Mindy's HotChocolate

Matt Molina, Wolfgang Puck win James Beard awards

James Beard Foundation announces award finalists: L.A. chefs on the short list

Fat Rice: Pedigree not required

Adrienne Lo and Abraham Conlon, the proprietors of the hugely popular new Chinese-Portuguese restaurant Fat Rice in Logan Square, are interesting looking, the kind of couple you see around town and wonder what their deal is. I've seen them around for...

Tags: Antarctica, Wrigleyville, Whole Foods Market, Italy, Chinese Restaurants

Jared Rouben to leave Goose Island brewpub for his own food-friendly brewery

Jared Rouben seems to spend just as much time at the farmers market as he does at Goose Island's Clybourn brewpub, where he has been a brewer for four years. So it's not much of a surprise that the new brewery he plans to launch will focus on what he...

Tags: Mindy Segal, Rick Bayless, Alcoholic Beverages, Dining and Drinking, Lifestyle and Leisure

Hot buttered rum

Hot buttered rum: It's that time of year when archaic hot cocktails saturate beverage menus everywhere. But at Mindy's Hot Chocolate in Bucktown, beverage director Alex Gara pulls off a neat trick — twisting a timeless recipe by upping the...

Tags: Hot Cocoa, Mindy Segal

An excuse to dine in your jammies

Tribune critic

Here's a mini tradition that I wish would catch on in a big way: New Year's Day pajama brunch. There's nothing quite so entertaining as sitting down to brunch in a room full of nominal adults wearing brightly colored flannel. Factor in the condition in...

Tags: Restaurants, Foods and Beverages, Slurping Turtle, Dining and Drinking, Brunch

Charlie Trotter's pressure cooker

Everyone knows Charlie Trotter as the chef of Charlie Trotter's. It's his name, his restaurant, and he's the boss. But that title “chef” has many meanings, and Trotter has embodied just about all of them during his 25 years at Charlie Trotter'...

Tags: PBS (tv network), Tru, Fava Beans, Services and Shopping, Dining and Drinking

All but the drawl

From one end of the United States to the other, Southern cooking is hot. And while Chicago doesn't abound with Southern dining options, restaurants like Big Jones, Table Fifty-Two and The Southern — to say nothing of our growing crop of Southern-...

Tags: Restaurants, Cornbread, Tomatoes, Mushrooms, Dining and Drinking

Charlie Trotter preaches excellence to the extreme

Graham Elliot was an aspiring young cook in the late '90s carrying steaks to a party of 20 in the Charlie Trotter's Studio Kitchen when the restaurant's brilliant, mercurial owner stopped him in the hallway and grabbed one of the pieces of meat. "He...

Tags: University of Wisconsin-Madison, PBS (tv network), Arts and Culture, Tru, Next (restaurant)

Charlie Trotter gets ready to hang it up

Charlie Trotter says he first thought of closing his namesake restaurant after his plane sat on the tarmac at LaGuardia Airport on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. “I realized really how fragile the world is,” he reflects. “I love what...

Tags: Cooking Shows (genre), Entertainment Events, PBS (tv network), National Basketball Association, Tru

Red Door, XRT team up for Lobster Bash

For RedEye

In celebration of 93XRT's 40th anniversary, Chef Troy Graves of Red Door and XRT's Lin Brehmer will host the Lobster Bash on July 31. Red Door, 2118 N. Damen Ave. in Bucktown, will host the event--from 6:30 to 10  p.m.--which will feature a group of...

Tags: Tavernita, Mindy Segal

Citizen Kahan

Tribune reporter

Paul Kahan is the opposite of an enigma. He is easily explained. He is pleased by simple pleasures. He defines his life by four pillars: chef, record-store geek, husband, law-abiding citizen. Everything else is noise. In judgment, he renders halfway...

Tags: PBS (tv network), Separation of Church and State, Dining and Drinking, Sandwiches, Baseball