Saveur - Chicago featured

Hi,

Has anyone received this issue yet? I know I haven't received mine yet. However on their home page, there is a wee picture of the cover. According to G Wiv, the cover is a slice of pizza from Burt's in Morton Grove. This is quite a spectacular moment for Burt's, who is also a GNR recipient.

I can't wait for my copy to reach my mailbox, but I am sure there will be lots for us to comment on. When the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) met in Chicago in April, Saveur had already assigned writers for the major articles. However in many small ways I like to think our community influenced this issue with their recommendations, some toured with them and others helped fact check. I think if we had been aware of this issue earlier in the game, there might be more community color. Sometimes you do what you can with what's available.

I'm looking forward to this edition.

Regards,

I was at Burt's last night, and as you might expect the Saveur cover was a major topic of conversation. Burt said that before all this, he'd never even heard of the magazine. I asked him what he was going to when the magazine comes out and the hordes descend on his place.

"Retire."

nr706 wrote:I was at Burt's last night, and as you might expect the Saveur cover was a major topic of conversation. Burt said that before all this, he'd never even heard of the magazine. I asked him what he was going to when the magazine comes out and the hordes descend on his place.

"Retire."

Uh-oh. Burt just might be serious.
In the meantime, Burt has always preferred that you call ahead with your order, and that might be a good strategy to deal with the post-Saveur effect.

Burt was clearly not serious.

nr706 wrote:Burt was clearly not serious.

I was in on Thursday night for a pick-up and Burt seemed downright happy about the article.

I wouldn't worry about retirement. Burt has always predicted he would "probably drop dead in this store before (he) retire(d)."

So more likely than anything else is the possibility of walking in one day and finding him lying sprawled on the floor of the kitchen, pizza pan grabber in one hand and a serving spatula in the other.

Buddy

Got the issue yesterday, and it's pretty darn good -- they may have been cribbing from us a bit, but certainly not extensively or exclusively.

For Chi-town sandwiches they feature the classic dog (though it looks grilled -- no ID on the source), the jibarito, the mother-in-law, and a longish article on our beloved IB. There's a recipe for beef, too, but they make their own giardinera with jalapenos and don't even talk about including cauliflower or olives.

Other Chicago classics include Shrimp de Jonghe, and the Drake's Lobster Thermidor.

Burt's gets a lot of love: the cover, the full page 20 (pics of the pie, Burt and the place), and a zoom-out of the cover photo on page 41.

Feature articles include Frangos, the foie fracas, Rich Melman, food science (Kraft labs and Grant Achatz), Polish butchers including Bobak's, (hey, Cathy2 somebody at the picnic was asking about ID-ing polish sausages, they've got a nice pictorial and explanations), markets including Super-H, North Pond, and Izola's and other south-side soul.

A great read, and definitely worth the few cents due to that internet discount a while back.

Hi,

Don't forget Baylor's watermelons was also featured! Without a doubt, Burts, Mother-in-Law/Tom Tom Tamales and Baylors were a direct influence of this community. There are likely more, but that was what I picked up looking through it last night.

Regards,

Saveur contacted me to consult on certain of the material in this issue and I offered corrections as required, of which, alas, only some were taken up. In other instances, infelicities were left unimproved and appear in the publication.

I was, however, happy to see that RST, one of the most well informed 'chowhounds' of the Chicago area, was able to guide the people at Saveur to many of the city's more interesting eateries and shops.

Antonius

I defy any LTHer to find Burt in a national magazine, Gandalf beard and all, and not break out in a big smile. (And we're mentioned in it! No, actually it says "internet food forums." I'm sure that'd be Citysearch, or Yelp.) Likewise that the Mother-in-Law gets a half page from John T. Edge, with Rene G, Bruce Kraig, and Pigmon mentioned. That's great.

A few more first impressions:

All in all, though it hits some cliches (Frangos, flaming saganaki, Shrimp DeJonghe which I swear barely exists any more) it's a well-researched, very in-depth and solid (that's for you, Riddlemay) issue. I particularly look forward to careful reading, rather than just skimming, of excellent-looking pieces on Polish markets and on soul food-- two things not unknown here, certainly, but not explored in nearly as much depth as many other things.

Yeah, I'll say RST, or the RST faction on or formerly on Chowdog, had some influence on it-- there's coverage of Mexican, Yassa the Senegalese place, southside Polish, but Thai (and especially secret menus of) do not exist in Chicago.

Puff piece on Melman.

Okay piece on the similarities between Adria-Achatz-type chefs and food scientists at Kraft, though the author misses one big obvious connection, the fact that Louis Szathmary worked on TV dinners and the like for the same companies 50 years ago before reinventing himself as the uncompromising traditionalist of The Bakery.

I plan to use my fortune to endow a prize for journalists who manage to write about Chicago without mentioning Nelson Algren. (Nothing against Simone's Da Beau, but really, there have been other writers in Chicago.)

