The Bagel Restaurant & Deli

Hold the schmaltz! You can surely find items that could tempt the proudest vegetarian at The Bagel Restaurant & Deli in Skokie and Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood. (On Saturday nights only, look for short beef ribs, simmered overnight.) But owner Danny Wolf gives a non-traditional nod to those who pass on meat, offering a vegetarian option for tzimmes, a stewed vegetable side dish typically found on dinner tables during Jewish holidays like Rosh Hashanah or Sukkot. Traditional tzimmes recipes call for schmaltz, which is duck or chicken fat. The Bagel’s vegetarian option replaces schmaltz with vegetable oil. “It’s just as tasty,” Wolf says. It includes ingredients common in usual tzimmes recipes like carrots cut round to resemble gold coins, a symbol of a new year; sweet potatoes, prunes, cinnamon, brown sugar and a squeeze or two of lemon juice.

The Bagel Restaurant & Deli
3107 North Broadway
(773)477-0300
50 Old Orchard Center, Skokie
(847)677-0100
BagelRestaurant.com

Best of Chicago 2011

“Bye Bye Liver: The Chicago Drinking Play”

If there’s one problem with improv or sketch comedy in Chicago, it’s that people tend to look at you like you’re a jerk just because you’re plowing through a bucket of Bud Light and shouting at the stage (no matter how funny you are). Bye Bye Liver, now in its fourth year, takes an inventive approach to this problem by incorporating your shenanigans into a show best described as “two parts sketch comedy, one part drinking game.” And while the old show-biz saw “the more you drink the funnier we are” is no doubt in effect, the cast is definitely talented and the sketches well-crafted enough that you can bring a designated driver along and not worry about them not having a good time.

“Bye Bye Liver: The Chicago Drinking Play”
Fizz Bar & Grill
Pub Theater, 2nd floor, 3220 North Lincoln
(773)904-8777
byebyeliver.com

Best of Chicago 2011

Photo: Kristine Sherred

Chilam Balam

Top Chef season-nine contestant Chuy Valencia showcases gourmet Mexican shared plates at Chilam Balam, a garden-level restaurant he owns with business partner Soraya Rendon. Inspired menu items like hibiscus flan, scallops with tomatillo sauce and house made chorizo and peanut butter empanadas keep this cozy, brightly decorated eatery hopping while paying due respect to ingredients indicative of Rendon’s native Mexico City. Valencia grew up in Sonoma California and credits the likes of Alice Waters for much of the farm-to-table philosophy he follows. “It’s the only way to cook,” he says. Chilam Balam teams up with local farmers like Crawford Farm in New Glarus, Wisconsin; Leaning Shed Farms in Berrien Springs, Michigan and Gunthorp Farms in La Grange. A popular favorite beverage at this BYOB is the house made sangria, to which wine from a diner’s personal stash can be added. It’s nice to see Valencia’s innovative approach to gourmet Mexican continue to grow beyond the first few years since Chilam Balam bowed in Lakeview.

Chilam Balam
3023 North Broadway
(773)296-6901
chilambalamchicago.com

Audience choice:
Frontera Grill
445 North Clark
(312)661-1434
rickbayless.com/restaurants

Best of Chicago 2011

Columbia Yacht Club
Chicago’s harbors boast several fine waterfront clubs, some more exclusive than others but all of which offer copious dock space, storage facilities and eateries. Columbia, established in 1892, sets itself apart with its noteworthy location, pleasant atmosphere and cooperative community. Non-members can enjoy the perks with a member-friend and the sailing school is open to anyone who hears Lake Michigan calling forth a passion for tying knots and rigging sails. Though membership fees are steeper than competitors in the northern and southern harbors, Columbia brings expert and novice sailors together on personal vessels and on the club’s floating home, a 372-foot Canadian icebreaker and ferryboat with a killer view of the city.

111 North Lake Shore
(312)938-3625
columbiayachtclub.com

Audience choice:
Chicago Yacht Club
400 East Monroe
(312)861-7777
300 West Belmont
(773)477-7575
chicagoyachtclub.org

Best of Chicago 2010

Ann Sather
Are those cinnamon rolls leaving a bit of a metallic taste in your mouth? Don’t rush to the doctor—it could just be a remnant left from the Stanley Cup’s summer tour of the city. Yes, between bar visits to Underground and Market, the Cup got up early to enjoy brunch at this city favorite alongside team captain Jonathan Toews. Although it was certainly cool to see our Hawks don the trophy on Jay Leno’s show, nothing compares to eating the breakfast of champions next to some real-life champs.

