Gone Fishin'?

By Erin in Food on Feb 28, 2006 7:18PM

Yesterday, the hipster kids' favorite spot for comfort food, Hilary's Urban Eatery, shut the doors at its Division Street location with plans to reopen at an as-of-yet unofficial location in the Wicker Park neighborhood—though Chicago Magazine is reporting that fans should look for it sometime in the fall three blocks west between Ashland and Western Avenues.

Moves such as Hilary's aren't uncommon, especially when you consider how popular it has become. Interestingly enough, our friends at the Trib on Sunday ran an article that seemed to attribute Hilary's immense popularity as of late to an endorsement made by Ald. Manny Flores (1st) during his Feb. 10 appearance on the wildly popular - not to mention wildly awesome - "Check, Please!" WTTW-Ch. 11's restaurant review program.

This would be no big shakes of a story but the Trib seems to contend that perhaps some political improprieties may have taken place as Hilary's has donated more than $2,000 to Flores' political funds, as well as organizations run by a political operative of Flores, since 2003.

Now Chicagoist is no expert, nor are we particularly politically savvy, but we've all been scratching our heads about this story for two days now and we're just not sure why the Trib did it in the first place.

It's not uncommon for businesses to donate money to their aldermen, right? And, is $2K that much money during the course of almost three years? Plus, it's not as if Flores is lying about the food at Hilary's - in the Chicagoist office, opinions on Hilary's food range from "hella good" to "amazing." And while we realize that the quality of the food isn't the issue, we're wondering why anyone would think that Flores would be silly enough to endorse a restaurant that wasn't in his ward. And according to the Trib, it's not the first time this has occurred on the show: Ald. Walter Burnett (27th) endorsed campaign donor Wishbone back in 2001—much to the chagrin of the Bridgeport bureau of Chicagoist who contends, " [Wishbone] sucks ass."

So what gives, Trib? We've read the story several times and we're busting our skulls trying to figure out what your point was here. Anyone else have a guess?