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 »

Twenty contestants, 300 pounds of bacon, one day: This is the Bacon Takedown, returning to Chicago for a second year this September. When asked what was the most creative item on the last Takedown’s menu, creator Matt Timms replies “bacon taffy” with little hesitation, but can’t choose a favorite dish. Last year’s winners included bacon English muffins and “Sow-moa” cookies, but also on the menu were bacon taffy apples and hot chocolate. Read the rest of this entry »

 By Giovanni Wrobel

Kris Swanberg began making ice cream immediately after getting laid off as a CPS teacher, calling her product Nice Cream. Her all-local organic model became popular in stores, gaining the attention of Whole Foods and eventually the Illinois Department of Public Health, who recently shut Swanberg down for not having a dairy license and not following the regulations. Swanberg’s business, however, is still at a point where the regulations are cost prohibitive to keep Nice Cream local and organic. Instead of rolling over, this time she’s drawing her line in the sand and sticking up for her beloved ice cream and that of other Illinois artisan creamers.

What originally intrigued you about making ice cream besides the ice cream maker you received for your wedding?
That’s it really! (Laughs.) I just started doing it at home and I couldn’t stop thinking about different flavors and different ideas.  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 »

Summer’s over, kids. Sure, temperatures might still be in the nineties, and we’re going to enjoy one last hurrah this Labor Day weekend, but weather or not, fall is here. How do we know? The arts calendar, in hibernation these last couple of months, is on the verge of awakening with an explosion of activity. And as we do every year at this time, we’ve distilled it to a short list of highlights in order to help you put your personal fall calendar together.

Start out with our “big eleven” events for fall and then explore these links to the various fall previews we’ve created:

Fall Art Preview
Fall Dance Preview
Fall Film Preview
Fall Music Preview
Fall Resto Preview
Fall Stage Preview

By Ben Small

“Normal life is so boring,” explains Patrick “Deep Dish” Bertoletti from his modest basement apartment in Pilsen, his spiked mohawk lying flat and unassuming. If it wasn’t for his girlfriend, he’d be out traveling every weekend to different locations around the world, wherever he can find a stage to do what he does best: eat a lot of things unfathomably fast.

Bertoletti takes his nickname from the city that made him who he is, where he grew up and discovered deep-dish pizza, his first culinary love. He had always been an impressive eater, a “big kid,” but it was his twin sister who convinced him to try it competitively. He entered a pizza-eating competition when he was nineteen and came in fourth, after eating five pounds of the stuff, before bringing it all back up on someone’s lawn on the drive home. “I felt like total trash” he says, describing his immediate reaction. He told himself he would never do it again. Nonetheless, a week later his opinions changed as he realized he liked the attention. “It was cool,” he says. Several years later, Bertoletti is number two in the world at eating: he has been to more than thirty states and five different countries and now holds thirty-five stomach-churning world records. And, at twenty-six, he is still considered a young athlete in the competition-eating world. Read the rest of this entry »

By Giovanni Wrobel

Phillip Foss’ confidence has never been in question. “Literally, I’m making this up as I go,” he says. He debuted his Meatyballs food truck before the City Council had amended the ordinance that prohibited cooking fresh food onboard approved food mobiles. With his latest culinary experiment, a fine-dining restaurant simply called EL, he’s fully aware he is riding on blind faith that anyone will even show up.

“The way I’ve always lived my life and the way my career path has wound up has always been about being outside the box,” Foss says. “I’m doing this, opening the restaurant this way because I feel it’s the best way for my vision to see fruition. It’s definitely a bit maverick, but I’ve kind of taken a ‘Field of Dreams’ approach to it—if I build it, they will come.”

Using the space he’s been running the Meatyballs operation from—an unassuming dead-end street on the far west end of Pilsen—Foss is putting together a menu based on his own ideas of “elevated” self-expression, with everything from seafood to chicken and lamb. It’s a “multi-sensory” tasting menu that requires such an effort on the part of his bare-bones staff that if guests who’ve won reservations in the email lottery arrive after the 6pm start, they’ll have to sacrifice a course or two. Read the rest of this entry »

Stephanie Levi brings the science

Do you associate science with your everyday morning routine? If you need a cup of joe before you can even start thinking about the day, maybe you should. Tons of chemistry, biology and physics goes into harvesting, roasting and brewing your morning coffee.

You can find out how at Night Lab: The Science of Coffee, a science education outreach program at Schubas on Sunday, June 12 at 7pm as part of an ongoing series on the science behind food.

Sarah Kluth, green coffee manager and buyer at local favorite Intelligentsia Coffee, will be discussing her expertise in bringing the best beans from tree to cup to your mouth, and all the scientific principles involved along the way.

Night Lab is the independent project of Stephanie Levi, the coordinator for the Student Center for Science Engagement at Northeastern Illinois University who holds a Ph.D. in molecular biology. “It’s more like a bar discussion than a lecture. There’s not a whole lot that’s academic about it,” she says about the series. Read the rest of this entry »