Looks like the Colonial Coffee Shop at 800 Devon in Park Ridge is now closed. It looks to be a bubble tea shop. This is very sad; I loved the old-time look of this place, and it was cheap and they had good pie.

Gary P wrote:There are some new restaurants coming to downtown Libertyville.

Shakou Shushi 625 N Milwaukee Ave. "specializing in modern Japanese cuisine" (Not open yet). http://shakousushi.com/

"Maria Mandarino and Dan Temesy plan to open up a new restaurant at the former Henry Yee location (624 N. Milwaukee Ave.) in May." As of today, there is still paper covering all the windows. http://libertyville.patch.com/articles/new-restaurant-owners-to-keep-old-business-influence

Marc Bianchini, who owns and operates four restaurants in Milwaukee, is opening Chili U restaurant at 547 N. Milwaukee Ave. It is supposed to open June 12th.

Also, Yo Froot, a frozen yogurt, "pay by the ounce" shop is now open at 620 N Milwaukee Ave.

These are all within a block of each other, in downtown Libertyville.

I stopped by Yo Froot last week and they also have the Asian bubble teas/smoothies...they were't bad. Next time I'll try their frozen yogurt.

saluki68 wrote:Big Ed’s BBQ in North Chicago will be closing this Saturday. Ed is closing his North Chicago location so he can focus on his other location in Waukegan. He said he will be adding ribs to the Waukegan menu as well as a few other items (no tips) from the North Chicago BBQ.

I managed to make it in there the day before they closed down. Needless to say I am very upset about this. Me and my girlfriend would make a ritual of stopping at Big Ed's every time we headed up to Wisconsin for the weekend over the summer. We usually made about 5-6 trips a summer and each one had a mandatory stop at Big Ed's. Favorite bar b que place in the chicagoland area. No way we're going to make the drive into downtown Waukegan, way too far out of the way for our drive to wisconsin. Plus, we bring our dog and with Big Ed's we can just leave him in the car with the windows down and keep an eye on him while we ate. Obviously with a sit down place in downtown Waukegan that's not possible.

San Diego’s hugely popular Hash House A Go Go is expanding to the Gold Coast. Slated to open July 23, culinary director Andy Beardslee is bringing the “twisted farm food” to 1212 N. State Parkway.

The menu at the 215-seater (with another 20 on the patio) will look much like that of the Las Vegas’ Hash House location, centered on traditional, farm fresh ingredients served in dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

More details here:
http://chicago.eater.com/archives/2012/ ... -coast.php

Sounds delicious!

nNew BBQ joint in ELmwood Park. Noticed it the other day.

J&T Smokin Barbeque
7442 W Grand Ave
(between 75th Ave & 74th Ct)
Elmwood Park, IL 60707

(708) 395-5424

Del Seoul, the Korean taco joint on Clark near Wrightwood is gone... awning gone, windows papered over and "for rent" sign in the window. They doubled their size a year ago, and were still always busy whenever I was in there. Too bad. One of the better options in my neighborhood.

blipsman wrote:Del Seoul, the Korean taco joint on Clark near Wrightwood is gone... awning gone, windows papered over and "for rent" sign in the window. They doubled their size a year ago, and were still always busy whenever I was in there. Too bad. One of the better options in my neighborhood.

oh no this one hurts.

I had to walk over and see this with my own eyes. Thankfully del Seoul is open for business.

Glad I was wrong! I even looped back in my car and was certain that was their location. Sorry for the false alarm, everybody!

shakes wrote:...we bring our dog and with Big Ed's we can just leave him in the car with the windows down and keep an eye on him while we ate. Obviously with a sit down place in downtown Waukegan that's not possible.

As I always say to my brother when his dog gets in the way of life...

Dog 1 Shakes 0

Violet's Cafe, 6037 Dempster in Morton Grove, has been replaced by Tandoor 'N Spice Grill. Apparently Violet wasn't making quite enough to make rent:
http://niles.patch.com/articles/violet- ... -its-place

It's been a bad month for diners—first Pat's (although they're just moving), then Colonial, now Violet's.

blipsman wrote:Glad I was wrong! I even looped back in my car and was certain that was their location. Sorry for the false alarm, everybody!

Phew!

An announcement on Everyblock about Milt's Kosher BBQ coming to Broadway between Roscoe and Hawthorne. Given that it says prepayment will be required during the Sabbath, I guess it's too much to hope that they're taking pulled pork and mac & cheese lessons from Smoque's Barry Sorkin.

chgoeditor wrote:An announcement on Everyblock about Milt's Kosher BBQ coming to Broadway between Roscoe and Hawthorne. Given that it says prepayment will be required during the Sabbath, I guess it's too much to hope that they're taking pulled pork and mac & cheese lessons from Smoque's Barry Sorkin.

