It’s Thursday, Chicago.
Like those possibly neglected plants on your windowsill, we’re glad sunny skies are greeting us. Heating up the grill soon? If not, we have a review for a restaurant with sizzling Spanish-style shareable steaks, along with delectable drinks and desserts.
There are also some more low-key spots to enjoy, like Superdawg Drive-In, which celebrated 75 years of business in Chicago this week, and Ciccio Italian Beef, a newcomer with an old recipe at Navy Pier.
And now that it’s getting warmer outdoors, amusement park season is back. Read why thousands of Chicagoans flock to Dollywood in Tennessee each year, almost nine hours away by car, to experience a theme park like no other.
Have a great weekend, we’ll see you here next week.
— Lauryn Azu, deputy senior editor
Review: Asador Bastian doesn’t have to be a steakhouse to rank a cut above the rest
Asador Bastian, the newest project from Doug Psaltis and Hsing Chen in the historic Flair House building, is decidedly not a steakhouse. The restaurant is modeled on the asadores of northern Spain and serves a single cut of beef: a thick bone-in rib eye called a txuleton. Read Nick Kindelsperger’s review, and why you should save room for dessert, here
More Top Picks Solar Boats
.‘BlackBerry’ review: Here’s how you make a ripping docudrama out of a product launch
The movie “BlackBerry,” out this weekend in theaters, “recalls the betrayal of trust between old pals and startup founders depicted in ‘The Social Network,’ which remains the gold standard in the realm of freely fictionalized tech age cautionary tales,” writes Tribune film critic Michael Phillips. The movie chronicles the rise and collapse of the software company Research in Motion and their clicky lil’ wonder, the BlackBerry. Phillips praises Glenn Howerton’s performance. Read his entire review here.
My worst moment: Gary Cole remembers Chicago theater and the worst review of his career
Celebrating 75 years of business this past Tuesday, Superdawg Drive-In is commemorating the occasion with $10 gift card giveaways throughout the month. Tribune food critic Louisa Chu spoke with the family behind the business and how they honor the legacy of the newlyweds who opened the first location back in 1948.
Review: ‘Big River’ a musical journey with Jim and Huck Finn at Mercury Theater
A musical adaptation of Mark Twain’s 1884 novel “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” “Big River,” is at Mercury Theater. Curtis Bannister plays Jim, “who truly is as fine a Jim as you’ll ever see or hear,” Tribune theater critic Chris Jones writes. Mercury Theater artistic director Christopher Chase Carter foregrounds Jim in the musical and makes other updates in a way that helps the show meet the present moment. Read the rest of the review here.
Chicago gay bars dropping Bud Light, Goose Island amid backlash for transgender ad campaign
Some Chicago LGBTQ bars have dropped Anheuser-Busch products like Bud Light and Goose Island after comments the brand’s CEO made that appeared to reverse its support of the LGBTQ community in the wake of the controversy spawned from an ad featuring transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Read here about the stances of North Side bar owners and the smaller brands they’re showcasing instead.
Shawn Okpebholo’s music is about to be on operatic stages in the comic one-act ‘The Cook-Off’
Shawn Okpebholo, a Wheaton College professor and composer, “writes the kind of music that begs for the stage,” Tribune critic Hannah Edgar writes. He will be getting his operatic break thanks to Chicago Opera Theater’s Vanguard Initiative with “The Cook-Off,” an opera set at a TV cooking competition where contestants compete for best mac n’ cheese. It premieres Thursday night at the Athenaeum Center for Thought and Culture. Read his interview with Edgar here.
Going to Chicago’s Museum Campus during the NASCAR street race? Here’s what you need to know
Navy Pier now home to one of Chicago’s best new Italian beefs — and possibly also one of the oldest
If you haven’t visited Navy Pier lately, you may have missed a new Italian beef spot, Ciccio Italian Beef, that serves one of the city’s best, according to critic Nick Kindelsperger. In an unexpected twist, it also might be one of the city’s oldest recipes. Read more about the beef, served “slightly thicker, yet stunningly tender and almost steaklike,” Kindelsperger writes, here
More Top Picks Bocce Ball
.Writers Theatre for 2023-24: Braden Abraham’s first season includes ‘The Band’s Visit’
Writers Theatre in Glencoe announced its 2023-24 season led by new artistic director Braden Abraham. The season kicks off with “Eurydice” and ends with Katori Hall’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama “The Hot Wing King.” Read more here.
Good golly, Miss Dolly: Why Chicagoans are flocking to music icon’s Dollywood theme park
When it’s time to take a break from working 9 to 5, this summer thousands of Chicagoland residents are packing up and heading south to Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Read about how you can plan a trip and what makes the “smaller and more manageable Disney World” truly special here.