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October 31, 2007

You Can Jack My Lantern Any Time: Top Ten Jackolanterns

We went trolling around the internet for the best jackolanterns (you know, since they're made out of food), and we found ten that we liked. And RANKED them!

10) Barfing pumpkin (with beer), Red/Brian

It drank too much, obviously.

9) Winnie The Pooh, mmastsuura

This jackolantern terrifies us! So Japanese.

8) R2D2, Derringdos

Cute. Would like more holes, but must worry about accuracy.

7) Jack 'O Lantern Mushroom, Cornell Mushroom Blog

Completely irrelevant that it's from a different kingdom. It's poisonous! People mistake it for Chanterelles! Also, Cornell mushroom blog!

6) A.C. Slater, robotrock/flickr

Um, amazing. Loses points for not being lit up.

5) Pumpkin Pi, Theoda/flickr

Conceptually clever. Loses points for being too easy to carve, gains a few back because the carver is taking it into work.

4) Cylon (Battlestar Galactica), MAKE

Wow. LEDs, even! Also, Cylons are really scary.

3) Dwight (The Office), jeffer72/flickr

Deep pop-culture relevancy. Fancy carving. Could have been a bit more in focus, but oh well.

2) Hokusai's "36 Views of Mt. Fuji," jessica_beagan/flickr

OMG. This is art. On a pumpkin. For real. Yes!

1) Cannibal pumpkin, Gregory Brown/flickr

Perfectly captures the holiday spirit. Reminds us of Bill Watterson (Calvin & Hobbs) and LOLcats, all at once. Expressions are spot on. Lovely.

For more sick jackos, check out Extreme Pumpkins. They do it right.

Have a hollow Happyween, everybody!

Posted by Adam Peltz on 10/31/2007 at 05:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Features | Photos & Clips | Roundups

Supplementing The Sun-Times: Fall-ish Themes

The Sun-Times is already over Halloween. They did it last week, anyway. Instead, Chuck Sudo takes a look at the Day of the Dead / Dia de los Muertos, especially as it plays itself out along the main corridors of Mexican Chicago. It's a baking holiday - your pan de muerto might be dipped into hot chocolate or offered up to ancestral spirits (flying around for eternity makes you very hungry). There's also plenty of mole and whatnot, too, whether you go to your favorite local or one of the city's top Mexicans. Actually, your local will probably just be serving whatever it does normally. But maybe not! Call ahead and ask.

Meanwhile, Seth Schwartz has a heartwarming story about a local school that went from frozen and canned food to fresh and insourced, and the kids...loved it! Usually, the stories are about how kids hate the delicious new food and are doomed to be fat and stupid for generations. Every time you break the cycle, you break it permanently.

Denise O'Neal thinks that Betty Crocker's Sweet Potato Mashed Potatoes are crap. We just wanted to through that in there.

Sandy Thorn Clark has a profile on food personality Christopher Kimball. He's been assembling a cookbook of old American recipes, like Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake. Maybe we could have let that one disappear into the ether of the past? (JK, everything should be preserved forever.) But also, we found out that there's a secret to perfect pie dough: "Vodka! We add vodka and water for a moist, easy-to-roll dough that stays tender, and the vodka vaporizes in the oven." MP:Boston laughed at us when we got excited, informing us that "there have been things about that on the internet for like two weeks." We felt commensurately stupid.

Finally, "neener neener, your pumpkin looks like a squash!" "Wow, you are stupider than you look. First of all, pumpkins are squashes. Second of all, this is a red kuri squash. Don't you read Lisa Donovan? It's the new hot sh*t." We couldn't have said it better ourselves.

[Photo: red kuri squash, vvvanessa/flickr]

Posted by Adam Peltz on 10/31/2007 at 04:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Food Media | Review Revue

God Is There A Lot Of Crap Going On Tonight: Halloween Edition

While we prefer savory food holidays to sweet food holidays, nobody doesn't like Halloween on some level, at least. Transgression of norms! Etcetera. But for it to really be Halloween, you have to do something, unfortunately. If you're a parent with young children, then you're all set with trick-or-treating and whatnot, and can feel free to stop reading. Parents with older children, or anyone over the age of 35, really, don't have to do squat except turn off the lights and lock the doors (sometimes we wish we were old and lived in a single-occupancy dwelling, you see). Cool people already have a party to go to. This leaves the boring and the pathetic, who are all dressed up with no place to go - fear not! We have some ideas for you, in alphabetical order because we can't help ourselves:

• Cans is hosting a party tonight that they're sort of calling "Get off your can," which is in the spirit of the introduction to this post. Possible prizes include a 24" LCD TV, and you should keep in mind their $6 pumpkin-tinis.

• Crew has the best-named party we've seen so far: Eighties Hades. We love unexpected rhymes! There will be 80s music, obviously, $175 in prizes, and Ichabod Pumpkin Ale. What would be an appropriate costume? Richard Simmons, maybe.

• Mad River is having that objectionable $500 "Sexiest Female" contest we told you about last week. How low can your brow go?

• Mary's is having this kooky Carpenters-on-Carpenter event, and no, it's not what you'd want that to mean; instead, it's a drag send up of John Carpenter's Halloween, set to The Carpenters. It's $10 at 8pm, and they advise to get there early. If you can't make it, there's ScaryOke (brilliant) at 9:30, and then a costume contest at 11:30. $3 well drinks!

• Paramount Room thinks Halloween is for chumps and gringos. They're having a Dia de Los Muertos party instead, but reading the details (costume contest, Jack Daniel's shots, and music including "spooky surf favorites"), it just sounds like a humdrum Halloween party with a slightly fancier name. Except that there will be Day of the Dead-themed art, and free food (not Mexican, though).

[Photo: dress up as her! susiroh.de/flickr]

FYI: Krazy Kwotes For Halloween

• "Biodynamically grown apples with biodynamic caramel and chopped pecans" - Carol Moseley Braun, politician extraordinaire, on what she wants to eat tonight [NYTimes]
• "Your stomach can't count, but your eyes can when they seen the empty wrappers" - Brian Wansink, food professor [Science Daily]
• "Much food is scary not on its own account but because of the pollutants, chemicals and synthetically engineered production process" - Toby Hatchett, columnist [Seacoastonline]
• "We thought the predominant use was for decorations or jack-o'-lanterns" - Renee Mulvey, Iowa Dep't of Revenue (emphasis added to make it funny) [AP]
• "Scientists Find Oldest Living Animal, Then Kill It" - A former Onion intern maybe, now writing "legit" headlines [Fox News]

Posted by Adam Peltz on 10/31/2007 at 08:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: FYI

October 30, 2007

Best Of MenuPages Reviews: The People Have Spoken!