Yep. If this is a Kosher BBQ, there won't be any pork in that building. There's a Kosher BBQ joint in Highland Park that I haven't tried yet called Now We're Cooking Grill that Milt's will probably resemble. http://www.cookin-grill.com/menu.html

Ram4 wrote:

chgoeditor wrote:An announcement on Everyblock about Milt's Kosher BBQ coming to Broadway between Roscoe and Hawthorne. Given that it says prepayment will be required during the Sabbath, I guess it's too much to hope that they're taking pulled pork and mac & cheese lessons from Smoque's Barry Sorkin.

Yep. If this is a Kosher BBQ, there won't be any pork in that building. There's a Kosher BBQ joint in Highland Park that I haven't tried yet called Now We're Cooking Grill that Milt's will probably resemble. http://www.cookin-grill.com/menu.html

Now We're Cooking Grill is quite decent but it's definitely more grill than bbq. Their black bean chicken chili was a favorite of mine when I worked in Highland Park. Their burger is very good, too (no cheeseburgers, obviously, but you can add beef fry as a topping). I also liked a couple of their salads. Thick-cut fries were usually excellent. Items like bbq brisket and short ribs seemed more oven-cooked and sauced than actually low and slow over wood but they were still tasty. Just not what I would call real bbq. I hope a place calling itself 'BBQ' will really be BBQ. Even without pork, there are still plenty of decent kosher meat options that lend themselves well to bbq.

=R=

Now We're Cooking Grill
710 Central Ave
Highland Park, IL 60035
(847) 432-7310

Well it's not newly closed (actually over a year ago), but I don't remember seeing it mentioned here, but Siegelman's Deli in Arlington Heights has closed. I know there have been mentions of it here a few times, though I don't think it ever had it's own thread. Still, always sad to see something go after 40 years.

Armitage Pizzeria at 711 W. Armitage Ave. is now open. I stopped by last night to try it out and thought it was very good. Thin crust, nice char on the bottom, not overloaded with toppings. It reminded me a lot of Coalfire, which made sense today when I read a blurb in Eater saying that the owner/operator is one of the founders of Coalfire. Should be a good addition to the neighborhood.

Coogles wrote:Armitage Pizzeria at 711 W. Armitage Ave. is now open. I stopped by last night to try it out and thought it was very good. Thin crust, nice char on the bottom, not overloaded with toppings. It reminded me a lot of Coalfire, which made sense today when I read a blurb in Eater saying that the owner/operator is one of the founders of Coalfire. Should be a good addition to the neighborhood.

Well, they are 6 for 6 on Yelp so far. I love a good thin pizza (be it tavern style or other). The tiny menu on Yelp looks like a very basic setup (which can be a good thing) and I think this might be another New York-Neapolitan style. Yes, one of the founders of Coalfire opened it, and it only has 4 seats! I will definitely be checking this out, but it reminds me of Apart's tiny setup which sucks if there are people waiting. Warning: Just noticed - no credit cards.

Armitage Pizzeria
711 W Armitage
Chicago IL
312-867-9111

Not sure if this has been mentioned before, but I'm pretty excited by the Mariano's under construction on Elston near the DMV. I drive past it daily on my way home from work.

Cuzzin's in Des Plaines is now called Cugino's....same owners, new name? New owners? Bueller?

1881 East Oakton Street
Des Plaines, IL 60018
Their website is still up: http://www.cuzzinscafe.com

abe_froeman wrote:Cuzzin's in Des Plaines is now called Cugino's....same owners, new name? New owners? Bueller?

1881 East Oakton Street
Des Plaines, IL 60018
Their website is still up: http://www.cuzzinscafe.com

I drove by the other day (hoping to have lunch there) and saw them putting up the new sign, and Danny from Cuzzin's was directing the guy putting up the sign, leading me to believe ownership hasn't changed, but I know nothing else. However, the hours have also changed so they weren't open for lunch. If I recall correctly, the only weekday they are now open for lunch is Friday.

I wonder if it was a marketing move since "Cuzzin's" doesn't sound very Italian.

ETA: Just drove past it and there's an explanation- "Cugino" means "Cousin" in Italian. It all makes sense now.

chgoeditor wrote:An announcement on Everyblock about Milt's Kosher BBQ coming to Broadway between Roscoe and Hawthorne. Given that it says prepayment will be required during the Sabbath, I guess it's too much to hope that they're taking pulled pork and mac & cheese lessons from Smoque's Barry Sorkin.

