RPM Italian

The week before The Squared Circle opened in mid-March, owner and pro wrestler Lisa Marie Varon — better known as Victoria during her WWE days and Tara currently with TNA wrestling — sat in a corner booth of her Lincoln Park restaurant,...

"America's Got Talent" will do this week what the National Radio Hall of Fame couldn't last November: It will get legendary shock jock Howard Stern to come to the Chicago area. Stern — who was inducted into the Chicago-based Hall of Fame but...

Mother's Day is a little more than a week away, so if you haven't made brunch/dinner plans, it's time to get cracking. Here are a few suggestions to get you started. Allium. Mother's Day brunch seatings from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Expansive buffet with...

As colonial kitchen tricks such as pickling and canning come back into vogue, it's no wonder preserved fruits and veggies have hit the cocktail world. Exhibit A is this year's drink of spring: the shrub. No, it's not an herb or a leafy plant; it's a...

Giuliana and Bill Rancic made a move into the Chicago dining scene last year by pairing up with the Melman siblings (Hub 51, Paris Club) and chef Doug Psaltis to open RPM Italian. This fall or winter, the team plans to open another restaurant, RPM Steak,...

David Otunga had little time to order food Friday during lunchtime at Howells & Hood in the Tribune Tower — not with his hectic press tour running late and a live TV appearance up next — so the Elgin native and WWE Superstar settled for just a...

Hubbard Street holds the unofficial title of the most bustling strip in River North, but it's neighbor one block to the south, Kinzie Street, is gaining momentum. Classics such as Keefer's and Harry Caray's have been holding court on Kinzie for more...

What do Steve Zahn, the actor who played Elliott in 1982's "E.T.," the telepathic police officer from NBC's "Heroes" and Lieutenant Eli Roosevelt from FX's "Sons of Anarchy" all have in common? They're all scheduled to film TV pilots for ABC in the...

Review: Siena Tavern 51 W. Kinzie St. 312-595-1322 Rating: 3 (out of four) Off to a good start Fabio Viviani was a fan favorite on the fifth season of "Top Chef," but since then, I've seen his charming grin and Italian accent all over the place. There...

A roundup of restaurants reviewed in 2012 by critic Phil Vettel. Acadia ✭✭✭ 1639 S. Wabash Ave., 312-360-9500. Ryan McCaskey's gamble to place a luxury restaurant in the South Loop is, so far, paying off. People are crowding into...

If only it were so easy to pithily proclaim 2012 as the Year of the (fill-in-the-blank). But there's really no one thread that neatly ties together the Chicago restaurant scene these last 12 months. A restaurant that put Chicago on the culinary map 25...

I have this problem. I made more New Year's Eve reservations than I can use. More than 100 of them, actually. Which is why, for the 12th straight year (and the 17th time in the past 19 years), I'll be giving them away to nimble-fingered readers who ask....