Current economic conditions aren't only causing dollar stores to increase their prices. High ingredient costs may force McDonald's to raise the prices on its dollar menu. The news comes just as the Golden Arches posted higher than expected second quarter profits and a couple of months after McDonald's said that they would not pass extra costs onto consumers. However, Dollar Menu sales account for 14 percent of the McD's U.S. sales and executives might......

As Chef Laurant Gras prepares for the spring opening of L.2O (in the former Ambria space), he's been giving frequent updates on the restaurant's blog. Chef Gras' most recent entry focuses on Kindai bluefin tuna, which will take up a prominent part of his menu. Chef Gras describes Kindai, which is hatched and grown in a university lab, as the "ultimate combination of sustainability and exquisite taste;" Gras claims that only two to three......

This week has been all about finding a good turkey, ordering that dinner to go, or cooking at home. But Chicago's intrepid food bloggers were still all over the place this week. Bridget Houlihan and Tammy "Zesmerelda" Green at Chicago Bites took the time to head to Devon Seafood Grill in the Gold Coast. Both of the ladies enjoyed the meal immensely, but to get the full effect, you should listen to their podcast. Meanwhile,......

"One Mint Julep" seems to be a fitting theme for this week, in both photo and song (Last.fm doesn't lie). Let's move on, shall we? Today is "Charlie Trotter Day" in Chicago, in honor of the 20th anniversary of the opening of his eponymous restaurant. The Sun-Times had a couple of nice pieces this week in conjunction. We linked to Janet Fuller's story of Trotter's first two employees, who are still with him today, in......

Via Chicago Foodies, we found out about USA Dine Out, a new program sponsored by San Pellegrino. Here is the deal; a select bunch of Chicago restaurants will be offering $25 and $35 fixed price lunches and dinner, respectively, in between August 19-23 and August 26–30. Every table gets a free bottle of water, and Pellegrino donates $1 to Share Out Strength. Now we all know $1 isn't a huge amount of money... but if......

Ahhhh, Lent. Who doesn't love 40 days worth of suffering to make up for the 325 you spent rolling in your own debauched crapulence? Here it is, the first Friday of Lent and, in case you've forgotten, that means no meat for those of you practicing. And though Chicagoist maintains—and will not be convinced otherwise—that Long John Silvers has the world's best fried fish, we know that not everyone else shares our pedestrian tastes. Chicagoist......

One the best sources for all-things-food is Michael and Jane Stern's Roadfood.com. In fact, word around the Chicagoist office is that one of us has planned entire vacations around the suggestions found in the Sterns' book and Web site. The next best thing to reading the Web site must be eating with the entire Roadfood gang. The 2005 Roadfood Eating Tour of Chicago takes place at 11:30 a.m. on May 7, and the entire......