Correct me if I'm wrong....but is prepay on Shabbat a first for a Chicagoland kosher restaurant? I've been to a couple of Tunisian Jewish couscous restaurants in Paris that do that, but I've never heard of that in the States. It's a pretty good idea, though. And about time that those of us that would do kosher have an alternative south of Devon that's in a real neighborhood (although to be fair, I haven't been to the Kotel Catering place in French Market yet).

sdrucker wrote:

chgoeditor wrote:An announcement on Everyblock about Milt's Kosher BBQ coming to Broadway between Roscoe and Hawthorne. Given that it says prepayment will be required during the Sabbath, I guess it's too much to hope that they're taking pulled pork and mac & cheese lessons from Smoque's Barry Sorkin.

Correct me if I'm wrong....but is prepay on Shabbat a first for a Chicagoland kosher restaurant? I've been to a couple of Tunisian Jewish couscous restaurants in Paris that do that, but I've never heard of that in the States. It's a pretty good idea, though. And about time that those of us that would do kosher have an alternative south of Devon that's in a real neighborhood (although to be fair, I haven't been to the Kotel Catering place in French Market yet).

Pre-pay is new to Chicago but not the States. There have been a number of options in bigger Jewish areas (Miami, NY, LA) over the years, including restaurants that offer Passover Seder meals on a prepay basis.

Terragusto on Addison is papered over.
Southport & Irving is now open.

spinynorman99 wrote:

sdrucker wrote:

chgoeditor wrote:An announcement on Everyblock about Milt's Kosher BBQ coming to Broadway between Roscoe and Hawthorne. Given that it says prepayment will be required during the Sabbath, I guess it's too much to hope that they're taking pulled pork and mac & cheese lessons from Smoque's Barry Sorkin.

Correct me if I'm wrong....but is prepay on Shabbat a first for a Chicagoland kosher restaurant? I've been to a couple of Tunisian Jewish couscous restaurants in Paris that do that, but I've never heard of that in the States. It's a pretty good idea, though. And about time that those of us that would do kosher have an alternative south of Devon that's in a real neighborhood (although to be fair, I haven't been to the Kotel Catering place in French Market yet).

Pre-pay is new to Chicago but not the States. There have been a number of options in bigger Jewish areas (Miami, NY, LA) over the years, including restaurants that offer Passover Seder meals on a prepay basis.

A cow-orker of mine who lives over there says that there are a few restaurants that will let you prepay, one is the ice cream place up towards Roscoe on Broadway.

I can't imagine anyone will care, but my loop spot for a quick Shanghai noodle or baked cha shu bao fix is gone after this weekend. The 65 Chinese at 336 N. Michigan had a sign saying that their building has been sold. One of the guys behind the counter said they were just told two weeks ago.

leek wrote:A cow-orker of mine who lives over there says that there are a few restaurants that will let you prepay, one is the ice cream place up towards Roscoe on Broadway.

Just for my general education...I've assumed that the prepaying at Kosher restaurants is all about not exchanging money on the Sabbath, but maybe my assumption is wrong--else why would the ice cream place also be doing it? Unless they're doing it as a convenience for the subset of their customers who are Orthodox Jewish. How does it work? You tell them before the sun goes down that you're going to be wanting a banana split at 8:30, and they take a credit card over the phone? Not being snarky here, honestly just trying to figure this out.

riddlemay wrote:

leek wrote:A cow-orker of mine who lives over there says that there are a few restaurants that will let you prepay, one is the ice cream place up towards Roscoe on Broadway.

Just for my general education...I've assumed that the prepaying at Kosher restaurants is all about not exchanging money on the Sabbath, but maybe my assumption is wrong--else why would the ice cream place also be doing it? Unless they're doing it as a convenience for the subset of their customers who are Orthodox Jewish. How does it work? You tell them before the sun goes down that you're going to be wanting a banana split at 8:30, and they take a credit card over the phone? Not being snarky here, honestly just trying to figure this out.

That's what I imagine to be the case. Or have a tab for the most frequent customers. I would also guess that only Modern Orthodox or non-Orthodox who keep kosher (but would still follow the sabbath) would do this.

leek wrote:A cow-orker of mine who lives over there says that there are a few restaurants that will let you prepay, one is the ice cream place up towards Roscoe on Broadway.

There are two ice cream places in that vicinity, but I assume you're referring to Windy City Sweets. (Pacchugio or however it's spelled is a bit further away at the intersection of Broadway & Montrose.)