The jury in alleged mobster Anthony Calabrese's trial may hear an audio tape of him beating the living the shit out of someone, even though he's on trial for armed robbery. The Sun-Times got ahold of a transcript of the tape, and it really reads like a scene right out of The Sopranos. Except the curses are blacked out. [S-T] more ›

You sure surprised us last week when we unveiled our first readers' choice "BotW" selection. Not only did you argue with each other over Goose Island Summertime, but Goose Island brewmaster Greg Hall interjected himself into the discussion and gave us - and by extension, you, since June is "readers' choice" month - propers. more ›

In a case what a Cook County Judge called "... bar none, is the worst I have ever seen or heard," a former CTA maintenance yard worker Thursday was sentence to life in prison plus 30 years for the beating death of his 12-year-old daughter. more ›

Chicagoist has an affinity for Charlie Trotter. The first meal where we really tried to impress a girl was made with recipes from Chef Trotter's arsenal. (We're married to her now) Love him or hate him, the guy is a badass in the kitchen and sets the bar for excellence in his art, and that’s why we’re so happy that he’s our haute cuisine hometown hero. We’re also food geek enough to admit that we taped episodes of ‘Kitchen Sessions with Charlie Trotter’ while it was running on WYCC (Channel 20 – for those of you, like us, who aren’t sucking on Comcast’s idiot teat, but lo we do miss The Sopranos). We were looking for a tape to record last week’s Simpsons and found an episode of ‘Kitchen Sessions’ that we watched and were intrigued by. So, we went about gathering the ingredients to the best of our ability. We are occasionally put off when a chef references an ingredient that he had some sherpa hand deliver to him from a hidden fjord that you can’t get anywhere else in the world, which is only available for three days when the moon is in a waning crescent. Our appreciation is great when a chef understands the different skill levels and ultimate depth of commitment that a person at home can invest into a meal and offers commonly available ingredients or substitutions. more ›

Note to all visiting celebrities: What happens in Chicago does not stay in Chicago. This is not Vegas, and if you invade our town and make an ass of yourself, we aren’t going to keep quiet about it. more ›

Hollywood incinerated the post-summertime trash last weekend in preparation for some tried-and-true formula pictures releasing today. more ›

Emmy nominations came out today, and if only to prove how much TV we can watch, we’re going to weigh in on just about everything. We’ll do this again right before and probably right after the Emmys, too. So stay tuned. Unfortunately, one of our favorite shows wasn't eligible this time around, so we'll take a second to think fondly of "Six Feet Under. "Our favorites are in bold. Drama Series: "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,"... more ›