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Restaurant News: Goosefoot Best In Chicago, Crofton On Wells Closes

By Anthony Todd in Food on Apr 11, 2012 6:20PM

- Chicago Magazine has surprised everyone in the food world with their Best New Restaurants list. Instead of picking the presumptive favorite, Next, as the Best New Restaurant in Chicago, they choose Lincoln Square fine dining upstart Goosefoot. This was a pretty bold move, and led to some sniping on Twitter between Chicago's food experts. Sun-Times dining critic Michael Nagrant responded to the decision with a whole series of tweets, arguing that he was "Pretty sure if 100 diners went to Goosefoot and Next (assume both at their best) in the same week and voted, Next wins." Grubstreet critiqued the rest of the list, pointing out the preponderance of fine dining restaurants and the relegation of places like Publican Quality Meats to a "budget" list. If you aren't familiar with Goosefoot, take a look at this gorgeous video, produced by the restaurant.

- Crofton on Wells, a Chicago dining mainstay since we've been eating here, has closed its doors. Owner Susie Crofton confirmed the closing to Eater Chicago, saying that despite a good year in 2011, 2012 has been so slow that they decided to close. Crofton says the restaurant is "reconcepting." Mike Gebert pointed to their Michelin star - Crofton on Wells got a star in the first round of awards and then lost it last year without much attention, reconfirming its relative anonymity in the Chicago dining scene.

- Chicago police seem to be following food trucks around with social media, using some slightly unsavory tactics. Sometimes, the trucks don't even need to be selling food, as the Sun Times reported: "Lupita Kuri, owner of the mobile bakery Sweet Ride, said in one such incident her driver had just pulled up but had yet to serve any customers when a police officer approached and told her he was ticketing her — based on her Facebook posting. 'You can’t get me for premeditated selling of a cupcake,' Kuri said her driver protested." Another owner claimed that during a meeting with the city, officials casually asked them about the best spots for food trucks. Suddenly those spots were swarming with police writing tickets. Good to know that the city has so much energy to spend on preventing cupcakes from being sold on the street.