Sometimes bitter, sometimes hilarious; read the play-by-play from Chicago's food experts. more ›

The internet has been tweeting and crowing about the appointment of Michael Nagrant to the coveted post of Sun-Times dining critic - an appointment that was well deserved. Pat Bruno, the recently fired critic, has fallen by the wayside as ousted figures often do. Many people didn't like him or didn't respect his ethics - but here's one thing that we can respect: he didn't use extenuating circumstances to create buzz around his firing. It turns out Pat Bruno is fighting cancer. And he's also 77, not 68 as previously reported. more ›

The Sun-Times brought their restaurant coverage into the 21st century with the announcement of Michael Nagrant as their new dining critic. more ›

In the market for a condo? Here's an ideal opportunity for you to buy one, a couple of floors above some Chicago mayoral history. more ›

We must admit, we were not at our computer last night. So, we missed the initial conflagration of "Future Next Themes" - a flood of food writers, chefs and diners proposing ridiculous themes for the next menu of Next. A couple of days ago, Time Out gave us the next 4 menus for Next restaurant, including "Childhood," an idea that everyone seems to both love and feel a deep need to mock. more ›

Marcus isn't the only one taking a breather this week. Grub Street Chicago's Helen Rosner is also doing some much-needed decompressing. more ›

Eater.com is counting down the days until New York Times restaurant critic and "baby bulimic" Frank Bruni files his last review for the Paper of Record, going so far as to speculate who would succeed Bruni and prognosticating the odds of some favorites. more ›

The annual James Beard Award winners were announced over two nights in New York. Despite some strong showings from local chefs, media and restaurateurs, the ceremonies turned into a case of "It was an honor just being nominated." more ›

We really, really, wish we'd come up with the phrase "amuse-douche." Nicely done, Menupages. Chef Frank Brunacci is going to be at the helm of the restaurant in the yet-to-be-completed Trump tower. Michael Nagrant interviewed him and says he's "more of a haute comfort food purveyor than a food scientist," even though he likes to sling "shark bacon and olive oil ice cream." Check out the podcast here. File this under things we are pumped... more ›

If you are a big fan of Gigio's Pizza, then you are in luck. They're running a promotion right now where saving 20 menus will earn you $5 off an order. MenuPages attempted to look into the small print of the promotion, but was seemingly unable to get anyone from Gigio's to pick up the phone. If you want to spend $400+ dollars to save $5, now you know how. Alternatively, as suggested by Adam... more ›

We told you it was happening; now it has, and both the Food Chain and The Stew stopped by to take their respective looks at the new Pastoral in the Loop. Food Chain asked owner Greg O'Neill about the popularity of fancy cheese: "People have the sense that 'if I’m going to be bad, I might as well be bad with something good.'" Indeed, my friend, Indeed. Handlebar owner Josh Deth has been all over... more ›