Best of Chicago 2013: Food & Drink

on June 20, 2013 at 4:00AM

Best Everything

Found Kitchen

by Sam Worley on June 19, 2013 at 2:45PM

1631 Chicago, Evanston 847-868-8945 foundkitchen.com Unless my mom is reading this (hi, Mom!), I'll confess there's little in the midwest I hold in higher regard than restaurateur Amy Morton's Found Kitchen & Social House, which provides at least three entries on the short list of reasons to get on the Purple Line: 1) Chef Nicole Pederson's thoughtful, seasonal, and unwaveringly delicious small plates, flatbreads, sandwiches, and entrees.

Best Refuge in River North, Casual

Sumi Robata Bar

by Mike Sula on June 19, 2013 at 2:45PM

There's nothing more primeval than impaling meat on a stick and cooking it over fire, and with the proliferation of gimmicky Japanese-style robata joints in River North, along with the increasing idiocracy of the general area, it's easy to imagine the neighborhood as a portal to prehistoric times. That's until you step into the clean, blond corridor of Sumi, where chef Gene Kato stands serenely before two binchotan-fueled grills, calmly basting and turning sizzling morsels of chicken butt, beef heart, and pork jowl.

Best Refuge in River North, Formal

Brindille

by Mike Sula on June 19, 2013 at 2:45PM

Just as meat-on-a-stick pervades River North, so too do shared-plates restaurants: something-for-everyone feeding troughs where nobody blinks when you peck at tiny portions on communal plates as if you fear a bigger, stronger animal will snatch them away first. At Carrie Nahabedian's new Brindille, you'll keep your damn hands to yourself, luxuriating over cohesive, updated Parisian-style appetizers, entrees, and desserts—on tablecloths.

Best Harbinger for the Future

Green mom-and-pops

by Kate Schmidt on June 19, 2013 at 2:45PM

"Local" and "sustainable" are such marketing shibboleths these days that they sometimes seem meaningless—one recently opened hotel restaurant goes so far as to include Dean Foods and "Einstein Bros. Bagels, Chicago" among the purveyors proudly listed at the bottom of its menu. So it's heartening to see genuinely local independents continue to open.

Most Profligate Use of Kimchi

The Little Goat

by Mike Sula on June 19, 2013 at 2:45PM

It's odd Stephanie Izard doesn't make a kimchi milk shake at her bustling Randolph Street diner, but she makes just about everything else with it. And her recipe is surprisingly spicy and funky for having been devised by a waeguk-in.

Best Burger Night

Publican Quality Meats

by Tal Rosenberg on June 19, 2013 at 2:45PM

They only serve it once a week and for half the year, but Publican Quality Meats has one of the ten best burgers in Chicago: a slightly charred yet juicy beef patty topped with American cheese, spicy dill relish, balsamic red onions, mustard, "special sauce," and gem lettuce. Just as significant as the patty and the toppings is the bun, a powdery, soft bread blanket that evades sogginess and perfectly ensconces the burger.

Best Place to Have a Fancy Dinner at the Bar After a Long Day at the Office

Trenchermen

by Mara Shalhoup on June 19, 2013 at 2:45PM

The Reader goes to press every Tuesday, which means it's been several years since I've eaten dinner on a Tuesday before, oh, 10 PM. Tuesdays portend meals composed of break-room detritus (gummy worms are a serviceable dessert, but it's a real bummer when there's no chocolate to be found) or, depending on my level of fatigue once I get home, popcorn popped on the stove and generously sprinkled with smoked paprika.

Best Use of a Smoker for Something Other Than Meat

Smoked hummus at the Fountainhead

by Julia Thiel on June 19, 2013 at 2:45PM

When chef Cleetus Friedman landed at the Fountainhead in March, he brought along several items he'd been making at City Provisions, the Ravenswood deli he closed earlier this year. My favorite among them: the smoked hummus.

Best Liver and Onions

Arnavut cigeri at Cafe Orchid

by Mike Sula on June 19, 2013 at 2:45PM

Instead of going the usual route, Cafe Orchid owner Kurt Serpin cuts beef liver into bitty manageable nuggets, dusts them with flour, and fries them until crisp with cumin and bits of potato. The liver's inherently metallic richness is cut by a generous side of raw onion and a tomato salad sprinkled with chile pepper and parsley and generously squirted with fresh lemon.

