JeffB wrote:Did it not have much to do with the relative merits of the cultural offerings here, aside from the dining options?

Please highlight for me where I suggested it was even largely, if not expressly, based on Chicago's dining options.

The folks at T/O consider Chicago to have nearly all of its vital cultural offerings accessible by means of a public transportation system. At least that is what I understood Editor-in-Chief, Chad Schlegel, to say in his radio interview with NPR's 848 commentator, as well as Publisher, Steve Timble, to say in his televised interview with Bob Sirott.

Regards,
Erik M.

You can't get to Medieval Times by public transportation.

Erik M. wrote:The folks at T/O consider Chicago to have nearly all of its vital cultural offerings accessible by means of a public transportation system. At least that is what I understood Editor-in-Chief, Chad Schlegel, to say in his radio interview with NPR's 848 commentator, as well as Publisher, Steve Timble, to say in his televised interview with Bob Sirott.

Regards,
Erik M.

But doesn't that beg the question of why they ignore places like Trio, Va Pensiero, Oceanique, Campagnola and others easily accessible via CTA?

Rotation, rotation, rotation

ErikM wrote:Their intention is to turn over 15-20% of the listed 100, every week. So, Mike, if they included every one of Chicagoland's three and four star restaurants, e.g., Trio ... Anyway, you can nearly rest assured that Trio will appear on the list very soon. But, as I suggested above, when it does, it will likely be replacing something comparable.

Erik, I was unclear. My question was whether the TO people ascribed any particular importance to the overall quality and range of cultural resources here: visual and performing arts, education, architecture, and other things for which Chicago enjoys a good reputation, especially in Europe and the UK.

I have been given the impression that California suffers from a partly undeserved reputation for cultural flimsiness in the eyes of Europeans, whereas someone from London or Rome is more likely than most Americans to be impressed by (or to have heard of) the U of C, the Art Institute, Wright, the CSO, etc.

The "Save This Restaurant" entry in this week's edition of Time Out Chicago is the LTH favourite, Honey 1 BBQ.

GWiv, LTHForum, and The Slow Food Guide to Chicago are all mentioned in the blurb.

Erik M.

Erik M. wrote:The "Save This Restaurant" entry in this week's edition of Time Out Chicago is the LTH favorite, Honey 1 BBQ.

Erik,

It would really be a shame if Honey 1 closed for lack of business. Robert Sr. is a true artist with the smoker, and firmly in the top 2-3 BBQ joints in a city of 8-million.

Erik M. wrote:GWiv, LTHForum, and The Slow Food Guide to Chicago are all mentioned in the blurb.

Very nice to be mentioned, but I would like to point out that, while I contributed to the Slow Food Guide to Chicago, including "penning' a complete chapter, it was not the BBQ chapter.

I wrote the preponderance of the introduction to the BBQ chapter and, along with Joel Smith, ReneG and RST went to way too many meat-jello, liq*ud sm*ke in the BBQ sauce, steam/boil/bake/freeze crap-on-a-stick BBQ joints in the name of research. Along the way many friends, including food forum friends, participated. Joel Smith wrote the actual Honey 1 review.

As an aside, anyone in the market for a couple of logistical geniuses ReneG and Joel Smith are your guys. Between the two of them I'm guessing they would have no problem planning the invasion of a medium size Eastern European country.

Enjoy,
Gary

By the way, I went to Rudy's Taste today and asked Rudy if the Time Out piece had brought him any business. He seemed to suggest that it had brought in a lot of new faces and/or a discernable uptick in business. So who knows; maybe their "Save this restaurant" feature (a great idea) will really have some effect. All part of my plan...

The feature/cover article in this week's edition of TimeOut Chicago is "100 Best Things We Ate This Year."

There are lots and lots of interesting items on the list and the accompanying photographs are exceptional.*

E.M.

* Listed items include the Truffle Foie Gras Burger at Sweets & Savories, the Taleggio Focaccia at Avec, the Spicy Tofu Soup at So Gong Dong Tofu House, the Cigar Potstickers at Ed's, the Cheeseburger at Paradise Pup, the Mushroom Soup at Topolobampo, the Honeydew Limeade at Fan Si Pan, the Porterhouse at Keefer's, the Baby Lamb Cassoulet at Custom House, the Huarache at Rico's Huaraches, the Kugelis at Healthy Food, and--what the hell were they thinking--the Salt & Pepper Shrimp at Little Three Happiness.

I noticed the issue too. I was quite impressed by the list, and by the cribbing from LTH

I'm always happy to see the media find underappreciated restaurants through LTH, with or without attribution. Anything to keep Salamera, etc in business is good.

Great call on the Taleggio Focaccia from Avec. That thing is dangerous, very dangerous.

My feelings on anything from Sweets and Savories are well known at this point.

It's interesting that they picked the Rogers Park Las Islas Marias location in that issue, although that's probably a good thing since it's the one that could use the most new business.

Fujisan wrote:It's interesting that they picked the Rogers Park Las Islas Marias location in that issue, although that's probably a good thing since it's the one that could use the most new business.

Two great restaurants on one block with Islas las Marias doing a good imitation of a ghost town.

Norka of Salamera advised when they were featured in "Save this Restaurant," they were crowded and running out of bread the very next weekend. There is a nice intereaction of forces trying to keep this place afloat.

Were any of the exceptional photos taken by anyone we know?

Regards,

gleam wrote:I noticed the issue too. I was quite impressed by the list, and by the cribbing from LTH

We can all rightly attest to some amount of "cribbing" that goes on by the local food media, Ed, yes, but please mind the following:

1. There are several members of our community who take it upon themselves to "tip off" the local food media on our doings, musings, discoveries, etc. As I am good friends with the Food&Drink staff at TimeOut I could name a number of their informants, but I was raised better than that.*

2. There is a torrent of unsolicited information that the local food media receives from the restaurant community itself.

3. It's Journalism. The members of the media very often have a formal education in the enterprise. They are generally quite capable of--and often quite successful at--gathering information wholly apart from our collective enterprise here at LTH.

E.M.

* I will say that a few of these informants are freelance writers who pitch stories, blurbs, and feature ideas to TimeOut. And, if anyone should think that the good folks at TimeOut have nothing better to do than track down the alleged "source" of each and every piece of information that crosses their desks, well, get a clue. Then I would suggest that you take off the tinfoil hat and get a life.

Hey hey, I love that TOC is doing it. I wish more of the media would do it, with or without attribution.

To see Salamera and TdP and quite a few other LTH-faves show up on "Save this Restaurant" is awesome.

cribbing was not meant in any kind of a negative sense, and I'm well aware that LTHers feed info to the media. Which is great. My goal is not LTHForum Total Media Domination, it's seeing underappreciated restaurants get some time in the spotlight.

Cathy2 wrote:Were any of the exceptional photos taken by anyone we know?

That depends on whether or not you know any of the professional photographers in their employ.

I don't.

E.M.

I leafed through it at a newsstand today.

I had the inescapable feeling that I better get started if I'm going to make my quota on next year's 100.

(No. 79-- chicken soup at La Granja! Watch for it, late 2006!)

Mike G wrote:I leafed through it at a newsstand today.

I had the inescapable feeling that I better get started if I'm going to make my quota on next year's 100.

(No. 79-- chicken soup at La Granja! Watch for it, late 2006!)

I'm glad to see that Rico's Huaraches (sic) made the list.

Hammond