The Italian Beef piece turns out to be a recipe piece. Do people really make Italian beef? It would never occur to me to-- maybe that one's for the out-of-towners.

The guide at the back is a really odd assortment, not just because it covers a crazily diverse list (first two are Alinea and Army & Lou's) but because it includes some things that honestly are not very good (Dodo, Lindy's). No Thai on the list, and the only barbecue is Hecky's. I guess it makes me curious about a couple of places we ignore, like Zaiqa.

Mike G wrote: things that honestly are not very good (Dodo, Lindy's)

I like Dodo.

Even if I liked it, I'd be hard pressed to like it well enough to want to recommend to readers coast to coast.

By the way, I said Mexican above but the Mexican food content is mainly on the website:

http://www.saveur.com/web-exclusive/oth ... 53873.html

A couple of southside Mexican places in the restaurant list, though.

Hi,

There were a number of people who interacted with the Saveur staff in April during the International Association of Culinary Professionals. Further Bruce Kraig as the Conference's Scholar made sure LTHforum.com was referenced in program materials as well as personally endorsing it. He did the same at the Oxford Symposium last week. I remember hearing from Burt there were a number of non-local guests to his restaurant during the period of this conference.

These interactions were also why obscure places like Baylor's, Burts and H-Mart made it into Saveur or is this now credited to Chowhound? Kraft's timeline inclusion was directly related to my Roundtable programs, because they contacted me on a Sunday inquiring about Kraft's in-house publication in my possession. I provided them with the author's contact information.

Bruce Kraig did quite a bit of fact-checking, which spilled a bit onto me. I mostly identified others who were better suited to answer their questions.

Saveur had already commissioned the major articles for Chicago BEFORE IACP. Those of us who chose to volunteer or paid their way to this conference interacted with Saveur as well as many others. I posted for months the opportunity to attend as a volunteer. Almost nobody took advantage of this opportunity. If you want to make contact with these people, then you have to be where they happen to congregate. Again, this opportunity was posted on the Event's board.

Regards,

justjoan wrote:

A great read, and definitely worth the few cents due to that internet discount a while back.

just a reminder that saveur subscriptions are available on ebay right now for as little as $15/3 years, or $10 for 2 years. sometimes you can get an even cheaper deal. these are legitimate offers as magazines want to up their circulation figures so they can charge more for the advertising (which is what pays)

Got a link?

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dl ... category0=

here's a link to the ebay site for saveur subscriptions.

(somehow my post about ebay turned up twice, when i tried to remove one they both disappeared. no great loss, as this post contains the important info regarding cheap saveur subscriptions justjoan

justjoan wrote:here's a link to the ebay site for saveur subscriptions.

Thanks. I just ordered a 5 yr subscription for $14.78. Of course, I'll still have to hit the newsstand if I want the current issue (which I do).

By the way, Ebay is a great site for purchasing almost all magazine subscriptions. A friend of mine clued me into this about two years ago and I've found that the savings are better than those offered anywhere else.

Cathy, I want you to know I appreciate your constant efforts to introduce interesting people in the food world to each other, selflessly. I have no doubt who helped make several key things in that issue happen-- or be much better than they would have been otherwise.

Mike G wrote:Cathy, I want you to know I appreciate your constant efforts to introduce interesting people in the food world to each other, selflessly. I have no doubt who helped make several key things in that issue happen-- or be much better than they would have been otherwise.

Here, here!

Here's today's article in the Tribune. This is pretty amazing.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/ ... 0490.story

For those of you who don't have a subscription, where are you able to purchase this issue? I've been to both Borders (Uptown) and Barnes & Noble (Arlington Hts) and came out empty handed. Thanks.

I got mine at the B & N on Rand Rd & Long Grove Rd. in Deer Park. They had several copies.

I got a copy at the Northbrook Whole Foods.

I saw copies in a newsstand at the Seattle airport last Friday.....

I have looked for the issue at two separate Boarders in the Norther burbs. Neither one had copies... the search continues...

Stagger wrote:I have looked for the issue at two separate Boarders in the Norther burbs. Neither one had copies... the search continues...

I've seen them at multiple Borders in the city, as recently as this past weekend.

Hi,

Why not ask the Borders desk person to phone to another shop to hold a copy for you? (maybe they will even have it brought to your local store) They have done this for me when searching for a book.

Regards,

After calling the B&N (sold out & asking the distributor to bring in more copies) in Deer Park and the Borders (salesperson, "the magazine section is behind" - whatever that means) in Schaumburg, I finally found a copy at Whole Foods in Palatine. Thanks for the tip on Whole Foods.

I've looked hither and yon for the dang thing. Like 3 Walgreen's, 2 Borders', 1 B&N and two or three grocery stores. NADA!

So...i called my mother in Atlanta and asked her to pick me up one down there and mail it.

Sheesh!

s

Does anyone still have this issue lying around that they wouldn't mind sharing with someone else who missed out?

Please let me know. I don't know how I missed out on this.

THank you!
Jen