Indholdsfortegnelse for February 2025 i Chicago magazine

WHAT MAKES FOR A GOOD PLACE TO DRINK? “WE’RE REALLY looking for the whole package,” says Chicago dining editor Amy Cavanaugh, who oversaw this month’s cover story, “Best New Bars” (page 58). “We are looking for a high-quality drink program and a great ambience where you feel welcome when you come in, and how friendly the bartenders are and how knowledgeable. Lots of places do one or two things well, but those on our list nail everything.” She enlisted the help of freelance writer Karl Klockars. “We had a number of recent brewery openings, and Karl is such a beer expert,” Cavanaugh explains. Two brewpubs made the list of 10 — but notably, no wine bars. “We haven’t seen bars with robust wine programs opening,” says Cavanaugh. These days, she adds,…

1 The trial of Robert Crimo III, charged with killing seven people and wounding dozens more at the 2022 Highland Park Fourth of July parade, is slated to start Feb. 24. He recently lost his bid to have thrown out what police describe as a confession. 2 Last February was the warmest in Chicago history, with an average temperature of 39.5 degrees (and just 1.2 inches of snow). People jogged in shorts and T-shirts. Will we have another “summer in February,” as The New York Times dubbed it? 3 Season 2 of the Apple TV+ sci-fi series Dark Matter begins filming here in February. Expect to spot Joel Edgerton (or is it his alternate version?) brooding at various spots around town. 4 Primaries for April municipal elections will be held Feb.…

EVE L. EWING IS A self-proclaimed “school person,” a declaration she makes often in discussing her new book, Original Sins: The (Mis)ed ucation of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism. But schools do not exist in isolation. The sociologist, poet, and University of Chicago professor contends that the American education system has been deeply shaped by systemic prejudice and has historically favored white students and belittled their Black and Indigenous peers. In her book, she challenges readers to confront this uncomfortable truth so they can reimagine what schools could be. Q: You have described this book as subject matter you’d felt was missing from the curriculum. Why was it so important for you to write it? A: Growing up in Chicago Public Schools, I became very aware…

WOMEN & CHILDREN FIRST “To have an independent bookstore like this so close to where I live—one that allows people to be who they are—is such a gift. They’re unapologetically progressive and have the best selection.” 5233 N. Clark St. TANOSHII “It’s a super low-key restaurant, but if you order the omakase, you know you’re going to have a special meal. The chef, Sushi Mike, is something of a legend.” 5547 N. Clark St. SWEDISH AMERICAN MUSEUM “It has a permanent exhibit, the Brunk Children’s Museum of Immigration, that tracks the journey from Sweden to the United States. It’s a gift for neighborhood parents. When my daughter was little, we could kill three hours there.” 5211 N. Clark St. HOPLEAF BAR “Everyone knows this bar for the great beer selection,…

LAMASSUITABLE FOR FRAMING With Wafaa Bilal: Indulge Me, the Iraqi-born performance artist and sculptor (and School of the Art Institute grad) gets a major survey exhibition, which includes his response to the Islamic State’s 2015 destruction of the Lamassu of Nineveh. Feb. 1–Oct. 19. mcachicago.org SHOWS FOR A SONG During Chicago Theatre Week, tickets run $30 or less to performances at Lyric Opera, Steppenwolf, and more. Feb. 6–16 (some discounts extend through Feb. 23). chicagotheatreweek.com A PRODUCTION DEFERRED Although Lorraine Hansberry’s Pulitzer-winning drama is based on a true South Side story, Court Theatre has never produced A Raisin in the Sun — until now. Feb. 8–Mar. 2. courttheatre.org CANOROUS CONFECTIONS Paramount Theatre cooks up the regional premiere of Sara Bareilles’s pie-loving musical, Waitress, with Michelle Lauto in the title role.…

1 PIZZ’AMICI What Two of the Kim’s Uncle Pizza founders bring their beloved thin crust to West Town, to instant lines. Why Build a pie with toppings like Italian beef and giardiniera. Where 1215 W. Grand Ave., West Town 2 CANTINA ROSA What Erick Williams gets into the bar game with this vibrant Mexican-influenced spot. Why You’ll see us at the bar having frozen guava coladas and chicken mole empanadas. Where 5230 S. Harper Ave., Hyde Park 3 FIRE What Roister closed to make way for this celebration of all things flaming. Why The tasting menu ($115) uses techniques like ember cooking. Where 951 W. Fulton Market, West Loop 4 ETC. What Lamar Moore is co-owner of this upscale newbie, where the menu focuses on Southern flavors. Why Expect refined plates like braised oxtail with purple grits…