No more polls, ever. But, in fact, a clear plurality emerged. Despite the miniscule sample size, we're prepared to declare Joe's 10/21 review of Smak-Tak to be the best review of the period 10/16-10/23. Wow, that's really niche; no wonder no one voted!

A little background - last Tuesday, we nominated four MenuPages user reviews as the best of the previous week, and asked you to vote for the "best," based on rather fuzzy metrics. We advised the reader to vote for "whichever one gives you the best sense of the restaurant, good, bad or ugly. Alternatively, choose the review that you most enjoyed reading, whether you learned anything or not." As such, it's somewhat difficult to unpack the results, especially considering that there were only fourteen votes. But we can try!

First, we'll privilege the winner with a full reprint of his review (oh, if only Joe knew of the laudation he's receiving!):

I was in town on business and heard about the Polish section of Chicago from my sister in Florida. I searched the web and took a chance on Smak Tak. What a find!!! I was pleasantly surprised how quaint and authentic the decor was, it reminded me of Zakopane in Poland. I started with a bowl of borszt which was really good and then couldn't decide between the pork cutlet or the pierogi so I got them both. They first brought out the pork cutlet which looked wonderful. It was huge and covered with mushrooms. It was accompanied with real mashed potatoes covered with dill, a nice portion of marinated carrots and a delicious cucumber/sour cream salad. About half way through that I was already stuffed but they brought out the pierogi, 13 of them! I asked for an assortment and they delivered. First one was blueberry, then plum, then cherry, then cheese, then meat...I had to stop before I burst! They were delicious!!! I had to pack up leftovers. The best part...the whole thing with a drink was just around $20. I HIGHLY recommend this palce and will definitely go back next time I'm in Chicago. Na Zdrowie!

What's nice about this review is that, even though it's overwhelmingly positive enough to be a shill, the name drop of the semi-obscure Polish ski resort, and the vernacular "cheers" at the end, probably make it real. That, and everyone seems to like Smak-Tak. And also, his IP address places him somewhere in Texas - normally damning, but in this case, exonerating! As for the review itself, it's quite descriptive, and definitely makes us hungry for Polish food. Pierogis of three food groups - who can resist? Oh man, by the way, there should be more vegetable pierogis in the world, right? So all that and an upbeat demeanor got Joe and Smak-Tak nearly 43% of the vote.

The runner-up was Boy7, reviewer of Ping Pong. This review was quite critical, calling out the poor value and poorer service he received, but balancing it slightly with a (few) positive notes from the meal. Boy7 gave context (he was there with a guest from San Francisco, another Asian food bastion), did not specifically shill for another restaurant, and supplied a very vivid description of the shrimp and peanuts he found especially unappealing: "Its just boiled shrimp with too much peanuts and oyster sauce." You can visualize this perfectly in your head and on your palette, right? Such was the strength of this review, but not enough to clock in at more than 29%.

The also-rans, brett on Semiramis and Zellah60609 on Bridgeport Coffee House, pulled in a mere 14% each. We're sympathetic about the Semiramis review - it wasn't all that great, and we put it in mostly because Semi is somewhat undersung. The Bridgeport review, though, we rather liked. Zellah talks about the aspects of the coffee shop that appeal to her, and then names a specific flaw or two, directing her concerns to the owner so as to attempt to rectify the situation. But it's done in a constructive, rather than mean-spirited, fashion. This review, we feel, has the best chance of improving the lives of the most number of people. In extremely minor ways, to be sure, but that is beside the point.

At any rate, thank you for suffering through this exercise, and we've gotten the message about our attempt at interactivity. We didn't take it personally! Next week, we will return to your regularly scheduled BOMPR.

Smak-Tak [MenuPages]
Smak-Tak [Official Site]

Posted by Adam Peltz on 10/30/2007 at 05:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Features | Review Revue | Roundups

Strange Promotions: Gigio's Pizza

We were busily updating menus today when we came across this crazy deal offered by Gigio's Pizza on Irving Park and Pulaski. The deal is as follows:

Have you ever seen anything like this? Us either. It raises a variety of questions. We thought we'd call Gigio's and ask them about their policy, but the following happened instead:

Call 1) ten rings, then slight background noise. We hang up.
Call 2) three rings, then someone picks up and immediately hangs up the phone.
Call 3) three rings, then slight background noise, and a sullen "hello." We ask if we've reached Gigio's Pizza, and our interlocutor hangs up without a pause or a word.

Did we have the right number? OF COURSE we did, we're freakin' MenuPages! So basically, this guy was just an asshole. Let us forge on with our discussion of the offer, confirmation and explication be damned.

1) Let's take this at face value and assume it means, after twenty deliveries, you get $5 off. Now, twenty deliveries is, what, $400? So the discount comes to approximately 1%, depending on what kind of pizza you like. HOW GENEROUS.

2) Also, the $5 would go a small fraction of the way toward paying the $40 in delivery charges you'd accrue in the process. By the way, delivery fees? We hate them. It's pure gravy. Unless the restaurant is using it to buy gas for its delivery cars, the money isn't going anywhere but the till. The delivery guy is getting almost nothing for his time - it all comes from your tips, which are much lower than they'd be if there wasn't a fee sapping your generosity. (We also don't like the practice of tipping - pay a fair wage and factor it into the food prices, dammit! But that's a whole other post.)

3) Is this a hidden jab at menu websites? Does Gigio's intend to punish its customers for using MenuPages? We think so!

4) So, couldn't you just game the system by walking into the store and picking up two dozen copies of the menu? After all, they're newly worth a quarter each (although the meter won't accept them). To prevent this, Gigio's would have to be extremely miserly with handing the things out, or they'd have to stamp each menu that goes out with the pizza to the customer's home to ensure its validity later on. We suspect that neither of these things transpire. Please feel free to cheat them, by the way! Exploiting loopholes is a great American pastime.

Okay, we feel better now!

Gigio's Pizza [MenuPages]

[Photo: from the menu they faxed us]

Posted by Adam Peltz on 10/30/2007 at 04:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Northwest Side | Events & Promotions | Restaurant Highlight

Buyout Poetry

Dear Applebees,

Even though you've been purchased by a company
that's both smaller and lower-end than you
and for less than your actual value
IHOP we can still be friends!

