Watch short films about food while snacking on treats from some of Chicago's best restaurants, including Doughnut Vault, Pleasant House Bakery, Hoosier Mama Pies and more. more ›

Frontier restaurant has gained a reputation for its whole-animal service, in which you and a dozen or so friends can feast upon an entire smoked pig, lamb, goat or wild boar. Chef Brian Jupiter's menu reflects a commitment to farm-to-table eating, but the place is just as serious about oysters; Frontier offers up to 20 different varieties daily. (Hmm, an oyster obsession? We can dig it.) Now the Milwaukee Avenue restaurant plans to toast our shelled friends with a weeklong special menu, starting this Sunday and running through August 7, that features oysters in several of its most splendid forms. more ›

Is it just us, or is Chicago suddenly spoiled with oysters? A host of new dining spots, plus several old standbys, are sourcing and serving up impressive oyster programs for a city so far from seawater. Over the weeks ahead, the Chicagoist Foodies (gastropodistas?) will be getting to the bottom of this newfound bounty of bivalves with what we're calling our Oyster Throwdown Series - head-to-head reviews of oyster bars all over the city. more ›

2008 was already shaping up locally as a banner year for new restaurant openings. L2O was recently named the best new restaurant in America by Esquire, with Takashi and Mercat a la Planxa also making the list. Bill Kim left Le Lan to focus on Urban Belly; Graham Elliot Bowles responded to criticism of his eponymous River North outpost by slowly tweaking things until he got it right. Ryan Poli came back to town with Perennial. Superstar chefs such as Marcus Samuelsson and Terrance Brennan targeted Chicago for restaurant locales. And we're still waiting for Lula Café's Pilsen location to open in a bit (with Jason Vincent at the helm). more ›