The crew at Moto have made a video of an entire tasting menu. more ›

Tavernita has finally officially opened and the grand opening party was last night. more ›

Popular LA-based frozen yogurt franchise Menchie’s made its way to the Land of Lincoln last month. Kim Hardy of Northbrook opened her Menchie’s frozen yogurt shop in Highland Park just in time for… winter? more ›

Chef Jared Van Camp's new West Loop restaurant is almost ready. We got an early look, and we haven't been this excited for an opening in quite a while. more ›

Acadia, the new South Loop spot from Chef Ryan McCaskey, was an oasis in a sea of blizzard last Friday night when we stopped in for the first time. more ›

After much anticipation, Ryan Poli's new restaurant is finally opening. Plus, they are accepting limited reservations right now. more ›

The biggest food story of the year was Next. We were there for the opening, the inevitable parodies and much much more. more ›

Try out the Trencherman's new drink offerings, created by WD-50 alum Tona Palomino. more ›

Chef Izard's new diner concept will open (we hope) in the spring of 2012. more ›

The new bar will impress any cocktail connoisseur. more ›

Today in restaurant news, Erin Mooney takes over at Custom House, Deleece is moving to new digs and the Black Sheep saga continues. more ›

It’s the type of people who have an answer ready for the question “What would you do for a Klondike bar?” that will understand why the question was posed to all Chicagoans: “What would you do for a free dinner?” more ›

- Bleeding Heart Bakery, everyone's favorite punk rock pasty location, is opening a new location in the suburbs. According to their facebook page, they will be opening a new location in Elmhurst by the end of the summer. The new location will be supplied by their new, huge home bakery in the city which will hopefully open in the next few weeks - the opening has been delayed several times already. In any case, suburbanites rejoice, as you won't have to drive all the way into the city to taste their baked goodies. more ›

Passersby cocked their heads in wonderment at the long line of locals on State Street last night. They were not qeued up for the latest iRelease. Nor was it an admiring throng waiting for tickets to see the latest teenybopper to hit town. No, these folks were lined up in anticipation of some free frozen yogurt. It was not just any fro-yo mind you. They were waiting for a taste of Pinkberry. more ›

Tribute, the long-awaited (and long-suffering) South Loop restaurant in the Essex Inn finally opens today for business. After chef drama, a delayed opening and some minor licensing drama, they started serving breakfast today at 6 A.M. We visited last night for a first look, and we're cautiously optimistic. more ›

Quad Cities-style pizza upped its presence in Chicago on Tuesday with the grand opening of Roots Handmade Pizza, the latest venture from Fifty/50 owners Greg Mohr and Scott Weiner. Always eager to expand our culinary horizons, we rushed over to get a look at the new digs and then get down to the business of disappearing some 'za. more ›

What was it, exactly, that lured us to opening night at Union Sushi + Barbeque Bar? Was it the tweets of skewered meats and seafood searing away on the restaurant's robata grill? Or maybe it was the promise of an ambitious Japanese sake program - a documented weakness of ours - which Mike and Chao, the world travelers come restaurateurs who operate Union, hinted at during the run-up to Union's debut. On top of all that, we had also caught wind that Bittercube, the talented cocktail consultancy and small-batch bitters makers, helped out with crafting Union's cocktail menu. All we know for sure is we couldn't wait to check the place out. And we were not alone. more ›

Green City Market quietly opened this morning at 7 AM. The market wasn't crazy busy, and the offerings were a tiny bit slim, since most veggies haven't started to come up. But getting back into the market, seeing friends and farmers and coming home with a bag of food were wonderful reminders of why we love eating locally. The big stars of the market today were starter plants - herbs, flowers and vegetables. Most of the vendors who will be selling piles of heirloom tomatoes in about 3 months were pushing plants instead, and we got a few seedlings for the Chicagoist garden plot. more ›

