While browsing at O’Gara and Wilson in Hyde Park, we stumbled across a copy of Trader Vic’s Book of Food and Drink – a first edition from 1946, signed by the Trader himself. As lovers of classic cocktails, we couldn’t let this one go, and we’ve had fun making the various 1940s rum-based cocktails and reading the dated and sarcastic prose. One recipe for “Pondo Punch” was named after “Our Filipino Boy” who apparently used to make them for the Trader. Another, the Mahukona, is described thusly: “There’s a good story about this drink, but sitting here trying to remember it, I’m stuck. I know I got the drink some place, because I still have the scrap of paper I scribbled it down on, but dammed if I can remember where it was.” more ›

We've written before about the sad demise of the Chicago Trader Vic's, how it was unceremoniously booted from the Palmer House after the hotel's new owners took over. And we've also sighed about the fact that the reopening of a new Trader Vic's, which was originally supposed to happen in 2006, has still not materialized. Well, we now have some proof that it's finally happening. more ›

As we posted earlier this summer there's quite a hidden history of tiki in the Chicagoland area that's been all but forgotten, which is why local author James Teitelbaum's research is so valuable. His book Tiki Road Trip chronicled his coast-to-coast quest for the best in tiki, both modern and vintage. It was so successful that earlier this year he published a new edition. This Thursday he'll be in town for a reading and... more ›

NPR Host Peter Sagal — Again
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"Exotica was a round-trip ticket departing everyday for something more fabulous. It had the feel of distant places, but it took you to spots never before trekked by man ... All this cultural production promised a world more primitive and less mediated than life in the burgeoning white collar states. Exotica was more than a sound, it was design movement, and a pop art reaction to a Cold War paradigm that said all that was... more ›

It's now (sort of) official: Robert Redford's Sundance Cinemas has signed a lease to open an eight-screen theater on the site of the former Fannie May candy factory in the West Loop. The last time we reported on this story was way back in 2005. But as anyone waiting for a Dominick's to reopen in lakeview can tell you, real estate development often moves about as quickly as a glacier. (Tangental rhetorical question: whatever happened... more ›

Peter Sagal - Host of "Wait! Wait! Don't Tell Me!" more ›