Chicago Foodies

Doggie Crack and New Trends in Treats at the IKC Dog Show

The International Kennel Club Dog Show was held February 24 - 26 at McCormick Place. It is a great event for parents, kids and dog lovers and is one of the only dog shows in the country to hold the show dogs on the floor - meaning visitors can get up close and personal with their favorite breads while they are being primped each day  - which really makes the experience worth while.

In addition to the toys, gadgets and chachka for both pets and people (my friend purchased a 27 dollar coffee mug with a Wheaten Terrier on it) there is a variety of canine cuisine and supplements to explore - begging the question, what are the new trends in dog food and treats? We did see a few interesting things beyond the typical low-grain dog foods and every popular bully sticks.

Good Food Festival Gold Package – 40% off

The Good Food Festival is two weeks away. It's a wonderful conference for both industry and consumers where you can get a window into what is actually going on in the food community. We're happy to offer a 40% discount to our readers for the different Gold Packages by entering the code "gffchifoodies". The offer expires on the 12th so get them HERE now!

Here are the different demos you can choose from:

   • The Whole Animal: Butchering and Sausage Making Demo with Rob Levitt (pictured)
   • Permaculture: Sustainable Gardening Following Nature’s Design with Bill Wilson
   • Preserving Food: A Four-Season Masterplan with David Cavagnaro of Seed Savers
   • A four-stop Urban and Vertical Farming Bus Tour

Meet Fred Daniels from Growing Home

Fred Daniels talks about Growing Home in advance of the Good Food Festival in Chicago at the UIC March 15th-17th, http://goodfoodfestivals.com/chicago/

 

Five Reasons You Should Seek Out Ada St.

Fish Bar and DMK Burger Bar partners Michael Kornick (of MK) and David Morton are in business together for a third project called Ada St., but they're not making it easy for anyone to really get a handle on the concept. Pre-opening, Kornick told Eater that the space would be "more of a tavern" than a restaurant, but what tavern do you know that serves octopus and greets you with candelabras in the entryway?

There's also the wacky location to consider. On an industrial section of Ada St. off of Elston, a small awning is the only indication that there's a restaurant tucked between brick office buildings and parking lots. So why embark on an urban adventure to check out what the owner himself called "a neighborhood tavern"? We did the legwork for you, and can thankfully report at least five reasons to not only give it a shot, but to hop in your car immediately.

LTH Opens 2012 Great Neighborhood Restaurant Nominations

Between following the Republican primaries and voting in your office Oscar pool, you're probably about chin-deep in the refreshing waters of democracy.

Unlike both of those contests, LTH Forum's Great Neighborhood Restaurant Awards is an annual ballot that actually means something for the local businesses you love. The culinary nerds over at LTH put out the list of GNRs every year, and while in the past, it's been unclear whether some of the spots truly qualify as "neighborhood" spots, it's always a spot-on list of great establishments.

So if you're loyal to a bakery down the street, have an under-the-radar bistro you frequent, or just want to do a good deed by nominating your favorite restaurant, head over to the GNR nominations page on LTH and read all the guidelines.

--Kate Bernot

Jim Slama Talks About the Good Food Festival

Jim's the driving force behind the Good Food Festival. Here he explains quite a few things going on over the course of the event, from financing to fermenting! Check it out for yourself – March 15th-17th at the UIC, http://goodfoodfestivals.com/chicago/.

For the Love of Chocolate – Chocolate Decadence This Saturday!

This Saturday,  Februaruy 25th from 7-11pm at the Merchandise Mart is the 2012 For the Love of Chocolate Gala. I love the simple math they supply in determining what one night of decadence is actually worth:

1 Night =
18 Open Bars
75 Participating Chefs Providing Both Savory and Sweet
30 Edible designs in Cocoa Carnival's Fashion Show starting at 8 pm.
4 Musical Performers (2 DJs, DJ Anacron & DJ Shon Roka)
2 dance floors
6 Themed Rooms: Cocoa Candyland,  Cocoa Carnival,  Sweet as Sin,  Confectiatory, Cocoa Sutra,  and Chocolate Spa...

Sixteen's New Chef Thomas Lents Recommits Trump to Fine Dining

When your restaurant is located in Trump Tower, it seems a given that it would ooze fine dining. Or would it? A recent spate of "re-concepting" to more casual ventures from The Peninsula's Avenues, The Four Seasons' Allium (née Seasons), and The Park Hyatt's NoMI Kitchen (née NoMI), makes one wonder whether Sixteen's new chef, Thomas Lents, wasn't also headed in that direction. The answer, it turns out, it a resounding "no." Here, Lents explains why not.

Chicago Foodies: Why stay fine dining?
Lents: I think fine dining is always going to be relevant. Like any trend, the farm-to-table trend has reached its apex. Some people want space between tables, don't want to have to shout over people, and want to enjoy the companionship of fine dining. That market is here, and the talent level of other chefs in Chicago is certainly here. You have a fine setting in Sixteen, and a beautiful room, and it demands fine dining. I think there's room for not just maintaining the status quo in fine dining, but coming up with a new level for it.

