Esquire Hates The Playa, Hates The Game

By Erin in Food on Oct 11, 2005 7:04PM

Esquire magazine recently named the West Loop's Butter one of the 20 best new restaurants in the nation, a designation that surprises Chicagoist.

Here at the Chicagoist office, we are gigantic fans of Butter. Love Butter. Without a doubt, the evening we spent at Butter back in June was one of the best experiences we'd ever had and we'll go so far as to say that Butter is one of the city's best. But one of the best in the nation? For real?

Only four days before Butter, we'd just had dinner at Alinea and somehow Butter makes the cut but Alinea does not. How is that possible? Alinea takes a huge, and we feel wholly unfair, slam from Esquire's food columnist, John Mariani. He states that Grant Achatz and fellow Chicagoan Homaro Cantu, chef at moto, are " hocus-pocus chefs trying to make headlines based on things like burning incense next to a dish of venison and forcing desserts into squeeze tubes." Come on! Chicagoist's husband, not a foodie in the slightest bit, was in awe of Achatz and just respected his creativity, even if he didn't "get it."

John Mariani, not only are you boring and dated, Chicagoist would like to know how someone who makes his living as a writer can be so short-sighted and unimaginative. Plus, did Achatz and Cantu give you a wedgie on your way out the door of their restaurants? Say you didn't care for it, say it ain't your thing, but don't simply dismiss what these two are doing.

You sound so angry, dude. Let it go.