5207 North Clark
(773)271-6677
909 West Belmont
(773)348-2378
3411 North Broadway
(773)404-4475
annsather.com

Audience choice:
Chicago Annual Pride Parade
chicagopridecalendar.org

Best of Chicago 2010

Permanent Records/Photo: Kristine Sherred

Permanent Records

In a classic Chicago storefront space, the size of an average apartment, Permanent Records is the young version of what you’d expect from mom-and-pop joints. Ever-friendly and well-informed Lance Barresi and Liz Tooley are exemplars of the think globally, act locally ethos: the biz plan of the big bad bricks-’n'-mortar stores has fallen, but the possibility of sweet, unpretentious local enterprise lives on. Vinyl! CDs! Newsletters! Podcasts! In-store appearances of bands you’d likely see drop into joints in the owners’ old stomping ground of Columbia, Missouri! Plus, of course, a cool cat calls it home.

1914 West Chicago
(773)278-1744
permanentrecordschicago.com

Audience choice:

Reckless Records

26 East Madison
(312)795-0878

1532 North Milwaukee
(773)235-3727

3126 North Broadway
(773)404-5080
reckless.com

Best of Chicago 2010

Kirkwood Bar & Grill
The city is up for quite an experience starting next year, when Nebraska joins the Chicago-centric Big Ten Conference. Husker fans are a singularly loyal (crazy?) crowd; Northwestern will be challenged to keep Evanston purple and not to turn red when the new kid on the block pays a visit. Of course, plenty of Cornhuskers already call Chicago home and five or so bars have taken on the identity as “Nebraska bars” either out of ownership affinity or simple entrepreneurial opportunism. All fill up during Nebraska games, some standing-room-only, and the ones we visited each made for outstanding gathering spots for fans, with plenty of televisions, lots of Huskers-red paraphernalia decorating the space, and drink and food specials that sometimes even included runzas and Valentino’s Pizza, hometown favorites in Lincoln. We ever-so-slightly favor Kirkwood for the overall experience: not only are the basics solid, but the fans are very focused on the game. And these fans raise the level of spirit inside the room as close as we can get to the Memorial Stadium experience. One night, a fan served as a sort of cantor, slowly singing out “Gooooooooo……….Bigggggg…………Reeeeeeeedddddd,” which was answered by the entire crowd chanting back a thunderous “Go Big Red!” The game ends, for better or for worse, and the fans quickly disperse. Leaving, we encounter a reminder of where we are and who makes up the usual crowd of this Lakeview hangout, as an inebriated twentysomething screams into the face of the bouncer over some life-or-death slight. It is 10pm after all.

2934 North Sheffield
(773)770-0700
kirkwoodbar.com

Audience choice:
Gamekeepers
345 West Armitage
(773)549-0400
gamekeeperschicago.com

Best of Chicago 2010

Fritz Pastry

When they first opened, we were lukewarm on Fritz’s almond flour confections. After making tens of thousands of these bad boys, chef Nate Meads has finally achieved the perfect gooey butter cream center and the right pliant cookie chew, making these the closest we’ll get to Pierre Herme’s Paris standard anytime soon.

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

Audience choice:

Alliance Bakery and Café
1736 West Division
(773)278-0366
alliance-bakery.com

Best of Chicago 2010

Clarke’s
Everyone knows girls fight dirtier than boys. In grade school, the dudes circle around each other, trying to act menacing while waiting for Principal Cadaver to break it up. Girls, on the other hand, get hall passes, grab each other’s hair and bang each other against the lockers. Chicago’s on-the-scene transvestites like it both ways: They enjoy the soused audience pouring out of the neighborhood sports bars, and they go for the jugular, often literally, always at least verbally. New Year’s Eve outside this 24-hour dining institution is always something special.

930 West Belmont
(773)348-5988
clarkesdiner.com

Best of Chicago 2010

T.J. & Dave at iO

Nearly every Wednesday at 11pm since 2002, master improvisers T.J. Jagodowski and Dave Pasquesi have been performing their unique brand of two-man long-form improv to sold-out crowds at Wrigleyville’s iO (formerly ImprovOlympic) theater. Conjuring ever-new one-act plays out of thin air with multiple characters (sometimes on stage simultaneously), T.J. and Dave’s performances are nuanced, insightful and hilarious. At this point, it’s not exaggerating to call them a Chicago institution; it’s definitely worth being a little tired Thursday morning to be part of the magic. And we highly recommend you purchase tickets in advance, as much as a week ahead of time.

3541 North Clark
(773)880-0199
chicago.ioimprov.com

Best of Chicago 2010