Time Out Magazine

Just a thought, is Time Out making Chicago Magazine irrelevant?

Can't speak directly to that, but I gotta tell ya: Time Out is routinely featuring Cotes du Rhone as one of their very few "Critic's Choices" in Edgewater. This, despite the fact that their OWN reviewer, in language that they regularly feature, calls its cassoulet "miserable." Which it is. (Scroll down in that thread for my review.)

How on earth can a magazine aiming to inform (we presume), continually highlight a place that even its own people slam? This is totally beyond me. I could understand if they loved the place (which, in itself, would alert me to that reviewer's and my fundamental difference of opinion). But the review noted highs and lows and their own abstract always mentions the miserable cassoulet. Go figure.

Just a thought, is Time Out making Chicago Magazine irrelevant?

Maybe. In NY, it seemed like Time Out and NY Magazine were much more distinct, the latter being more of a society magazine (nothing like Town & Country or anything along those lines but toward that end of the spectrum). I think the Chicago counterparts are targeting more similar readers. Since Time Out is more comprehensive in terms of listing (they're a weekly, use smaller font and pack everything in) and cheaper, I imagine it must cut into Chicago Magazine's readership. Personally, I don't care for either publication. I've never read the food stuff in either magazine, and I think the art and theater reviews in Time Out are completely untrustworthy (besides the dozens of other reasons I don't care for these mags).