De La Costa, the Nuevo Latino restaurant in River North, was recently sold by its parent company. But the $1 million offer by buyer Dock 465 LLC is half of what Panacea Partners LLC is asking. Additionally, the sale could be moot if Dock 465 can't obtain a liquor license from the city. [Crain's]......

We attended the soft opening for Graham Elliot, the new River North "bistronomic restaurant" from former Avenues chef Graham Elliot Bowles at 217 W. Huron, last month and were sufficiently impressed by what we sampled to put it on our list of restaurants to return, keeping in mind that soft openings are generally where a new restaurant does its best to maintain initial appearances Since that soft opening, however, Bowles has taken his lumps in......

Last week’s free McSkillet burritos spoiled us. All we had to do was purchase one little drink and we got a free breakfast? Suddenly paying for meals seemed like a sham. It got us thinking - where else can we score some free grub in this town? Well, seek and ye shall find: Happy Hour Munchies: Bust out of work right away so you can make the most of the free appetizers available Monday through......

The city's License Committee added Alderman Brandon Reilly's 42nd Ward, which includes the Loop, River North and the Gold Coast to the list of wards where private businesses will have the legal authority to boot cars parked on private property. "It seemed like an interesting concept. I figured we’d give it a try,” Reilly told the Sun-Times, pointing out that illegal parkers wouldn't have to travel to remote lots to spring their towed vehicles, and......

At this point, most of us have graduated from decorating the walls of our humble abodes with the typical college posters of yesteryear. The dilemma then becomes a matter of how to display our personal sense of artistic style without succumbing to the availability of “artwork” sold at places like Bed Bath & Beyond, and without dropping vast amounts of money at the River North galleries or the summertime street art festivals. Enter David van......

The foggy mist that hung over Chicago Monday night seemed a perfect backdrop to a mystical experience with local psychic Patrick O’Brien at RoSal’s Restaurant in Little Italy. O'Brien visits RoSal’s twice a month to hold mini psychic readings for the pasta-loving crowd. Even those of us intrigued by psychics are often put off by the dozens of 900 number-type, big fat fakers out there. But there’s hope. Anyone seeking a more worthwhile experience than......

Metromix describes Jake Melnick's Corner Tap as "a casual neighborhood pub specializing in traditional American bar cuisine; burgers, salads and homestyle specials such as barbecued ribs and chicken." You know, like the typical, run-of-the-mill River North bar. But things are about to heat up (ha!) at 41 E. Superior St. Starting on Thursday, Jake Melnick's will begin serving hot wings coated with Red Savina pepper — aka "Dominican Devil's Tongue Pepper" and holder of Guinness......

Five days ago, a New Foundland dog escaped from its owner's office in River North, not having been seen since. While it's fairly common to have a pup go missing in the city, most dogs aren't quite like Johnny B. Good, who weighs in at a staggering 125 pounds and stands at over three feet tall on all fours. His owner, Chad Munger, said that the dog opened two doors himself, using his head and......

A few minutes walk from Bubba Gump, Shakespeare Theater and the IMAX is this weekend’s Exposition of Sculpture Objects and Functional Art (SOFA) Chicago, bringing around 100 similarly eclectic galleries to Navy Pier’s Festival Hall. Considering the show’s artistic star power and the stacks of bills changing hands, Friday afternoon seemed positively mellow. Visitors seemed more intent on finding that perfect trinket for their living room or personal adornment than investing in the next Picasso.......

Before we go to the listings, we want to bid farewell to the Tribune's Kevin Pang, who's heading over to the Tempo section. But he leaves the food beat with a profile of Peter Engler, the city's foremost expert on mother-in-law sandwiches, street food and other south side cheap eats. Shaw's Crab House concludes this year's edition of their "Royster with the Oyster" festival with their annual tent party at their Hubbard Street location tonight.......

Brooklyn-based design blog, Design*Sponge, recently premiered a sleek new look, and today the site rolled out a Chicago Design Guide, the latest in a series of city-focused lists dedicated to help folks find all the best spots for furniture, home accessories and over-priced knickknacks. Penned by recent Chicago transplant, Lizzie Garrett, the guide lists the usual suspects (Sprout, i.D., Scout), with most stores grouped in Bucktown/Wicker Park and Lincoln Park/Lakeview. Overall, the list is thorough,......

Batman flew off to Hong Kong. Here's what he'll be missing: Coming up: As we’ve mentioned, Kumail Nanjiani is a funny, funny man. Now he’s ditching us for New York. Send him off Thursday night at The Hideout, where he’ll pay tribute to Jonathan Messinger and his new book. It’s your last chance to see Kumail before he gets mega-famous or chewed up by the Gotham comedy scene. The young performers at Thirteen Pocket Productions......

Here's what happened while a punk rock choir distracted us from Doomsday: Fall arts season preview season is here. If you didn’t pick up a Reader over the weekend, you can still bookmark their A & E preview online. The Trib’s writers chose their 10 most promising in theater, art, dance, music (rock and otherwise), comedy and architecture. The Bright One previews Broadway in Chicago and upcoming rock concerts and CDs (remember those?). New City......

Can local NBA players breathe a bit easier now? Late last week, Chicago police arrested four gang members in connection with the home invasion and robbery at Antoine Walker's River North mansion. Working with police in Burr Ridge investigating the similar break-in at Eddy Curry's house, the police connected two of the suspects to both crimes. The alleged motive for the two home invasions was "monetary gain" and neither of the NBA stars has been......

