Best of Chicago 2014: Food & Drink

on June 25, 2014 at 10:00PM

Best of Chicago 2014: Food & Drink

Best fancy restaurant

Alinea

on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

1723 N. Halsted 312-867-0110 alinearestaurant.com Runner-Up

Best bang for your buck

Big Star

on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

1531 N. Damen 773-235-4039 bigstarchicago.com Runner-Up

Best chef

Stephanie Izard of Girl & the Goat, Little Goat

on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

809 W. Randolph 312-492-6262 girlandthegoat.com

Best up-and-coming chef

Jake Bickelhaupt of 42 Grams

on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

4662 N. Broadway 42gramschicago.com Runner-Up

Best food blog

Eater Chicago

on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

chicago.eater.com Runner-Up

Best restaurant name

Girl & the Goat

on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

809 W. Randolph 312-492-6262 girlandthegoat.com Runner-Up

Best new food trend

Fried Chicken

on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

Runner-Up Doughnuts

Best cocktail list

The Violet Hour

on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

1520 N. Damen 773-252-1500 theviolethour.com Runner-Up

Best cocktail

Mojito at Carnivale

on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

702 W. Fulton 312-850-5005 carnivalechicago.com Runner-Up

Best mixologist

Paul McGee of Three Dots and a Dash

on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

435 N. Clark 312-610-4220 threedotschicago.com Runner-Up

Best Run by a Chef Prior to a Gracious Departure

Jason Vincent, Nightwood

by Kate Schmidt on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

When I first saw chef Jason Vincent he was jiggling his daughter's child seat and talking about duck tongues. It was 2011, and he was featured in our chefs' challenge, Key Ingredient, the video for which showed him minding his baby while creating a sandwich that showcased the avian body part in question.

Best Place to Understand Charlie Trotter's Legacy

MK

by Michael Gebert on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

Yes, Charlie Trotter's legacy hangs over Chicago. But even if his restaurant were still around today, you might not want to spend that kind of scratch to find out what exactly that legacy is. The comparable places these days (Alinea, Grace) have transcended what Trotter set out to accomplish, and his proteges all seem to want out from under his high-end influence (see: Belly Q, Yusho).

Best Migration to the South Side

A10

by Mara Shalhoup on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

When Charlie Trotter alum Matthias Merges opened the playful, yakitori-inspired restaurant Yusho in Avondale a little more than two years ago, it was pioneerish; the most notable cuisines in the hood at the time were hot dogs and hamburgers (damn fine ones, but still). More predictable, though no less thoughtful or delicious, was his early 2013 follow-up: the craft-cocktail outpost Billy Sunday, just up the street in Logan Square.

Best Kitchen Table

42 Grams

by Michael Gebert on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

When Charlie Trotter invented the kitchen table a quarter century or so ago, it was a way to bring diners into the life of the fine-dining kitchen. And the border between us (eating) and them (cooking) has been increasingly porous ever since.

Best Side Dish

Two-Jacket Potato at Next

by Drew Hunt on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

By now, everyone knows the drill at Next. Chefs Dave Beran and Grant Achatz completely retool the restaurant's menu every four months, taking inspiration from a particular cuisine (vegan, kaiseki), region (Sicily, Thailand), or theme (childhood, foraged).

Best Dish That Should Have Been on Next's Steak Menu

Cicchetti's steak tartare

by Michael Gebert on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

When Next last did big meat with its 2013 menu the Hunt, the result was an edible survey of dining best described as red in tooth and claw, from a Michigan hunter's game jerky to a lushly barbaric squab course on French china. So it was a bit of a letdown by comparison that three menus later, Chicago Steakhouse was pretty straightforwardly what it said it was—some old steak-house-style appetizers and sides and just one red meat course.

Best Jackson Pollack Imitation on a Plate

The Brixton

by Michael Gebert on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

If the Reader's Key Ingredient series has demonstrated anything, it's the undying appeal of the swoosh for today's chefs. More dishes than not these days start with a bit of sauce or some other substance, schmeared across the plate.

Best High-End Meatball

Nico Osteria

by Mara Shalhoup on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

Last year my colleague Aimee Levitt elegantly dissected a River North Italian restaurant's claim that it served the "best spaghetti and meatballs ever." She wisely cracked that such proclamations "are grandiose and borderline obnoxious, especially considering how much spaghetti and meatballs there is in the world."

