The resto rotates eight to nine fresh-made daily entrees for an absurdly low $6.50 (add an extra buck for a split plate); because you're dangerously underweight, you'll also get a baguette hunk slathered in butter & jambalaya seasoning. Mainstays include thick gumbo (w/ crayfish, sausage, shrimp, & chicken), red beans and rice w/ andouille, and a spicy chili-cheese etouffée; nontraditionals include the sausage- and chicken-fueled Italiana in spicy tomato sauce, and the pulled pork/olives/capers/carrots Cuban-inspired dish "Ropa Vieja."

Yaks All, Folks [Thrillist]
Yats [Official Site]

[Photo, Yats's sign and plate, via casey_atchley's Flickr]

That new beer-centric restaurant from Paul Kahan, wundercreator of Blackbird and Avec that we have been getting ourselves psyched about for, like, ever? Finally has a date and a name! Per The Stew, it'll open August 18, and it's called The Publican.

After some speculation about the various potential meanings of the name (renaissance slang for a pimp? Roman military tax collector? Re___? No, no, and no), Eng and Vettel learn that "the name comes from the Renaissance term for a tavernkeeper, which makes a lot of sense in a place with such a huge selection of ales, lagers, stouts and ciders."

So, yeah, tres sensical. Of course, to us, a publican will always be best embodied by Keith, the death-destined, Tesco-pizza-loving blowhard from Achewood. You see, he lives in the computer of a vaguely British, highly cosmopolitan teddy bear named Cornelius who is also alive, and in the computer also lives this finch named Mr. Teal, who hates Keith, and so Cornelius agrees to work with Keith to... you know what? Just start at the beginning and read every single strip. Your life will be the better for it.

Blackbird [MenuPages]
Blackbird [Official Site]
Avec [MenuPages]
Avec [Official Site]
Blackbird and Avec sibling finally has a name [The Stew]
Achewood [Official Site]

[Image via Achewood]

It’s going to be a tortería with a wood-burning oven. We will be doing classic regional Mexican sandwiches, a la plancha. All artisanal products. All the preparations will be in the front window. We’re grinding our own chocolate from Mexican cacao beans right on the premises. Nobody is doing that.

Rick promises us a no-fail launch date in April 2009. If we call an arbitrary launch date of April 1, that's 264 days, 20 hours, 50 minutes, and 41 seconds from now, as of the very instant of us hitting "publish" on this post.

Doing the Bristol Romp [Dish]

[Photo: Churros, via maijau's Flickr]

French-infused food is nothing new to Chicago. Takashi slips French into Japanese fare, Avec makes a (very) happy family of French, Mediterranean and Italian flavors and Le Passage fancies their bar food as French, but who’s doing French-Mexican? No one, until Mexique.

Husband and wife duo (it’s the chic way to open if you haven’t noticed) Carlos Gaytan and Iliamar Isaac chose Tuesday to open their doors on a stretch of Chicago Avenue known for its cowboy boots and taquerias. You can even buy live chickens at Hermitage, but probably not for long. The stroller-pushing hipsters and single-scouting diners that have settled into the hood need a place where they can be seen, preferably eating upscale food. A spot like Mexique feels appropriate.

If your first thought is burritos and French fries, you’re wrong. Chef Carolos Gaytan, whose resume includes seven plus years at the Union League Club, three years at Bistrot Margot and a short stint at Adobo Grill, combines his Mexican heritage with French training for a sophisticated result. Carlos tells us (talk to him when you go, his voice coos) he loves to cook and knows that to be a chef you must also be a "creator."

So what’s he creating? Pretty good stuff. On the appetizer list, a trio of sopes are filled with escargot and chimichurri butter, shrimp and avocado mousse, and plantains slathered with a spicy chocolate mole. Tuesday’s tuna ceviche (chef’s choice daily) was surrounded with tiny translucent gelatin cubes that tasted like a tortilla chip. The vetabel sounds just as peculiar as its spelled, but the combination of port wine poached beets with horseradish vinaigrette and a fried goat cheese cake promises an entourage of flavor.

On the main menu, Gaytan purees Malanga root from the Yucatan with white truffles as a topper for the NY steak. Dorado (Spanish for mahi mahi) is served with green beans, tiger shrimp, muscles and clams in a morita-saffron bouillon. A duck breast sports a chipotle-temple tamarind glaze and comes with a cranberry tamal.

