In 1997 I was living in the Ukrainian Village exactly two blocks away from Tuman's, back when it was known - rightly so - as the "alcohol abuse center." $2 Guinness and $3 martinis meant that you could walk in with $10 and leave three sheets to the wind, with change in your pocket for tacos. That year, Tuman's made Chicago magazine's Best Bars issue. My then-roommate and I had moved out of the neighborhood by then, but we went back to visit a year or so after the issue hit the stands. By then, Tuman's was on the road to becoming what it is today - a shadow of its former self. Gold Coast types mingled with bike messengers, neighborhood regulars still clinging to cheap rents, and future drug casualties. The biggest change back then wasn't the variety of red and white wine, but the floor. Instead of rehabbing the old wood, they laid it out in brick. One of the bartenders half-jokingly told me that Bill Tuman did that because it was easier to hose down the vomit at the end of the night instead of mopping it up. more ›

Uh oh. We’re about to go up 3 pant sizes, because Scooter’s Frozen Custard re-opens from its winter hiatus today at 2:00 PM. If you’re not already a fan, wait a few days for the fervor to die down - but if you do decide to brave the crowd, you’ll see us standing there in line. more ›

Re-opening tomorrow is Club Lago (331 W. Superior, 312-951-2849). The 60-year-old River North Italian mainstay has been closed since March after your standard "chimney from another building crumbles and destroys the kitchen" accident. Not content to simply rebuild the kitchen, owners GianCarlo and Guido Nardini did a whole overhaul of the restaurant. more ›

Wicker Park coffee shop mecca Filter is set to reopen next month at 1373-75 N. Milwaukee, according to Metromix. Bonus: they're gonna be roasting their own beans. Let's hope the new location doesn't become a Bank of America. [Metromix, via Gapers Block] more ›

We'd been hearing rumors recently that Schwa was going to reopen, but didn't want to get our hopes up to much before something was confirmed. And confirmed it now is. Michael Carlson's BYOB spot will be reopening in early 2008, the end of this month being the earliest. more ›