Chicago Chefs Cook for Puerto Rico fundraiser set for Wednesday

Chicago Sun-Times - Chicago Food and Restaurants 9/27 10:15A Miriam Di Nunzio

Dozens of Chicago’s most celebrated chefs participated in the “Chicago Chefs Cook for Tigray” fundraising event earlier this month at the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture. A similar fundraiser is planned for Wednesday night, to aid...

Lightfoot proposes new, improved — and permanent — outdoor dining program for Chicago

Chicago Sun-Times - Chicago Food and Restaurants 9/21 3:00P Fran Spielman

Outdoor plastic dining bubbles on Fulton Market in October 2020. Expanded outdoor seating was a lifeline for many Chicago restaurants during the pandemic. Associated Press An outdoor dining program that proved to be a lifesaver for Chicago...

Big Guys Sausage Stand in Berwyn set to close counter service

Chicago Sun-Times - Chicago Food and Restaurants 9/17 12:37P Zack Miller

Big Guys Sausage Stand owner Brendan O’Connor, right, and line cook Jose Franco, in grey, prepare orders while customers wait for their orders at Big Guys Sausage Stand in Berwyn, Ill., Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022. The shop, which opened in 2012, is...

Starbucks to revamp stores to speed service, boost morale

Chicago Sun-Times - Chicago Food and Restaurants 9/16 4:35P Dee-Ann Durbin | AP Business Wri

Interim CEO Howard Schultz (left) speaks after introducing incoming CEO Laxman Narasimhan during Starbucks Investor Day 2022 earlier this month in Seattle. AP Starbucks — ringing up record sales but struggling with low employee morale — plans to...

Robot food delivery pilot program gets green light from City Council committee

Chicago Sun-Times - Chicago Food and Restaurants 9/15 2:16P Fran Spielman

Delivery robots lined up on the UIC campus on Thursday. The company that operates the robots, Starship, has a fleet of 20 of the vehicles, and will add 10 if the Chicago City Council allows a two-year test of the robots in a larger area on the...

Fall into Frontier for More Than Just the Meat Sweats

Chicago Food Magazine 9/6 6:39A Emily Larsen

Unassumingly nestled on an unusually quiet section of Milwaukee Ave in Noble Square, Frontier is James Beard-nominated chef, Brian Jupiter’s ode to a “hunting lodge” experience. The space is filled with lodge-inspired décor and low lighting,...

Taking a Spin Around France (and the Bar!) at Francois Frankie

Chicago Food Magazine 9/2 8:43A Emily Larsen

What do you get when you put a carousel, craft cocktails and casual dining together? Francois Frankie, of course! Whether you are looking to get out of the office for a satisfying lunch or wanting to...

How to craft a healthier cocktail?

Chicago Sun-Times - Chicago Food and Restaurants 8/26 12:11P Environmental Nutrition

Happy hour doesn’t have to interfere with a healthy lifestyle if you sip smartly. Dreamstime/TNS Behind every skinny margarita, virgin mai tai, or mocktail of choice, is the desire for a healthier libation. Whether that means fewer calories, less...

Tavern on Rush closing after nearly 25 years

Chicago Sun-Times - Chicago Food and Restaurants 8/26 12:01P David Roeder

Outdoor diners take in the scene Friday at Tavern on Rush, which is scheduled to close Jan. 1. Pat Nabong/Sun-Times Tavern on Rush, a Gold Coast steakhouse and neighborhood staple, will be closing its doors after nearly 25 years. The restaurant...

Tavern on Rush closing after nearly 25 years

Chicago Sun-Times - Chicago Food and Restaurants 8/25 4:28P Emmanuel Camarillo

People dining on the patio at Tavern on Rush, located at 1031 N. Rush St. Brian Rich/Sun-Times Tavern on Rush, a Gold Coast steakhouse and neighborhood staple, will be closing its doors after nearly 25 years. The restaurant, located at 1031 N....

Indigenous foods tougher to find in Chicago, elsewhere with food prices soaring

Chicago Sun-Times - Chicago Food and Restaurants 8/23 2:08P Claire Savage | AP

Jessica Pamonicutt, executive chef of a Native American catering company in Chicago, displays a contemporary indigenous meal she cooked at the American Indian Center of Chicago. Claire Savage / AP Blueberry bison tamales, harvest salad with mixed...

Indigenous foods access declines as inflation soars

Chicago Sun-Times - Chicago Food and Restaurants 8/22 11:10A Associated Press

Janie Pochel, an advisor to the Chi-Nations Youth Council, is pictured at the First Nations Garden in Chicago in August. The garden was established in the spring of 2019 and is host to many traditional Indigenous crops including prairie sage,...

Starbucks store in Edgewater unionizes

Chicago Sun-Times - Chicago Food and Restaurants 8/19 10:43A David Roeder

Workers United, part of the Service Employees International Union, has been organizing at Starbucks locations around the country. AP A Starbucks store in Edgewater on Friday became the chain’s seventh location in the area to unionize. Workers at...

Jerry Starkman, Mustard’s Last Stand foundernear Northwestern’s football stadium in Evanston, dead...

Chicago Sun-Times - Chicago Food and Restaurants 8/16 10:10A Maureen O'Donnell

Jerry Starkman, founder of Mustard’s Last Stand in Evanston. Provided Jerry Starkman was nicknamed “Colonel Mustard” for founding Mustard’s Last Stand, a hot dog hut that’s operated in the shadow of Northwestern University’s football stadium in...

Chef Damarr Brown of Virtue says Southern roots at the heart and soul of his cooking success

Chicago Sun-Times - Chicago Food and Restaurants 8/9 2:30P Michael Loria

Damarr Brown, Chef de cuisine at Virtue and a “Top Chef” season 19 contestant, is photographed inside the restaurant in Hyde Park. Pat Nabong/Sun-Times “At the beginning of my career, you couldn’t pay me to make collard greens,” Damarr Brown says...