Love and pancakes,
The New Management

Applebee's Shareholders Back $1.9B Sale [NYTimes]

[Photo: apple pancake, from Walker Bros., by southeast star/flickr]

Posted by Adam Peltz on 10/30/2007 at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Chains

FYI: Underfunding The CTA...

...is anti-urban, anti-environmental, anti-humanist, and generally petty, pathetic and disgusting. We're ashamed of the State of Illinois. There. We said it.

Meanwhile...

• NU is in the running for a PETA award for its vegetarian offerings [Tribune]
• Can topical application of broccoli cure skin cancer? Um, sure! [NYTimes]
• Similarly, hot peppers up your nose cures headaches. That one's true [NYTimes]
• Is there a good reason why the Taliban is killing food aid workers?* [Guardian]
• AA to test new a la carte crap on its desperate and hungry passengers [CNN]

* To reestablish their monopoly on power, duh. So realpolitik!

Posted by Adam Peltz on 10/30/2007 at 09:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: FYI

October 29, 2007

(Re)launched: MenuPages San Francisco Blog!

We are happy to announce that MP:SF is back in business (well, it was never really gone, but it definitely had a Schiavo thing going on)! The blog (and MenuPages San Francisco, for that matter) is newly helmed by Adam Martin, late of the crime beat at the San Francisco Examiner. Neat! Actual reporting! Foodies of Baghdad by the Bay* sure are lucky he's on their side. Right off the bat, Adam found this amazing photo essay on McDonald's pizza that you'd have to click on to believe. Anyway, with two Adams on board, the MenuPages blogosphere will never know what hit it.

MenuPages Blog :: San Francisco [Official Site]

* no, seriously, that's what they call it. Has something to do with local columnist Herb Caen and the 1940s, when Baghdad was "multicultural" and "exotic"

Posted by Adam Peltz on 10/29/2007 at 05:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Outside The Area | MenuPages News | Openings & Closings

Padmania: Ms. Lakshmi Seen Smooching Salman

We have espoused our fascination with Padma Lakshmi in these pages before; after all, she's the closest thing we've got to culinary-intelligentsia-royalty, miraculously without being any of those things herself. Last we heard about Padma's on-again-off-again relationship with Salman Rushdie, the two were getting married. No wait, divorced. No wait, sucking face at Keep a Child Alive benefit after-party in New York last week! Ahh!!! Is Salman the child that Padma is keeping alive? That seems to be the most reasonable explanation. Also, Jada Yuan of NYMag seems to think it has something to do with the open bar. Before the event, Padma was asked how she chose the menu for the event (of course she was choosing the menu). She replied "Short ribs are good because they sit well and they put a good base down for alcohol." Well yeah, if you eat them. Otherwise you just end up floating over to your ex and then getting your pretty little figure splashed all over the gossip pages. Again. And how do you think it makes Salman feel? A bit jerked around, we'd imagine. We don't mean to put words in his mouth, but, like, "can't the bitch make up her mind?" Because the kicker is, she left without him, and he without her (and she seemed to be the one upset about it, if you weren't confused enough). Oh, the heartache! Oh, the drama! More please.

Padma Will Have the Salman [NYMag]
Condé Nast Black Ball for Keep a Child Alive, Honoring Bono [NYMag]

p.s. "Padma Will Have the Salman" is funny and we wish we had thought of it

[Photo: Siliconeer]

Posted by Adam Peltz on 10/29/2007 at 04:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Outside The Area | Food Media

Blog Reviews: Week Of Nobody Voting

Chicago's intrepid food bloggers were all over the damn place last week, in alphabetical order by restaurant

• New Bin 36-related Italian A Mano has the kitchen in the center, producing delicious-looking food that you can see if you click through [Chicagoist]

• Lest you believe there's no Afghan food in Chicago, the eponymous Afghan Restaurant proves (deliciously) otherwise [Big Sweet Tooth]

• Is Alice & Friends the best mostly vegan restaurant in Chicago? Try their how-can-that-not-be-made-out-of-animal flesh entrees and see for yourself [Chicago Foodies]

vote here.jpg

• How's the food and service at Jackson Park's Marina Cafe? Great, right? Not so much, no [Chicagoist]

• Can both novices and foodies enjoy the sometimes-haute Mexican food at MEXX Kitchen At The Whiskey? Probably - also, tequila helps [The Stew]

• So far, critics are of the opinion that Old Town Brasserie is "plate-lickin'" good [The Stew]

• Clearly the winner in terms of volume of reviews, Pastoral is exciting the Loop with its high-end sandwiches and artisanal cheese selection [Food Chain, Stew]

• To no one's surprise, the recommended "Kobe" burger at Rockit Bar & Grill falls short of expectations, which were low to begin with [Chicago Burger Project]

• Good food, great service at Tweet for brunch [Drive-Thru]

• Mike Nagrant was thrilled to discover that Village Restaurant, an IndoPak near his residence in the West Loop, serves food that is 1) good and 2) spicy. Such a syzygy is infrequent south of Devon [Hungry Magazine]

[Photo: ooh, commentary! Skewgee/flickr]

FYI: Enough With The Humans Already!

• New idea for fast food industry: get rid of the people [NYTimes]
• Wales is going to kill 500k lambs! We can has instead? [Guardian]
• Duh: another study says organic food is healthier [BBCNews]
• Stay healthy this Halloween: eat pumpkin instead [MSNBC]
• CME goes electronic; sweaty, pork-belly-trading men sad [NYTimes]

Posted by Adam Peltz on 10/29/2007 at 08:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: FYI

October 26, 2007

Final Imploration: Best Review Poll

Perhaps you recall that this past Tuesday, we opened the polls for the best MenuPages user review of last week. We're not even going to tell you how few people voted, but you can see for yourselves, if you vote.

You know what would make us happy? If we hit double-digits by Monday. Any one sympathetic soul could make it happen! Here's the poll, and for the sake of not excessively repeating ourselves, a link back to the four reviews from which to choose:

Opinion Polls & Market Research

And remember, without you, democracy is dead. Have a good weekend!

Posted by Adam Peltz on 10/26/2007 at 04:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Features

Distasteful Events: Mad River's "Sexiest Female"

So we got an email from Mad River, informing us that there is to be a contest for "sexiest female" on Halloween with a $500 cash prize. We were all ready to be self-righteous about how unfortunate this is, especially with respect to the poor use of the word "female," which refers to biological sex, and not gender. We were going to talk about how pre-op F2M transsexuals should flood the place and demand entrance to the competition, with hilarity and heartbreak ensuing.

