Results tagged “cheapeats”

The holidays tapping out your entertainment budget? Check out some of our favorite spots for where you can pick up a meal for two for $20 bucks.

There have been a lot of things said on this site about Taste of Chicago over the years. There are over 750,000 people who head downtown every year to sun, frolic and get their fill of giant turkey legs and corn on sticks. 'Course, that isn't all Taste of Chicago has to offer; even with Chicago Gourmet set to launch in September, Taste is still the food event for the everyman.

The Sun-Times, probably regretting that they're still on the hook for Conrad Black's attorney fees and Jay Mariotti's salary during a recession, has been on a frugal kick this week. Every day they've run a story on families saving money on groceries, usually involving shopping at Aldi's, cutting coupons, or selling the extra car and biking.

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.

To say that it isn't hard to stumble into a taqueria in Pilsen is an understatement. Focus on the Blue Island corridor, however. and the question becomes trying to avoid one. We took advantage of yesterday's thaw to walk around, enjoy the weather buy some pirated movies (you should see our copy of "Untraceable"). Then, after we worked up an appetite, we headed into the first taqueria we saw for a quick bite, which wound up being an old favorite.

Bridgeport's treated us well. As we've written numerous times both here and elsewhere, the neighborhood grew on us. When we first moved out south eight years ago we never would have thought that we'd have lived here as long as we have; we just thought of Bridgeport as a stop-gap to moving back to the north side. Now it seems like others are clued in to what we knew long ago: this neighborhood rocks....

Before we go to the listings, we want to bid farewell to the Tribune's Kevin Pang, who's heading over to the Tempo section. But he leaves the food beat with a profile of Peter Engler, the city's foremost expert on mother-in-law sandwiches, street food and other south side cheap eats. Shaw's Crab House concludes this year's edition of their "Royster with the Oyster" festival with their annual tent party at their Hubbard Street location tonight....

Chicagoist loves cheap eats. We can't get enough of pad thai, tacos and hot dogs. But every once in a while, we have an excuse to class it up and head to one of Chicago's many upscale joints. In the case of mk, it was a combination of the deliciously warm weather, a gift certificate we snagged a while back, and a new job to celebrate. The restaurant has a modern yet classy feel...

If variety is the spice of life, then fans of online food writing just entered their own little spice house. It may seem as though these new entries are playing catch-up with the well-established, familiar bastions of food porn, but they do have different things to offer and influence established food coverage in Chicago. Gapers Block just launched their food blog, Drive-Thru. If you're familiar with the GB style, you know what to expect. You...

New Year's Eve is always a huge night for dinners out. For diners and foodies, it's a chance to don some clean togs and expect nothing less than being pampered and fed like Romans. For restaurateurs, it's the motivation of profit, and the pride in preparing a good spread. And, if you're the type of person who waited until the last moment to make dinner reservations, well, throw some of that money our way, would...

It's no secret that we get letters from you fine readers. At least, those of you who don't hide behind anonymous screen names in the comments. Sometimes we even exchange mash notes with the music stars of our youth. Last week, this Chicagoist staffer received an e-mail from reader Zack, a "BotW" fan asking us what beer pairs best with a turducken.

The South Loop Mexican cantina Zapatista is part of Mainstay Hospitality, the restaurant group that also includes the Chicago Firehouse, Grace O’Malley’s and Wabash Tap. Zapatista is situated among strong competition. Located next door to Jerry Kleiner's Opera, and across the street from both Kleiner's Gioco and “South Side Cheap Eats” favorite Howie’s, Zapatista is part of the ever-growing and diverse South Loop dining scene.

"You like taking pictures", the man asked, as we set to the task of chronicling this week's "cheap eats." "Yes, sir", we answered. "You with the city?" "No, sir." "You with the building commission?" "No, sir." "Then why are you taking pictures?" "Because I like to take pictures of places that serve good food. You serve good food here?" The man smiled and answered, "Yes, sir. I do" The man is Agustin Bahena, whose...

If you know where to look, you can find scores of bakeries throughout the city that still bake their goods in the traditional Eastern European manner: full of buttery and sugary goodness. Since this is "South Side Cheap Eats", however, you can talk up the praises of the bakeries in K-Town and Milwaukee Avenue on your own time.

