Izard Cleans Up at TOC Eat Out Awards

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Apr 12, 2011 7:40PM

Time Out Chicago announced their annual Eat Out Awards last night and readers, like much of us, fell for Stephanie Izard. Izard won the readers' choice for Chef of the Year (and it really was her year); Girl & the Goat won for best New Restaurant: Izard's business partners, BOKA's Kevin Boehm and Rob Katz, won Restaurateurs of the Year. The wins come on the heels of Izard's Food & Wine Best New Chef win (which we're still kind of flummoxed by, since Izard has had a national reputation dating back to her days at Scylla) and should dovetail nicely into next month's James Beard Awards, where Girl & the Goat is up for Best New Restaurant.

TOC Food Editor David Tamarkin also spoke with the Feast's Carly Fisher about 2010 being the year of Izard, how this year has so far shaped up to be the year of Grant Achatz, and why diners need to look past the long wait and sometimes rude customer service at Great Lake to just enjoy the genius of the pizza. That last one is going to be a tall order. We concur with Tamarkin that Great Lake has some of the best pizza in the city. But in a town like Chicago where a pizza often comes to your table 15-20 minutes after it's ordered, it's hard to get someone who's used to Marcello's to understand the commitment to the craft that Great Lake puts into their pizza. It's worth the read.