"Top Chef:" Where to See the Flames Rise When You Don't Have Cable

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Apr 2, 2008 3:57PM

If you haven't figured it out by now, the Chicagoist offices have a "Top Chef" fever. How the makeup artists at Bravo make Gail Simmons (pictured) look not so Canadian, we'll never know. But we thank them.

Anyway, there are some readers who don't have cable or satellite who are interested in wanting to catch the fever. There are a few places around town that host "Top Chef" screenings in a lively atmosphere.

Cans in Wicker Park would seem a most unlikely place to view "Top Chef." But they have screenings every Wednesday, to go along with their Wednesday specials of $1 sliders and $4 big cans. Do your hair up in a faux hawk and cheer on Richard and his twin Jennifer.

Kit Kat Lounge & Supper Club goes all out for "Top Chef," with martini and dinner specials every week to go along with catty commentary about the (ugh) chef*testants and Padma (they'll probably show no mercy to special guest Richard Roeper in this evening's episode). They also have it down to a science, having segued straight from "Project Runway" directly into "Top Chef."

Uptown residents can head to Crew, where "TC" is screened every Wednesday among the sports shows. We've heard that th screenings at Crew can get a little lively.