This week, we bring our staff picks a little more down to earth. After telling you about restaurant bathrooms and the best eateries in which to avoid having your brains eaten, now we weigh in on a more mundane topic: sausages. Chicagoans love their encased meats, and the city boasts some amazing places to buy them. They're cheap, come in infinite variety and can be made in any season. Even vegetarians can have them! more ›

There's a lot to like about Chicago being named as Vogue.com's "Destination of the Month," but it won't silence critics who think it's skewed to East Coast readers. more ›

Everyone loves lists, right? And with the departure of the revered Steve Dolinsky from WBEZ, someone has to fill the void. Chicagoist's food department is stepping up to the plate. But we don't care about best burgers or best fries - let's focus on more useful information. Today, we bring you Chicago's best (or strangest) restaurant bathrooms. more ›

With Predator: The Musical being extended, we came up with and we'd also absolutely love to hear your ideas. more ›

We always eagerly await the Chicago Reader's Best of Chicago issue - especially the food and drink section, of course - for two reasons. First, it allows us to vehemently disagree with the results of the public polls (Paulina Meat Market beats Butcher and Larder? Margie's Candies beats Black Dog Gelato?) and because of the great categories the critics come up with so they can include the restaurants they want to include. more ›

Time Out Chicago's dining team focuses on coffee with this week's issue. David Tamarkin and Julia Kramer ranked what they feel are the top 15 coffee houses in town and at the top of the list is our own neighborhood joint, Bridgeport Coffee Company. Tamarkin lists the points we've made about the space over the years, but saves his best praise for the single cup pour-over brew fancied by many places in town these days. Tamarkin calls it "a revelation — bright and clean and smooth." more ›

Not as drunk as Milwaukee, but arguably more drunk than last year, that's how drunk. more ›

Yeah, we get that specific around here. A well-made Martini is one of the great pleasures in life, and it's a topic very close to our hearts. We had a few memorable ones this year - and many more subpar examples. A mishandled Martini doesn't just taste bad, it sets you back more than a few dollars with nothing to show for 'em. None of us should labor in vain in 2011 (let's keep it as classy as possible, eh?), so here are our picks for where you should be enjoying your Martinis this upcoming year: more ›

This list requires a different kind of introduction. Rather than an objective, comprehensive or universalizing "best-of" list which would take into account a statistical average of a whole series of factors, this is an entirely subjective dining list. As we've said many times in the past, dining out is fundamentally about how meals make someone feel, and therefore each person's "best meal" will be a very personal choice. It may be a particular event, or a moment in someone's life that made a meal the best one. It may be the food, the drink, or the service. Or it might be that mysterious feeling of warmth and fellowship that sometimes envelopes a person during the greater moments of their life. We asked our Chicagoist foodies to contribute their best meals of 2010, and invite you to do the same. Happy New Year! more ›

As we mentioned in passing yesterday His Elective Majesty, Richard M. Daley, will surpass his father on Sunday to become the longest-serving mayor in the Chicago history, with five-plus months left to add to the record. more ›

Fact is we watched plenty of great movies this year, and as we've said before, we could care less if they actually "came out" this year. Movie viewing for the average person does not neatly match up with an arbitrary calendar. And so it is for us too. When seen for the first time, a great movie is delightfully fresh whether it was made yesterday or 50 years ago. more ›

So the mystery of what is in Rahm Emanuel's crawlspace was solved easily. more ›

Last month I was given the proverbial offer I couldn't refuse: the chance to work on something with the legendary radio personality, Steve Dahl. For a generation of radio listeners, Dahl's partnership with Garry Meier was appointment radio worth all the detention hours I racked up at Lane Tech listening to them in class, and the overnight rebroadcasts of Steve and Garry on WLUP-AM 1000 made the homesickness of my first couple of years of my Navy hitch bearable. I even followed the Stever through the post-Meier solo years with Buzz Kilman, Wendy Snyder and eventually the final show on Jack-FM and into his current run as a podcast pioneer. Seriously, check out the Dahl Twitter feed and Facebook pages. He and his team have adapted to social media like a duck to water. more ›