These are dangerous times to be a basketball star in this town. For the second time this month, a Chicago-native NBA star has been the victim of a home invasion. Early Saturday, former Bulls player Eddy Curry was the victim, when three masked invaders stormed his Burr Ridge home. They restrained Curry, some family members and an employee with duct tape and then stole money and jewelry. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? In fact, the M.O.......

Let’s just get one thing straight: unless you have your own personal money tree, you don’t go to Martini Park to get rollicking drunk. And it’s easy, from one step in the door, or from reading all the recent hub and bub about the place, to assume it’s just another trendy bar/lounge, packed with scenesters and socialites, serving expensive drinks and food. In a way, yes, it is. But looking at it from another......

The largest art gallery event in Chicago that doesn’t involve Navy Pier or the Merchandise Mart, Vision 12 kicks off tonight with more than 30 gallery openings in River North and River West. New shows, plenty of group shows, run the gamut from university final projects to more established portfolios. The two week celebration of gallery goodness is presented by the Art Dealers Association of Chicago, who have, appropriately enough, chosen “the business of Art”......

NBA star and Chicago-native Antoine Walker was robbed at gunpoint inside his River North home early Monday evening. Walker was home with a family member at the time of the home invasion, in which a vehicle, cash and jewelry were taken. The home invasion took place around 6:30pm on the 400 block of W. Huron -- not exactly a neighborhood where one expects for something like this to occur. Either the River North neighborhood's rougher......

What is the value of a marriage? When all is said and done, how do you tally the intangibles that make up everyday life? For the sake of argument, let’s throw some numbers out there. A goodnight kiss: $10. Breaking from work to drive your child to the emergency room: $250, plus wages that would have otherwise been paid. Dinner night after night, factoring in labor: cost untold. Yet in a divorce, these things get......

The Stew is reporting that River North restaurant Graze is closing after a mere six months of business. We are sad to say goodbye to Graze because we generally thought Chef Bob Zrenner was a likable person with an interesting vision of fine dining for what was essentially three blocks off the Mag Mile. When we interviewed him in January he told us, "Small plates bring that high level of cuisine to people on a......

In our experience, Angelina Jolie is pretty much on everyone's if-I-meet-this-person-in-real-life-I-have-a-free-pass-to-hit-it list, and is even the most popular person we've heard women say they'd "cross over" for. As in, "I'm not gay, but if I had the chance I'd be all over Angelina." Where are we going with this? The Chicago Film Office has provided information about a ton of streets being closed because Angelina Jolie's new movie Wanted is in town, and we're trying......

Chicagoist doesn't think about poetry much. Oh, sure, we acknowledge its timeless beauty and reason for being, mostly through the cramped pages of our high school notebooks. And we recognize its innate role in the magical media of music — after all, "my hump" and "my lumps" rhyme sublimely, do they not? Surely it must be Fate. But we jest. Overall we take poetry for granted, preferring instead the down-to-earth words of novels and stories.......

OK, you got us here: Ricci & Company really isn’t a market per se. Unless you’re a squirrel and this small River North spot specializing in hand-roasted nuts has everything you need for your daily intake and then some. But just because Ricci doesn’t stock edibles from all the food groups — who can keep up with that ever-changing list anyways? — that doesn’t mean it’s not worthy of a mention here. First off, there’s......

The green revolution is truly upon us. But until you can buy a car that's powered by your own sense of self-satisfaction, you might have to settle for a Tesla. Whether you've heard of them or not, you'll get your chance to check them out up close and personal: the Silicon Valley-based electric car company Tesla Motors is coming to Chicago early next year. Tesla's been blowing the accepted notion of the electric car out......

Look at that, we figured out how to set the right date. Bust out the stale, crunchy bubble gum: Chicago equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners teamed up with Michael Eisner to buy the Topps baseball card company. Is Walgreen's discriminating against black employees? The county government is missing $500,000 in cash. Don't count on seeing any of the Bears playing in charity basketball games soon. Seven people were injured this morning when a freight......

Consider these three scenarios. You want to eat some Indian or Pakistani food, but you don't want to make the trek to Devon. You are tanked after a night of drinking in River North or the Gold Coast and you want to go out for some post-drinking nosh, but aren't in the mood for a burger. You've been doing some shopping downtown, and want to grab a quick dinner, but don't want to either......

Executive Chef Bob Zrenner, Graze...

When cabin fever sets in, we take good news any place we can get it. Still, we had to read this bit of news twice when we received it. A press release sent to Chicagoist and other outlets yesterday from the Brooklyn Brewery announced that they've reached an agreement with distributor River North, allowing the Williamsburg-based craft brewer to sell its flagship lager, Brooklyn Brown Ale, and Brooklyn East India Pale Ale in the Chicago......

We find Donald Trump to be a tragic figure, what with the ceaseless self-promotion, the infantile manner in which he responds to criticism, his unsolicited advice to politicians, the way he adopts the facial gestures of his succubi consorts, all those skyscrapers rising to the heavens like modern-day Towers of Babel, and the general bad behavior that stems from his misogyny. What next for a man who lives by the motto that if you paint......

Sometimes Chicagoist feels like we just can't watch any more college football or basketball. Yet even with ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, etc., the vast majority of collegiate athletics fails to appear on-air. Maybe we'd love to change things up and watch that Northwestern vs. Minnesota tennis meet, or that heated Purdue-Indiana volleyball rivalry, or the Big Ten Cross Country Championships. And now we'll be able to, as the Big Ten Conference has announced the launch of......