Moo & Oink meats Chicago’s barbecue needs

With Labor Day weekend coming up and the last big barbecues of summer, it seems a fitting time to talk about these meaty emporiums, known for their cookout supplies, hot links and hand-cleaned chitlins.

Eat this! Tzimmes, a sweet start to the Jewish New Year

Jews serve tzimmes at Rosh Hashana, a holiday rich in symbolic foods, because custom calls for serving sweet dishes at the High Holidays in hopes of a sweet New Year.

10 places to get Rosh Hashana dinner in Chicago

Plenty of Chicagoland restaurants are happy to help you greet Rosh Hashana 5771 on Wednesday and Thursday, Sept. 8–9.

Slurp your way through September wine tastings

Drink up, wine lovers! You can sip, slurp and sample your way through September with a wide variety of wines being poured at Chicago-area steakhouses.
From 5:30 to 7 p.m. every Thursday in September, Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse in River North and Lincolnshire will showcase its latest selection of 100 wines served by the glass. At [...]

Friday food porn: Beeting it at Gemini Bistro

Tuck into chunks of roasted baby beets, drizzled with white truffle vinaigrette and sprinkled with goat cheese, alongside lamb’s lettuce, $8 at Gemini Bistro in Lincoln Park.
The American restaurant celebrates its first anniversary Sept. 7–12 with a $29.09 three-course prix fixe.

Chicago drinks up Hinckley & Schmitt’s water

In the 19th century, most Chicagoans drank untreated water from Lake Michigan. Before the reversal of the Chicago River in 1900, raw sewage flowed into the lake and the water was frequently contaminated with the effluvia of slaughterhouses and factories. Water-borne diseases, such as typhoid, cholera and dysentery, were common.

If you could, you bought bottled [...]

Eat this! Pimento cheese, ruby-studded Southern comfort

Pimento cheese spread remains beloved fare below the Mason-Dixon Line.

Push-button food emerging from the science-fiction kitchen

You’ve heard about the paper food that the molecular gastronomists at the West Loop’s Moto … well, that may soon be old hat.

Friday food porn: Can you take all of Big Timmy?

Two half-pound beef patties, layered with cheddar, Jack, mozzarella and Swiss cheeses, piled with strips of bacon and onion straws and dressed with barbecue sauce, lettuce and red onion, then served with french fries and onion rings.

Night out: Fantastical circus evenings at Excalibur

 
At 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays through Aug. 28, BigTop JoJo, the fictitious ringmaster of the Towering Show of Wonder, turns Excalibur in River North into the “Phenomenal Phantasmagoria,” an innovative evening of storytelling, puppetry and original music, with a revolving roster of circus, burlesque, theater and musical acts, including the turtle boy, the mermaid, [...]