We only got four out of fifteen correct. Take a look at the whole list, which includes some notable surprises. more ›

Hilarity ensues. more ›

*We're totally kidding. Smith Westerns could never write a song that good. more ›

The Sun-Times food critic for 27 years has been let go. more ›

Some of the best mobile eateries and stationary chefs in the city will convene in Noble Square on Aug. 27. more ›

The big secret of the Chicago food world (aside from how far our chefs have gotten on reality TV shows) has been what the next special menus would be at Grant Achatz's Next. After Paris 1906 and Thai, where would they go ... well, next? Achatz revealed plans for four more menus to Time Out's Heather Shouse yesterday. more ›

Well, this seems inevitable. The insane amounts of hype and anticipation around Next restaurant's new Thai menu led to a collapse of their computer systems last night when tickets finally went on sale. What Time Out's David Tamarkin called an "explosion of bourgeoise anger and first-world vitriol" (and we call just another example of why anonymous internet commenting leads people to be idiots) happened on the Next Facebook page, reminding us that you're only popular until you're not. more ›

Time Out Chicago gives us another reason to swoon for Carol Marin. Turns out she's inked. more ›

It's only taken three years, but we're ready to defend out alt-media slam title. more ›

Robert Feder's Time Out Chicago blog gets a slight makeover today. For the first time, all of Feder's blog posts from his time at Vocalo/WBEZ are now archived to one website. more ›

We agree with many of the inclusions in Time Out Chicago's "Lies We Tell Ourselves" article. But we also believe that the story only scratched the surface. So we had had a meeting of the minds and came up with some more lies we tell ourselves. The may hit a bit more close to home. more ›

We hear about a lot of "summit meetings" in the news - they usually involve world leaders, lots of bowing and attempts to avoid armageddon. Luckily, next week, Chicago will host a much more productive and entertaining summit - a Food Truck Summit. To celebrate her new book, "Food Trucks: Dispatches and Recipes from the Best Kitchens on Wheels," Heather Shouse (Senior Food and Drink Correspondant for Time Out Chicago) is hosting a meeting of the food trucks of Chicago. Do you live in a far-flung neighborhood? Or do you just find it exhausting to track food trucks on twitter? Now is your chance to try all of them in one place. more ›

Time Out Chicago announced their annual Eat Out Awards last night and readers, like much of us, fell for Stephanie Izard. Izard won the readers' choice for Chef of the Year (and it really was her year); Girl & the Goat won for best New Restaurant: Izard's business partners, BOKA's Kevin Boehm and Rob Katz, won Restaurateurs of the Year. The wins come on the heels of Izard's Food & Wine Best New Chef win (which we're still kind of flummoxed by, since Izard has had a national reputation dating back to her days at Scylla) and should dovetail nicely into next month's James Beard Awards, where Girl & the Goat is up for Best New Restaurant. more ›

Yesterday, Robert Feder broke the news that WLS-TV had settled on sports anchor Ryan Chiaverini and WGN Morning Show traffic reporter Valerie Warner would co-host a morning talk show to fill the 9 a.m. slot that was Oprah Winfrey's to claim since 1984. ABC7 confirmed that news, meaning Feder gets yet another feather in his career headdress. more ›

In today's Time Out Chicago, Julia Kramer penned a review that may cause Graham Elliot to start throwing rocks through her living room window. With all the hype and hoopla surrounding the opening of Graham Elliot's fancy new sandwich shop, finding a negative voice has been hard. Phil Vettel loved it on the opening day, as did our own Caitlin Roth. Kramer thinks that there isn't anything behind the hype, and gave Grahamwich one star. 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 ›

2011 brings a new home for Robert Feder's media criticism at Time Out Chicago's website (with one mouthful of a URL). Feder whetted appetites for what was to come with a midnight reminiscence of where he was the moment Oprah Winfrey became Oprah.But it's today's entry that reminds folks of why he's still the best media critic in town. 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 ›

Two weeks after announcing he was pulling up stakes and leaving WBEZ's family of blogs, Robert Feder's media blog has found a new home. more ›

Time Out Chicago's David Tamarkin, who last month said that food writers "should salivate over food, not chefs," practically slobbers all over over the prospect of a Grant Achatz food truck in an extended interview with the Alinea chef available online. more ›

Born out of the minds of two musicians with a penchant for wacked-out comedic stories, Abraham Levitan of the band Baby Teeth and Chicago Reader writer Brian Costello created a game show like no other: Shame That Tune. Hosted by Levitan and Costello and co-hosted by "The Coach," a.k.a. Time Out Chicago Books Editor Jonathan Messinger and "The Intern," a.k.a. Jeanine O'Tolle of the Chicago chamber-pop collective, The 1900s. more ›

August 19-21, Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, 5555 North River Rd. (Rosemont), tickets $25-50 via the Wizard World site more ›

The concept behind Naked Girls Reading is all in the title. It’s girls who are naked who are also reading. Or girls who are reading who are also naked. Since Michelle L’amour and Franky Vivid created Naked Girls Reading a little over a year ago, their events have taken off. Sure, there are more than enough videos and photos to go around, but seeing these lovely ladies read live is apparently “something spiritual.” These readings have become so popular that Naked Girls Reading has branched out to eight more cities and will be adding five more soon. Naked Girls Reading also leads naked-centric workshops, such as figure drawing or the nuts and bolts of strip-teasing. more ›

Back on April fools, we joked that because some of the art scene is such a joke, it can be hard to tell when an art prank is real. One of TOC's gag stories that day, actually, turned out to be prescient. They jokingly described an art show at a hipster apartment gallery, and now, it seems, everyone's talking about apartment galleries again. more ›

If you attended yesterday's Cubs home opener or at least walked by Wrigley during the game, you might have noticed several dozen protesters decked out in bright yellow shirts protesting the proposed Toyota sign that team owner Tom Ricketts wants to put up in left field. Well, as Time Out Chicago notes, it turns out those protesters weren't there just out of the goodness of their heart, but because they were paid. Jake Malooley quizzed a few of the protesters, who were paid $25 for two hours of "work." more ›

What’s more of a joke: the extreme fringe of contemporary art, or April Fools Day? more ›

• A DuPage County jury has sentenced Edward Tenney to death for a 1992 murder.
• Jury selection kicked off today in Calvin Boender's case.
• Authorities weren't too amused with a bus prank pulled by a pair of East Aurora High students.

Time Out Chicago announced the finalists for its annual "Eat Out" Awards last week and (if you're a casual gourmand or non-foodie) you might find the ballot as "WTF?" confusing as the list of judicial retentions on your primary ballot. Assuming, that is, you were part of the 27.2 percent who actually voted in the recent primary. more ›

Time Out Chicago's Julia Kramer has an illuminating profile on Dale Levitski and the road he's traveled, from being a Top Chef runner-up to landing at Sprout in Lincoln Park. When an article begins with a chef being served for non-payment of rent, you know it hasn't been all bread and circuses. A sample quote: more ›

Time Out Chicago's David Tamarkin tries to write a humorous piece about our obsession with bacon — he thinks it's much ado about nothing — but comes across sounding like Clint Eastwood in "Gran Torino." Thanks, David. You just gave us an excuse to run another shot of our recent pantry meat experiment. [TOC] more ›