After-dinner drinks are not on the menu, which is limited to a well-priced selection of wine. Iliamar (who is behind the design of the space and now has her career as an architect on hold to run the restaurant) tells us the list is only preliminary and will include beer in the future, but that cocktails have intentionally been left off. For fear a patron might order a midori-infused margarita to drink alongside their poblano pork tenderloin, maybe? We’re not sure, but if it’s tequila and citrus you want, you can find some resemblance of it on the dessert menu: the "Margarita" is a tequila pomegranate gelee with pink grapefruit sorbet and sea salt, for example. France and Mexico take turns down the list with classic options like crème brulee and apple tart or chocolate ganache and ancho chile enchiladas.

Call now for a table. It’s our guess once word gets out they’ll be hard to come by. Lunch starts in two weeks and weekend brunch is in the works.

Mexique [MenuPages]
Mexique [Official Site]

[Photo: Carne at Mexique]

What could be more auspicious than opening a fabulous new restaurant on the day that the foie gras ban got repealed? This is how L.2O was welcomed into the world, and based on the reactions of Mike Nagrant at Hungry (who supplied that quote and also, magnanimously, the menu) and Judy Hevrdejs at the Tribune, L2O is already in the pantheon of Chicago's top restaurants. And with dishes that have descriptions like "lamb tartar, ebi shrimp, pickled peach, tarragon" and "gold egg yolk, kampachi, Kurobuta pork, sake" and "shabu-shabu medai, kombu bouillon, citrus, King Trumpet," this is not hard to believe.

The ball of Ossetra caviar you can't help but stare at is sitting on a bed of fluke; while this exact preparation is not on tonight's menu, you can get something similar in the $110-$140 range. A twelve course tasting menu is $165, and a four course prix-fixe is $110. Eh, we've seen worse. The photo is from the restaurant's official flickr pool, which is hot. When LEYE wants to do something, they really do it.

Anyway, we're excited.

First Sip: L2O [Hungry]
First Bite: L2O [Tribune]

L.2O [MenuPages]
L.2O [Official Site]

[Photo: Ossetra caviar on fluke at L.2O, LGras/flickr]

Much like Sixteen at the Trump Hotel before it, C-House — famed Ethiopian-Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson's venture at the Affinia Chicago — has opened its door for breakfast only at first. This is a perfectly reasonable way to test the space and prep the staff, but the morning menu does not reveal too much of what's to come. Except that, much like Sixteen, it is very expensive.

No less of a personage than Phil Vettel checked out C-House over the weekend, reporting that "there are three versions of eggs Benedict, including one that includes generous slices of pastrami-style smoked salmon; that’s what I ate, and it was terrific."

One would hope so! It's $17. The smart money may be on the $22 lobster version, but there's always the $14 Canadian bacon for penny pinchers.

You know what else is $14 at C-House's breakfast? An omelet with tomato, mushroom, herbs or cheddar cheese. Pancakes with blueberry compote. Almond French Toast with vanilla maple syrup. Waffles with chestnut honey. Clearly, this is the "sweet" spot. Hahaha!

We referenced the pastrami smoked salmon eggs Benedict earlier; it is also possible to get pastrami smoked salmon as a side for $7. Why so much pastrami smoked salmon? And why aren't they calling it gravlax?

To answer the second question first, it's because gravlax isn't smoked, it's cured. If you want legit gravlax, you'll have to go to Magnolia Cafe, where gravlax eggs Benedict are served with wilted arugula, tomato and pesto hollandaise and house potatoes for $13. But we digress.

What's strange is, Mr. Samuelsson certainly serves gravlax at his flagship restaurant Aquavit in New York. Aquavit offers a $48 all-you-can-eat brunch smorgasbord that includes gravlax as well as any number of smoked salmons and herrings, Swedish meatballs and Danish Marys. Hello, why isn't that available at C-House?

Oh well. Lunch and dinner menus will be posted as they materialize.

C-House [MenuPages]
C-House [Official Site]

[Photo: gravlax, which is clearly not smoked, via Ben Harris-Roxas/flickr]

Bunch of one-namers, these are. Okay, sort of a lie; Stages is actually Stages Family Restaurant. Chuck Sudo attested to the charm of the Bridgeport diner's open face hot turkey sandwich, which we can confidently report to cost $6.75 and include mashed potatoes and a bowl of soup.

