Quick Bites
- The Green Grocer Chicago market is now open at Grand and Noble. And don't criticize just yet for grabbing onto the "green" moniker for marketing purposes; the owner of the place is named Cassie Green. Get it? The market's goal is to "work closely with Midwestern farmers and producers to provide our customers the freshest food available while supporting our local economy. By choosing primarily to work with Midwestern sources, we get to know our food providers, our food tastes better and we are able to reduce harmful CO2 emissions caused by long-distance transportation." Cue smiling by area localvores.
- On the opposite end of the spectrum from healthy, green, living, is swine. And bacon, in particular. We love bacon, yes we do. But an entire basket of bacon may be pushing it. Especially when that basket is all you can eat. Check it out for yourself at Whiskey Road on Mondays. And don't say we didn't warn you.
- Michael Nagrant hit the road with national wing-eating champ and Kendall College culinary school graduate Patrick Bertoletti in order to find the best buffalo wings in Chicago. Bertoletti's pick for the best wings in Chicago go to Twisted Spoke. "These are smoky like roasted chicken," he says. "This is the best sauce I’ve tasted, really rich, nice salt and sweet balance. Maybe there’s some chipotle in there. The skin is really crispy. I’d rather lick my fingers clean than use a Wet-Nap.”
- Finally, Starbucks is starting to remind us of the restaurant that changes its menu, offers 2-for-1 deals, adds a live band, and so on and so forth, as it tries to figure out why people just aren't coming in the door. On the heals of its announcement that it would offer $1 cups of coffee with free refills, Starbucks is now saying that it will drop it's line of breakfast sandwiches (they were introduced in June, 2006). For those who can't get enough of S-buck's breakfast sandwiches, you'll be able to purchase them through fall of this year.