45
Giuseppe Tentori
Chef, Boka and GT Fish & Oyster
Value pricing and casual small-plate concepts are all the rage these days, but with this movement often comes tradeoffs in execution level on the plate.  Not so at GT Fish where Tentori is executing time-consuming terrines and fine brunoise dicing on garnishes, stuff you rarely see outside of four-star temples.

See details on the The Big Heat

46
Robert and Sonat Birnecker
Owners, Koval Distillery
Their Lion’s Pride whiskey is the first legally distilled whiskey in Chicago since prohibition and their fruit liqueurs made in Ravenswood are many a local mixologist’s secret weapon.

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47
David Friedman
Owner, Epic Burger
With never-frozen beef, cage-free fried-egg toppings and fresh-cut fries, Friedman is on a quest to feed the world a more “mindful burger.” That’s cool, but it also actually tastes pretty good too, good enough to spawn a third location in the West Loop this summer with plans for nine more.

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Photo: Paul Strabbing

48
Carrie Nahabedian
Owner, Naha
Though her restaurant is ten years old, her blend of Armenian, Mediterranean and California cuisine is as fresh as it was the day it opened. She’s also built an incredibly smart and influential team—her cousin Michael is one of the great wine dudes of the city—and recently garnered a Michelin star. She’s also the only woman inducted into the Chicago Chefs Hall of Fame.

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49
David Schneider
Chef/Owner, Taxim
At his burgeoning Bucktown spot, Schneider is doing for regional Greek food what Rick Bayless did for regional Mexican food. And it turns out flaming cheese, pre-frozen gyro cones and dancing Zorba imitators are not part of that culinary heritage—who knew? Instead, Schneider’s turning Chicago on to pristine seasonal veg, like freshly shucked fava beans glistening with a spritz of lemon and dolloped with thick luscious yogurt, and house-made flatbreads. He also purveys a deep Greek wine list that will banish all those Retsina hangover nightmares from your brain.

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50
Charlie Trotter
Chef/Owner, Charlie Trotter’s, Trotter’s to Go
He shuttered most of his new concepts. He only got two Michelin stars. The New York Times called him a “leader left behind.” We know. That being said, every person on this list stands on his shoulders. He made this cow town into a chow town and for that alone he belongs on this list. If Charlie calls, people still pick up the phone. He can do whatever he wants. It’s only a question of what he wants. So, we wait Chaz. What exactly do you want?

See details on the The Big Heat

By Michael Nagrant

The last time Newcity published The Big Heat—a list of Chicago’s top food and drink influencers—in 2003, Charlie Trotter was one of the most popular chefs in America, he had two restaurants and was pretending to lead a raw foods revolution. If a chef made that list he probably only had one restaurant and it would have been a fine-dining venture. There was no room for a counter-service fish shack. But, these days we get some of our best food from trucks and most self-respecting chefs wouldn’t be caught dead rolling out white tablecloths. We wanted Rick Bayless opening a burger stand, not doing commercials for one. And with the economic downturn of a few years ago, we got our wish (much better than we could have dreamed—a local seasonal sandwich shop, Xoco, serving the silkiest bean-to-cup hot chocolate ever). The landscape these days is so different that forty of the fifty people on the 2003 list didn’t make this one. Two of them, may they rest in peace, Paul Wildermuth (Opera) and Abby Mandel (founder of Green City Market) have died. Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

Clarke's in Lakeview

By Benjamin Rossi

Thanks to a well-orchestrated press release, the whole city knows about plans to bring a Whole Foods to the University of Chicago’s neighborhood, Hyde Park. But what really has some students excited is a recent university announcement that Clarke’s diner, a twenty-four-hour restaurant with locations in Lincoln Park, Wicker Park and Lakeview will open a branch in 53rd Street’s Harper Court, just blocks from campus.

Twenty-four-hour eateries are a staple of college towns and urban campuses: the University of Michigan has Fleetwood Diner, Yale claims Gourmet Heaven, NYU has the Ukrainian restaurant Veselka and Columbia University has Tom’s Restaurant, whose exterior stood in for the fictional Monk’s Cafe on “Seinfeld.” As any college student knows, these restaurants serve as crucial way stations for partygoers, meeting places for couples and coffee breaks for crammers.

But when it comes to getting greasy food quickly and cheaply any time of the day or night, the University of Chicago has fallen behind its peer institutions. The Medici, a veteran hangout on 57th Street, is only open until midnight—and that’s on Fridays and Saturdays. The campus dining halls close at 8pm, and even the campus convenience stores, Bart Mart and Midway Market, shut down at 3am. Some students opt for Taco Bell on 79th Street, the Maxwell Street Depot on 31st, White Palace on Roosevelt, or even Clarke’s on Belmont. But for those without a car or temporarily bereft of the ability to drive, commuting to these far-flung locations is quite a hassle. Read the rest of this entry »