Best Refined Italian Place to Take Out-of-Towners

Anteprima

by Mara Shalhoup on June 19, 2013 at 2:45PM

You have a bunch of friends in town, several of whom have never been to Chicago. All of them are really into food, but they're not that into the scenier aspects of eating out (it takes a certain amount of imperviousness to go there—and no one wants to endure that on vacation).

Best Old-School Italian Place to Take Out-of-Towners

La Scarola

by Mara Shalhoup on June 19, 2013 at 2:45PM

Say your parents and in-laws, combined, are 50 percent Italian. Generally speaking, that means they want to eat Italian half the time.

Best Fish and Chips in a Fish Market

Boston Fish Market

by Mike Sula on June 19, 2013 at 2:45PM

This Greek-owned suburban seafood distributor claims to be the largest processor of fresh salmon and whitefish in the midwest, but the best thing you'll find behind its gleaming glass windows is a massive retail case of fresh seafood, from which you can pick out anything you want and have Chef Louie grill or fry it to your specs: octopus salad, whole grilled lobster, fried smelts, and clams are all outstanding, but it's the delicately breaded, light and crispy planks of Lake Erie perch, served with an insurmountable pile of hand-cut fries, that make this spot a hidden treasure.

Best Dinner at Grandma's

Miss Lee's Good Food

by Sam Worley on June 19, 2013 at 2:45PM

If you have expressed some interest in the lemon buttermilk pie, the matriarch in question at Miss Lee's Good Food might cut a piece in half and give it to you and your friend while the two of you wait for your meal. Don't worry about filling up; it's an inevitability, given the heaps and heaps of well-cooked, deeply flavored soul food that will eventually follow and that, in your eagerness, you'll eat in the front seat of the car—this is strictly carryout.

Best Use of a Sesame Seed Bun

Cemitas Puebla

by Gwynedd Stuart on June 19, 2013 at 12:05PM

There are probably dozens (all right, maybe a dozen total) Mexican restaurants in Chicago that serve a really good Milanesa torta. Once in a blue moon, the breaded pork cutlet won't be fried to oblivion, the toppings will be fresh, and the bread will be pillowy and warm.

Best Cheesy Shrimp Quesadilla

Quesadillas de camarones a la Mexicana at La Palapa Mariscos

by Mike Sula on June 19, 2013 at 2:45PM

In Italy you'd be crucified for melting cheese with shrimp, but this is Mexico, via McKinley Park, and at this Nayarit-style mariscos joint the secret weapon on the sprawling, aquatically focused menu is a thick, house-made corn tortilla folded over snappy, sweet shrimp sauteed in butter, onions, tomato, jalapeño, and cilantro, all bound together by gooey melted Chihuahua cheese. But don't settle for just that.

Best Vegetarian Imitation of a Meat-Centric Dish

Ground Control's jibarito

by Kevin Warwick on June 19, 2013 at 2:45PM

You don't need to skip out on certain Chicago cuisine just because you prefer seitan to pulled pork. Meatless versions of Italian beef subs and Chicago dogs are readily available at spots like Native Foods, the Chicago Diner, and even Hot Doug's sausage emporium.

Best Place to Have a Duck Carved Tableside

Sun Wah BBQ

by Gwynedd Stuart on June 19, 2013 at 2:45PM

In the front window of Sun Wah BBQ, glistening barbecued ducks dangle by their necks like so many succulent victims of avian suicide. Provided you were smart and ordered in advance, one of them belongs to you.

Best Fried Rice

Rainbow Cuisine

by Mike Sula on June 19, 2013 at 2:45PM

When Thai street vendors make naem khao tod, they deep-fry balls of rice, scoop them hollow, smash them, and toss them with red curry paste, chiles, sugar, fish sauce, peanut, cilantro, lime juice, slivers of fresh ginger, and—most important—sour fermented ham. Why this isn't a readily available movie theater or sporting event snack in the U.S. is only because nobody knows about it.

Best Chinese-Portuguese Fusion

Fat Rice

by Mara Shalhoup on June 19, 2013 at 2:45PM

The fact that it's the only Chinese-Portuguese fusion in town is no slight. The union between those two cuisines, which originally were melded on the tiny island of Macao, is certainly a smart one.

