Illustration: Elena Rodina

By Elena Rodina

The stretch of Devon Avenue in the Rogers Park area is mostly known for its Indian stores, and my friends head there if they want to buy ingredients for tandoori chicken, a bright sari or some golden bangle bracelets. However, in the late eighties and throughout the nineties, the area was densely populated by immigrants from the Soviet Union. By now, most of them have left the neighborhood, having moved to the greener suburbs. But there are still a couple of places that are full of hidden Slavophile treasures.

One such place is a Russian supermarket named Three Sisters, after the famous Chekhov play. When I walked in there for the first time, I immediately felt at home. Not just because the place was stuffed with nesting dolls, dark bread, sour cabbage and other things that are dear to my heart, but also because the sales clerks there project a traditional Russian attitude toward clients: grimness and neglect. It’s the perfect place for misanthropes tired of the broad smiles and unavoidable enthusiasm of American customer service. At Three Sisters, you will be greeted by silence and suspicious looks, at least at first. It’s a matter of style, though; the clerks are nice and helpful once you start talking to them.  Read the rest of this entry »

Walking into the basement of Butcher & the Burger feels like walking into any other restaurant prep area. Except for the half of a hog lying on its side on the table and the well-dressed twenty- and thirtysomethings drinking beer, wine and tea while staring in a half-stunned half-anticipatory silence. Chef Al Sternweiler positions himself behind the carcass, slapping a hand down on it as he begins to address the crowd. After a short introduction, he grabs a knife and starts slicing away at the inside of the pig. While he cuts chunks of meat off the bone, strips off long chunks of fat and mentions how the less-desirable parts are great for grinding into sausage, co-owner and designer Josh Woodward launches into a lengthy explanation of this particular pig’s origin. Read the rest of this entry »

If someone offers to sell you a box of shrimp that “fell off the truck,” don’t laugh. They’ve got some fast fencing to do, since seafood doesn’t exactly have the shelf life of, say, diamonds. But the latest victim of culinary larceny says it’s a growing problem.

This past Saturday evening, a container truck containing 1,750 cases of tail-off white vannamei shrimp weighing 35,000 pounds went missing in the Pilsen neighborhood. Each of the twenty-pound cases contains ten two-pound bags of Member’s Mark brand medium-sized uncooked shrimp. The truck was parked in an undisclosed location when the vehicle was reportedly stolen and there was no driver present at the time. The destination of the shipment is still unknown, although Preferred Freezer Services, the company responsible for the shipping order, suspects it was a big-box store such as Costco or Sam’s Club. Preferred Freezer Services contacted members of the frozen foods industry to alert them about the stolen goods. Read the rest of this entry »

Under the shade of a crisscrossing concrete canopy, a sliver of 26th Street runs from South Canal Street to I-94 beneath the intersecting Dan Ryan and Stevenson Expressway overpasses. Here, in the far reaches of the Bridgeport, Chinatown and Armour Square neighborhoods, the Ricobene family has carved out their flavorful nerve center.

The Ricobene family has maintained a presence on the 200 block of West 26th since 1946, when Rosario and Antonia opened a walk-up vegetable stand that quickly grew into the big-eats Italian food destination that it is today. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo: Jessica Graves, Feeding the City

By Giovanni Wrobel

It’s hard to keep from smiling at the Green City Market, where every Wednesday and Saturday it feels as though the South Pond section of Lincoln Park is transformed into a French market on the dairy plains, as guitar strings and children’s laughter echo, and the fire-engine red backdrop of the Farm in the Zoo flashes through the trees. Shoppers and samplers exude energy and gush over the sweet and savory flavors of locally grown produce done right.

The yearlong farmers market in Lincoln Park is not a novel phenomenon, but with a newly landscaped location and Dana Benigno’s fresh face in the director’s chair, GCM presents much promise to grow within its community of committed shoppers and diligent farmers. Read the rest of this entry »

Ken Raskin, along with Dan and Matt Raskin

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Ken Raskin
Owner, Manny’s
It’s one thing to get the ear of a politician, it’s quite another to have the stomach of the President. Obama, Daley, Rahm and Quinn—they’ve all made their pilgrimages to the Near West Side for pastrami and pie—it seems you can’t launch a campaign in this town these days without a little of Raskin’s nosh. For the rest of us, the poor unwashed masses, Raskin feeds the soul and reaffirms the Chicago in our hearts.

See details on the The Big Heat

By Giovanni Wrobel

Gelato is a culinary must for starry-eyed Americans with Euros to burn on trips to Italy and elsewhere in Europe. But can this velvety smooth Italian cousin to ice cream claim its rightful spot in our local pantheon of desserts, or is it destined to remain in il purgatorio as a filler choice in old-line Italian restaurants, served in freezer-burned fruit bowls with mint garnish?

One pastry chef and store may not suffice as oracle for such questions, but Jessica Oloroso, an erudite artisan who owns and operates Black Dog Gelato, has done much in a short time to bring gelato the acclaim and patronage it deserves.

Oloroso started her own business as a supplier to local restaurants and coffee shops throughout Chicago. She left her position as pastry chef at Scylla, a Bucktown restaurant best known as the launching pad for “Top Chef”-winner Stephanie Izard, purchased ice cream machines, and set up shop in Kitchen Chicago, an artisan communal kitchen, where she began work on her techniques and unique recipes.

Oloroso echoes the drive of many start-up business owners: “I really didn’t want to have to work for anyone. I wanted to go off on my own. I honed my particular path, which is ice cream and gelato, using basic skills I picked up in school and then lots of trial and error in the kitchen. I did a lot of reading and research too.” Read the rest of this entry »

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Rob and Allison Levitt
Owners, Butcher & Larder
What they started at the short-lived Mado, breaking down whole animals and serving all the parts, lives on greater than ever at their new Noble Square butchery. From Paulina to Gepperth’s, there’s plenty of great old meat cutters doing God’s work. But, while the protein served up at those places is often high quality, they’re also nameless and faceless cuts, some local, some not. At B&L, you can get a chop that was definitely raised on pasture less than a hundred miles away or the same farmer’s cut served to you at Sepia or Vie the night before.

See details on the The Big Heat

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Nick Lessins and Lydia Esparza
Owners, Great Lake Pizza
We don’t know what it is about Andersonville that attracts control freak super-artisans, but add Lessins and Esparza to the list of incredible food craftspeople that don’t believe the customer is always right. According to Alan Richman of GQ, they serve the best pizza in America and folks will wait hours for a pie, so for now they can do whatever they want. We just hope they don’t go the way of their control-freak bakery neighbors, the recently shuttered Pasticceria Natalina.

See details on the The Big Heat

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Bruce Sherman
Chef/Partner, North Pond; Chefs Collaborative and Green City Market Boards
Sherman is actually the antithesis of hot. He’s one of, if not the most deliberative and intelligent chefs we know. But, that attention to detail and nuance makes him one of Chicago’s best advocates for locally farmed high-quality food.

See details on the The Big Heat