Today in restaurant news: Crofton on Wells closes, Chicago Magazine surprises everyone by naming Goosefoot the best new restaurant of the year and Chicago police may be tracking food trucks through social media. more ›

As with all editorial changes, no two editors do things the same, and Chicago magazine is hosting an online chat at 2 p.m. with new Editor-in-Chief Beth Fenner, where she'll outline some of the upcoming changes for the magazine, what readers want to see from Chicago and how the magazine can make a stronger impact on the city. more ›

These are the kind of no-nonsense places you can stroll into and ask for "all the bacon and eggs you have." more ›

If 1st Ward Ald. Proco Joe Moreno was trying to play down his rep as the "Hipster Alderman," hosting a karaoke night at Quencher's seems like an odd way to do so. more ›

Today's listings include $5 pizzas, a sustainable trunk show and cocktail hour and Chicago Magazine's beer release. more ›

In today's listings: a klezmer band with a Balkan twist and Chicago Magazine debuts its summer beer. more ›

Local gig poster artists band together to support Jason Noble, a Louisville, KY musician primarily known for revolutionizing the scuzz-rock scene in bands like Shipping News and Rodan in his cancer battle. more ›

There is going to be a lot of reflection on Mayor Daley's legacy in the months leading up to that day in May when he says farewell to the Fifth Floor. But how about looking back at how 1983 vintage Cook County State's Attorney Richard Daley would have campaigned for the office. Chicago Magazine did, complete with some interesting audio clips on where '83 Daley stood on public transportation, education, campaign spending, unemployment and the city budget. more ›

The dust has settled a bit on the announcement that Bill Daley will become President Obama's Chief of Staff. Already, Newsweek declares Daley's appointment a good move, saying that bringing in Daley, who's criticized the Obama Adminstration's position on health care, could actually be a boon for Obama. The Washington Post's Greg Sargent, on the other hand, said Daley's appointment could solidify the perception that Obama governed from the left in the eyes of critics. more ›

Chicago’s literary scene saw a few turns, upsets and successes this year. Here are handful of them. more ›

Earlier this year, when everyone in the city was lining up to run for mayor, Cook County sheriff Tom Dart seemed like a natural front-runner. Popular with independents, liberals, South side ethnics and African American voters, he seemed like a sure thing to challenge Rahm Emanuel's powerhouse run for City Hall. And then he dropped out of the race, citing family obligations. more ›

As Chicago magazine continues their celebration of turning 40 (which is the new 30, we hear), they've released yet another in their line of top 40 lists, this one focusing on the top 40 buildings of Chicago. It's an intriguing list given the city's rich architectural history and ongoing efforts to for historical preservation of these buildings, it's well worth perusing. There are a few things worth noting - no Trump Tower, no stadiums, and they (proudly) call it the Sears Tower - so it should generate some interesting conversation, especially that pick for Number One (hint above). more ›

Chicago magazine listed its top 10 hot local restaurants list today and, if anything was gleaned from the list. it's that Penny Pollack and Jeff Ruby eat out waaayyyy too much. [Chicago] more ›

Chicago Magazine and the Better Government Association have teamed up on a thorough investigation into the political career and conflicts of interest of Democratic Cook County Assessor's Office nominee/Cook County Democratic Party chairman Joseph Berrios. Berrios has long been the subject of conflicts of interest: in his 22 years sitting on the Cook County Board of Review, Berrios has long received campaign contributions from tax attorneys who later present property tax appeals before him for review. Berrios's second job is as a property tax lobbyist in Springfield, which is another potential (outright?) conflict of interest. more ›

He was a Pulitzer Prize winner, documenter of our city for decades, creator of Slats Grobnik and other slice-of-life characters that helped summarize the Chicago experience, the man who followed "Boss" Daley the First better than anyone else and who provided perspective for a nation. His obituary called him "quite simply the best." We had many years and thousands of columns from Mike Royko. Do we really need his love letters? more ›

For pure getting-sucked-in time killer voyeurism, few social media platforms can match Twitter. It's even better when a flame war breaks out. Such was the case last night when Graham Elliot Bowles read Chicago magazine's recap of his Lollpalooza food court preview party. Writer Cassie Walker took the unusual step of ranking the bite-sized samples of the food served. "Unusual" in that, while Walker was transparent that she was attending a media preview and, according to Chicago Mag, introduced herself as a journalist to Bowles, the food rarely gets a grade in the interest of maintaining ethics. (For an example of how this was done properly, read Janet Rausa Fuller's recap of the Lolla media preview on the Sun-Times food blog, which does everything Walker did except review the food). more ›

And onward marches Chicago Magazine with another list of the 40 Greatest ________ in Chicago History. This time around, it's the city's top 40 sports moments of all time. There are a lot of call backs to some classic (read: before 1950) moments. Of course, with any list like this, there's gonna be lots to argue over. Dewayne Wise's catch to save Mark Buehrle's perfect game in 2009 ranked six spots above the Bartman Incident? That seems backwards. Even as the tide has turned to "Just leave the guy alone," far more people know of Bartman's folly than Dewayne's catch. Michael Jordan's Bulls appear five times, all five in the top 20 and three in the top 10 (the above, "The Shot," which surely rubs salt in the wounds of Cleveland fans, comes in at number three). more ›

