Maxwell Street Market

Delicious, affordable Mexican food is easy to find in Chicago, especially along 18th Street in Pilsen and 26th Street in Little Village. But a great way to sample interesting Mexican street food with fresh ingredients is to join the crowds at this historic flea market. Stands sell items that you might not think to order in a restaurant, like quesadillas with thick, handmade tortillas and unusual fillings like flor de calabaza (squash blossom) or huitlacoche (corn fungus). Trucks offer churros and champurado (hot chocolate thickened with masa) and one stand sells nothing but steak tacos, but they’re the best in town.

Sundays 7am to 3pm
Desplaines from Roosevelt to Harrison

Best of Chicago 2011

Thai Pastry & Restaurant

Sweet and sugary describe the homemade cakes at Thai Pastry. They’re crowned with frosting and flowers, and they’re fabulous. Each miniature birthday cake serves two hungry people, and is decorated with piped-on pastel details. So finish your spring rolls and chicken satay, then indulge in a tiny round cake, in vanilla or coffee flavor. And don’t forget the birthday candles.

Thai Pastry & Restaurant
4925 North Broadway
(773)784-5399
thaipastry.com

Best of Chicago 2011

Photo: Kristine Sherred

Fritz Pastry 

Fritz is a classic neighborhood bakery, named as an homage to head baker Nate Mead’s grandfather. Keeping it traditional, they produce signature baked goods from classic recipes with top-shelf results, from their macarons to their donuts. Cakes, muffins and vegan options are a must. They take themselves seriously, but allow for a bit of good humor—their outdoor announcements depict rock album covers altered with baking plays-on-words (like Metallica’s Bake ‘em All).

Fritz Pastry
1408 West Diversey
(773)857-2989
fritzpastry.com

Best of Chicago 2011

Doughnuts

Homer Simpson would salivate knowing how trendy doughnuts are in Chicago. Mmm… doughnuts. Springtime saw the opening of River North’s Doughnut Vault, the Cookie Bar’s doughnut offshoot Dirty Betty’s and many other bakeries serving up the fried delights. Long lines usually wrap around the Vault’s storefront with customers patiently waiting to devour double-chocolate, vanilla-glazed or daily special doughnuts before they sell out. Everyone loves doughnuts, but with such a high amount of trans fat, eating a lot of them will probably kill you. There are worse ways to go, we suppose.

Best of Chicago 2011

Next’s drink pairings

We’re taught drinking wine with a meal enhances the flavor of the dish, but Next recognizes spices like cardamom and fennel combined in non-liquor drinks also emphasizes a meal. While dining at Next, you can opt for elaborate wine pairings or these cheaper non-alcoholic pairings, which are pretty tasty and inventive. The refreshing drinks are made from ingredients like ginger, elderflower, saffron, pomegranate, verjus and sanbitter that complement Next’s (so far) rich French, Thai and American samplings.

Next
953 West Fulton Market
(312)226-0858
nextrestaurant.com

Best of Chicago 2011

The Boiler Room

This industrial-themed Logan Square pizza restaurant is a steampunk’s dream watering hole. The bar’s large television screens are housed inside what appears to be parts from locomotive engines. There’s brass, wood and whiskey (on tap). Their aesthetic isn’t replicated anywhere in the city—and that goes double for their bathrooms, even if they were built to look like CTA train cars.

The Boiler Room
2210 North California
(773)276-5625
boilerroomlogansquare.com

Best of Chicago 2011

Next

Finally, award-winning Alinea chef Grant Achatz opened a more reasonably priced eatery where hipsters, young professionals and wealthy foodies could all break bread together. With its innovative ticketed reservation policy and a shifting multi-course menu every three months, Next struck a chord in the fickle food world. The first menu was April’s Paris, 1906–Escoffier at the Ritz replete with duck, gratin potatoes and edible flowers. A Thai menu and the current Childhood menu followed featuring food served in classic lunch boxes and interpretations of pb&j and s’mores. It’s no wonder when 20,000 people tried to obtain tickets for Childhood that Next’s website crashed.

Next
953 West Fulton Market
(312)226-0858
nextrestaurant.com

Audience choice:
Leopold
1450 West Chicago
(312)348-1028
leopoldchicago.com

Best of Chicago 2011

Finch’s Beer Company

Chicago has made strides to become one of the Midwest’s leaders in brewing craft beers and Finch’s Beer Company is proof of that. Off to an unconventional start, they come from a marketing research and graphic design background, but that doesn’t stop the beer itself from being smooth and full-bodied. The Golden Wing Blonde Ale is medium-rich, but for more of a bite and a hoppy taste try their Cut Throat Pale Ale. It’s getting easier to grab as Finch’s is expanding availablity at many local neighborhood bars and stores.

Finch’s Beer Company
4565 North Elston
(773)283-4839
finchbeer.com

Best of Chicago 2011

Mana Food Bar

At this fusion small-plate restaurant on Division, you’ll be too busy diving into caponata, bi bim bop and vindaloo to notice the place is vegetarian. Rather than wasting time trying to fake meat, Mana does veg well. Somehow, magically, the wide range of international flavors go together, especially paired with sake, straight up or in a cocktail.

Mana Food Bar
1742 West Division
(773)342-1742
manafoodbar.com

Audience choice:
Chicago Diner
3411 North Halsted
(773)935-6696
veggiediner.com

Best of Chicago 2011

Birchwood Kitchen

Located just out of the fray of Six Corners, once you’ve found this Wicker Park café-style restaurant, you’ll never want to eat—or wait in line to eat—at the hip spots on the Milwaukee-Damen-North drags again. Birchwood Kitchen’s seasonal and often locally sourced menu means you might not always be able to get the tangy, indulgent, affordable duck sandwich on their autumn menu, but also that you’ll never get tired of heading back to try something new. Pick up a bottle of wine at one of the handful of liquor stores lining North, and your pre-gaming for a night on the town will be way more affordable—and delicious—than anywhere else. You might even have enough change left over for a cocktail at The Violet Hour.

Birchwood Kitchen
2211 West North
(773)276-2100
birchwoodkitchen.com

Best of Chicago 2011