Chicago Foodways: Eat, Play, Love Our Neighborhoods, 2/26

Chicago Foodways Roundtable

Eat, Play, Love Our Neighborhoods
Talk by
Alan Solomon

Saturday, February 26, 2011
Talk: 10:00 am to Noon
Kendall College
Classroom 730 (turn left at elevator and go to the end)
900 North Branch Street, Chicago
(West of Halsted Street, North of Chicago Avenue)
Free Parking

Cost: $3 per person, free to Kendall students and faculty with ID.


Chicago is often called “The City of Neighborhoods” - from Rogers Park to Hegewisch, Austin to the Loop, and everywhere in between, treasures await discovery in every part of the city. Last year, research teams scoured every neighborhood in search of restaurants, shops, landmarks and other tourism sites. Over 2000 such attractions are featured in new content and engaging essays by award winning journalist Alan Solomon on ExploreChicago.org, the city’s official tourism website. Collected here for the first time, Solomon’s narratives capture the essence and flavor of each of Chicago’s unique communities. Use this compendium as your guide to exploring Chicago’s unique places and people as you Eat, Play, Love Our Neighborhoods! **Note: A high resolution pdf is also available for download to your desktop.

Through a grant from the 2016 Fund for Chicago Neighborhoods, established to support the city’s Olympic bid and ensure lasting benefits for Chicago neighborhoods and residents, Chicago Office of Tourism research teams scoured every community in search of restaurants, shops, landmarks and other one-of-a-kind attractions. Solomon followed up by visiting each neighborhood, going off the beaten path and into the heart of the community to capture its unique essence and flavor

Alan Solomon has been a writer and editor for four major metropolitan newspapers in a career that began at the Chicago Tribune in 1968. As a Travel writer with the Tribune (1994-2008), his work earned 62 national and regional awards, including being honored as Lowell Thomas Travel Journalist of the Year for 1998 by the Society of American Travel Writers, the highest honor in the field. Among his food-related works: a story on his participation in a Bologna cooking school (he flunked tortellini), an interview with Julia Child for the Tribune's Good Eating section, and a piece on chicken-fried steak in the Texas Hill Country that earned him a 1999 James Beard Foundation award.

A lifelong Chicagoan, Alan is currently a freelance writer and teaches journalism at Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism, Columbia College Chicago and other area schools.

If you have any questions, then please either PM Cathy2 or e-mail chicago.foodways.roundtable@gmail.com. Please include your name, telephone number and the number of people in your party.

HI,

If you are attending Saturday, please come a little earlier. It is an open house at Kendall, so it will take a wee bit longer to find parking.

Regards,

Thanks for the heads up.

10 Restaurants to Get You Going!
Eat, Play, Love Our Neighborhoods available free to download at: www.explorechicago.org

Not sure whether to explore? Here's a combo-incentive: real neighborhood grub, plus some motivation to help walk off the calories.

Chicago Diner (Boystown): A vegetarian restaurant that even non-vegans can enjoy without faking it. The neighboring shops and bars on Halsted Street welcome the curious. 3411 N. Halsted St.; 773-935-6696.

Coco (Humboldt Park): If you've never sampled mofongo, this slick spot on Paseo Boricua is as fine a place as any. The Institute of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture is a short walk away. 2723 W. Division St.; 773-384-4811.

Edna's (Garfield Park): The fried chicken is great, but the yams are awesome. Just as good for the soul: Garfield Park Conservatory, for the horticulturalist in all of us. 3175 W. Madison St.; 773-638-7079. CLOSED; reopened as Ruby's.

Lula Cafe (Logan Square): It's your usual everyday Italian-Moroccan-Greek-Indonesian-Japanese joint. Walk along the boulevards that radiate from the Illinois Centennial Monument. 2537 N. Kedzie Ave.; 773-489-9554.

Manny's (West Loop): Corned beef piled high and crisp latkes a short walk from Jane Addams' Hull House, old Maxwell Street and the UIC campus. 1141 S. Jefferson St.; 312-939-2855.

Nuevo Leon (Pilsen): Ask any local for dining recommendations, and one, inevitably, will be Nuevo Leon. Enjoy the National Museum of Mexican Art on 19th Street. 1515 W. 18th St.; 312-421-1517.

Ramova Grill (Bridgeport): Nothing more than a chili joint, but it's a step back in time -- and hey, the stuff is good. Nearby are galleries, fine churches and the White Sox. 3510 S. Halsted St.; 773-847-9058.

Red Apple (Avondale): It's absolutely impossible to leave this buffet hungry. Polish gift shops, a Polish bakery and Polish sausage shops are neighbors. Sense a theme? 3121 N. Milwaukee Ave; 773-5781.

Tank Noodle Restaurant (Uptown): It's not Argyle-Broadway's only pho restaurant, but it's usually the busiest -- a good sign. Explore the Asian shops and markets on Argyle. 4953 N. Broadway Ave.; 773-878-2253.

Top Notch Restaurant (Beverly): Totally unfancy, but neighbors adore its burgers, grilled onions and shakes -- and have forever. It's near The Ridge's fancy homes -- and castle. 2116 W. 95th St.; 773-445-7218.

WBEZ’s Chicago Amplified partners with Culinary Historians by recording our programs and making them available for broadcast on demand at their website or downloadable to an iPod. Our most recent program:

Eat, Play, Love Our Neighborhoods, with Alan Solomon
http://www.wbez.org/story/culture/food/ ... ghborhoods