Best wine list

Telegraph Wine Bar

on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

2601 N. Milwaukee 773-292-9463 telegraphwinebar.com Runner-Up

Best New Seafood Restaurant Spawned by a Bagel Shop

Lucky Fish Deli

by Deanna Isaacs on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

Earlier this year Highland Park's Once Upon a Bagel bakery and deli—source of the quintessential egg bagel, the chocolate-chip bagel ball, and a mish-mosh soup that'll cure just about anything—ventured into something a whole lot less kosher. A mile or so to the north, in the same Highwood strip mall that houses its hot dog outpost, the Mean Weiner, Once Upon opened a seafood diner, Lucky Fish Deli.

Best Nonironic Retro Diner

Central Kitchen and Tap

by Michael Gebert on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

There was a moment recently where everyone was going to open a diner, which meant his or her take on a diner—Stephanie Izard's cheerfully wack one, Brendan Sodikoff's swankily hip one, and so on. But any "take" is always partly ironic, because if you didn't want a diner refracted through someone's newer, hipper sensibility, you'd just go to an actual diner.

Best Classy-Trashy Cheeseburger

Dusek's

by Michael Gebert on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

Dusek's is a place where you can get a plate on which everything is arranged in an arty straight line of dribs and globs (and the plate will be too wide to comfortably fit your two-top). It's also a place where you can have a cheeseburger that oozes goo at you like a deep-fried Twinkie at the county fair.

Best Beef Melt au Jus

Top Notch Beefburgers

by Mike Sula on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

Everybody loves this 72-year-old Beverly institution for its namesake freshly ground burgers, but there are a number of destination-worthy sandwiches on its vast menu, like the beef melt au jus: two slices of buttery toasted rye cradling a dense matrix of shaved choice eye of round slathered in melted yellow cheese. Lift a corner, dip it into the cup of beef broth black as coffee, and contemplate ordering another.

Best Ribs

Sze Chuan Cuisine

by Mike Sula on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

Don't expect smoky southern-style ribs at this sleek Chinatown spot at the far south end of Wentworth. These spares—Special Heaven's Grilled Ribs—are of the fall-off-the-bone variety, steamed and then flash-fried before getting slathered with a brain-tingling compound of typical Sichuan spices: garlic, Sichuan peppercorns, green onion, green chile, and red chile oil.

Best Fried Chicken

The Roost Carolina Kitchen

by Mike Sula on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

Chapel Hill-born food trucker Joe Scroggs changed the fried chicken game currently being waged across the city when he quietly moved into a Lakeview storefront earlier this year and began frying to order three varieties: herbal, spicy, and Nashville-style hot chicken. It's the last that has Scroggs sitting squarely on top; thoroughly saturated with a Vulcan glow, it has a powerful heat mitigated by a lingering sweetness.

Best Taco Place You Haven't Heard of Yet

Tacos Tequilas

by Gwynedd Stuart on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

When it opened last fall, a really adorable thing about Tacos Tequilas was that it was called Tacos Tequilas but didn't serve any tequila. (Second-most adorable thing: the photo wall in the back that honors Mexican celebrities from Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera to . . .

Best Place to Get a Taco and a Cookie

Cookies & Carnitas

by Michael Gebert on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

Admittedly, that's a pretty blatant example of defining the category to produce the winner. There are probably other places to get a cookie with your pork taco, but a place called Cookie & Carnitas has an obvious leg up.

Best Taco Scholar

Titus Ruscitti

by Mike Sula on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

Intrepid food blogger Titus Ruscitti roams far and wide documenting regional eats for his blog, Smokin' Chokin' and Chowing With the King, but it's his concentration on the taco specifically that has the makings of a scholarly work of historic importance. The Chicago Taco Tour is an illustrated atlas cataloguing the offerings at some 172 taco joints in the region, with lovely color photos and tasting notes on everything from the jerk chicken taco at the Jamaican Jerk Shack ("only a matter of time before Caribbean Fusion tacos take hipster hoods by storm") to the lamb barbacoa at MeztiSoy Food Market ("wonderful") to the tacos de canasta at Don Pepe ("What I thought separated them from the norm was the spicy cole slaw that came with the plate").

Best White Rice

Japonais by Morimoto

by Mike Sula on June 25, 2014 at 3:00PM

Up to ten times a day at Japonais by Morimoto, a sushi commis loads upwards of eight pounds of a proprietary blend of California Tamanishiki and Tamaki brown rice into a big, bulky imported rice polisher. After a few minutes the bran is eroded from the grains, leaving a bit of the germ intact for flavor and nutritional value.