Results tagged “jerrykleiner”

         

There are chefs who are instantly recognized by name and chefs that make amazing food who fly under the radar. One of our favorites who fall in the latter category is Mark Mendez of Carnivale. The Fulton Market restaurant, like most Jerry Kleiner properties, has an interior that is reminiscent of Lewis Carroll on mushrooms and it takes a very skilled chef to write and execute a menu that compliments and rises above the décor.

You know when you've walked into a Jerry Kleiner-owned restaurant. Subsequently, most reviews of Kleiner restaurants can be just as interchangeable. When Room 21 opened last year, the main selling point of the South Loop restaurant was its rich Prohibition-era backstory. In his review of Room 21 from March, Anthony noted that, given the building's history, "the finished interior unfortunately looks like every other Kleiner restaurant: lots of red velvet and eclectic colors."

• While we were down Hyde Park way over the weekend we did some recon around Park 52, Jerry Kleiner's new entry into the compact Harper Court dining area. It's got all the hallmarks of Kleiner's other restaurants: dark wood accents, banquettes, and lots of red velvet. It also has an open kitchen so diners can see the hullabaloo behind the scenes. Other curious diners were disappointed that Park 52 wasn't open for brunch. Chris LaMorte writes in Metromix that Park 52 is set to give Hyde Park a shot of "fun," which is BS. Apparently LaMorte's never had the catfish po' boy at Dixie Kitchen or enjoyed the plantain nachos at Calypso Café over some Red Stripe.
• Also arranged for some longtime friends to enjoy dinner at one of our favorite sushi spots over the weekend. Ginza (19 E. Ohio, 312-222-0600) isn't going to wow you with monster works of sushi-as-art. They keep their rolls simple and clean here. What you will get at Ginza is some of the freshest fish imaginable. The interior is warm, inviting, and quiet: the antithesis of many of the more popular sushi bars around town. See for yourself why this restaurant is a hit with Japanese business travelers and Loop power lunchers alike.
• Gordon Ramsay is set to do a signing of his new cookbook, Gordon Ramsay's Fast Food, Tuesday from 1-3 p.m. at Barbara's Bookstore location inside Macy's on State. Part of us is hoping Ramsay brings the "Kitchen Nightmares" cameras in tow to inspect the Macy's food court, followed by a "scorched earth" trip to the Walnut Room.

We told you it was happening; now it has, and both the Food Chain and The Stew stopped by to take their respective looks at the new Pastoral in the Loop. Food Chain asked owner Greg O'Neill about the popularity of fancy cheese: "People have the sense that 'if I’m going to be bad, I might as well be bad with something good.'" Indeed, my friend, Indeed. Handlebar owner Josh Deth has been all over...

Residents of the South Loop/Motor Row area are quickly getting more dining options, and just in time, as home buyers and renters flock to the "hottest" neighborhood in the city. There's Jerry Kleiner's long focus on developing a restaurant district along South Wabash (with Opera, Gioco, Room 21); the Mainstay Hospitality holdings all do great business; Cuatro consistently draws diners from all over the area; Café Bionda proved so successful that owner/chef Joe Farina's opened...

This ain’t your ordinary brown sack lunch. When your Reuben comes with butter-sherry sautéed onions and the sloppy Joe hails from New Mexico with jalapeños and chilies, you know you’re not going to have just an ordinary sandwich at this charming lunch spot in Logan Square. Maybe that’s because the head chef and owner, Malaika Marion, who trained at CHIC (Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago) and Le Cordon Bleu, has racked in time at...

We've wanted to write about the Motor Row-based Cuatro, one of our favorite restaurants and a staple of the city's "Nuevo Latino" movement, for a while, but didn't feel like we could add anything new or different to the existing dialogue about the place. Everyone loves it, from critics and foodies to our next-door neighbors who never leave the house, but did so just because they heard such great things about Cuatro's scallop and salmon ceviche. For some reason, we took it upon ourselves to be the dissenting voice, but could only come up with little nitpicky things. Like how their back bar is painted in this unappealing flat black that causes their aquarium, with its view into the kitchen, to actually get lost in the shuffle. And, for background music, maybe less Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, more Cibelle and Jorge Ben Jor. See? Little nitpicky things. We've never had qualms about their food or service, which is always the proof in the pudding for us.

In news that is not news to anyone who actually lives in Chicago, the New York Times discovered this weekend that Chicago's West Loop is hip. Comparing the West Loop to New York's Meatpacking District, the story discovers that, like the Meatpacking District, the West Loop transitions from a meat processing area to one where food and drink abound after the sun goes down. Interestingly enough, Chicagoist was in the West Loop last night, dining...

The South Loop Mexican cantina Zapatista is part of Mainstay Hospitality, the restaurant group that also includes the Chicago Firehouse, Grace O’Malley’s and Wabash Tap. Zapatista is situated among strong competition. Located next door to Jerry Kleiner's Opera, and across the street from both Kleiner's Gioco and “South Side Cheap Eats” favorite Howie’s, Zapatista is part of the ever-growing and diverse South Loop dining scene.

Chicagoist picks up the Reader every week out of habit, more than anything. It's not that we don't have our gripes with the paper; we do. We also have more important things happening than to indulge in infrequent sophomoric commentary about Michael Miner, Liz Armstrong, and the music section - although Monica Kendrick always gets love from us for being a Motörhead fan. That said, if you consider yourself a gourmand, pick up this week's...

We're going to level with you, and in the process potentially scandalize the part of the Chicagoist food team who knows so much about booze in any form that we feel as though we should first check with him before consuming anything of the alcoholic variety: