On the heels of Chicago's Food Truck Tuesdays comes Evanston's first Food Truck Meetup, on Sunday, June 26th. If you don't live near a food truck route (or can't be bothered to track them on twitter) it often feels like you are totally left out of this growing trend. Especially if you live in the suburbs, food trucks aren't coming your way very often. If you're a north-sider or an Evanstonian and want a taste of the Hummingbird Kitchen, Flirty Cupcakes or 5411 Empanada trucks, this is the moment for you. more ›

Quite possibly the most unassuming of Chicago’s 2011 Bib Gourmand restaurants also touts one of the zestiest, most vibrant menus. Taste of Peru, in Rogers Park, has been a Chicago favorite and Peruvian staple for nearly half a decade. Taste of Peru has a distinctly Peruvian menu with fresh seafood and meat entrees, and is well worth the trip to the far north side. more ›

On Saturday around 5:30 p.m., police found two people dead with their throats slit and a third critically wounded in a North Side apartment in the 5800 block of North Winthrop Avenue, Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis said via the Chicago Sun-Times. Several suspects in the murders fled in a black or grey pickup truck and fired at a police squad car that was chasing it, injuring an officer. Police shot and killed the suspect, Weis said, and the other two men were taken into custody. The stabbing victims remain unidentified Sunday morning. more ›

One of the city's top schools, Lane Tech, is thinking of opening a gifted middle-school program similar to the one at Whitney Young High School as early as the fall. The program is referred to as an "academic center" and would accept seventh-graders, giving them a chance to get early admission to the selective high school enrollment system. The opportunity would also give North Siders a selective enrollment option closer to their home. There are currently six academic centers in the city, but only two of them feed into a selective enrollment high school: Whitney Young on the West Side and Lindblom Math and Science Academy on the South Side. more ›

New hookah bars that are looking to set up shop in Chicago may have a more difficult time doing so, as North Side Aldermen Pat O'Connor (40th) and Marge Laurino (39th) are fed up with the flavored tobacco smoking lounges that have turned into "private little clubhouses for underage smoking and drinking," according to the Chicago Sun-Times. O'Connor and Laurino want to make it a requirement that hookah bars have to obtain "special use permits," which will require them to get approval from the community and permits from the Zoning Board of Appeals before they're allowed to open. more ›

A pair of separate gang-related shootings last night injured three youngsters. more ›

A newborn girl's body was found Friday evening in an Edgewater apartment, Chicago Breaking News reports. Police were called by a woman reporting a baby "in need of medical assistance" at a building on the 6100 block of North Sheridan Road; it was there they found the "unresponsive" newborn in a closet, the report said. "Baby Molina," as the newborn has been identified, appeared to have been only a day or two old and premature. Police are conducting a death investigation and an autopsy is scheduled for Sunday. more ›

About 50 residents of a horseshoe-shaped apartment complex located at 4400-4412 N. Ashland Ave. have been displaced following an extra-alarm fire on Friday night. No residents were injured in the fire, but two firefighters suffered minor injuries, said Fire Media Affairs Director Larry Langford. The fire was reported at about 6 p.m. and began in or near a first floor unit on the northwest corner of the building and spread upwards. more ›

We were out at Silver Cloud last night, when we remembered the interview we did with Larry Bell from last December. Didn't he say that he was going to have the new Kalamazoo Brewery beer at Silver Cloud? Indeed he did. We were excited to give it a shot, so we asked the waitress what they had on tap from Kalamazoo. When she said that they had Oberon on tap and on special, as soon as we picked our jaws up off the floor, we immediately ordered a half-dozen. more ›

We're not sure than the 2008 White Sox will be any more tolerable to watch than last year's team, but they'll no doubt be easier to listen to -- at least on the radio. That's because Steve Stone will be replacing Chris Singleton alongside Ed Farmer, the team announced on Tuesday. more ›

Chicagoist's general rule toward our vegetarian tendencies is, if we wanted a dish-chock full of meat, we'd eat it. As such, plates full of fake meat masquerading as juicy animal parts (a vegan Reuben sandwich, for instance) generally hold little appeal, and we instead opt for dishes full of clearly identifiable veggies or simple marinated tofu. more ›

A week after their North Side counterparts held their annual convention, the White Sox will hold their SoxFest this upcoming weekend at the Palmer House Hilton. While Cubs fans were concerned about the future of the Cubs ownership and fate of Wrigley Field, at least when it came to the players on the field there was near unanimous optimism. more ›

Artur Shehu is still on the lam, but he was charged yesterday with two counts of first-degree murder for killing his parents. Syrja Shehu, 66, and his wife Safo, 67, were each shot once in the head, and were found dead in their Villa Park home early Monday morning, after Artur placed a call to the police. He was gone by the time police arrived. more ›

Sad news today: Joseph Zeman, the "pigeon man of Lincoln Square," was killed yesterday when he was struck by a car on the Far North Side. The driver was a 68-year-old who didn't see Zeman as he made a right leaving a parking lot. more ›

Of all the egregious things the city can do to property owners, from jacking property taxes to the current favorite, the misuse of TIFs, none seems more unfair and ripe for abuse as eminent domain. For the uninitiated, eminent domain allows the city government to seize ownership of private property, paying the owner whatever the city deems as "market value". It's supposed to be used for the "greater public good", such as the expansion... more ›

Former WKQX-FM 101.1 radio host Erich "Mancow" Muller filed a lawsuit Tuesday against his former employer, saying radio officials disparaged his show and blocked him from getting other work. We are getting pretty sick of the cell phone drivers, but we are always amazed at the cell phone bikers (not in a good way). Yesterday, an 19-year-old woman who was struck and killed by a garbage truck on the Northwest Side, was apparently talking... more ›

Here are some other newsworthy items on the day the earth stole Heaven. A Southern Baptist Church in Romeoville had problems with their divorced pastor remarrying, but turned the other cheek when they allowed another preacher/convicted sex offender to become more involved in church business. Both resigned last week. A local plastic surgeon was reprimanded by North Carolina authorities for unprofessional conduct when a woman seeking laser hair removal died undergoing treatment at a... more ›

Before we teleported up into the great nightclub in outer space, Chicagoist took a few hours to walk around Grant Park this weekend and have a friendly chit-chat with some of the many fine folks who came to Lolla this weekend. Some of them came from nearby - North Side, South Side and the suburbs. Others came from farther away, places like New Jersey. Still others came to visit us from other countries, like Ireland.... more ›

As Chicagoist enjoyed a day off yesterday, we also found ourselves reflecting on some of the hallmarks of the holiday, namely fireworks. We spent our care free day away from work and the stresses that usually come with it, taking the opportunity to ride the Damen bus down to 18th Street, where we kept walking until we got to 23rd. After a cozy stroll through Heart of Chicago, we wound up in Little Village, where... more ›

Duplicate shootings in triplicate? At least three people are shot and wounded early today; one critically, during a party at a private motorcycle club, on Chicago's South Side. AND ... Three people are shot and wounded this morning near the Cabrini-Green public housing project on the Near North Side. Calm down, Chicagoistas, they're definitely NOT talking about Vince. (Christopher) Vaughn, the guy who went berserk and killed his family gave up on hanging out... more ›

As part of the promotion for the upcoming "Simpsons" movie (so there!), 20th Century Fox, Gracie Films, and 7-Eleven have joined together to turn a dozen stores across the country into Kwik-E-Marts. We have a sneaking suspicion that the 7-Eleven location at 6754 W. 63rd Street (Ha HA! The North Side is Shelbyville.) will be mighty popular the next four weeks. more ›

According to an unnamed "top official," the Sun-Times reported yesterday that Wal-Mart is prepared to build as many as five South Side supercenters in six to twelve months, maybe sooner, but is also scouting sites in neighboring wards in case local aldermen resist. "We're making an active effort to speak with [the local] aldermen. We can't move forward without them. If it is proven in the near future they're not interested — maybe they don't... more ›

Last night, North Side/North Shore Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky sat down with Stephen Colbert to discuss her participation in the House Hunger Caucus' Food Stamp Challenge. After accidentally introducing her as Jane (and insisting on calling her such for the rest of the evening, not wanting to admit an error), Colbert dished out his usual satire, suggesting that the food stamp allotment be decreased to $2 to combat obesity. Although she had some difficulty getting... more ›

All is not well on the North Side as we all know, but things ain't much better on the South Side either. While not quite fist fights and on-field tantrums, the White Sox have resorted to some unusual measures to try and awaken their team from its slumber. more ›

Now, we love our meat. This is the Midwest after all. Chicago was home to the Chicago Union Stock Yards once dubbed, “slaughterhouse to the world.” So we guess it's no real big surprise Chicago is also home to the world’s largest vegan social network: VegChicago, with 840 members. VegChicago hosts monthly gatherings, generally dine-outs. Their website says, “No agendas, no pressure… just a pleasant social setting for vegans, vegetarians, and veg-curious to meet, network,... more ›

This is not a fun time to be a baseball fan in Chicago. Whether a White Sox or Cubs fan, you no doubt have that sinking feeling about your team's prospects for the postseason after they were swept this week. The Cubs lost 9-0 to the Florida Marlins on Wednesday, following a day full of meetings. The players held one. So did management. Didn't help, at least on Wednesday. The players felt they needed to... more ›

Absolut Vodka has some new ad campaign where in one of the ads the Cubs go to the World Series. Milton F. Bocek, the oldest living former White Sox player, died. He was 94. Mike Hohensee, the coach of the Chicago Rush, was injured when he was hit by a car on Saturday. Does hip-hop hate women? 400 people gathered to discuss it on Saturday. After the shooting at Virginia Tech officials in Illinois... more ›

Outside.in, the aggregator of all things in neighborhoods across the country, recently tallied their numbers of neighborhood specific blogging and released the top 10 "bloggiest" neighborhoods in the country. Coming in at number 5 was Rogers Park/North Howard. Outside.in describes the neighborhood as, "Located in one of the last remaining pockets of poverty in Chicago's North Side, it‘s home to a culturally diverse group of residents that have very mixed feelings about the rapid gentrification."... more ›

Daley thinks the General Assembly should increase CTA funding. Check out the Sun-Times' new look. Some new ballistics analysis disputes accounts by Chicago cops about what happened in a 2005 shooting of an unarmed man. A dog near Prairie Isle Golf Club got bit by a rare Eastern massasauga rattlesnake. No charges will be filed in connection to the Chicago cop/DC cop bar brawl. A homeless woman has been indicted on murder and aggravated... more ›

After months of speculation that the Cubs might be put up for sale as part of a restructuring or sale of Tribune Co., almost immediately after the board's approval of Chicago billionaire Sam Zell's offer, news came that the team would in fact be sold. Now the handicapping can begin on who the new owner will be. There has certainly been no shortage of potential bidders mentioned. Of course, that was before the Cubs went... more ›