Dining Guide CHICAGO DINING 101
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How to assemble your dining guide CHICAGO DINING 101 Print out each page of this PDF on 1 letter-sized (8.5” x 11”) sheets of paper. Dotted line Fold the top half of each page down to the 2 bottom, so that the dotted line is on the outside of the crease. Then fold each page in half from left to right so the dotted line is on the outside of the 3 crease. Then unfold from left to right to make a set of pages. Dotted line Stack the pages the order they were printed 4 out, making sure the page numbers are in the right order. Staple the pages together in the center. 5 You’re done! Now go eat! By Kevin Pang Kevin By Winter 2014/2015 Winter 101 DINING CHICAGO 2 INTRODUCTION Itinerary: INTERNATIONAL 19 Welcome to Chicago! C The Radler D Lao Sze Chuan Serious German for the The restaurant that Like any world-class city, Chicago presents two simultaneous cool crowd popularized regional versions of itself: one as described by the hotel concierge, the Get: Pretzel, German onion Chinese in Chicago other inhabited by those who call it home. The former is pie, any wurst, smoked ham Get: Cumin lamb, Tony’s defined by deep dish pizzas, cheese-caramel popcorn and sandwich three-chili chicken, architectural cruises in an area triangulated by Willis Tower, the 2375 N. Milwaukee Ave., twice-cooked pork, hot pot Field Museum and the John Hancock Center. The Chicago of 773-276-0270 Multiple locations, original Chicagoans consists of three-flat buildings, beanbag toss on dasradler.com restaurant at 2172 S. Archer sidewalks, Goose Island Green Line, rib tips grilling on Note: The beer list is mind- Ave., 312-326-5040 tonygourmetgroup.com aquarium smokers and boggling and impressive. Dinner nightly, brunch on Note: Owner Tony Hu has a tamale-selling abuelas. Contents weekends. string of regional Lao Both Chicagos are valid restaurants, including Lao representations of the city. INTRODUCTION Beijing and Lao Shanghai in But many out-of-towners Q Luxury dining 3 E Chopal Kabab & same complex. only hear about one. Q Proletariat food 4 Steak Q So what does it mean to “Yuppie dining” 5 Meat-first Indian/ eat like a Chicagoan? Q International 6 Pakastani BYOB F San Soo Gab San Here, now, is our attempt ITINERARIES Get: Grilled goat chops, Crowd-pleasing Korean tabletop barbecue to encapsulate our city’s Q Chicago’s Greatest Hits 1 8 chili chicken restaurant scene, a Q Chicago’s Greatest Hits 2 10 2240 W. Devon Ave. Get: Kalbi (beef short ribs), bulgogi (marinated Chicago beyond what’s Q River North (no car) 12 773-338-4080 chopalkababsteak.com beef), kimchee zigae perpetuated by guide- Q Expense Account 14 (spicy kimchee/pork stew) books and old “Saturday Q South Side 16 Note: Overdosed on meat? Consider vegetarian 5247 N. Western Ave. Q International 18 Night Live” skits. Uru-Swati a half-mile west at 773-334-1589 Note on itineraries: Call 2629 W. Devon Ave., Note: Don’t wear cashmere, [email protected] ahead/check website first to 773-262-5280 unless you want it to smell Twitter @pang confirm hours of operation like barbecue forever. and Buona Beef ) still roast roast still ) Beef Buona and 1 94 Mile 57 pizza. Al’s #1, chains like Portillo’s Portillo’s like chains #1, Al’s 95TH C An example of square-cut square-cut of example An finer purveyors (Johnnie’s, (Johnnie’s, purveyors finer A Everyman sandwich, and and sandwich, Everyman 87TH B jus-soaked roll — is Chicago’s Chicago’s is — roll jus-soaked STONY ISLAND STONY and peppers hot beef, roast 83RD D irresistibly sloppy bomb of of bomb sloppy irresistibly salt). Italian beef — the the — beef Italian salt). 94 slices, sport peppers, celery celery peppers, sport slices, CICERO PULASKI WESTERN relish, onions, pickle, tomato tomato pickle, onions, relish, 90 triumvirate. hot dog (mustard, neon neon (mustard, dog hot Thalia Hall (live shows) shows) (live Hall Thalia that’ll serve a Chicago-style Chicago-style a serve that’ll Dusek’s (restaurant) and and (restaurant) Dusek’s almost every neighborhood, neighborhood, every almost (drinks) is part of the the of part is (drinks) the corner grill, found in in found grill, corner the GARFIELD Note: Punch House House Punch Note: Most ubiquitous of all is is all of ubiquitous Most takeouts. COTTAGE GROVE COTTAGE squares. into crisscross punchhousechicago.com links found in barbecue barbecue in found links shaped wedges, the pie is cut cut is pie the wedges, shaped 312-526-3851 312-526-3851 shorthand for rib tips and hot hot and tips rib for shorthand Instead of standard triangle- standard of Instead 94 1227 W. 18th St. St. 18th W. 1227 the South and West sides, sides, West