CF: What does that mean to you?
Lents: You need to give choice to people and make it approachable and comfortable, and you can take some of the techniques and ingredient-driven ideas that have come through, and put them in a fine dining setting. If you look at my menu, you'll see ox tail and bone marrow, and I am a big belivever in nose-to-tail cooking. I've been doing farm-to-table for 20 years, but my tables and my farms are just a bit more spread out.

Chicago Foodies Food Truck Bash: 3 Food Trucks, 2 Brothers & 1 Green Lady

 

Wednesday February 22nd at 6:30 is your chance to see 3 of Chicago's finest food trucks flex their culinary muscle at The Green Lady on Lincoln for Chicago Foodies Food Truck Bash

La Adelita, The Brown Bag Lunch Truck, and Cupcakes for Courage will provide a tasting menu that will be paired by Two Brothers Brewing.

Expect sharp and sweet. Savory and sultry. A veritable bonanza of flavors coming together all for $35 bucks!

Sign up for the event on Facebook or buy ticket here:

Double IPA's For Single People at Jerry's Sandwiches

Think your are going to spend the night of Valentine's Day sad and alone, or at one of those "I'm not bitter. No really" Screw Cupid bar events drinking $2 jello shots?   Well, we're not having it.  Those are for losers.  The winners will be out drinking double IPA's at Jerry's Sandwiches in Wicker Park which is featuring Double IPA's For Single People night.  Jerry's is spreading the love with elite double IPA's destined to set your forsaken heart aflutter. 

Lincoln Square Beer Festival At Dank Haus

Winter hasn't been that tough on us yet but don't take that to mean there isn't trouble ahead.  You could be experiencing the winter blahs before you know it if you aren't already.  And if you're already in the doldrums over winter, well, you clearly live  in the wrong city.  But there is hope.  There's a sure-fire means of coping out there and it's called beer.  In fact, the denizens of Lincoln Square want to remind you of the healing power of beer through their winter beer fest starting at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 28, 2011, at the Dank Haus on Western Avenue in the Lincoln Square neighborhood. 

Local Option Beer Event - Thursday, December 15, 2011

It is being referred to as "biblical."  Maybe so.   Under any moniker, The Local Option in Chicago is having its final beer event of the year, featuring some rock solid beer offerings including some of the Evil Twin lineup, Dark Horse 4 Elf, Jolly Pumpkin La Parcela, Lost Abbey Angel's Share, Surly Darkness, and Victory Yakima Glory.  Stouts, stouts, and more stouts dominate this event, so expect a lot of dark, chocolatly, viscous, amazing, sludge-in-your-glass beers to be featured, and to disappear fast.  Here is the list.

This insanity begins at 3 p.m. Thursday night, so be there to get your favorites.  Local Option is located at 1102 W. Webster Ave. in Chicago.   

In Defense of "Too Much" Food Writing

"Just shut up! Get into the kitchen and cook!" This is the exasperated cry of Martha Nichols' otherwise thoughtful, measured argument against "literary food fatigue" that she published Wednesday on her blog, Athena's Head. Nichols is tired of written foodie culture. She is exhausted by page-long descriptions of heirloom tomatoes and bored by poetic musings on Nova Scotia scallops. What makes her argument more than just populist noise is her vantage point: Nichols herself is a literary magazine editor whose latest publication is an entire issue devoted to food. So what are we, the food-obsessed writers and readers, to make of her assertion that "food writing has reached a choking point"?

Win a Free Pair of Tickets to Pinot Days Grand Tasting at Navy Pier this Saturday!

Here's a great opportunity to win a pair of tickets to Pinot Days this Saturday! Simply fill out our Facebook poll letting us know which region makes your favorite Pinot! Washington's Willamette Valley? France's famed Burgundy? Cali's Russian River? South America's Chilean? So many choices! They're all good and it's not that any one's better than another but they're different enough to have a favorite, right?

The 5th Annual Pinot Days is this Saturday afternoon at Navy Pier. Here's our post about it.

5th Annual Pinot Days – Grand Festival Tasting @ Navy Pier Saturday Nov. 12th

Do you prefer Pinot from Oregon or from California? What about New Zealand or simply an old school Burgundy? November 12th at Navy Pier is the perfect time to understand what the difference is when you have a chance to try over 300 different wines. Over 70 producers will be included at this year's event from around the world.

This year there are specific focuses including a Burgundy corner as well as a VIP tasting. TIckets are $50 in advance and available on their website.