We have lost so many great corner bars in Chicago over the past decade. So it was a relief when Ty Fujimura and his partners opted to sell their 22-year-old Logan Square joint to Footman Hospitality (which operates the likes of Spilt Milk, Quality Time, and Bisous) rather than shutter it. Top firm Siren Betty Design gave the place a light glow-up, but it retains its welcoming neighborhood feel. Yes, the drink menu is a little fancier, but you can still get an affordable (at $12) cocktail, like a spiced frozen banana daiquiri and an old-fashioned with both Angostura and orange bitters. The most exciting change: the arrival of Patty Please, a pop-up that’s turning out some of the city’s best burgers. (Take our advice: Order the Pleaser.) This space…

How does it feel to be a problem? W.E.B. Du Bois famously posed this haunting question in 1903, in his classic work The Souls of Black Folk. I think of it often, especially whenever I encounter one particular line from Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia: “Among the blacks is misery enough, God knows, but no poetry.” It’s stinging in its candor. It strikes me every time, sending me spinning through my own vignettes of the Black poets who set a course for my thriving. In eighth grade, my class took a three-day trip to Washington, D.C., my first time traveling without my family. We visited Monticello. No one brought up the poetry line. I would go through elementary school, high school, college, and my first master’s degree,…

TEREASA SURRATT AND David Hernandez have long been in touch with their pioneer spirit. “When we got married, I registered for a chainsaw, and it’s my favorite gift,” says Surratt, 52, who grew up on a farm in southern Illinois. At one point, the couple both worked for the ad agency giant Ogilvy. Hernandez, a 57-year-old Chicago native, left in 2019 to become chief creative officer for Allstate; Surratt resigned two years ago to focus on their joint passion: Camp Wandawega, the nostalgic getaway outside Elkhorn, Wisconsin, that they purchased in 2003. “Stepping out of the corporate world to run our own business is the single biggest thing I’ve done for my own wellness,” she says. Parents to a teenager and an energetic sheepdog, they split their time between their Ukrainian…

ON A FRIDAY MORNING, I GET an email from chef Donald Young. “The address for the event will be [redacted]. I will be sharing a virtual key soon via email.” Thus begins my Duck Sel journey, a dining experience that combines the standards of a posh restaurant with the intimacy of eating in someone’s living room. For $250 for 15 courses (or $160 for seven), it is one of the most entertaining culinary adventures in town. There’s no shortage of pop-up dinners in Chicago. But most are offered by chefs trying to get their first break. Young is already well established. He fell in love with French cuisine while working at the now-closed stalwart Le Francais in high school. After living in France for a while, he returned to Chicago to…

HERE’S THE ELEVATOR PITCH: If you want to try quality Georgian food, go to a strip mall in suburban Wheeling. Perhaps this small nation in the Caucasus is on your radar only because of its recent civil unrest. Perhaps, if you have any notion of Georgian food, it’s because you once ripped into an Adjaruli khachapuri—a boat-shaped flatbread filled with tangy, stretchy sulguni cheese, butter, and a runny egg yolk that one swirls into dairy goop heaven before eating. Perhaps you’re aware of Georgia’s now-fashionable qvevri wines, aged in egg-shaped clay vessels buried underground. Let Stumara be your introduction to all of it and then some. Georgian food will surprise and charm, and maybe even elicit a new craving in you. It is all about colorful spreads and juicy soup dumplings,…

FEW CHICAGO SPORTS BARS BOAST THE NFL cred of the South Loop’s Signature, co-owned by former Bear Israel Idonije (with S.K.Y.’s Stephen Gillanders). Since hanging up his jersey in 2014, Idonije centers his football Sundays on a different kind of team. “Sharing moments with my family and friends is the best part of gathering on game day,” he says. His pro hosting move? Offering dishes that “check the finger-food box” and can be prepped ahead of time to feed a crowd, like these tender meatballs in a rich, smoky tomato sauce, perfect for your Super Bowl party. Serve them solo or with pitas for DIY sandwiches. SIGNATURE’S LAMB MEATBALLS WITH MOROCCAN SUGO Makes 16 meatballs Active time 1 hour Total time 1 hour 15 minutes 4 cups crushed tomatoes1 Tbsp. dried…