Shochu is a somewhat bigger story, as the New American/Asian small plate lounge in Lakeview opens TO-NITE. It's run by the Deleece people and is the first Chicago establishment to get on the shochu bandwagon. Shochu is a recently popularized 50-proof Japanese alcoholic beverage that's "cool" right now in America. Small plate lounges are also a recently popularized 50-proof Japanese alcoholic beverage that's "cool" right now in America. Um, anyway, here you'll find a handful of Thai curries, some upscale izakaya-style tapas, raw fish in various preparations, and skewers of meat (yakitori) served with any number of fusion-y sauces (blueberry teriyaki! Miso lychee aoili! White soy Dijon vinaigrette! And so forth)

Speaking of skewers, Skewerz! The name doesn't indicate this, but it's a Hawaiian fast food restaurant, opening "hopefully next week" in Wicker Park. Proteins available on a stick include: chilied chicken (with a red & black pepper marinade; four for $7), lemongrass tuna (with a lemongrass emulsion, three for $9), and flank steak (grilled with five spices; four for $8). Each of the aformentioned come with a rice (e.g. jasmine or brown) and a condiment (red curry peanut sauce sounds exciting). They'll be open until 3am on weekend nights, which sounds like the right time for this kind of food.

Finally, everyone else in the world may have known that the Butcher's Dog on Clark and Harrison closed a year ago, but we only found out yesterday that it's been replaced by Villains Bar & Grill. The menu offers nothing you haven't seen before (buffalo calamari for $9, mushroom swiss portobello burger for $10), but vodka drinks are only $3 on Terrible Tuesdays, an appellation we wholeheartedly agree with.

[Photo: grilled lamb chop with mandarin mint salad and white soy dijon vinaigrette at Shochu]

The latest yogurt craze-inspired entrant to the Chicago restaurant scene is Starfruit, opening tomorrow in Ukrainian Village. Unlike competitors Berry Chill and Wow Bao (you knew they were serving Asian-style frozen yogurt, right?), Starfruit makes its parfaits, smoothies and frozen concoctions from kefir, a variant of yogurt with a high concentration of bacteria. But good bacteria! Starfruit uses "probiotic" a lot on its trippy, hypnotic website (the best Flash-driven restaurant website we've ever seen, by the way, even though we normally don't like Flash), a totally hot trend in 2008. The yogurt...it will cure all your medical problems! It will do your taxes!

On that topic, as a special promotion for their opening day tomorrow, Starfruit is offering, for free, small parfaits, smoothies and frozens (let's just call them that) plus one topping. All of this would normally be $5, so it's not a bad deal. Flavors include flavors-of-the-week like Pomegranate and Acai, plus all the standard berries, a handful of fruits, and vanilla and capppuccino. Some of the flavors are available in organic, an extra 50 cents. The toppings are more fun, ranging from fresh fruit to milk and honey granola, yogurt chips (in case you can never get enough) and most exotically, mochi balls (a buck for the first topping, and then 50 cents per).

We say, the more, the merrier on yogurt. But the best part is, the menu they sent us came in three versions with three different fonts. They've since determined one for the website, but the tri-font menu gave us the unique opportunity to share with you the design decision as it came together. Here are the three options:

1)

2)

3)

The first one has a Harry Potter-type thing going on, the second one is like playful late 1950s, and the third one is a bit American Girl Place, yeah?

So which one makes us think the most about groovy yogurt? Also, why not just use the same sans serif font that the Starfruit logo is in? Because sans serif is modern and forward thinking, but Starfruit's hippy-wellness-holistic angle requires a few serifs to put us in a time and place, and the curlycues in the first font are as close as you're gonna get. And so, that's the font they ultimately chose for the website. Branding, we think, is like one of those good bacteria! Best eaten fresh and cold.

Starfruit [MenuPages]
Starfruit [Official Site]

ZED451 is an AYCE (all you can eat) New American steakhouse, opening in River North in two weeks. The restaurant is similar in concept to the various churrascarias around town like Brazzaz and Fogo de Chao, but with a New American rather than Brazilian orientation toward the meat and accompaniments. For a $50 prix-fixe ($25 for the kiddies), you get your pick of proteins like bacon-wrapped filet mignon, Parmesan crusted pork medallions, buttermilk marinated bottom sirloin, spicy fruit-glazed lamb chops, and so forth. And in lieu of a traditional salad bar, ZED451 employs a "Harvest Table" with sides like Maui pineapple salad, roasted asparagus with herbed aioli, and a "Hot Station" with options like sherry braised mushroom soup.

One mildly interested twist is that the restaurant employs thirty front-end chefs, who do everything from carving your meat to delivering it to your table. Furthermore, they get to show off their skills by making amuse bouches for the audience...er, dining guests. This is sort of like an audition so maybe you can hire them to be your corporate chef or something! We wonder if they wear name tags...

If ZED451 sounds familiar (the restaurant's name refers to the last letter of the alphabet and the temperature at which paper spontaneously combusts. All this makes us nervous that it's a doomsday cult), that's because there are already two in the area: Downers Grove and Schaumburg each have a location. It definitely feels like sloppy seconds to get a restaurant concept that got its start in the suburbs; we've learned by now to not assume that food served in the suburbs will be less sophisticated than its city counterpart, but...we cannot shake the associations of the soulless marketing immanent to restaurant groups in general, and these suburbs in particular.

The next best thing to judging a dish by eating it is to judge by looking at it (this is the premise behind Top Chef, by the way). Above are some encrusted lamb chops (apparently not the spicy fruit-glazed variety they have on the menu). They look...fine. More than adequate. There are chives in the foreground, cilantro in the background. Definitely a stab at upmarket. We look at these lamb chops and know instantly that the food will be good enough for the people who decide to go to this restaurant. It will be tourists and conventioneers and families and all sorts of people who appreciate high quality AYCE in a large (15,000 sq ft!), safe space. It at least has the virtue of being slightly different from other plausible alternatives in Chicago. Given the spiraling costs of meat, $50 for all the filet mignon you can eat is not a terrible deal.

ZED451 [MenuPages]
ZED451 [Official Site]

[Photo: ZED451's media center]

When it rains, it pours. Most of these are just opening or about to open. Some are from a few months ago, and one has eluded us since 2006! But all are worthy of note, not least for the reasons given:

• Big Jones — offers New Southern (i.e. fancified New Orleans and Charleston) cuisine starting April 9th. Sipping the Zeitgeist, they have a tea menu!

• Cinners — is Chicago's only Cincinnati-themed restaurant? They serve the city's famed chili over spaghetti, starting April 4th.

• Edgewater Lounge — has a MySpace, which is not so unusual. Music tastes include: Hank III, Drive by Truckers, The Verve, David Bowie, The Stone Roses, Mastadon, Van Halen, OutLaw Family Band

• Habibi — this Edgewater Lebanese restaurant, which drew the ire of the Dish last week, makes a point of saying they're open 365 days a year, including New Year's, Christmas and Thanksgiving. It's right on the menu!

• Harry Caray's Tavern — a spawn of the River North original hard by Wrigley Field, indulges in the irritating habit of placing a little ® next to "Holy Cow!" all over their menu, refering to their burgers. COME ON.

• Miss Asia — has every major South-East Asian cuisine except for Burmese. But that's the one we really wanted!

• Nellie's — purportedly has Chicago's only Puerto Rican breakfast buffet! It's $11.95 for adults and includes coconut oatmeal...

• Risqué Cafe — is Betty-themed. What a powerful cultural meme! Makes their barbecue sound plausible, ain't it; the chain of association being Betty-Route 66-BBQ. Correct us if we're wrong.

• Spicy Pickle — a national sandwich chain planning 9 more locations in Chicagoland!

[Photo: five spices pork leg, $14.95 at Miss Asia]

Three little ethnic restaurants opened recently, and we got their menus!

1) Kam Fung, in Chinatown. Exciting menu item: Chinese-style fried chicken, $15 for the whole bird

2) Snow Spice Thai, in Ravenswood. Exciting menu item: avocado fish salad, $7. And they deliver!

3) Tacos Erendira in Bridgeport. Exciting menu item: chiles rellenos burrito, $4.50. Exciting menu quirk: menudo is $5.50, but menudo to go is $6.50. Those plastic containers don't come cheap, we suppose.

Okay, have a good weekend. Try someplace new!

