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

Native Foods Café

Sweet potato taquitos, portobello and sausage burger, peanut butter parfait… who said vegans can’t chow down? It’s all thanks to Native Foods. The California-based restaurant group set hungry eyes on the Chicago market this year, opening up Wicker Park, Lakeview and Loop locations with Evanston, River North and the Gold Coast on its agenda for next year. The fully vegan menu tastes even better given the charity efforts of Native; with its roots in our town, watch out for everyone to start vegging out soon.

Native Foods Café
1023 West Belmont
(773)549-4904
1484 North Milwaukee
(773)489-8480
218 South Clark
(312) 332-6332
nativefoods.com

Best of Chicago 2011

The Edit

Morgan Gutterman cements Bucktown’s hold on its title as the shopping destination for the hip and fashionable with her new store, The Edit. Bringing in a variety of imported, hard-to-find pieces, many of which hail from Down Under, Gutterman is exposing Chicago to style on a whole new level. Brands such as Sass & Bide, Bec & Bridge, Keepsake and Rachael Ruddick stock the store’s racks, as do locals like the designers behind the bold and colorful pieces from POUND Jewelry. With personal shopping, one-on-one styling and private parties to boot, we highly recommend visiting, albeit with caution—this one’s dangerous on the pocketbook!

The Edit
1917 North Damen
(773)252-3350
shoptheedit.com

Audience choice:
Violette
2031 North Damen
(773)235-7150
vivelafemme.com

Best of Chicago 2011

Night Moves at Danny’s 

The hipsterati have been lining up out the door for Danny’s Soul Night the first Wednesday of every month since the mid-aughts, but over the past year, third Tuesdays have started to get some love too. That’s because of Night Moves, where DJs B. Walsh and Ross Kelly spin some of the meanest (and most obscure) Italo, Afro/Cosmic, and European Disco this side of a time machine jaunt to Milan circa 1982. And good luck getting a Schlitz there.

Night Moves
Danny’s
1951 West Dickens
(773)489-6457
facebook.com/Night999Moves

Best of Chicago 2011

Stax Café

We’ve probably had as many pancakes as Wilt Chamberlain had ladies and to pick amongst them is a disservice of sorts. For the Walker Bros. Pancake House in Wheeling’s Dutch Baby is just as solid as the Butterfinger-larded Bongo Room flapjack. It’s really just a matter of mood. No matter our temperament though, the light ricotta pancakes slathered with tart-sweet rhubarb strawberry compote at Stax Café always seem to fit the bill.

1401 West Taylor
(312)733-9871

Audience choice:

Bongo Room, Orange, Original Pancake House (TIE)

Bongo Room
1470 North Milwaukee
(773)489-0690

1152 South Wabash
(312)291-0100
thebongoroom.com

Orange
738 North Clark
(312)202-0600

730 West Grand
(312)942-0300

2011 West Roscoe
(773)248-0999

2413 North Clark
(773)549-7833
orangerestaurantchicago.com

Original Pancake House
2020 North Lincoln Park West
(773)929-8130

22 East Bellevue
(312)642-7917

1517 East Hyde Park
(773)288-2322
originalpancakehouse.com

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

Paul Kahan

Rick Bayless deserves an honorable mention for bringing local and sustainable inputs to the masses and the city’s best hot chocolate at Xoco, but Kahan’s tacos at Big Star are a game changer. Like Hot Doug’s sausages or Alinea’s custom serveware, they are the best in show.

1531 North Damen
(773)235-4039
bigstarchicago.com

Audience choice:

Rick Bayless
Xoco, 449 North Clark
(312)334-3688
rickbayless.com/restaurants/xoco.html

Saint Alfred

The Milwaukee Avenue strip may have hallmark cobbler shops like Fluevog and Steve Madden, but if you’re looking for a shoe with a little more, uhh, soul, walk a few steps south and you’ll hit Saint Alfred—a sneaker-phile’s emporium and artist’s gift shop that pairs the latest-edition footwear (Damien Hirst for Converse) next to imported vinyl collectibles. Although heavy on men’s fashion, the store stocks a sizable ladies selection with beloved brands and even better limited editions. If there was any patron of keeping your feet fresh and fashionable, Saint Alfred is hands-down a Chicago shrine.

1531 North Milwaukee
(773)486-7159
stalfred.com

Audience choice:

Saint Alfred

Best of Chicago 2010

Myopic Books

New York’s Strand Bookstore advertises “miles” of books, and Myopic maybe could measure in “kilometers” of dead tree beauties. Nonprofit social venture Open Books is a virtuous experiment, but the ability to skate through the lightest patina of dust toward a three-story backlist of contemporary lit, open until 11pm, follows in the image of the classical Chicago secondhand bookseller. Get yer Hari Kunzru, Thomas Beller, yer Anne Carson right here, and… hey! Why are you stealing Don DeLillo?

1564 North Milwaukee
(773)862-4882
myopicbookstore.com

Audience choice:

Myopic Books

Best of Chicago 2010