But then we went to the website and noted a subtle difference in phrasing: "sexiest female costume." Well, now we have no idea what the constraints of the competition are. Can anyone dressed like a sexy woman enter? While such an event would seem more fit for Hamburger Mary's than for Mad River, they're busy doing John Carpenter's Halloween set to The Carpenters, in cabaret form! (Actually, they're also holding a costume contest, but we can't imagine the rules being very structured.)

Of course, we know exactly what they mean by the contest rules, and we know exactly who's going to vote, and we know that it probably won't be all that sexy (since the winner will inevitably be a cliché). But consider the following: the $500 cash prize for sexiest female is dwarfed by the $1000 cash prize for a trivia contest beginning next month. Alas, the brains money has to be split among the teammates, while the boobs money will only go to one ogled female.

Halloween Party [Mad River]
Mad River [MenuPages]
Mad River [Official Site]
Carpenter's Halloween! [Mary's Attic]
Hamburger Mary's [MenuPages]
Hamburger Mary's [Official Site]

[Photo: clearly the sexiest female, Elrosth]

Posted by Adam Peltz on 10/26/2007 at 03:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: North Side | Drinks & Drinking | Events & Promotions

Robotizing The Reader: Honky Tonk BBQ, Paramount Room, Rosebud Prime

What we like about Paramount Room and Rosebud Prime, reviewed in today's Reader, is that one is PR and the other is RP. Anne Spiselman and Kate Schmidt, thank heavens, have more fleshed-out opinions on the restaurants.

Ms. Spiselman thinks that the Guinness Stout-braised Berkshire pork shank at PR is worth braving the ADA-inaccessible gastropub's poor service and otherwise hit-or-miss food. It's also worth noting that an "optional complimentary bourbon-cured foie gras" can be added to a lackluster French toast brioche - notable because Anne seems to get all the illicit-foie-related assignments!

Meanwhile, Ms. Schmidt was underwhelmed, bordering on horrified, by the tiny drinks, soggy fries and overcooked steaks at RP. How much can you expect from a chain restaurant with sports on plasma screens anyway, though? Highlight of the review: the use of the phrase "oyster liquor." Is that why they're called oyster shooters...mmmm. But no, it's not why.

Also, David Hammond went to Honky Tonk Barbeque (HTB?) and liked it. The ribs are good; what can one say. Oh, also that it's BYOB. You know what's good to bring to BYOB barbecue? A 375 of bourbon. You can drink it in a paper sack for verisimilitude! Also, the following:

Lisa: "Come to Homer's BBBQ, the extra 'B' is for BYOBB"
Bart: What's that extra B for?
Homer: That's a typo.

Pilsen barbecue, a subterranean speakeasy, and a subprime steak house [Reader]
Honky Tonk Barbeque [MenuPages]
Honky Tonk Barbeque [Official Site]
Paramount Room [MenuPages]
Paramount Room [Official Site]
Rosebud Prime [MenuPages]
Rosebud Prime [Official Site]

[Photo: Oh man, we couldn't find a screencap of the BBBQ invitation. So no photo.]

Funny Lit, Funnier Typos: Between Boutique Cafe & Lounge

Here's a quickie we noticed while putting Between Boutique Cafe & Lounge's new menu online. Between, in case you have forgotten, is the not-quite-small, not-quite-large, but-definitely-eclectic plates venue in Wicker Park that aims to wow you with crazy combinations in just the right portions.

The wowing continues with the menu descriptions, if not in the intended manner. We generally tolerate the dessert/desert error, because even though it's fairly illiterate, it can be conceivably excused as a typo. Not so on the Between website! Describing their "deserts," Between coos, "Avocado Dream, Between the Sheets Chocolate Cake aren't just deserts - they are sexy." First, the sentiment on its own is totally banal. The phrasing is absolutely dreadful, but what pushes it into the comical is the misspelling of desserts (n.b. we fixed the spelling error on the MP menu). Furthermore, ironically, don't the Gobi or the Sahara or the Taklamakan or the Mojave sound sexier than avocado dream? Our last avocado dream was the pits! And jeebus, how much more painfully obvious could you get than "between the sheets"? Clichés are NOT sexy.

All that said, the sweet potato tartlette with fennel cream, mint oil and a gingersnap crust sounds delicious.

Between Boutique Cafe & Lounge [MenuPages]
Between Boutique Cafe & Lounge [Official Site]

[Photo: the sexxxy Taklamakan desert in NW China, atozjoe/flickr]

Posted by Adam Peltz on 10/26/2007 at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Northwest Side | Restaurant Highlight

FYI: Things Change Very Slowly

• The farm bill, largely unreformed, heads to the Senate [Tribune]
• Japan's food safety problems are profoundly embarrassing [AP]
• We (well, Canadians) are still eating way too much salt [Globe & Mail]
• Britain: if it's airshipped, we won't label it organic [Supermarket]
• McD's eliminated Supersize, but others picked up the slack [CNN]

Posted by Adam Peltz on 10/26/2007 at 08:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: FYI

October 25, 2007

Ticking Down The TOC: Old Town Brasserie

Finally, a Halloween issue we can get behind! Maybe it's because it's aimed at our demographic and not old people in the suburbs with insufferable children. Yes, please, glow-in-the-dark beer and chocolate skulls. Even though skulls are totally 2006, and glow-in-the-dark beer reminds of us of the glow-in-the-dark shrimp from this morning...it's close enough. Especially because the chocolate has fancy stuff like sea salt and chili in it.

Also, until 10 seconds ago, we did not know it was legal to combine white wine and vodka. We feel like if we tried it ourselves, we'd screw it up - especially because we don't have cinnamon, chamomile and orange rind on hand for the proper infusion, nor do we know jack about ratios. Guess we will have to go to Custom House for the real deal. Because we could use one of these ASAP - we think it would cure our food poisoning somehow!

So having never cooked ever, we've decided we're a genius chef and there's nothing we can't make, on the fly, without a recipe. That's why we have absolutely no interest in TOC's roundup of new cookbooks. Which is why we choose the one that isn't really a cookbook - "My Last Supper: 50 Great Chefs and Their Final Meals." TOC says it's mostly a coffee table book with pretty pictures and funny stories. Note that MP:Boston wrote a piece about the book this morning, and we're quoted in it. Ooh, someone put us on the Internet! We're kvelling!