A study by retirement planning website Topretirements.com listed the ten worst states for retirees. If you have money on the Land of Lincoln heading the list, it's a push bet. more ›

Many of our readers probably caught Time Out Chicago's famous"100 Best Things We Ate This Year" list earlier this week - one of our favorite pieces of food coverage every year. December is the season for lists of one sort or another, and they will start coming fast and furious over the next few weeks. The Stew just released its list of dining trends for 2011 - in the model of Project Runway, they have announced what will be "in" and what will be "out." The list, whatever it's other qualities, is a hilarious read, though we are hoping that not all of it comes true. more ›

We brainstormed a bit and have come up with a short list of potential places the state and city could shove in some "revenue builders." After the jump, all the places we might like to see (or would at least settle for) gaming grab hold in Chicago - and of course, your suggestions are welcome as well. more ›

Hint for "Around Town" contributors: photographs of the Harold Washington Library will always be considered for inclusion. It's certainly one of our favorite photography subjects. We just find the building from the architecture firm of Hammond, Beeby and Babka (now known as Hammond Beeby Rupert Ainge, Inc.) to be one of the underrated gems of downtown. We can pass by the Washington Library twice a day and find something new about it we hadn't noticed before. more ›

• Michael Nagrant's review of Del Seoul jibes with the one we're publishing this afternoon. [New City]
• Coconut water makes a good hangover cure. [Reader]
• Steve Dolinsky spoke with Paul Greenberg, author of Four Fish, The Future of the Last Wild Food. [WBEZ]

Growing up I was never at a loss for Brach's candies. Aunts, uncles and cousins on my mother's side of the family put themselves through school or started careers working at the former Brach's plant on the West side, and bulk candy from the plant was always a perk. One of my mother's jobs was working the midnight shift at the old Leaf candy plant on Cicero and Division. As an adult, I don't have an affinity for confections like candy corn, star brites, Brach's caramels or Whoppers, which were made by Leaf. more ›

Screw that silly custom of dressing up and going door to door for candy--we're grown up enough to go to Walgreens and buy our own candy, thank you very much. For us, Halloween is all about scary movie marathons at home. And unbidden, we'd like to share some of our very own scary movie memories with you. more ›

Now that it looks like the cooler weather is here to stay and herald the cliff dive into winter, it's time for us to list our things we love about the brief period of time we Chicagoans call "fall." If you're a glass-half-full type, there's a lot to love. more ›

Night of the Sfingi: Sky Full of Bacon 16 from Michael Gebert on Vimeo. more ›

WalletPop, a consumer finance website I never heard of until today, got my attention with a list of the 25 most dangerous neighborhoods with the highest predicted rates of violent crime in America. Topping the list: the West Town area bordered by Lake Street, Damen, Western Avenue and Kinzie. 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 ›

Bon Appétit sure has been on a Chicago kick lately. The Purple Pig made its list of best new restaurants in the country earlier. Now the magazine deems Chicago as the best city for cheap eats in America. Can't disagree, but the Chicagoist staff pleads bias here. more ›

Bon Appétit magazine released its list of the country's best new restaurants today and Chicago is represented by the Purple Pig. The magazine said of the Pig: more ›

• For the one in your life whose eyes are bigger than his stomach - Gluttony Pants. [Betabrand]
• Half Acre is releasing three new specialty brews. [Drive-Thru]
• Michael Nagrant's been eating his way through Las Vegas. [New City]

• The Graham Elliot Bowles/Chicago mag conflagration won't go away, almost entirely because GEB won't let it. Having written what I felt about it yesterday I'm gonna make like Pontius Pilate, wash my hands of this and let Audarshia Townsend take over. This kind of story is right in her wheelhouse. [312 Dining Diva 1, 2]
• President Obama, honoring a World Cup bet he made with British Prime Minister David Cameron, presented Cameron a case of Goose Island 312, which Obama calls "outstanding" and Cameron agrees is "very good." Get the President some Sai-Shan-Tea now! [Inbox]
• Steve Dolinsky sent his intern to a City Provisions farm dinner at Seedling Orchard. Lots o' pictures. [Dolinsky/Vocalo]

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 ›