Dining and food culture in Chicago
Meet McCullough Kelly-Willis, founder of Chicago Meat Collective (CMC), our city’s local chapter of a nascent national movement of butchers, foodies, and flesh-focused individuals championing local, sustainable meat through education and hands-on experience.
It’s April. It’s starting to warm up. It’s probably okay to come out of the house and do something that doesn’t involve snow.
For those of us who live to eat, memories of our happiest meals are inextricably tied to the places where we ate them. The food was, obviously, important, but what was on the plate seems merely one more element in the recollected collage of sensations of tables and chairs, interior design, colors and light, the people we sat down with, the servers, the vibe. “Lost Restaurants of Chicago,” a new book by Greg Borzo, will trigger many recollections of Chicago restaurants that have now passed into history, as well as, no doubt, many yearnings for those places that are no more.
Do you like to do stuff? Here are some March events that will blow you away.
We asked Chef Matt Kerney, formerly of Michelin-starred Longman & Eagle, about the challenges of preparing an all-vegan menu.
Some of February’s most interesting events.
Kombucha is a bubbly, fermented drink, usually served chilled and made from tea, sugar, and a starter called a SCOBY, a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. And it is, lately, everywhere. Over fifty-one percent of twenty-five- to thirty-four-year-olds are regular Kombucha drinkers, and the rest of us are catching up. Recently PepsiCo and Coors acquired established Kombucha brands, betting that demand will continue to grow. Several Chicagoans are leading the charge to make this beverage, which might enable you to continue your cheeseburger and beer diet…and actually get healthier (as long as you drink Kombucha).
Let’s approach this whole New Year’s resolution thing from a different angle. Let’s make resolutions we can keep, like this one:
I vow, in the coming year, to drink more—and learn more about—Scotch whisky.
The holiday season just ended, and you want to go out AGAIN? Okay, here are five stellar events to keep the party in your head going.
The restaurant where you want to eat at Christmas time is German, and there’s a case to be made for Christmas, as we know it, being invented in Germany. Kris Kringle, the Christmas feast, gingerbread, all can be traced to German origins.