Oh yes, and David Tamarkin went to Old Town Brasserie, whose menu came into our inbox mere moments ago. Tamarkin couldn't stop swooning over the classic, super-solid French fare. Except when it came to the occasionally spotty service and not-up-to-perfection appetizers. But otherwise, the tournedos of beef and veal are purportedly out of this world. It should be interesting to see how he rates Brasserie Ruhlmann in comparison.

[Photo: when they sent us the menu, this is the fraction of the logo we got. You can make out the "LD" in Old and the "AS" in Brasserie]

Posted by Adam Peltz on 10/25/2007 at 05:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Downtown | Review Revue

Tessellating The Tribune: OTOM

Phil Vettel has a largely positive review of OTOM, Moto's casual-comfort-food-with-a-twist brother restaurant next door. This stands in marked contrast to the early reviews the restaurant got back in mid-August, when TOC, the Reader, and yes, even the Tribune, thought the food was rather boring. Guess chef Daryl Nash heard the criticism and spiced things up a bit! Meanwhile, at the end of the review, Vettel writes, "Otom isn't going to crash the cover of Food & Wine, but if there's any justice in the world, it's going to be a hit." Well, if you're forced to invoke the "justice of the world" to hope something happens, you (and it) are in trouble.

Picking up on the theme, Trine Tsouderos has a piece on the haute comfort trend that's currently massaging Chicago's big shoulders. The article never really resolved on a thesis, but basically, everyone likes home cooking, and they like it even more if it's done by a skilled professional with high-end ingredients. If your mom's not around (or if she doesn't cook New American), TT recommends that you try Chalkboard, OTOM, TABLE fifty-two or Tavern at the Park.

Phil Vettel's Halloween-themed article on "scary" stories from chefs is even more of a stretch than yesterday's Sun-Times article on haunted restaurants, but we liked it better anyway. The subtitle of the article, "(Crawfish) + (falafel) = yuck!," refers to a dish that Jimmy Bannos of Heaven on Seven once tried (and failed), placing the seafood-spiked balls in a po'boy with tahini. Well, that sounds pretty fine to us, but maybe on a pita instead? There's nothing you can't encrust with falafel though. We once has this hot, steamy dream about a falafel-encrusted hamburger. Word.

Finally, reports of KPang's demise were at least partially exaggerated. This week, he's all about skin - chicken, salmon, duck, pork, WHO CARES, just as long as it's either crispy (firm but easily broken or crumbled) or crunchy (making a crunching or cracking sound, as when chewed). What is crispy but not crunchy? Apples. What is crunchy but not crispy? Granola. But when you combine the two, OMG yes.

OTOM [MenuPages]
OTOM [Official Site]

[Photo: salmon skin, Skinny Epicurean/flickr]

Posted by Adam Peltz on 10/25/2007 at 03:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: West Side | Review Revue

FYI: Ignorance Is Endlessly Repeatable

• FTC is going after Whole Foods/Wild Oats merger again [Tribune]
• NYC is going after fast food calorie labeling again [NYTimes]
• Here's a new thing you can get at McDonald's: hepatitis A! [Globe & Mail]
• If you're going to drink your wine with food, ratings may not help [Bloomberg]
• Is bioluminscent seafood hazardous to your health? No one knows [Tribune]

Posted by Adam Peltz on 10/25/2007 at 08:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: FYI

October 24, 2007

Organics Aren't Dead

Nobody said they were, really, but wow! The NYTimes most emailed article is entitled Five Easy Ways to Go Organic, and it's basically a blog post (no, it is a blog post) with an annotated list of five foods that are worth the trouble and money to buy organic. These are: milk, potatoes, peanut butter, ketchup and apples.

Some of these things are unexpected, right? Like ketchup. It has to do with research that indicates "organic ketchup has about double the antioxidants of conventional ketchup." Doubtless. And peanut butter has a lot of fungicide in it. Fine, we're sure it does.

This list is obviously very family-oriented, and normal families at that. If everyone in America switched over to organic in those categories, it would force big farma to make serious reforms.

It's also much more you-oriented than everyone-oriented. A big chunk of the organic movement is about sustainable agriculture, not just what's healthier or better tasting for a given consumer; those are just side effects.

And also, these five things represent but the tiniest fraction of what's superior in organic form. What's not superior? We guess it's hard to quantify that superiority in order to make a price judgment, especially given our completely whacked-out sensibilities of the marginal value of better food.

But basically, this list strikes us as Old News. We guess it's still pretty relevant to a plurality of NYTimes readers, though.

Five Easy Ways to Go Organic [NYTimes]

Posted by Adam Peltz on 10/24/2007 at 05:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Food Trends

Secreting The Sun-Times: Halloweeny Things & White Peppercorn

Lisa Donovan's "Food Detective" articles, the ones on a particular food item whose collective name we inferred from the articles' closer ("Curious about an unusual edible or kitchen tool? Want to share some mysteries in your own cabinets? E-mail the Food Detective at ldonovan@suntimes.com"), are always a highlight of the Sun-Times food section. This week is devoted to white peppercorns, which differ only from black peppercorns in that their outer layer has been chemically stripped away to reveal the pungent, white core. Apparently, the French and the Chinese use white peppercorns almost exclusive. Look at what two crazy countries with fanatical and radically divergent food cultures agree on! That, and duck. Anyway, since it's only marginally more expensive than black pepper, maybe it's worth your while to try it? And it might usher you into the world of artisanal peppercorns, like green and pink and whatnot. Fun with spices!

Okay, the other thing going on is...apparently, there's this major candy-eating holiday coming up exactly one week from today that everyone's all excited about. Also, ghosts are involved. Those ghosts occasionally haunt restaurants, especially when that information is marketable. In a headlining story, Lynne Marek chronicles the spectral side of the Chicago restaurant scene, many of whose stories are interesting, or at least whimsical. But when Jerry Kleiner starts talking about ex-speakeasy/liquor warehouse Room 21 and claiming that "Everybody who walks in there feels some sort of mysterious hauntedness, like Al Capone's watching you," the whimsy gets sucked right out of the room. Come on, he just made that sentiment up because 'tis the season, and it's good for business. Furthermore, there's no such thing as haunting! There just isn't!

Normally we skip the S-T events and deals section, but Big Bowl's offer of 20% off for college students at its Gold Coast and River North locations was worth a mention. This would be useful if a whole group of freshman went together on a bonding/discovering downtown trip - "ooh, this is urban life!" they'll say. You won't want to go to Big Bowl that evening.