Cafe Marbella is a smallish, BYO classic tapas house in Albany Park, while Mercat a la Planxa is a flashy, Catalan tapas extravaganza south of the Loop. They both recently opened, and they've both been garnering the praise of Chicago's foodie Brahmins. How have they fared among hoi polloi?

Very well, so far. We've gotten two reviews for each in the past week, and we'll start with Cafe Marbella:

March 13th, entitled "Great local tapas":

Had a great meal here recently. The look of the restaurant is uninspiring (inside and out), but the tapas ranged from good to excellent. Most tapas are under $10, and it is BYOB, making it very affordable. (We had 5 tapas, one dessert, brought our own win, and bill was still less than $50.) Skip the sausage/jamon platter, it was the most expensive item we ordered, tasted fine but rather boring. Potatos with chorizo were perfectly cooked, though I would have liked a more flavorful, spicy chorizo. Rest of the dishes were really great and well-prepared, obviously made with lots of care. Server was very warm and attentive, really some of the best service we've had in a while! I would say that most of the dishes were on par with what you get at other higher-profile tapas places but without the high-profile prices. We will most definitely go back.

Nice new addition to the neighborhood. The food was very good.The mussels in cream sauce was addictive and the figs wrapped in bacon were very rich and unusual. The BYOB made it even more attractive. The service was very good and very helpfull. We had seven tapas and the bill was under $50.00. We wish this new place a long and successful life. Try it you'll like it if you like to try new things.

1) Both reviews talk about bills under $50. It would be really weird to do that on purpose!
2) The first review creditably criticized the food
3) The second review evinces a substantial drop in literacy from the first
4) Bacon-wrapped figs are not unusual, but they are delicious. Note that you can also bacon-wrap dates!

Okay, the fourth reason was not on point, but nevertheless, these reviews are plausibly legit.

On to Mercat a la Planxa, with its exotic 'x' standing in for 'ch' so the Catalans can pretend they're not Spanish like it matters. On the other hand, Catalans are known for their delicious cuisine (cf. El Bulli). Mercat opened for all three meals a week ago Saturday, where Chicago native chef Jose Garces dishes out all manner of Barcelonian specialties with broad-based Spanish cooking skills honed at the Andalusian tapas bar and Basque wine bar he ran in Philly. Expectations certainly run high with an opening of this size, and our users seem to think they were justified:

March 16th, entitled "OMG ITS SO SO GOOD!":

The food is totally insane with goodness! and lots of variety to choose from. The Wine list just goes on and on. the wait was about 20 minutes but it was worth it!!! as a neighbor to the restaurant i know that i will keep going for more and more.. there is also a nice bar in the lower level that looks really cute. the restaurant is located in the upper level and it so big, and it looks over grand park, but once the food starts your all your senses go to your mouth! ummm so good.

Everything I tried was fabulous, especially the bacon wrapped dates (drizzled with cheese sauce tableside), the cadi urgelia cheese with truffled lavender and apple jam, and the pork belly that melted under the fork. I can't wait to go back and try it for lunch.

Maybe these are shills, but we'd bet that the Mercat people would go for more sophisticated prose to match their ambitions. Besides, both of these restaurants have gotten great write-ups in the mainstream press, so none of the reviews come off as outlandish. Seems like these are 2008 winners, but of course, the jury is still out.

Cafe Marbella [MenuPages]
Mercat a la Planxa [MenuPages]
Mercat a la Planxa [Official Site]

[Photo: bacon-wrapped dates by stu_spivack/flickr]

Well, we told her that everyone seemed to be really excited about the concept. This was partially because we didn't want to say anything negative this early in the morning, and partially because we'd only skimmed the data and didn't have much substantive to report. Now that we've woken up, the thrust of the commentary thus far as been:

1) The line is so long
2) Much of the early business is being driven by the false impression that Rosscoe's is related to Roscoe's, which comes off as...unsavory
3) The chicken and waffles are alright, although they may suffer long waits on the way from the kitchen to the table

Some of this can be chalked up to opening drama and growing pains, but trying to ride the coattails of the established LA institution doesn't sit all that well with us. We realize the owners are just trying to maximize their business, but given the dearth of decent dining options in the area, simply providing good food and decent service would have taken care of that. Using the name Rosscoe's (misspelled as it might be) just opens you up for increased scrutiny and ire.

We'll have more to report when we receive the menu.

[Photo: the eponymous dish, but from the actual Roscoe's in LA, pointnshoot]