Results tagged “hackney”

This week we look east to Burlington, Vermont. Vermont is home to Ben & Jerry's (yeah!), Phish (ugh!) and the Magic Hat Brewing Company. We've been fans of Magic Hat for quite a while, owing to their inventive brews and off-beat sense of humor, both reminiscent of Three Floyds.

Two years ago, we had the pleasure of meeting Bob Lempinen, an executive Vice President at Distinguished Brands International. Distinguished Brands imports O'Hara's Irish Stout in the U.S. Lempinen insisted that O'Hara's was better than Guinness. We thought it was nothing more than him pushing his portfolio hard - he said that about all the beers he carried - and went along our way. Months passed, at a friend's birthday party we had the opportunity...

The ratings found in Michelin’s restaurant guidebooks have been the culinary measuring stick for many European countries for something like 100 years. Just last year the guide finally began critiquing restaurants in the good old U. S. of A., starting with NYC and then San Francisco. If the rumors are correct, Chicago may soon be the third U.S. city to be reviewed by Bibendum — who knew the Michelin Man had a real name? The people of Snack, a NYC foodie blog, report that their Michelin sources have named Chicago as its next destination, which would mean that critics could be secretly reviewing our restaurants as we speak.

Continuing on our Halloween theme for "BotW", we turn our eyes east to the Cleveland-based Great Lakes Brewing Company. The folks at Great Lakes take great pride in being from Cleveland and knowing the history of Northeast Ohio, having named their beers after shipwrecks immortalized in song by Gordon Lightfoot, Prohibition-era G-men, and rivers so polluted they catch fire. Either that, or they have a very self-deprecating sense of humor, which we imagine one needs...

It's getting close to Halloween, one of our favorite times of year. Down here on our block, families have had their houses decorated like "B" horror flicks for the better part of two months. And yet none of them had the foresight to put up a devil. Then again, it's a largely Catholic block, and they're pretty superstitious.

Our Saturday night was spent under a mass of clouds at the Windy City Wine Festival, brushing up on varietals with which we were unfamiliar. One of the exhibitor booths was promoting a limited edition beer, "Frederick Miller Classic Chocolate Lager." The surname should have been a dead giveaway that this beer was brewed in all sorts of wrong. But, we had to taste it anyway; certainly we weren't surprised to find that this shite tasted like Miller High Life with a melted Hershey bar added to the mix. Turned out, that's what it was; another cynical offering from Miller Brewing. It reminded us of how much we love our favorite stout.

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.

The problem with "Best Of" lists, especially when it comes to food, is that trying to convince people of why is like teaching a pig to dance: it only annoys you and pisses off the pig. So Chicagoist imagines that such is the case for this latest list, the Chicago Tribune's "Chicago's Best Burgers" list. Already we're set to go to the mat to defend our favorite burgers from the ones the Trib selected as...

Man, five o'clock cannot come fast enough. We love when the weekend is brimming with autumnal goodness, and we can't help but celebrate by using overly cheesy and obvious icons. Here are three of our picks for the oh-so-enjoyable last weekend in September: