sundevilpeg wrote:Sighted while out today:

Also, the Indian resto on the corner of Howard and Dodge (formerly a Thai place, and before that, a diner-ish joint) is now closed.

Memories flood from that dinerish joint. My dad used to take us there about twenty years ago. It was called Gold Mine and was good but not great. But I will always remember it because my uncle once accidently walked into the women's bathroom. It's interesting to see the changes over the years and the different cuisines that have popped in over the years.

There was a wonderful store just across the street from Gold Mine - the Oriental Market and Cooking School. Tremendous resource for all kinds of Asian ingredients, frozen foods, seeds and plants, cookbooks, etc., as well as a full slate of Asian cooking classes. Run by Pansy Luke and her husband, Chu-Yen, they sold off the property in 2002 to a condo developer, and presumably made a pile o' cash. I wish every time I go past the half-empty block of condos on Howard & California that the store and school were still there. . . .

Oriental Market and Cooking School, 2801 W. Howard St., Chicago (RIP)

sundevilpeg wrote:Also, the Indian resto on the corner of Howard and Dodge (formerly a Thai place, and before that, a diner-ish joint) is now closed.

Bombay Kabab House. That's not a surprise, having to compete with Devon Avenue a mile and a half south and the very popular Mount Everest two miles north. We tried it once and weren't impressed.

Twisted Q BBQ and Bakery Opens Today
2053 Ridge Road
Homewood IL 60430
http://twistedqbbq.com

KajmacJohnson wrote:

sundevilpeg wrote:Sighted while out today:

Also, the Indian resto on the corner of Howard and Dodge (formerly a Thai place, and before that, a diner-ish joint) is now closed.

Memories flood from that dinerish joint. My dad used to take us there about twenty years ago. It was called Gold Mine and was good but not great. But I will always remember it because my uncle once accidently walked into the women's bathroom. It's interesting to see the changes over the years and the different cuisines that have popped in over the years.

It was the Gold Coin before that. In those days, it was one of several Jewish Deli-style coffee shops in the area (RIP Sam & Hy's, S&L, Barnum & Bagel, Gold Coin). The last one standing is What's Cooking in Lincoln Village, but it's only a shadow of its former glorious self.

Noted on my wanderings yesterday:

The Ravenswood Grill is now the Cinnamon Cafe. 1968 W. Lawrence, 773-769-9003.

Marmalade is in the former Le Sabre location at 1969 W Montrose, 773-883-9000.

sundevilpeg wrote:Sighted while out today:

Ubaa is definitely gone for good. Though the hand written sign on the door indicating a temporary closure is still up, as of today there is now a gigantic FOR LEASE sign on the side facing Crawford Ave. Sad.

Also, the Indian resto on the corner of Howard and Dodge (formerly a Thai place, and before that, a diner-ish joint) is now closed.

Dang! Sounded like my kind of place and I never made it by. Tried once or twice.

Oh, well...

sundevilpeg wrote:There was a wonderful store just across the street from Gold Mine - the Oriental Market and Cooking School. Tremendous resource for all kinds of Asian ingredients, frozen foods, seeds and plants, cookbooks, etc., as well as a full slate of Asian cooking classes. Run by Pansy Luke and her husband, Chu-Yen, they sold off the property in 2002 to a condo developer, and presumably made a pile o' cash. I wish every time I go past the half-empty block of condos on Howard & California that the store and school were still there. . . .

Oriental Market and Cooking School, 2801 W. Howard St., Chicago (RIP)

We were just reminiscing about this store the other night. Really miss it! The condo building that has never rented its ground-floor stores is a poor replacement, and it seems that, without parking, those stores will never be rented even if the economy picks up.

Luigi's Pizza, formerly the YumBus, is now Caputo's Pizza.
4010 Main St.
Skokie, IL 60076

I'm told that Terragusto closed. That makes me sad - it was Mrs AS' favorite Italian place.

stevez wrote:

KajmacJohnson wrote:

sundevilpeg wrote:Sighted while out today:

Also, the Indian resto on the corner of Howard and Dodge (formerly a Thai place, and before that, a diner-ish joint) is now closed.

Memories flood from that dinerish joint. My dad used to take us there about twenty years ago. It was called Gold Mine and was good but not great. But I will always remember it because my uncle once accidently walked into the women's bathroom. It's interesting to see the changes over the years and the different cuisines that have popped in over the years.

It was the Gold Coin before that. In those days, it was one of several Jewish Deli-style coffee shops in the area (RIP Sam & Hy's, S&L, Barnum & Bagel, Gold Coin). The last one standing is What's Cooking in Lincoln Village, but it's only a shadow of its former glorious self.

That must be the first time that "What's Cooking" and "glorious self" have been linked in the same sentence. Of course, I still occasionally miss Zweig's kishke in meat sauce and knishes from my north suburban youth, as well as Sam & Hy's, so I suppose it's relative.

On a different note, I walked by the late La Sera on Division & Wells Saturday, and it's been renamed the Euphrates Cafe (but still not open AFAIK). The guys I ran into outside of there a while back said they were going for Mediterranean/Turkish, but with that name, maybe there's hope that we're looking at Kibbeh Mosul and Gus, rather than Manti and Adana Kabob. Having an Assyrian/Iraqi place on the Near North Side would be a welcome shot of relative diversity, if done well (opposed to well done).

Very sad news: per tweet from Steve Dolinsky, Carlos' in Highwood will be serving its last meal New Year's Eve.

Steve Dolinsky just posted on Twitter that Carlos in Highland Park will be serving its last meal on New Years Eve 2011. Pretty startling, IMO.

AngrySarah wrote:I'm told that Terragusto closed. That makes me sad - it was Mrs AS' favorite Italian place.

Saw this typically polite quote from Theo:

Even though the restaurant is about to celebrate five and a half years, Gilbert said it was just time to move on. "When I originally put it together, I had a specific clientele— foodies who got it who had great bottles of wine and had no place to go," Gilbert said. "As the economy tanked the demographic shifted. Those great customers we had were crowded out by people who didn't care about the food, but could BYOB their Two-Buck Chuck."

nsxtasy wrote:

sundevilpeg wrote:Also, the Indian resto on the corner of Howard and Dodge (formerly a Thai place, and before that, a diner-ish joint) is now closed.

Bombay Kabab House. That's not a surprise, having to compete with Devon Avenue a mile and a half south and the very popular Mount Everest two miles north. We tried it once and weren't impressed.

That really bums me out. We had recently found them, and really enjoyed their Indian eggplant and their curries. It was a lot more convenient than going to Devon (from Skokie) and the food was often as good.

I hope someone has information to prove me wrong but it appears that Paciugo in Forest Park may have closed.

We made our weekly trek last night only to find the place dark and a nondescript "Closed." sign posted on the door. While the tables and chairs were still inside, the whole feeling was that no one was coming back any time soon. Calling their phone number resulted in a "this call cannot be completed at this time." I also tried the Lakeview location for more info but the 2 Chicago stores franchised separately and they were unaware of anything going on in Forest Park.

Their Facebook page has not been updated for over a year so no help there but I noticed that someone posted a Yelp review as late as 10/19/11. Maybe they were just having an issue that preventing them from opening on Sunday but I'm not holding much hope.

I walked over to check this out. The Closed piece of paper is still up. Everything on the inside looks intact.

FWIW, the Paciugo website no longer lists the Forest Park location.

If closed for good, a real bummer. My wife and I loved this place.

I hope this doesn't affect the Lincoln Park location. I love that stuff.

Icosium Cafe on Clark just north of Fullerton which had moved into the former Mamacita's space has closed. There is note on the window that the Clark & Foster location is still open.

Icosium Cafe
2433 N. Clark
Chicago, Il 60614 Closed

Icosium Cafe
5200 N. Clark
Chicago, IL 60640
773-271-5233

PortPkPaul wrote:

AngrySarah wrote:I'm told that Terragusto closed. That makes me sad - it was Mrs AS' favorite Italian place.

Saw this typically polite quote from Theo:

Even though the restaurant is about to celebrate five and a half years, Gilbert said it was just time to move on. "When I originally put it together, I had a specific clientele— foodies who got it who had great bottles of wine and had no place to go," Gilbert said. "As the economy tanked the demographic shifted. Those great customers we had were crowded out by people who didn't care about the food, but could BYOB their Two-Buck Chuck."

Wow. Talk about making sure that as few people as possible use the word "lamented" when they refer to the "late Terragusto"!

mbh wrote:Icosium Cafe on Clark just north of Fullerton which had moved into the former Mamacita's space has closed. There is note on the window that the Clark & Foster location is still open.

Icosium Cafe
2433 N. Clark
Chicago, Il 60614 Closed

Icosium Cafe
5200 N. Clark
Chicago, IL 60640
773-271-5233

That stinks. This was one of our regular spots, which I thought had only improved with the move into the larger space.

sdrucker wrote:I still occasionally miss Zweig's kishke in meat sauce and knishes from my north suburban youth, as well as Sam & Hy's

I'm not sure about the kishke (which seems to me pretty similar from place to place), but the knishes at Steve's Deli in River North are worth a try, especially if you like them with relatively thin outer crusts, almost all filling. I've also noticed that the ones at Kaufman's in Skokie have improved lately, with added flavors and outer crusts that are not quite as thick as they had been in recent years.

EvA wrote:

sundevilpeg wrote:There was a wonderful store just across the street from Gold Mine - the Oriental Market and Cooking School. Tremendous resource for all kinds of Asian ingredients, frozen foods, seeds and plants, cookbooks, etc., as well as a full slate of Asian cooking classes. Run by Pansy Luke and her husband, Chu-Yen, they sold off the property in 2002 to a condo developer, and presumably made a pile o' cash. I wish every time I go past the half-empty block of condos on Howard & California that the store and school were still there. . . .

Oriental Market and Cooking School, 2801 W. Howard St., Chicago (RIP)

We were just reminiscing about this store the other night. Really miss it! The condo building that has never rented its ground-floor stores is a poor replacement, and it seems that, without parking, those stores will never be rented even if the economy picks up.

I grew up at that intersection. I was never at that market, sadly. That condo building is now bank-owned, and seems a quickly failed development, I don't know if anyone ever actually lived there--there certainly was never a business there. As for the Gold Coin, that corner seems to be snakebit, I remember a string of restaurants that failed prior to the Bombay place.

sundevilpeg wrote:Steve Dolinsky just posted on Twitter that Carlos in Highland Park will be serving its last meal on New Years Eve 2011. Pretty startling, IMO.

They are reconcepting into something called Nieto's. No details yet, but I'm guessing it will be less formal.

Huge news for those of us in Lincoln Square ... and even those elsewhere in the city. Chris Nugent, chef at Les Nomades, will be opening byo restaurant Goosefoot in the former Rendezvous Bistro spot at 2656 W. Lawrence (between Rockwell and California), possibly as early as next month. The restaurant will have 36 seats, and offer two tasting menus: 8 courses for $90, and 12 courses FOR $140.

Details here.

BR wrote:Huge news for those of us in Lincoln Square ... and even those elsewhere in the city. Chris Nugent, chef at Les Nomades, will be opening byo restaurant Goosefoot in the former Rendezvous Bistro spot at 2656 W. Lawrence (between Rockwell and California), possibly as early as next month. The restaurant will have 36 seats, and offer two tasting menus: 8 courses for $90, and 12 courses FOR $140.

Details here.

That's great news!!! And it looks like it will be BYO...

riddlemay wrote:

PortPkPaul wrote:

AngrySarah wrote:I'm told that Terragusto closed. That makes me sad - it was Mrs AS' favorite Italian place.

Saw this typically polite quote from Theo:

Even though the restaurant is about to celebrate five and a half years, Gilbert said it was just time to move on. "When I originally put it together, I had a specific clientele— foodies who got it who had great bottles of wine and had no place to go," Gilbert said. "As the economy tanked the demographic shifted. Those great customers we had were crowded out by people who didn't care about the food, but could BYOB their Two-Buck Chuck."

Wow. Talk about making sure that as few people as possible use the word "lamented" when they refer to the "late Terragusto"!

Another victim of Pasticceria Natalina Syndrome.

stevez wrote:It was the Gold Coin before that. In those days, it was one of several Jewish Deli-style coffee shops in the area (RIP Sam & Hy's, S&L, Barnum & Bagel, Gold Coin). The last one standing is What's Cooking in Lincoln Village, but it's only a shadow of its former glorious self.

You forgot the Pickle Barrel, at Howard and Western.

spinynorman99 wrote:

stevez wrote:It was the Gold Coin before that. In those days, it was one of several Jewish Deli-style coffee shops in the area (RIP Sam & Hy's, S&L, Barnum & Bagel, Gold Coin). The last one standing is What's Cooking in Lincoln Village, but it's only a shadow of its former glorious self.

You forgot the Pickle Barrel, at Howard and Western.

Didn't Belden Corned Beef Center have a place on Howard for a while, too? In addition to their original Lincoln Park location on Belden?

nsxtasy wrote:Didn't Belden Corned Beef Center have a place on Howard for a while, too? In addition to their original Lincoln Park location on Belden?

The Belden was in that location at some point after the Pickle Barrel closed (I seem to recall them keeping the little tabletop barrels - but my memory may be messing with me).