Downtown worker bees and residents, rejoice! Your quick, inexpensive food options are about to multiply. We heard about Foodease (ok, the name isn't great) back in July, when the story broke that Lettuce Entertain You was planning a new retail/quickservice venture in Water Tower Place. Foodlife, their current upscale riff on the mall food court, is staying but the Foodlife Market, off to the side, will be closing to make way for the new 5000 square-foot Foodease. We got a pre-opening construction tour on Friday, and here are the highlights. more ›

The rallying cry of "We want food trucks!" has gone up almost simultaneously around the city, starting when ChicagoFoodTrucks.com went live on March 28th. Since then, plenty of ink has been spilled about why we can't eat Korean tacos like LA does, what it'd take to get some legal falafel carts around town, and how great it would be to have guys like Bill Kim and Graham Elliot Bowles show up outside the Double Door or the Whistler at midnight. more ›

Sometimes you just need to check your pride at the door and do what must be done. Which is why we found ourselves Saturday afternoon at Macy Field's, Christmas shopping and looking for a nosh. The Walnut Room is still the Walnut Room, and the seventh floor food court is still dominated by fast food concepts from celebrity chefs. The newest, from Marcus Samuelsson (C-House), is probably the best of a lot that includes Rick Bayless Frontera Fresco and Takashi Yagihashi's Noodles by Takashi. Incidentally, all three chefs are members of Macy's Culinary Council, dating back to the store's days as Marshall Field's. more ›