There are three other articles that are worth noting:

• The "Taste of Ebony" just happened at the River East Arts Center, and it was co-chaired by soob-to-be-Chicago chef Marcus Samuelsson (his restaurants in New York are awesome)!
• Padma Lakshmi has a cookbook out, crediting (among other people) her Peruvian baby-sitter. OMG, but at least she credits her, we guess!
• Apparently, a justification for eating non-deep dish pizza in Chicago is "You have the classic little black dress in your wardrobe. It's always there. You always have occasions to enjoy wearing it. But sometimes you want to wear something new, something different. You want to feel special." If there are two things that really don't go together in the same sentence, it's deep dish pizza and little black dress. Maybe big black muumuu? (Yes, that's how it's spelled! It's of Hawaiian origin! One day there will be a MenuPages muumuu, and you'll all get one in the mail.) [Photo: peppercorns. The guy who did this (3dphoto.net/flickr is awesome]

Posted by Adam Peltz on 10/24/2007 at 01:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Food Media | Review Revue

Fantastical Reviews: Al's Pizza

We recently added Al's Pizza in Dunning (there's also one just outside of the city in Norridge) to MenuPages, and honestly did not expect to hear anything on it for quite some time. Well, it turns out, there's at least one fanatic out there that cannot get enough. If this is a shill, then it's a totally new form of the art:

i stopped in a place in Norridge Called Al's pizza For a quick slice not knowing that my life as i knew it was about to change when it comes to pizza, i grabbed a slice of cheese and sausage for 1.50 which i thought that it was a bit cheap, but i see the method behind the madness. it is so good that i ate 8 slices and 2 cans of R C i couldnt believe that i did that, and i think al was too i grabbed a menu as i walk out and found that they have 2 locations and guess what the other one is right by my house. Man was i really happy i told my wife that i tried this pizza and i Had only a couple slices "WINK WINK" and that i wanted her to try it. well one bite and now Als has created a monster we order 2-3 times a week i have tried everything on the menu and only a coupke things on there i didnt care for. AWSOME PLACE try an 18 cheese and sausage they have a coupon 11.95 it comes to 13.03 with tax wow i love this place

We are left breathless by this review (which came in around dinnertime last night) in large part due to the general lack of punctuation. So here they are: ,.,!.,?.--,,!.,!;-.!

Could it really be anywhere near that good? Pizza makes partisans out of the mildest of men, so it's difficult to tell. Does anyone have a less wild-eyed assessment?

Al's Pizza [MenuPages]
Al's Pizza [Official Site]

Posted by Adam Peltz on 10/24/2007 at 09:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Northwest Side | Review Revue

FYI: Crazy Solutions To Intractable Problems

• Shake it to a better you: mice on vibrating platform develop fewer fat cells [AP]
• Where's the farm bill going these days? Nowhere fast! More federalism, please [NYTimes]
• USDA beefing up its meat testing protocols following last month's Topps debacle [Reuters]
• Breaking: Pixie Stix not so bad for teeth as sugar goes directly on tongue [Tribune]
• As much as you dislike Texas, Tex-Mex is a legitimate cuisine [NYTimes]

Posted by Adam Peltz on 10/24/2007 at 07:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: FYI

October 23, 2007

YouTube: A MenuPages Comedy Routine (No, Really!)

Did you know that we're not the only people who can't get enough of Menupages reviews? An "underground" comic in New York, QNarf aka Dave rips into our reviewers in a seven minute set. The comedy mostly consists of how ridiculous these reviews sound out loud when read in an arch and ironic tone. He makes fun of the reviewers' spelling and grammar mistakes (fine) and passion for the restaurants (less so). We're happy that 1) MenuPages has burrowed its way into popular culture (in New York, anyway) deep enough to merit a comedy sketch and 2) people have seen the comic potential of the reviews as much as we have. But next time, funnier please!

Dave/QNarf [MySpace]
MenuPages [YouTube]

p.s. if Dave/QNarf reads this, it wasn't unfunny, at least!

Posted by Adam Peltz on 10/23/2007 at 04:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Outside The Area | MenuPages News | Photos & Clips

Two And A Half Small Things: Vella & Chicagoist

No, they really don't have anything to do with each other. Vella Cafe has added a dinner menu, or more accurately, expanded its lunch hours to include dinner. Instead of closing at 3pm on weekdays, it now closes at 7pm. Um, we don't think closing at 7pm should really count as dinner. 10pm ought to be the earliest, or 9pm if the restaurant is run by a family with small children.

But to qualify, the small children have to bus your table, and also perform musical interludes of some kind in between courses. Ideally, they should be dressed in period costume for this, but that's not essential.

Right, so now you can pick up one of their salads (spinach with bacon, apple, blue cheese and balsamic vinaigrette for $7.50) or panini (brisket with plum, apple, caramelized onion BBQ sauce and butterkase, served with pickles and slaw for $8) on your way home for work. Also, the Vella ladies entreat you to "Call & ask us 'what's for dinner?' We are now featuring a roatating selection of ala carte meals in our deli case. Stop in & pick up dinner to take home." That sounds lovely, except "a la carte" is three words, not two.

Okay, and the part about the Chicagoist is an extremely minor technical quibble, but given the hyperniche focus of this blog, we don't see a problem in voicing it. So if you click on the "food" category, you used to get the nice, normal Ist layout with photos and everything. But recently, it's only been showing three lines of text, and nothing else! Note that the Gothamist food category at least gives you image thumbnails. Anyway, this may be well beyond anyone's control, but we wanted to register that we like the old way better. On a side note (the half), please start/keep voting on the best review or we'll be sad. Kthxbai. Vella Cafe [MenuPages]
Vella Cafe [Official Site] Food Archives [Chicagoist]

[Photo: from Vella's website for some reason. They want you to vote because they are too young/nonhuman to do so themselves]

Posted by Adam Peltz on 10/23/2007 at 03:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Northwest Side | Food Media

Best Of MenuPages Reviews: You Pick!

We may not do reviews at MenuPages, but our legions of users are all over that. Here are four of interest.