and South the sausage and cheese party cut: cut: party cheese and sausage 90 Fish House Punch House Fish E “tip-link combo” uttered on on uttered combo” “tip-link preference is the thin-crust thin-crust the is preference 294 Pimm’s Cup, Pilsen Pilsen Cup, Pimm’s HALSTED Get: You’ll hear the phrase phrase the hear You’ll tive of Chicago’s pizza pizza Chicago’s of tive AREA 31ST 55 DETAIL DETAIL on draft on shrimp by the paper bag. bag. paper the by shrimp dish pizzas. More representa- More pizzas. dish 55 ambience, with punch punch with ambience, houses selling breaded breaded selling houses ans exclusively consume deep deep consume exclusively ans CERMAK 290 Underground VFW Hall Hall VFW Underground Cermak Road, it’s the fry fry the it’s Road, Cermak this false belief that Chicago- that belief false this Chicago Southwest Side along along Side Southwest mid-’60s. As for pizza, there’s there’s pizza, for As mid-’60s. Punch House Punch F F 90 ROOSEVELT cheeseburger. On the the On cheeseburger. Chicago sometime in the the in sometime Chicago serving a two-handed two-handed a serving introduced to America via via America to introduced Lakeview, it might be a pub pub a be might it Lakeview, but all acknowledge it was was it acknowledge all but Note: Second location now open in Three Oaks, Mich. Oaks, Three in open now location Second Note: borhood has its say. In In say. its has borhood along South Halsted Street, Street, Halsted South along 964 W. 31st St., 773-523-7437, pleasanthousebakery.com 773-523-7437, St., 31st W. 964 Everywoman? Each neigh- Each Everywoman? town restaurant magnates magnates restaurant town Chicago’s Everyman and and Everyman Chicago’s among a handful of Greek- of handful a among Chicken balti pie, premium pasty, deluxe gravy chips gravy deluxe pasty, premium pie, balti Chicken Get: What is the food of of food the is What sandwich are hotly disputed disputed hotly are sandwich Blue-collar English food with farm-to-table sensibility farm-to-table with food English Blue-collar Origins of the gyro gyro the of Origins Proletariat food Proletariat Pleasant House Bakery House Pleasant E and slice beef in-house daily. in-house beef slice and INTRODUCTION SOUTH SIDE SOUTH Itinerary: 4 17 18 Itinerary: INTERNATIONAL INTRODUCTION 3 A La Chaparrita tradition, Achatz’s food was Luxury dining altogether exacting, playful, Supermarket taqueria of 2500 S. Whipple St. We begin with restaurants interactive and theatrical, the highest order 773-254-0975 at the top — tops in creative influenced by Spain’s Get: Crispy tripe and al Note: The supermarket makes verve, critical acclaim and avant-garde cooking move- pastor tacos, tepache its own longaniza sausage, price tag. First some context: ment (for example, a green (fermented pineapple drink) which it sells by bulk. Fine-dining in Chicago taffy balloon dessert during the ’70s was shaped suspended with helium). by chefs like Jovan Trboyev- For this genre of restau- DEVON DETAIL B 94 E 94 ich and Jean Banchet, whose rant, where diners can expect AREA cooking philosophies were to pay $400 and up per ELSTON ensconced in the school of person, Alinea continues to 90 F FOSTER classic French. Then came be the standard-bearer. 290 LAWRENCE Charlie Trotter in 1987, who Others, like L2O, Sixteen, 55 Chicago sourced exotic ingredients Tru, Spiaggia and Grace, LINCOLN and preached farm-to-table shoot for multi-Michelin-star WESTERN MILWAUKEE kitchen before it was en status. Any international Lake vogue. Trotter’s kitchen gourmet with a passing BELMONT Michigan produced a coterie of familiarity of Chicago’s C Chicago’s most influential dining scene will reference FULLERTON chefs today. these restaurants first. B Smak-Tak Among them is Grant One level down in pricing, Homey Polish cooking Achatz, the man responsible but with no less decorum, are Mile 1 in lodge setting for guiding our city’s Chicago’s famed steakhouses. 90 restaurants to a new stratum Gibson’s, Gene & Georgetti’s Get: Pierogis, hunter Chicago 94 of ambition. When he and Morton’s have long been stew, stuffed cabbage MICHIGAN opened Alinea in 2005, his the go-to beef emporiums for rolls CANAL cooking garnered praise that business suits and conven- 290 5961 N. Elston Ave. OGDEN went beyond local adula- tiongoers. Here you’ll find 773-763-1123 tions. Ruth Reichl, in chicken Vesuvio, a Chicago smaktak.com A CERMAK Gourmet magazine, called it invention — bone-in chicken D the best restaurant in the with potatoes sauteed in Note: Translation means 26TH “taste-yes!” 55 country. Where Trotter’s white wine, garlic and olive preached refinement and oil, then roasted until crisp. sauce on the side. the on sauce night.