Best Border-Crossing Love Affair With Smoked Meat

Fumaré Meats & Deli

by Kate Schmidt on June 19, 2013 at 2:45PM

Dick McCracken first fell in love with viande fumée, Montreal-style smoked meat (aka pastrami), when he visited the famous Montreal deli Schwartz's back in the 80s. A "foodie at heart," he was haunted by it over the years, going so far as to develop his own recipe.

Best Regional Hot Sauce

Hienie's hot sauce

by Mike Sula on June 19, 2013 at 2:45PM

Hienie's Shrimp House, 10359 S. Torrence, 773-734-8400; Loncar's Liquors, 3201 E. 92nd, 773-734-3933 Named for—but not manufactured by—the venerable South Deering shrimp shack, this hunter's-orange-colored union of vinegar, mustard, and capsaicin can only be found in the southeast side's finest eating establishments, such as its namesake, and the great Loncar's Liquors (home of Wednesday deep-fried taco nights).

Best New Local Food Publication

Middlewest

by Sam Worley on June 19, 2013 at 2:45PM

middlewestmag.com Derrida meets Pepin in Middlewest, which calls itself a "deconstructed" food magazine.

Best Urban Farmer

LaManda Joy, founder, the Peterson Garden Project

by Mike Sula on June 19, 2013 at 2:45PM

petersongarden.org In 2010 master gardener and author of the theyarden.com LaManda Joy decided to bring new life to an abandoned lot at Peterson and Campbell that had been a large victory garden during World War II.

Best Self-Taught French Pastry Chef

Judy Contino at Bittersweet Bakery

by Aimee Levitt on June 19, 2013 at 2:45PM

The whole premise of Julia Child's cookbooks and TV shows was that anyone with a basic knowledge of the kitchen could master French cooking. But have you ever looked at Julia's croissant recipe?

Best Dessert Trend, Haters Be Damned

Doughnuts

by Sam Worley on June 19, 2013 at 2:45PM

Hazard unto them who would call a culinary form unfuckupable: they may wind up eating cupcakes in hell, or Lincoln Park. Still, I submit that the doughnut has been largely successful in resisting the worst tendencies of those talentless prospectors who heaped such saccharine disgrace on the cupcake—so far, anyway.

Best Thing to Happen to the Latte

The Ipsento at Ipsento

by Aimee Levitt on June 19, 2013 at 2:45PM

If you drink enough lattes, you will come to realize that some are indisputably better than others. But, once you account for differences in quality, you have to admit, there's a sort of sameness about them: espresso plus steamed milk, maybe a flavor shot or some sweetener.

Best Late-Night Fast-Food Spot Without Shame

L'Patron

by Luca Cimarusti on June 19, 2013 at 2:45PM

Logan Square's L'Patron is one of the best Mexican restaurants on the north side, and this top-notch taco joint comes with an added bonus: it's open into the wee hours, which pretty much makes it the best place in town to stop at after an epic beer sesh. They serve up your standard late-night hangover protection—think giant steak burritos, salty chorizo tacos, and rich al pastor tortas—but they offer a few less-than-standard options as well, like tacos stuffed with fried shrimp and spicy serrano aioli and gooey, meaty quesadillas featuring thick, house-made tortillas.

Best Cocktail to Be Jealous for Not Having Ordered Yourself

Heart of the Dead at Masa Azul

by Kevin Warwick on June 19, 2013 at 2:45PM

There's that moment on the third or fourth date when a certain comfort level finally sets in—enough to order dishes or drinks with the intention of splitting them. A big step in the relationship, really.

Best Use of a Slushy Machine

Parson's Chicken and Fish

by Mara Shalhoup on June 19, 2013 at 11:25AM

There's one major problem I've encountered with Parson's slushy machine. Though the machine churns Letherbee gin, Luxardo, sweet vermouth, and lemon juice into the beverage I've been longing for my entire adulthood—the Negroni Slushy, an absurdly splendid marriage of the refreshing and the bitter—I've been unable to enjoy it to its fullest potential (fullest potential being a dozen Negroni Slushies a week) due to the gazillions of other people who always seem to have beat me to the explosively popular restaurant.