeped in applewood, which is Wagner's wood of choice for smoking his meats. Honky Tonk's beef brisket is perfectly complemented... [continue]

The listed events were chosen by the editors of Chicagoist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla. Wine at the Field Wine Enthusiast's "Toast of the Town" event kicks off this evening at the Field Museum. If you're an oenophile, aspire to be, or are just looking to tie one on around dinosaur bones, then this is the event for you. Over 500 selections will be available for sampling (and don't make... [continue]

This week, we're doing this in "Extra Extra" format: Another study released this week shows that what gave absinthe its reputation wasn't thujone, but its high alcohol content. New York magazine food critic Adam Platt travels to Japan to eat some fugu, the toxic fish that can kill a diner if not prepared properly. Here's a list of places in the States that serve fugu. Talk about ungrateful: an obese man in an Arkansas... [continue]

All About Beer magazine (via) listed their "top 125 places to have a beer before you die" (a nice arbitrary number, by the way). Five local taverns made the cut: Hopleaf (#24), Clark Street Ale House (#43), Map Room (#47), Goose Island (#84) and John Barleycorn, which makes the cut ten spots from the bottom at #115. Our doppelganger in the Emerald City wholeheartedly agreed with the inclusion of Hopleaf and Map Room, although Map... [continue]

We had our gripes about DarkLord Day, to be certain. But there were some good things about heading down to Munster and waiting for four hours in line with nothing to show for it except a farmer tan. For beer lovers it means getting to hang around with your own for a day, sampling from folks' private collections. At times, the combination of beer and the crowd made DarkLord Day resemble "Heavy Metal Parking... [continue]

The listed events were chosen by the editors of Chicagoist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla. Book Signing, Kicking, Screaming and Swearing We mentioned this event in last week's Quick Bites installment but it's absolutely worth repeating. Celebrity chef/enfant terrible Gordon Ramsay will be making an appearance at the Macy's on State location of Barbara's Bookstore today from 1-3 p.m. to sign copies of his new book, Gordon Ramsay's Fast Food.... [continue]