The Super Bowl is coming on Sunday, like it or not, and with it comes analysis of the action on the field, the commercials, and what's sitting on the plate in front of you. You could go the classy route and cook up a feast for your football-watching friends. Or you could join your fellow Americans in helping to make Feb. 3 the most popular pizza ordering day of the year. Though Chicago has no... [continue]

The Green Grocer Chicago market is now open at Grand and Noble. And don't criticize just yet for grabbing onto the "green" moniker for marketing purposes; the owner of the place is named Cassie Green. Get it? The market's goal is to "work closely with Midwestern farmers and producers to provide our customers the freshest food available while supporting our local economy. By choosing primarily to work with Midwestern sources, we get to know our... [continue]

Attention, aspiring Jaslenes: Tyra and Co. have developed a new reality-TV show for fashionistas, but this one actually requires contestants to be able to read, unlike ANTM (and possibly write, too). The contestants on the yet-to-be-named show will compete in two challenges on each episode, "an individual competition and a team competition, in which each squad will submit a page for "The Book," a mock edition of [a fashion] magazine." The season winner will win... [continue]

"Whether or not this new kid will go on to become the prom king or get his head stuck in a toilet is unclear," we wrote when Sunflower market first opened, "but we certainly will come back for more." But we, and others, didn't come back for enough. Minneapolis-based Supervalu will close all five Sunflower locations (there are three in Ohio, one in Indianapolis and the Chicago location.) Supervalu had at one point hoped to... [continue]

The Painted Lady Organic Eatery has closed after only a couple of months in business. Housed in the former space of Bleeding Heart Bakery, the cafe suffered, said owner Valetin Garcia, because he and his wife Michelle, were spending most of their time at the new Bleeding Heart location on Damen and Belmont. "Both places were suffering from us not being at each place 100 percent," he told The Reader. "It was really apparent in... [continue]

Today would be an excellent day to take the CTA, if you happen to be planning on driving anywhere from, or to, Lincoln Square or Ravenswood. A water main broke on Montrose under the Montrose Brown Line stop at 1:30 a.m. (or 12:30, if you like to believe the Sun-Times) last night, causing an enormous part of the street to collapse in, and partially submerging several cars. Also causing water to run down Montrose... [continue]

First it was Spring 2006. Then it was April 2007. Then late summer 2007. We heard rumors of a first-week-in-November opening. And now that date has been pushed back until March. What gives, Jerry Kleiner? We know Hyde Park can be a difficult part of the city to navigate with all the competing interests (neighborhood groups, the U of C, etc), but how hard is it to come up with a compelling name for a... [continue]

Steve Dolinsky, Chicago's own "Hungry Hound," has a blog. And a podcast! And teaches a course called "Culinary Communications 101," for those who want to learn how to speak "food" to the media. Of the three, we recommend the podcast. We've listened to a couple and they are smart, informative and well-produced. The Spertus Institute's much anticipated Kosher Wolfgang Puck outpost leaves something to be desired. "It’s clear the famous chef doesn’t have a... [continue]

We'd been hearing rumors recently that Schwa was going to reopen, but didn't want to get our hopes up to much before something was confirmed. And confirmed it now is. Michael Carlson's BYOB spot will be reopening in early 2008, the end of this month being the earliest. Carlson told Metromix that he's been fixing up the space in anticipation of it's reopening, including upgrading the floors and possibly installing new lighting. We suppose the... [continue]

Anytime an event is held every few years instead of annually, it takes on some added importance (we're thinking, for example, presidential elections, the Olympics and the World Cup). In the culinary world, this event is the Coupe De Monde De Boulangerie, a bread-baking contest that takes place every three years in Paris. This year, it's part of the Europain exhibition, held March 29–April 2. How it all goes down, via Slashfood: Started in... [continue]