"About Hunger & Resilience" CLOSES TOMORROW at St. James Cathedral

I was walking down Huron and saw a sign for Michael Nye's interactive art show at the St James Cathedral. The show closes tomorrow. Inside the church... inside the chapel are over 50 portraits around the grand room. Headphones accompany each portrait. It was the middle of the day and the church was empty except for a small group at the front. A woman was teaching a prayer whch is simply credited online to Latin America,

To all those with bread have hunger for justice.
To all those with hunger have bread.

While the last day of the show is Sunday, the portraits and audio excerpts are available on the artist's website. For a food community who very much has bread, both literally and figuratively, this site should have more interest in social justice. We'll have to work on that.

St. James Cathedral
65 E Huron
Chicago IL 60611

*photo from http://www.michaelnye.org

The Sixth Sense of Dining: Inside the StarChefs Conference

Want to rub elbows with the nation's brightest culinary stars? The 6th annual StarChefs conference opened yesterday in New York with a star-studded roster of speakers.

The event is open only to industry professionals, however for culinary students and restaurant workers, this is a dazzling opportunity to ask questions and get your hands dirty with a workshop from your favorite kitchen god (or goddess). There is also opportunity to walk away with a dash of fame; 20 rising pastry chefs are in fierce competition to win the International Pastry Competition.

This year's theme was "The Sixth Sense: Intuition, Emotion and Experiential Evolution in Dining." Lots of fancy words, to be sure, but there is nothing pie-in-the-sky about Grant Achatz's determination to enter your psyche as a diner, as he spoke about the broadening role of food as entertainment.

The StarChefs conference is certainly smaller than other industry conferences (like the National Restaurant Association show), but the more intimate vibe allows you to dive in without feeling overwhelmed. There is a good smattering of equipment vendors, food suppliers and other merchandise to check out, but the real meat of the conference is not the Australian lamb, but the main stage presentations and workshops.

Want to hear about building a charcuterie empire? Daniel Boulud will enlighten you. Interested in making ethereally light macarons? Pierre Herme has traveled straight from Paris to guide you in an interactive seminar. Curious about the thought process that pushes a concept to a plate? Laurent Gras demonstrates visual storytelling through a fish eye and Picasso paintings.

More highlights and photos from the StarChefs conference after the jump:

Limited Edition Hennessy Bottle Designed by KAWS

On Wednesday this last week, Hennessy had a release party for their new, limited-edition, bottle designed by artist KAWS at Blackbird restaurant.  Eager to learn more about Hennessy, I jumped at the opportunity, and, hey, it's Blackbird!

Walking in I tried to hide a smile on my face when I noticed models, bodies painted to reflect KAWS' work, and scores of cocktails that no one was drinking as of yet, something that I had mentally called into question (Fortunately that situation was rectified later in the evening).

  The event provided an opportunity to showcase other products in the Hennessy line but focused on the V.S., of which only 420,000 bottles with the label are to be sold.   Blackbird house mixologist, Lynn House, provided some great cocktails to start, among them being the Plum Smash, which is muddled plums, lime, mint, and mint blossoms, which Lynn told me she harvested from her back garden earlier that day.   The mint blossoms, in particular accentuated the cocktail's flavor with their fragrance, which was not dissimilar to a mint julep, but not as strong,  less cloying, and much more refreshing.

Stoned 75 was Lynn's other pre-dinner cocktail, mixed with peach puree and apricot jam, Ruinart Blanc de Blanc Champagne, and  Hennessy Privilège V.S.O.P.   Using Ruinart as an ingredient was rather decadent in my opinion, given its sticker price of around $60 per bottle, though it was a nice cocktail, especially for a brunch or summer afternoon.

Kouzina – Food and Wine to Benefit the Hellenic Museum Sept. 21st-23rd

The Hellenic Museum will be the first Greek cultural museum in America and it will be in Chicago! This is a great chance to not only taste some unique and awesome food but to get to preview the museum as well.

Tonight begins "Kouzina", their tasting-fundraiser that spans 3 days. This evening features their Chef Tasting and includes award winning and celebrated local chefs:

Would You "Grub With Us"?

There are tons of ways to experience dining in Chicago, and the newest trend is group dining deals. Haven't heard of any? Grub With Us is taking Chicago by storm, and they are expanding as we speak.Here's how it works. Grub With Us pairs with a restaurant and offers a set menu at a set date and time. There are a limited number of spots - generally about 7 per meal. You pay online, and the cost covers tax and tip. 

So, what's the catch? The point of the site is basically to meet new people. You go by yourself, enjoy sharing a three course meal with 6 strangers, and possibly leave as friends. The community on the site is still small, so if you are a big grubber, you're likely to see the same people at another meal. A new feature of Grub With Us is meals for certain interests. Are you a vegetarian? A techie? Or just single? Sign up for a meal with people just like you. 

When I tried Grub With Us, I was extremely impressed at the amount of food that was involved in the meal. While there was a bit of scrambling to take my share for each course, everyone was polite and respectful. We're all hungry after all! Did I mention I brought to friends to dinner with me? This leads me to my next point...