We hope that everyone who wanted a final slice of foie gras got some before the city’s ban on the delicacy went into effect yesterday. There were some restaurants that decided to serve it in defiance of the ordinance (mainly bandwagon jumpers who had never served the dish prior to the ban, but see the frivolous nature behind the ban). We spent last night at home, watching Alderman Joe Moore on “Chicago Tonight”, who refused to let common sense get in the way of politics and bureaucracy, defending the ban. If City Council could only only turn this can-do spirit on enforcing the Shakman decree, removing ghost employees from the payroll, and finding a solution, other than soft asphalt, to fixing that pothole in Pilsen that nearly swallowed our bicycle whole last week. Still, it's nice to see Alderman Moore stick to his guns, even if he's only carrying empty water pistols.

Chicago is a city full of iconic imagery. From its skyline and architecture, to its beaches and boulevards, to its trains and neighborhoods, take one look at any of those and you know that you're looking at home. The Maxwell Street Market once deserved to be listed among all those other landmarks. These days, Maxwell Street itself is unrecognizable. All traces of its open market glory were buried long ago by urban planning and the...

The last time Chicagoist tackled eating on the Southwest Side, our map reading skills were called into question. So, knowing that this week's installment of "Cheap Eats" is located in the Heart of Chicago neighborhood, we'll let you debate whether this qualifies as a south side cheap eat, or a west side cheap eat. We're here to tell you about the food, which is worth the trip, with or without a compass. When Chicagoist last...

For this week's installment of "Cheap Eats", Chicagoist revisited the treasure trove of restaurants in and around Harper Court Shopping Center, in Hyde Park. This time around, we stayed along 53rd Street and visited a neighborhood favorite.

Although the weather has not been particularly cooperative, 'tis the season for the Good Humor man, Mister Softee (celebrating his golden anniversary this year), root beer floats, waffle cones, frozen bananas, and sticky kids hopped up on sugar. Chicagoist is old, and we tire easily, so we leave chasing ice cream trucks to those who don't know any better. We head for the ice cream shop instead. In this installment of "South Side Cheap Eats", we've found four ice cream shops that are well worth the trip out south. If you come down by bike, all those calories won't go to your hips, either.

In a lot of ways, the Ballpark Formerly Known as Comiskey has it over Wrigley Field hands down. There are urinals, instead of troughs, in the men's rooms, so you can pee in relative privacy (not that Chicagoist has anything to be ashamed of); the sight lines are wonderful from the concourse; walkways and aisles are wide to facilitate easy entry to, and exit from, the ball park, and to your seat; and the ballpark actually fields a major league baseball team.

Lest some of you think that Chicagoist is gonna take it easy after last night - although some of us probably should - today we give you a special Friday version of "South Side Cheap Eats". This one's a doozy, folks. It's been a Pilsen mainstay for as long as we can remember. Steak & Egger has locations dotted along the near western suburbs, but it's their Pilsen location (mere steps from Chicagoist favorite May...

Phil's Pizza was hipped to us by our long-suffering pal Tomatoist (by the way, please keep us updated on the tomatoes), who attended IIT and was well-versed in the cheap eats of Bridgeport long before Chicagoist even had a Bridgeport Bureau.

When Chicagoist sees the ever-expanding restaurant options in the South Loop these days, we cannot help but be awestruck. Fans of haute cuisine or Zagat ratings can head to Custom House or Opera; budget-minded diners looking for something above average have Gioco and the Chicago Firehouse; habitues of cheap eats can head to Grace O'Malley's, Taste of Siam, Eleven City Diner, and Hackney's Printer's Row; the truly suicidal can grab a late night bite at the South Loop Club.

After a two week hiatus, which probably lowered our cholesterol levels by at least eighty points, Chicagoist’s “South Side Cheap Eats” series returns with a visit to one hidden gem of a diner in Brighton Park, on the city’s Southwest Side. We stumbled upon the Golden Heart Snack Shop and Restaurant some weeks back, while taking photographs along Archer Avenue. With its malfunctioning neon marquee, it looked like the kind of place where ward business...

When Chicagoist started its "South Side Cheap Eats" series, we did so in order to shine a light on the untold culinary landscape of our side of the city. The stories we tell should be treated as cautionary tales, like the "war wound" stories of your flighty uncle. This is one of those times.