Metromix describes Jake Melnick's Corner Tap as "a casual neighborhood pub specializing in traditional American bar cuisine; burgers, salads and homestyle specials such as barbecued ribs and chicken." You know, like the typical, run-of-the-mill River North bar. But things are about to heat up (ha!) at 41 E. Superior St. Starting on Thursday, Jake Melnick's will begin serving hot wings coated with Red Savina pepper — aka "Dominican Devil's Tongue Pepper" and holder of Guinness... [continue]

Menupages has a list up of the 100 most looked-at menus of 2007. The top ten most popular? Thai Bowl, Brasserie Ruhlman, Nookies, Ping Pong, Crust, Silver Seafood Restaurant, Medici, Butterfly, The Art of Pizza and Tango Sur. We're at a loss in figuring out why these would be the most popular menus to browse. Chicago food bloggers Whipped and Pro Bono Baker are rocking banana bread and banana muffins, respectively, on their blogs. The... [continue]

Smokers, meet Winter. Winter, smokers. Timed perfectly with a bone-chilling cold, Illinois's smoking ban went into effect at midnight, Jan. 1. Not surprisingly, some are thrilled. The Sun-Times checks in with bartenders and finds that—shock!—they are happy to be able to work in a smoke-free environment. The Trib wonders if there will be an adverse effect on bars and restaurants, while querying if smoking bans even have an effect on the number of adults who... [continue]

For a sizable chunk of the US population, Christmas is a time for... wondering when it's going to be the 26th. Jews have the stereotypical routine of Chinese food and a movie (Chicagoist has deemed Charlie Wilson's War the family-friendly-but-still-interesting-enough-not-to-bore-dad-who-likes-foreign-films movie of the season), but what to do for the rest of the day? Skilling says today is the mildest Christmas in 13 years (40 degrees this afternoon!). We say head to one of the... [continue]

We've got a huge crush on My Blank Page after being alerted (via) that she had created a gingerbread version of Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater. Behold! You can see the development of her project here, here and here (notice the lovely colored windows). And while Fallingwater isn't in Chicago (or even in Illinois), we hope this serves as an inspiration for someone to make a cookie version of the Robie House. Of course, any discussion... [continue]

Chez Pim's Menu For Hope fundraiser is still going strong (it lasts through Dec 21). So far, more than $50,000 has been raised to benefit the UN World Food Programme's school lunch program in Lesotho, Africa. Kalyn's Kitchen is the regional host for the Midwest, and there are lots of great regional prizes. Our friends over at Drive-Thru put together a yummy looking package, but what we'd really like is to win Movable Feast's offering... [continue]

It's time to stop the madness of the Red Eye. The Trib is getting more expensive while its circulation shrinks, the Reader has fired its best writers, the Sun-Times is laying off a quarter of its workforce...so guess what? It's time to hold a widely circulated, widely read daily newspaper to a higher standard. And despite some of your (and our) claims to the contrary, the Red Eye is this paper.... [continue]

Chicagoist has been known to wax philosophic when it comes to websites that make dining out and ordering in easier. We've written about two of our favorites, MenuPages and GrubHub, here and here, respectively. There's a new kid in town, and her name is FoodieBytes. We can already feel MenuPages and GrubHub shaking in their internet boots. The premise of FoodieBytes is pretty simple; put an ingredient or dish in which you are interested into... [continue]

Sen. Dick Durbin sent out an email appeal today urging people to celebrate "A Plumpynut Holiday." Our senior sentator wants his constituents to spend $20 this holiday season on Plumpynuts, a "sweetened mixture of peanuts, essential vitamins, minerals and milk served in foil pouches [that] has become a high-nutrient, high-energy weapon in fighting malnutrition." Plumpynuts really are a great way to spend $20. Durbin tells us that the nutritional pouches were developed by researchers in... [continue]

The Chicago City Council held off on voting on a controversial ban on urban chickens yesterday. Since urban chickens are all the rage, it seems like a perfect time to ban them, right? Southwest Side Alderman Lona Lane (18th), who proposed the ban, said she didn't know why the vote on the ban was held up. Maybe it is, as the Sun-TImes suggests, because Mayor Daley has a thing for urban poultry: "Let's be realistic,"...... [continue]