Last week, Craig Perman (Perman Wine Selections) and veteran chefs of the underground dinner scene Abe Conlon and Adrienne Lo (X-Marx) collaborated to host the third annual installment of Txakoholika, a Pop-up Pintxos and Wine Bar. Basque-inspired finger foods were paired with Sidra (hard cider) and five different Txakoli's, a slightly effervescent, highly acidic and dry wine (either white or rose) indigenous to the Basque region. Not only was this event a great way to introduce the new vintages of this truly unique juice to Chicago but allowed guests to experience San Sebastian for the evening. With summer around the corner, make sure you give these wines a try! more ›

Iron Chef America is generally a silly show, but it still has its drool-worthy moments. For us, the best moment is when the food is presented to the judges, and we get to see the finished products that the celebrity chefs have come up with. But food porn has its limits; mostly, we want to be there and taste that food! Then, after the show is over, we go into the kitchen and eat an entire block of cheese to soothe our pain. But, enough about us - you can eat exactly like the judges on Iron Chef America. Starting in early April, Mercat a la Planxa will be replicating one of Iron Chef Jose Garces winning Iron Chef America menus. Special ingredient? Mexican Chocolate. more ›

For the upcoming season, the Chicago Bulls have added a spanish-language radio broadcast as they try to reach out to the city's large Latino community. Twenty-one home games will be aired on La Tremenda WRTO 1200 AM, with Omar Ramos and Ozzie Guillen, Jr. calling the games. As in son of the hot headed, loud mouthed White Sox manager. If he runs his mouth anything like his dad, we're sure the broadcasts will be entertaining -- no matter the on-court play. Pretty sweet as we've been looking for an excuse to brush up on our Spanish. This isn't the first time Ramos and Guillen have teamed up: the pair have been calling the White Sox on Spanish radio for the past few seasons. more ›

We love tapas and (since this author lives in the South Loop) we love to see good restaurants opening in the neighborhood. So, it’s possible that we were predisposed to like Mercat a la Planxa before we walked through the door. Chef Jose Garces' tapas outpost made Esquire's list of Best New Restaurants last year. On the other hand, Time Out Chicago's David Tamarkin decried Mercat's supposed "lack of soul," and there have been a fair share of mediocre reviews on Yelp, so we were interested to see how the place would stack up. more ›