Avec

Stopping by Mexique to catch up with chef Carlos Gaytan an hour before service was probably not the smartest move. Gaytan was busy and politely asked me to wait in the empty restaurant. Meanwhile, he wrapped up an impromptu tasting with his kitchen...

You've already waited in line for popcorn at Garrett. You've endured verbal abuse at The Wieners Circle. And you've devoured the Chicago classic that is the Italian beef sandwich (Al's #1 and Johnnie's being the best, depending on who you ask). So...

Another month, another week of discounted dining. In January we had Chicago Restaurant Week; starting Sunday, and running through March 22, we have Chicago Chef Week, which will feature 75 restaurants offering three-course lunches for $22 and three-course...

When it comes to adventures in dining and drinking, Chicago definitely delivered this year. Hot chefs expanded their empires with new restaurants. New words made their way into our nightlife vocabulary. And, of course, there were doughnuts. And pie. And...

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...

Review: Embeya 564 W. Randolph St. 312-612-5640 Rating: !!! (out of four) Off to a good start It seems like there's a new restaurant opening in the West Loop every other week these days, and Thai Dang, the chef of recently opened Embeya, is just happy to...

Paul Kahan is the opposite of an enigma. He is easily explained. He is pleased by simple pleasures. He defines his life by four pillars: chef, record-store geek, husband, law-abiding citizen. Everything else is noise. In judgment, he renders halfway...

The Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, had dinner at upscale Mexican restaurant Mercadito Monday while in Chicago for NATO. And as you would expect, he had plenty of company. Besides the Prince's table of seven, the large...

Thursday's Dining cover story is our profile on chef Paul Kahan as he and his team prepare to open Publican Quality Meats, the Fulton Market butcher shop. A few newsworthy items from the piece: *** As we reported earlier, Publican Quality Meats is...

You can't count on snow for Christmas. You can't count on a 7-3 Bears team making the playoffs. But you can count on my annual save-the-tables list, which provides dozens of last-minute, primo New Year's Eve reservations for procrastinating readers....

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1 KNOCKING ON HEAVEN'S DOOR What is the nature of physical reality from the smallest to the largest? The worlds "biggest machine" is the Large Hadron Collider built under the French-Swiss border and what physicists find there during...