Perennial Virant

Here's something you may not know about Open Table, the predominant online restaurant reservations system: When you book a table through the Open Table website, the restaurant is charged $1 per seated guest — so if you show up as a foursome, that'...

Summer's here, and the time is right for eating in the street. Or near the street. Or in a bottle-service cabana high above the street. Chicagoans love outdoor-dining season, all the more so because of its short duration. There are precious few days in...

As I exited Balena a week or so ago, a passing stranger stopped me. "Good restaurant?" he asked, jerking his head toward the door. I nodded enthusiastically. "Great pizzas," I said. And in that split-second, I fear I gave Balena, which opened two...

Time once again for my annual exercise in humiliation, as I try to predict the star recipients in the 2013 Michelin Chicago Guide, which hits bookstores Wednesday. This is the third year that Michelin has published a Chicago guide, and if there's one...

Alinea, Chicago's most acclaimed restaurant, has used Open Table in the past to manage — though not take — reservations, but co-owner Nick Kokonas isn't shy about anticipating and working toward the service's demise. Kokonas, partners with...

Halloween doesn't get here until Wednesday, but don't tell that to Chicago's restaurant community, which has events planned Friday through the 31st. Here are a few of the most intriguing options. Bar Umbriago. Halloween party with a DJ will take place...

April Bloomfield looks like a cop. Her chin juts. Her eyes assess. She's quiet, short, compact, her manner direct and unfussy. Though there is a compelling argument that Bloomfield has done more in the past decade to change the way we eat than any other...

Eventually, the restaurant team of Kevin Boehm and Rob Katz will open a restaurant that fails to live up to expectations. Mostly because expectations for this everything-touched-turns-golden duo keep rising. How can they not? From Boka to Girl & the Goat...

The fact that chef Paul Virant and I share the same monogram shouldn't confuse anybody, although years back the chef sent me a letter he received from some luckless job applicant who, instead of writing "Paul Virant" in the salutation, used my name...

I don't know if teachers still do this, but at the end of each school year, I was handed a summer reading list, a sheet of required and optional books that would prepare students for the coming school year. (I still owe a measure of revenge to the teacher...

Depending on your perspective, this year's Super Bowl is an intriguing battle between two fascinating opponents, or a who-cares clash between an annoying East Coast team and a slightly less-annoying East Coast team (I'll leave it to you to decide which is...

The first thing you'll notice walking into the Hotel Lincoln is that it's not in downtown Chicago. No five-minute stroll to Navy Pier. No looking up to face the 900 Shops or the John Hancock Center. Good for them. The boutique hotel, which opened...