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

In their grand tradition of quantifying everything around us, U.S. News and World Report ranks the efficiency of popular diets. more ›

Time Out Chicago's dining team focuses on coffee with this week's issue. David Tamarkin and Julia Kramer ranked what they feel are the top 15 coffee houses in town and at the top of the list is our own neighborhood joint, Bridgeport Coffee Company. Tamarkin lists the points we've made about the space over the years, but saves his best praise for the single cup pour-over brew fancied by many places in town these days. Tamarkin calls it "a revelation — bright and clean and smooth." more ›

Time Out Chicago Editor-in-Chief Frank Sennett recently used the "reading level" function on Google's "Advanced Search" page to determine the reading levels of Our Town's media websites. more ›

O'Hare International Airport has been named the Best Airport in America by the Global Traveler for the sixth year in a row, and many people are scratching their heads right now and trying to figure out what about O'Hare could possibly make it the best airport in America. Sure, the facilities are top-notch and the airport is freakin' huge, but isn't this the same airport that was once known for its terrible on-time departures record and its uncomfortable sleeping areas? more ›

Coming on the heels of our mediocre standings in the Travel and Leisure "America's Favorite Cities" survey, Daniel Boulud's appearance on NPR's Marketplace was a little balm for our souls. After a discussion of how people shouldn't give up on fine dining, even in a recession, Jeremy Hobson asked DB what his favorite food city in America was, outside of New York. We'll let DB speak for himself. "Ah, that I'm going to get really hurt if I said that, but I would say then certainly Chicago is the most amazing city with New York." Listen to the whole story online. more ›

Travel and Leisure Magazine has just put out their yearly "America's Favorite Cities" issue. The new survey ranks cities in tons of different categories and, interestingly enough, splits the results into "visitors" and "residents." We're statistics nerds, so it was interesting to see the differences between how we see ourselves and how others see us. On the food side, the results were interesting and a little surprising. more ›

We'll let Mark Simmons get in his shots at Padma and company this week. Watch enough reality television and you have a sense of who's leaving at the beginning of the episode. As bad as many of you wanted to see Lisa be the one packing her knives last week, we knew that Mark was leaving as he was scraping his razor across his face; apparently in Middle Earth they teach men to shave against the grain. He may think that Tom "hates" him, and is you can translate what he said about Art Smith at the 1:05 mark, please do (we can't speak Hobbit). Mark's weakness - besides being obscenely tall for a Baggins - was having an uncanny ability to take simple dishes and make them hard: see his duck a l'orange from the premiere. It may work in the Land of Shire, but not in the Top Chef kitchen. more ›

By now anyone who cares should have had the opportunity to check out last week's "Top Chef Chicago" premiere episode, which saw former Scylla owner/chef Stephanie Izard win the elimination challenge with her Asian-influenced duck a l'orange that almost had BOURDAIN! making indecent proposals to her. That she came back to lord over all after an auspicious ill-conceived start in the deep dish pizza quickfire challenge and a major bout of nerves saucing the duck (watching her hand shake as she sauces the duck is seared in our brain) should be a major confidence booster. more ›

World Sport Chicago, an organization that has helped spearhead Chicago's 2016 OIympic Bid, is working hard to bring international sporting events to Chicago to strengthen that bid. This weekend is an example of that effort; the U.S. Men's National Volleyball Team will take on Italy here in Chicago as part of the FIVB World League. The World League is composed of the top 16 men's volleyball teams in the world divided into four pools. The... more ›

The United States Women's National Soccer Team has scheduled a series of international friendlies this year to help them prepare for the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup that will be held in China this fall. At noon on August 12, the U.S. Women's team will take on New Zealand at Soldier Field, a game that will also be broadcast live on ESPN2. Soccer fans can start buying tickets as of today. The U.S. squad is... more ›

While the game was reminiscent of last year's team, the Bears won yet again on Sunday by beating the Jets 10-0 at Giants Stadium. The defense was in top form, creating key turnovers and holding the Jets when it looked like they were close to scoring. Brian Urlacher intercepted the ball in the end zone when the Jets looked poised to open the scoring. The teams went into the intermission tied at 0-0. Perhaps the... more ›

New City’s annual list of "who rocks Chicago" is out with some minor changes for this year. more ›

The United States National Soccer Team cracked into the top five in the FIFA World Rankings when the March rankings were released earlier this week. This is a first for the United States, who are in their final stages of preparation for the 2006 World Cup which begins in June. During the World Cup draw, the 32 finalists are divided into eight groups of four teams. Those teams play each of the teams in the... more ›

Chicagoist pointed out the importance of February to the Bulls' success at the start of the month. The Bulls exceeded even our optimistic forcast by going 7-4 in the month, and moved to 5 games over .500 for the season with a 29-24 record. It wasn't easy with 8 road games and games against many of the league's best teams -- but they won key games against Dallas, Sacramento and Miami. People are beginning to... more ›