Looks like Chicago magazine's Jeff Ruby is reaping the whirlwind after publishing his top 25 pizzas in the area. Since then, Ruby's faced it from all comers, with comments ranging from "Where is Giordano's (on the list)" to "Jeff Ruby isn't from Chicago," a charge that we thought was only levied at specific writers right here. (For the record, Ruby's own wife has even accused him of "not being Chicagoan enough.") But he's taking the shots like a good food writer, with the requisite combination of humor, combativeness and fact. If you want a primer in how to respond to someone who goes by the name "Scoods," these are must reads and views. more ›

In what's shaping up to be a year of lists at Chicago magazine, restaurant critic Jeff Ruby has listed the magazine's 25 favorite pizzas and Great Lake's cremini mushroom and Dante cheese pizza takes top honors and further cementing Great Lake owner Nick Lessins as one of the true culinary visionaries in Chicago. more ›

The erstwhile anniversary celebrators over at Chicago Magazine, the folks who brought you that movie list that ranked Barbershop ahead of Blues Brothers, is back with another list, this time detailing the top 20 Chicago neighborhoods and suburbs (10 each). Roscoe Village (pictured above) made the cut, as did Bridgeport, Beverly, and Holstein Park. It's a pretty small list, considering the number of neighborhoods the city has, and it's sure to generate a lot of discussion. Swing by to scope out the entire list as well as check out the list's qualifiers. [h/t Gapers Block] more ›

Oh, we're looking forward to this. Based on a short tease published on Chicago Magazine's website, writer Bryan Smith will be bringing us the tale of the "Mighty Mouth" Sam Adam Jr., also known as Rod Blagojevich's main legal counsel (for now). In the June issue, Adam reveals that the legal defense for Blago's rapidly-approaching trial basically consists of "Let this guy say as much crazy shit as he wants." We'll see how well that plays out when we find out how much other crazy shit is on those tapes that the ex-governor keeps saying he wants played. more ›

Chicago Magazine has been celebrating it's 40th anniversary this year with a bevy of lists. So far, they've listed their top 40 albums by Chicago artists and top 40 Chicago restaurants. Today they unveiled their top 40 movies filmed in Chicago (and the Chicago metro area). And that's the caveat: ). Does the Dark Knight sit perched atop the list, glowering down at lesser films? Or does a truant Ferris Bueller run amok to their top spot? Their number one film is kind of a surprise. more ›

• An arbitrator ruled in favor of the City today in their battle with the Chicago Police Union over raises; "rank-and-file" officers will receive a 10 percent increase over five years.
• A Lake Forest man claims he's recovered a chunk of the meteorite responsible for that giant fireball over the Midwest on Wednesday night.
• A congrats to Katie Washington of Gary, Indiana who has become Notre Dame's first African-American valedictorian.

Scott Lee Cohen may no longer be in the hunt to be Illinois' next lieutenant governor, but that doesn't mean he's ready to shut up about it. The reasons why Cohen got forced out of the race for Lieutenant Governor are legion, but leave it to SLC to come up with one that none of us had likely considered up to this point. In an interview with Chicago Magazine, Cohen blames his Jewish faith and a current of anti-semitism running through the state's political power structure: more ›

The April edition of Chicago Magazine has a profile of Stephanie Izard and the near two-year journey between winning Top Chef and the proposed May opening of the Girl & the Goat. Read the article here. more ›

Chicago Magazine's Bryan Smith offers up "Trashed," a compelling look at the case of Michael York. York's body was found in a West Side alley after a weekend of partying that left him dead, apparently from a drug overdose, the body dumped there by York's friends. Smith examines what led up to York's death and what followed. more ›

From the "calm the fuck down" department: Jeff Ruby's list of his 30 favorite burgers turned the echo chamber at LTHForum up to 11, much of it centered on why Patty's Diner (3538 Main St., Skokie, 847-675-4274) didn't make Ruby's cut. Some samples (emphasis ours): more ›

Who would've thunk that burgers would be one of the year's big food fads, although we should have seen it coming with "the Cheeseburger Show?" (No offense, Pang). more ›

Riding to work Wednesday morning this Chicagoist staffer and avid cyclist was doored ever-so-slightly by a trucker. While tending to the minor scrapes incurred from the sudden braking and subsequent tumble, the trucker proceeded to yell at us about how we shouldn't be on the street. Until we grabbed the bike lock and took a couple of swings at him. An accident happening while cycling (for us) is rare and we ride on the streets all the time. Still, it's is a hell of a lot safer than being on the lakeshore path, which often takes on a chaotic anarchy with all the joggers, cyclists, rollerbladers, beachgoers and tourists afoot. more ›

• Hot on the heels of L2O's Beard nomination, Laurent Gras offers recommendations for cookware, appliances, spices and other kitchen essentials for the home cook over. The $279 brick toaster oven with convection from Cuisinart pictured above is among those listed. Also oin the list, a Pasquini Livia 90 semi-auto espresso machine ($1975 at Amazon.com). [men.style.com]
• Sun-Times food editor Janet Rausa Fuller also has some gadget recommendations, but at a more reasonable price range. [Sun-Times]
• Last week it was Pat Bruno, this week Helen Rosner casts a critical glare at Steve Dolinsky. [WBEZ, MP Chicago]