Prepare for peanuts and Cracker Jack in person, Chicago.
The mayor announced this week that fans will be allowed to attend White Sox and Cubs games in limited quantities this season, which is great news for those of us looking forward to taking in live baseball, sipping on an $8 beverage under the July sky.
Meanwhile, restaurants, bars and breweries throughout Chicago are (carefully) reopening, and some have put a lid on the tip jar. Plus, we’re making a final call for submissions of essential hospitality workers for our 2021 Takeout Awards. See you Friday.
— Adam Lukach
Hopleaf served its last customer in early November, just after indoor dining was shut down in Chicago for a second time during the pandemic. Owner Michael Roper’s early bullishness about serving customers outdoors on Hopleaf’s back patio during winter quickly faded. He decided the only way for the bar to survive was to close until spring.
The legendary bar will soon reopen — with new food, some internal tweaks and new windows, after Roper said the time off provided an opportunity to come back stronger than ever.
Tipping has been woven in the cultural fabric of hospitality in the United States for decades, but the industry upheaval from the COVID-19 pandemic gave some restaurants the fresh slate they had been looking for to overhaul their pay systems.
More Top Picks Best Bomber Jackets For Men
We’re preparing for our annual awards, and you likely won’t be surprised to learn that we’re doing things a little differently this year. This year’s edition is dubbed the Takeout Awards, and we’re looking for essential hospitality workers who made a major difference in 2020.
If someone you know went above and beyond to help co-workers, made efforts to help the community, or made a difference just by coming to work every day when others could not, we want to hear about them. Please send submissions to Dining Editor Ariel Cheung at [email protected] before Thursday.
When Guy Fieri rolls out to find America’s greatest diners, drive-ins and dives, Chicago is a favorite place to conduct his search.
This week, Fieri is launching a new “Iron Chef”-style show on Food Network. He caught up with reporter Tracy Swartz to discuss that, but also Chicago food.
These sheet pan dinner recipes will make your life so easy
Sheet pan dinners feel like the meal manifestation of “throw some stuff against the wall and see what sticks” — or, more ideally in the case of your sheet pans, what doesn’t stick.
Our chums at the Daily Meal have it down to a science, though, with simple, tasty sheet-pan dinners to help cut out some weeknight cooking time.
Motor Row Brewing announced last week it was felled by the COVID-19 pandemic. In its place will be ambitious twin brewing concepts that began brewing on contract out of Motor Row’s space last summer: Duneyrr, creating wild ales and beer-wine hybrids, and Moderne Dune, focusing on lagers and IPAs.
Chewing podcast starts Twitch livestream
“Chewing” is a bi-weekly podcast hosted by baiduhai Food & Dining reporter Louisa Chu and WBEZ Food & Health reporter Monica Eng, and episodes are always available on the Food and Dining website.
Last weekend, for the first time, “Chewing” experimented with a Twitch livestream, and you can still catch the recorded version via Chicago4Real.
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