Get a second chance at discounts with Chicago Chef Week more ›

The new film by Mike Gebert features Rob Levitt, Paul Kahan and Bartlett Durand. Paired with a 3-course dinner, this is a don't-miss evening for any meat lover. more ›

The new butcher shop from Publican/Blackbird/Avec chef/owner Paul Kahan is definitely worth a visit. more ›

Today in restaurant news: A chef shakeup at Graham Elliot and Publican Quality Meats is opening soon. more ›

Tomorrow the Publican is hosting a food drive. If you donate, you get free beer. more ›

A six-course meal, all paired with Belgian beers; tickets are still available for seatings tonight. more ›

The entire city has been abuzz with the news that famed food writer Michael Ruhlman is coming to town this week to promote his new book, Ruhlman's 20. Several events have already sold out (including one that sold out the day it was announced) but there are a few great ways you can still meet up with him. more ›

In case you missed it, the Garfield Park Conservatory was completely trashed by last month's hailstorm - most of the glass panels were broken, shards destroyed hundreds of plants and the conservatory, one of the nation's most glorious, is partially closed for renovation. Oh, and did we mention that there's no money? Well, Paul Kahan's restaurants are pitching in to help. This Sunday, from 12-4 at Big Star, all of the Blackbird group of restaurants will be hosting a sidewalk sale, selling all of their used (and undamaged) dishware, furniture and kitchen supplies. 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 ›

Chef, writer and recent memoirist Gabrielle Hamilton visited Chicago this past weekend to support her memoir, Blood, Bones and Butter with a celebration at The Publican. Before Paul Kahan cooked up Sunday's feast (a recreation of a meal in the first chapter of Hamilton's book), we caught up with Hamilton, chef and owner of Prune in New York, to discuss how she strikes the chef-writer balance, her least favorite food trends and why she said "No thanks" to being the next Iron Chef. more ›

Less than 1% of the pork produced in the United States is sustainably raised. As more and more of us begin to care about sustainable meat production, that number becomes scarier and scarier - but what can be done? Last weekend, during the Family Farmed Expo, I attended a workshop that I wish the entire city of Chicago could have seen. Paul Kahan (Publican), Rob Levitt (Butcher and Larder), Bartlett Durand (Black Earth Meats) and Herb Eckhouse (La Quercia ) told us how they - carnivores all - help to make our meat production system more sustainable, and offered tips to consumers who care. more ›

If you haven't already bought a copy of Blood, Bones and Butter: The Inadvertant Education of a Reluctant Chef, now is the time. The memoir, by Chef Gabrielle Hamilton, was called "the best chef memoir ever" by Anthony Bourdain, who knows a thing or two about writing memoirs. Plus, next weekend, you can buy the book, meet the author and eat some of the food, all at the same time. The Publican's Paul Kahan is recreating some of the dishes from the book in a 3-course meal on Sunday, March 27th, and Hamilton will be on hand to meet, greet and sign. Just the day before, The Publican is hosting a food drive. Want a heck of a weekend? Do both. more ›

This has been a good week for Stephanie Izard, and it's only Wednesday! We fully expect President Obama to appoint her Supreme Food Leader by Friday afternoon. In all seriousness, Izard has gotten two major accolades in the last couple of days, and you can participate in one of them! Saveur Magazine, which avoided restaurant reviews in the past, inaugurated a new review program with Girl and the Goat. Review might not be the right word; frantic worship at Izard's feet might be a better description. The reviewer, Dana Bowen, also enjoyed The Publican, but Girl and the Goat was "something else entirely." Izard was also nominated for Food and Wine's "The People's Best New Chef" award, and you can vote right now. more ›

Tribune "Cheap Eater" Kevin Pang reports that Paul Kahan, owner/operator of Blackbird, avec, the Publican, and Big Star, is getting on board with the butcher shop trend. Hot on the heels of the announcement of the Butcher and Larder and the September opening of City Provisions Deli, Kahan told Pang that they signed a lease today on the building across the street from the Publican and are planning to open a whole-animal butcher shop. The shop will have retail space, sell sandwiches and supply the meats for the Publican, and all of your favorites (including their amazing sausages and charcuterie) will be available for sale. We can't wait to get inside when it opens in 6-10 months! more ›

We got a hot tip yesterday that Samantha Radov, the pastry chef of the Publican, was cooking up something special for dessert. She kindly sent us a photo of her new delight - crispy pig's ears with cinnamon sugar and bitter chocolate sauce, served with maple gelato. They have appeared on the menu sporadically before, but they aren't always in stock, so if you want to taste them, head on down tonight. If you want to keep track of their next appearance, follow the Publican on twitter. more ›

A few weeks ago, our Chuck Sudo went on a road trip to Holland, Michigan with Publican mastermind Paul Kahan to get a behind-the-scenes look at the pairing between Kahan and New Holland Brewing for their special beer dinner in August. It was an excellent series and we were worried about it getting lost in the shuffle so we've gathered up all the links here. If you haven't gotten a chance to read through it, we highly recommend you bookmark this post so you can come back and read each part at your leisure. Above are new pictures from Chuck that we didn't run the first time around on these posts, so enjoy those as well. more ›

After nearly two years, the Reader is ready to serve up some of that mulefoot pig it adopted to some hungry folks. And they're doing it in style, with a six-course dinner starting 6 p.m. October 19 at Blackbird to benefit Slow Food Chicago. more ›

• Mercat a la Planxa's Jose Garces flays Bobby Flay on Iron Chef [Philly City Paper]
• Applebee's "owns riblets." Wonderful; another reason not to go. [NYT]
• Joanna MIller delves into a vegetarian nicoise salad. [My Vegetable Blog]

There are a couple of really interesting beer dinners of note in the coming weeks that could wind up being hard reservations, if you're the type to wait until the last minute to get reservations. more ›