Wine bars have grown so scarce in Chicago that I imagine somewhere there’s a warehouse filled with nothing but those once-ubiquitous nitrogen preservation systems just gathering dust. I don’t miss the trappings of the mid-aughts wine bars, with their fruit and cheese plates and their balloon stems etched with logos, but I do miss the easy access to decent bottles. So if you see a schlubby guy sitting at the bar at Red & White Wines, come say hi. I enjoy this Bucktown spot, a side hustle for the city’s best natural wine purveyor, because I can try something new — maybe an unfiltered red from Provence, served chilled, that tastes like fresh juice, or a funky Loire that smells not unappealingly like a Band-Aid. The problem is, I often…

You can never have too many bags. Repeat that to yourself as you tour Baggu’s new Wicker Park boutique. In this minimalist shrine, decked with pegboard and recycled cork, the wildly popular San Francisco–based brand can arm you with the Technicolor reusable shopping totes that have served grocery-store runs well since 2007. (One ripstop nylon bag holds 50 pounds and folds up into pocket-friendly size.) You’ll also find backpacks, purses, and travel pouches. Here, collectibility trumps utility: Artist-created designs change out each season, with options both traditional (stripes, checkers) and whimsical (Snoopy wearing a puffer, anyone?). Best yet, everything is under $100—further proof that when it comes to bags, self-control is vastly overrated. 1639 N. Damen Ave.…

BAZUKA JOE REMEMBERS keenly when he first became aware of artist Edward Gorey. As with so many people, it was thanks to PBS’s Mystery!, an anthology series whose animated opening credits came from Gorey’s sharply cartoonish, delightfully macabre black-and-white drawings. “I was a little kid, and I very distinctly recall being like, What is this? I could not get close enough to the TV,” says the 44-year-old choreographer and writer. (Bazuka Joe is his longtime stage name from the burlesque world.) “People were dying left and right, accompanied by jaunty, mysterious music. It said a lot without saying anything.” Last year, Bazuka and his partner in artistic crime, Jennifer Friedrich, parlayed that fascination into The Uncanny Attic, a thrilling and ghastly revue they jointly produced and directed. Featuring dance, puppetry, clowning,…

It takes a familiarity with a certain kind of Southern coastal sea-food joint to make great broiled oysters. It’s all about plumping the oysters without exactly cooking them, yet still engineering a bubbly hot, golden brown, and alchemically delicious crust made from bread-crumbs, butter, the mollusk’s own juices, and suboptimal Parmesan cheese. At Briny Swine Smokehouse & Oyster Bar, chef-owner Brandon Rushing gets them just right—perhaps because he recently decamped here from Edisto Beach, South Carolina, where he ran the first iteration of this restaurant. Rushing gussies his oysters up with collard greens and diced country ham for the Southern Rockefeller theme, never mind it was the Carnegies who were the big coastal landowners. No problem. These are real-deal Low Country broiled oysters. You can almost smell the pluff mud.…

◼ Perfect order Khao soi nuer toon ($20) ◼ Chicago’s Thai restaurants have all kinds of specialties, whether that’s the curries at In-On Thai or the Isan favorites at Tuk Tuk Thai Isan Street Food. At Mahanakhon Noodle Bar, a family-owned spot that opened last May, the focus is Thai noodles. The menu lists more than a dozen types, which you could explore over many visits, but there are two particular standouts. On your first visit, get the khao soi nuer toon, a northern Thai coconut curry noodle soup. This textbook version, loaded with slices of tender beef shank, is rich and creamy with subtle spices and features that classic contrast between soft egg noodles and crunchy ones. It’s an instant contender for the best in town. On your next…

▪ Spite is fuel. People like to tell Black girls what they cannot and will never be able to do. And I’m like, Oh, OK, well, now I’m going to have to show you. There’s a saying, “Those who cannot hear will feel,” and I like to make sure people feel it. ▪ When I wrote Hood Feminism, people said, “The hood’s not like this.” I don’t know what your experience was, but in my neighborhood, everybody knew everybody. The teachers knew our parents. My grandmother and my vice principal knew each other from school. There were these labyrinth interconnections where they went to the same churches. Not that it’s a good political practice, but a weird facet of segregation is that it binds people together. ▪ When I was…