Opinion Polls & Market Research

This week, we've rounded up what we believe to be the top reviews of the week, and we're going to leave it to you, dear readers, to decide which one is the very best. They're quite different from each other - some are positive and some are negative, some are servicey and some are glowing and some are critical and some are well-written and some are verbose. It's hard to dictate the metrics by which you should determine the best review of the four - probably whichever one gives you the best sense of the restaurant, good, bad or ugly. Alternatively, choose the review that you most enjoyed reading, whether you learned anything or not - at MP:Chicago, we are not slaves to the functional. Okay, here they are, presented without commentary:

1) Semiramis | "brett" | 10/17:

I love this place. We usually have it delivered so don't take my service and atomosphere rating too seriously. I gave the service a 5 b/c they deliver quickly and the dude is really nice. I just went to place my order and was dissapointed that they took off the Lubeeh Bel Zeit which was super sick (in a good way). Apparently nobody was ordering it which is a shame. Anyway, their menu is small but everything is really, really tasty. Everything is really reasonalby priced and it's BYOB to boot. Those wo things in tandem add up to a cheap date. If your in the neighborhood, or even if you're not, make sure you give this place a try! It's the goodness.

2) Bridgeport Coffee House | "Zellah60609" | 10/17:

I was so happy when the B-port Coffee House opened a few years ago. I am a huge supporter of small, mom and pop establishments, so I really want to support them. The cookies, sandwiches and tea are all good. The coffee, well...in my opinion is bitter and not so good. I know the owner roasts his own beans, but I have tried it several times and it never gets any better. Another unfortunate thing is that , they keep a TV on the whole time they are open and when they have satellite radio on the music is HORRIBLE. If you go to a coffee house on the north side, there isn't a TV set, but in B-port there is TV...how annoying! I really want to like this place because it's really cute, the people are nice, it's close to my house and I want to support local business. However, I LOVE coffee and the coffee must be good. Mike, please reconsider your roasting and offer a less bitter blend, shut off the damn TV set and play some decent music. Thank you!

3) Ping Pong | "Boy7" | 10/19:

Ok. So after reading all the reviews online, me and my friend who just arrived from San Francisco decided to check this place out. I regret we did. Pros: Great atmosphere. We tried the calamari appetizer which was great too. Very less quantity though. The wine was ok. Standard Californian white wine which you can buy for 4$ at Jewel Osco or Trader Joes.

cons: Average Food. You can get much better food for the same price or even cheaper price. If you know what real asian food is, there are better places to go to in the city.

We ordered Singaporean street noodles and spicy beef for our main course. First of all we had to wait for 20 minutes and I had to remind the waitress twice about our food.

Second, when the food did come out, we had shrimp and chow fun ou our table which WE DID NOT order. We anyway decided to go ahead and eat since we didn't want to wait for another 20 minutes.

The waitress later came and apologized for messing up the order and told us that the food we were eating was meant for the table next to us. She also asked us if we still wanted our orginal food after we were almost done.

We did not get any discounts or apology from the management for messing up our evening.

I am surely not going there ever again. And we paid $60 for food which wasn't worth more then $12.

Verdict: There are tons of other great places for much better Asian food with good atmosphere and same prices.

If you do decide to go here, make sure you get what you order. And certainly avoid their shrimp with peanuts. Its just boiled shrimp with too much peanuts and oyster sauce.

4) Smak-Tak | "Joe" | 10/21:

I was in town on business and heard about the Polish section of Chicago from my sister in Florida. I searched the web and took a chance on Smak Tak. What a find!!! I was pleasantly surprised how quaint and authentic the decor was, it reminded me of Zakopane in Poland. I started with a bowl of borszt which was really good and then couldn't decide between the pork cutlet or the pierogi so I got them both. They first brought out the pork cutlet which looked wonderful. It was huge and covered with mushrooms. It was accompanied with real mashed potatoes covered with dill, a nice portion of marinated carrots and a delicious cucumber/sour cream salad. About half way through that I was already stuffed but they brought out the pierogi, 13 of them! I asked for an assortment and they delivered. First one was blueberry, then plum, then cherry, then cheese, then meat...I had to stop before I burst! They were delicious!!! I had to pack up leftovers. The best part...the whole thing with a drink was just around $20. I HIGHLY recommend this palce and will definitely go back next time I'm in Chicago. Na Zdrowie!

So the plan is, we will reveal the results of the poll next Tuesday; hopefully, people will have voted by then. Maybe we'll remind you later this week, depending on how depressing the numbers are. This is exciting! And it paves the way for other polls, and maybe even contests. With prizes! (The kind that don't cost money though.)

Semiramis [MenuPages]
Bridgeport Coffee House [MenuPages]
Bridgeport Coffee House [Official Site]
Ping Pong [MenuPages]
Ping Pong [Official Site]
Smak-Tak [MenuPages]
Smak-Tak [Official Site]

FYI: Oh! Thanks For Clearing That Up

• Somalia frees WFP head! Things are still terrible there, though [Reuters]
• People with similar brain wiring (i.e. twins) share food tastes [BBCNews]
• The Canadians are totally skeptical of the U.S. ethanol scheme [AFP]
• Get this: people who sleep less are fatter! Mostly due to hormones [NYTimes]
• New PSAs for (um, against) obesity dismissed as "namby-pamby" [Yahoo]

Posted by Adam Peltz on 10/23/2007 at 07:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: FYI

October 22, 2007

Now On MenuPages: Ed's Potsticker House

We've been reading about how wonderful Ed's Potsticker House in Bridgeport is on LTHForum since forever, but until recently, our attempts to locate their menu had been met with bitter failure. Then suddenly, the other day, without provocation or warning, the Potsticker House menu appeared in our inbox, and shortly thereafter, on the internet for everyone to see (well, as of a few minutes ago, anyway).

In lieu of hard-hitting journalism, here's the text from Potsticker House's (we're dropping the Ed for the remainder of this post, since it's nowhere to be seen on the menu they faxed us, but it's staying in the listing for easier search) Great Neighborhood Restaurant award that it won in 2005:

Inspiring to know what can be done with Chinese food with good ingredients, some creativity, and a lot of care by an obviously knowledgeable kitchen...Probably 95% of the food we have had at Ed’s has been outstanding: the eponymous potstickers, soup dumplings, pork and scallion cakes, lamb with cumin, potatoes with vinegar, eggplant, various other vegetable dishes, beef stew with noodle...The dumpling was good. The broth was ambrosial. When something that clear as so much depth of flavor, you know there's a real cook somewhere who put a lot of time into it.

Those quotes (bolded as in the original) came from dyed-in-the-wool LTHers, who, in aggregate, we tend to trust.

So now that the restaurant's worthiness has been established, let's get into the nitty-gritty of the menu. The first section of the menu, the one with the categories simulcast in English and Spanish, is designed for the American palatte. (By the way, the "Vegetable - Vesctmno" is absolutely verbatim from the source. Should it be "vegetales"? Probably, but who are we to judge.) Ooh, wonton soup! Chicken Lo Mein! Kung Po Shrimp! Right. Moving right along, the real menu is denoted by items prefixed with Cxxx nomenclature - maybe 'C' stands for Chinese? Those eponymous potstickers (C005) everyone keeps talking about are $5.95 for six; beef stew with noodle (C101) is the same price; and the sauteed lamb with cumin (C624) is $10.95.

Not exotic enough? We hear you: twice-cooked pork fat (C601) is $8.95; stir-fried pork stomach and liver with garlic (C612) is also $8.95; stewed pork ankle (C712) is $7.95. Or go for a double whammy: sauteed sea cucumber and beef tendon (C817) is a steal at $12.95! Anyway, if you follow the ordering instructions laid out in this very long thread on LTH, you'll do okay.

It's funny - LTH has pimped the hell out of this place, and sure enough, Potsticker House proudly posts its GNR status on the cover of the menu, along with choice quotes from TOC, the Tribune, the Reader, and Chicago Magazine. But instead of crediting LTHForum, the attribution is to "The Chicago-base culinary chat site." So close! Maybe all those black and brown diamonds in the logo confused them, via a similar mechanism to zebras on the Serengeti. But it's the thought that counts.

Ed's Potsticker House [MenuPages]
Ed’s Potsticker House Great Neighborhood Restaurant award [LTHForum]
The Essentials: Ed's Potsticker House [LTHForum]

[Photo: we think it's pork with chili peppers, but who knows, singlewhine/flickr]

Posted by Adam Peltz on 10/22/2007 at 02:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: South Side | Restaurant Highlight

Expanding: Pepe's On A Jag In The Suburbs

We have a thing for Pepe's, and we're not entirely sure why. If we were to hazard a guess, it would probably offend people (most likely people in the Pepe's corporate office). But they can't be too mad at us, because all press is good press.

And the good press we're going to give them today is about back-to-back openings in Yorkville and Vernon Hills, at opposite ends of the Chicagoland universe. Jeez, before long, Chicago exurbia will be hard up by I-39! But we digress.

The mere opening of new chain locations would not merit a mention unless there was something about it we could specifically mock, and in this case, it's the press release/promotion that came with the notifications. Each one contains its own idiosyncratic spelling and grammar errors, but they offer the same crappy one-time deal.

First, the raw material. Pepe's Vernon Hills opening, received Friday, 10/19:

The Pepe's Mexican Restaurant and Cantina at 281 West Town Line Road, Vernon Hills, Illinois, is now open. The restaurant and beautiful Cantina seat 140. Every Wednesday is 1/2 Price Margaritas. Print out this e-mail to receive a FREE APPETIZER of your choice, when you purchase Two Mexican Dinner Entrees and Two beverages. DINE IN ONLY. Valid only at the Pepe's in Vernon Hills, Illinois. Not good with any other offer, coupon, or special or on Margaritas nights. Sales tax not included. Offer expires November 4, 2007. Please present this coupon to the server before ordering. Thank You.

Pepe's Yorkville opening, received this morning (Monday, 10/22):

The Pepe's Mexican Restaurant at 920 North Bridge Street(RT 47), Yorkville, Iliinois, is now open for dine-in or carry-ouy business.This cozy restaurant seats 100. Every Monday and Thursday is 1/2 price Margaritas. Print out this email to receive a FREE APPETIZER of your choice, when you purchase Two Mexican Dinner Entrees and Two Beverages. Dine In Only. Valid only at the Pepe's in Yorkville, Illinois. NOt good with any other offer, coupon or special, or on Margaritas nights. Sales tax not included. Offer expires November 11, 2007. Plese pesent this coupon to the server before ordering. THank You.

Obviously, we've done nothing to adulterate the purity of the texts. We have to wonder why these would get sent out without a basic spell check, though. Something must have gone way downhill over the weekend, what with "Iliinois," "carry-ouy," and "plese pesent" tarnishing the Yorkville opening. Are we the only people who'd avoid a restaurant based on press release typos alone? We certainly hope so! This level of stringent orthodoxy is difficult to maintain and probably counterproductive for the average citizen.

But the real eyebrow-lowerer is the offer of a free appetizer with purchase of two dinners and two beverages. And you have merely a fortnight to get on the bandwagon! First of all, what's with the incessant capitalization of nouns? Does it look like we're in Germany or something?! Second, that is a hell of a lot of stuff you need to buy before you get your free appetizer. Even if it doesn't take that much money to get up there, it's still an onerous set of conditions. Very grudging-sounding. Then again, who can resist the lure of a "beautiful Cantina," especially one with seating for an intimate 140 guests? Just don't try your luck on Margarita nights.

Pepe's [Official Site]

[Photo: we're cannot wait to join Pepitos Club]

Posted by Adam Peltz on 10/22/2007 at 01:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Outside The Area | Chains | Openings & Closings

Blog Reviews: The Week Of Everything* Closing

Chicago's intrepid food bloggers were all over the damn place last week (not really; more places closed than were reviewed), in alphabetical order by restaurant

(* Mulan, Dodo, Butter, Saxby's Coffee, Clark Market)

• Argo Tea has some new vegan muffins going on. A staffer says they're better than the original, and we think that's more than plausible (vegan baked goods - so savory!) [Drive-Thru]

• Despite its high ranking in the classic burger category, the offerings at Jury's really fall short - nothing came cooked as requested, the ingredients tasted off, and the sides were from hunger. Next! [Chicago Burger Project]

• Brand-new River North Italian La Madia got right up to speed with its service, and the appetizers were good, but the pizzas didn't seem to have the same spark of the rest of the new wave of pizza places [The Stew]

[Photo: wigfurs/flickr]

FYI: We're Starting Off The Week Confused

• Gender plays significant role in choosing how to defeat food cravings [BBCNews]
• Most weight loss stuff you see on TV is prosecutable [Tribune]
• A nice human interest story on a historic Jewish deli in NY [NYTimes]
• People are really up in arms about this Seinfeld cookbook knockoff thing [USAToday]
• Iowa City wants to ban adults under 21 from bars. Wait, what? [Tribune]

Posted by Adam Peltz on 10/22/2007 at 09:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: FYI