After extensive renovations to the basement level of the former MB Financial Bank building at Division and Ashland, the Bedford is set to open with dinner service this Friday at 5 p.m. The brand new restaurant and lounge will boast a kitchen steered by Chef Mark Steuer, who logged several years cooking at HotChocolate and, most recently, nine months in the kitchen at the Gage. And on Monday, we got a sneak peek of the revamped space. more ›

We've been a tiny bit cynical about the level of hype surrounding Next, possibly because no one we know will get to actually eat there until the year 2015. It's likely that this cynicism stems from a combination of sour grapes (we want in!) and faux-disdain (whatever, I can make Escoffier dishes in eggshells at home). Yeah. It's officially over. The opening video for Next makes us want to go camp outside the restaurant and beg Grant Achatz to adopt us or take us as his secret lover - whatever, as long as we get tickets. Until then, we'll have to settle for watching it over and over and over again. more ›

Homer Simpson may have said it best when he called the doughnut sacrilicious. The rightness, the wrongness. The guilt, the pleasure. It’s a plump, round dichotomy with sprinkles. If you couldn’t tell, we’ve been charmed ever since our visit to Brendan Sodikoff’s newly opened Doughnut Vault, the hole-in the-wall doughnut and coffee shop just around the corner from Sodikoff’s Gilt Bar. And we’re not exaggerating about the size; Doughnut Vault isn’t much more than a brief hallway with a business end. A residual bank vault lends the place its name and, presumably, the rackful of fresh doughnuts stored within a false sense of security. Touches like the chandelier over the counter, the mirrored and tiled walls, checkered floor, pale blue doors and trim, and antique gold cash register all suggest an affinity with Sodikoff’s other local haunt, the likewise Francophile Maude’s Liquor bar. A window may soon serve walk-throughs, but for now the cashier is keeping it closed on account of the brisk weather. (Ed. Note: How can you not love a place with a "1/2" in its address? It's like the Hogwarts Doughnut Shop!) more ›

We're willing to beg, borrow, steal or commit minor acts of vandalism to get into Next, even as a paying customer after opening day. A contributor to LTH Forum, "yellow truffle," was invited to a preview dinner there, and posted an entire gallery of wonderful pictures, along with his comments. more ›

Tonight at 4 PM, the newest addition to the 2011 Noble Square real estate explosion opens its doors. Frontier, a game-focused tavern with a grizzly bear standing behind the bar, has been under construction for months, and finally will let diners in this evening. We got a chance to sit down with the chef of Frontier a few weeks ago and talk about the new space. Plus, the official opening menu just arrived in our mailbox. Drool on, people! more ›

In spite of yesterday's ruling that stripped control of the beleaguered Block 37 project from its developer, the project will see the first store opening today after the city gave the project the green light, according to Crain's. Today will see the opening the opening of both the pedway and the Steve Madden store. A spokeswoman for the developer, Joseph Freed & Associates, LLC, said they expect two additional stores - Zara and Puma - to open early next week and several more will follow suit by Thanksgiving. more ›

Time Out Chicago is reporting that the soon-to-open-in-Pilsen sister restaurant to Lula Café will be called Nightwood, after the Djuna Barnes novel. Expect an open kitchen and a bar seating 10, allowing for a full view of chef de cuisine Jason Vincent in action. Nightwood will initially be open for diner Tuesday through Saturday and will have a late-night dinner menu from 10 p.m. - 2 a.m., which should be perfect to accommodate hipsters staggering out of Skylark at last call. [TOC] more ›

There’s something about multimedia artist / designer Cody Hudson that makes us just want to have a beer with him. Maybe it’s the symmetrical chaos of his work—complex, but approachable. Or maybe it’s his love of Wisconsin cheese curds. Actually, the name of his upcoming show at Andrew Rafacz Gallery may have something to do with it—thanks man, see you around man, fuck yeah, you guys are wild, thanks man, i dig it, see you. more ›

Good news for commuters. Finally. After 7 years of “now leasing” signs in Metra’s Ogilvie Transportation Center, the concourse under the tracks will begin to see construction on a “European-style” market. more ›