Quick Bites

By Laura Oppenheimer in Food on Nov 1, 2007 2:36PM

If you are a big fan of Gigio's Pizza, then you are in luck. They're running a promotion right now where saving 20 menus will earn you $5 off an order. MenuPages attempted to look into the small print of the promotion, but was seemingly unable to get anyone from Gigio's to pick up the phone. If you want to spend $400+ dollars to save $5, now you know how. Alternatively, as suggested by Adam from MP, you could just walk into the restaurant and pick up 20 menus at once.

The Stew chatted with Lady Padma about her experiences in Chicago during the taping of Top Chef Season 4. Her three favorite restaurants? Vermillion (“I wanted to hate it,”), Avec and Table 52.

Alpana isn't the only woman in town knowledgeable about wine. So is her BFF Belinda Chang (pictured), wine director for the Tramonto-Gand empire in Wheeling. Or, she was. Chang is taking off for New York to become wine director at Danny Meyer's The Modern, in New York's Museum of Modern Art. TOC laments "Having Ms. Chang in the city has been like carrying around a bottomless bottle of Krug. So one can only imagine how it feels to realize there are only a few drops left."

Big news for residents of Hyde Park (via); the 53rd St. location of Noodles, Etc, is closed, but in it's place, Chant has opened. Well, their website says so, at least. We're waiting a return phone call for confirmation. Chant has the same owners, still Asian and Asian-inspired, but word on the street says that it's "theoretically different". Update: Astute Chicagoist reader huckeyes notes that not only is Chant open, but also that it appears so have a liquor license.

Speaking of Hyde Park, Nobel Prize winner (and recent Presidential Medal Freedom Recipient) Gary Becker argues that population increases a la Malthus, aren't to blame for the increasing cost of food. Interesting stuff if you can get through an un-blog-like blog post.

Finally, check out this photo of local food writer Michael Nagrant's son, dressed as a Chicago style hot dog. Nice work!