Weekly Planner: Wheel Wednesdays and New Spring Menus
Wheel Wednesdays at Antique Taco
Though spring in Chicago is notoriously finicky and fickle, one good indicator that warm weather is near is the onset of food truck season at Antique Taco. More specifically, the restaurant’s sprawling Bridgeport location is kicking into spring gear with its “Wheel Wednesdays” series, which invites a handful of different food trucks into its parking lot to sling food on the patio and turn it into an al fresco fiesta. The next event takes place May 9, starting at 4:00 p.m., with another one slated for May 23, and more dates to follow.
New Dinner Menu at Cafe Robey
Spring has sprung at Café Robey, which just introduced a vibrant new dinner menu inside The Robey hotel. The modern American restaurant has made a name for itself for its seasonal, contemporary fare, and spring marks the most exciting season for menu development.
Courtesy of chef Kevin McAllister, Cafe Robey’s new dinner dishes serve to elevate seasonal ingredients in everything from small plates and entrees to sides and desserts. Look for items like butter-poached shrimp with tomato confit, chicken jus vinaigrette and beurre monte; diced beef tenderloin tartare with stout gougeres, blue cheese, seared pearl onions, cherry tomato and potato chips; potato gnocchi with chermoula, goat cheese, roasted fennel and honey-candied pistachios; and the springiest dish of them all: pan-roasted lamb chops with snap pea and mint puree, glazed carrots, black rice and aleppo vinaigrette.
The drink list borrows inspiration from the dinner menu with an equally vibrant assortment of new sips. Like the Ford’s Model, a hibiscus-infused gin drink with dry curacao, aloe liqueur, white pine bitters and cucumber; and Sage Advice, a potent blend of tequila, green tea syrup, lime, green chartreuse and sage.
Parson’s Beer
In other fun drinking news, Parson’s Chicken & Fish just introduced its very own custom beer, adding to the lengthy lineup of reasons to swoon over this bustling Logan Square hot spot. The restaurant and bar partnered with Revolution Brewing for the endeavor, which turned out to be a quenching, mellow golden ale that has “summer drinking” basically written all over it. It’s got just the right amount of wheat malt and light hops to go down crisply and smoothly. Doled out in custom red and white cans designed by the LSD Art Dept., the beer is now available exclusively at Parson’s.
Spring Cocktails at The Promontory
In case you’re still thirsty, The Promontory proves its mettle as one of the foremost drinking destinations in Chicago with its latest crop of cocktail creations. Under the tutelage of beverage director Dianna Sanders, the dexterous bar team have introduced 12 new drinks for the season, freshening things up with emphasis on gin, rum, tequila and eau de vie. New drinks include the Smoked Pineapple Daiquiri, which sports pineapple-infused rum, freshly squeezed lime, sugar, orange bitters and pineapple that’s been smoked in The Promontory’s brick hearth. The Fauxjito is a fun, herbal riff on the mojito, made with mint-infused barrel-aged pisco, fresh lemon juice and ginger syrup, while the Living in the Past blends together gin, amaro, demerara, and orange and rhubarb bitters.