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April 14, 2010 – With WonderCon behind them, C.B. Cebulski, Ron Richards and Filip Sablik have tales of San Francisco dining, while Russ Cundiff reminsces about his trip to Austin, TX and the wonderful food he enjoyed there. In the world of comics, Filip is excited for the upcoming Magdelena series from Top Cow, while Ron is raving about the new Parker prelude by Darwyn Cooke, C.B. enjoyed Millar and McNiven's Nemesis and X-Fan geeked out over Dani Moonstar in New Mutants, and Russ discovered the Vertigo Crime books with Area 10 by Cristos Gage and Chris Samnee. Upcoming meals that the guys are excited about are centered around Chicago as C2E2 looms on the horizon and C.B., Filip and Ron have their meals already planned out!
Listen to A Taste of Comics #5 – Chicago
Running Time: 00:42:02
Music:
"Chicago Piano"
Jawbox
You have no idea how good Kuma’s Corner is – Lair of the Minotaur has bourbon poached pears, pancetta, brie and caramelized onions and Led Zepplin’s simple pleasure of pulled pork and pickles on top of a 10oz burger. Best part of the whole thing is the Pretzel Bun that they are all served on… or the whiskey on tap.
If the wait at Frontera is too much for you, stop in at Bayless’ new place around the corner XOCO for really great soups and sandwiches and MIND BENDING churros. MIND BENDING.
Did someone say Kuma’s?
I’m not even that big of a fan of churros – some guy at the counter next to me gave me one of his. When I bit into it flaming ejaculate shot from every pore on my face, neck and scalp. I woke up a week later, woozy and happy and confused.
I think we’re thinking of different Kuma’s.
The one I’m thinking of features girls paying their way through college (supposedly).
I’m from Chicago but haven’t been back in a few years – so here are a few staple suggestions for foodie friends visiting Chicago:
– My #1 favorite restaurant in Chicago is TAC Quick (Sheridan right under the red Line Stop – one stop after Wrigley Field). Mind blowingly good Thai food – especially the daily specials and the Thai menu (avialble in translation to english) with dishes you will have never seen on any other restaurant (or very very very few Thai restaurants in the US)
– Get an authentic, char dog from the Wiener Circle on Clark St. Late at night. No ketchup, all the fixings, crappiest service ever (in a good way – expect that you may be insulted)
– 24 hr Korean Restaurant on Lawrence Ave (far north side of Chicago) and yes, it is open 24hrs. Not the best Korean but very very good – and they are open 24hrs – nothing better after a late night out.
– Intelligentsia Coffee – 3rd Wave coffee roaster (now also in LA) very very good coffee, multiple locations throughout Chicago.
Chicago has a ton of amazing food – generally speaking though I’d suggest avoiding the touristy places, and I may get flack for this but I am not a huge fan of "Chicago style" pizza though I do love another Chicago original dish – the Italian Beef (dipped, hot & sweet peppers).
Chicago’s best restaurants rival anything on either coast – and tend to be a bit more affordable and accessible. I’m not a huge fan of the critically acclaimed Moto – if you are seeking a high end, tasting menu I highly recommend Zealous (http://www.zealousrestaurant.com/home/index.html) which is probably my 2nd favorite restaurant in Chicago and one of the few restaurants anywhere I have dropped over $300 on a single meal multiple times – and would go back again gladly. Amazing food, fantastic wine, great service.
Enjoy Chicago! Great meeting most of you briefly at Wondercon – hope you enjoyed San Francisco!
Being my gf’s partner in her quest for Elite Yelp! status has taught me a few things when recommending the best places to eat in Chicago. Don’t suggest places that hurt the wallet (nothing more than "$$" on Yelp!) and don’t be afraid to wait through lines (lines mean good food, learned that from TimeOut Chicago).
So I recommend the most line heavy but oh so worthy places in the city.
Please get here early for any of these places or bear the wait.
1) Hot Doug’s (Tip: Cash Only, only open 10:30am-4:00pm and check the website for the weekly specials)
2) Kuma’s Corner (Tip: If you already had the some of the burgers, got to try the Mac & Cheese)
3) Great Lake (Tip: Neapolitan Pizza that makes me question my loyalty to deep dish at "Burt’s Place")
4) Urban Belly (Tip: Noodle soup and pot stickers w/ unique ingredients, line doesn’t start till the evening)
5) XOCO (Tip: The Hot Chocolate tastes like nectar from the gods and goes well with the tortas)
6) Smoque BBQ (Tip: Best Brisket in the city w/ some serious mac & cheese)
7) Burt’s Place (Tip: Technically in the burbs (Morton Grove), but the man used to own 2 legendary pizza places (Gullivers & Pequod’s) now this is his 3rd and he has refined his deep dish recipe even further. Cash Only and call before hand)
And I always cross reference Yelp! w/ Chicagoist and TimeOut Chicago to weed out the hype from the real.
Use the new TimeOut Chicago Eat Out Awards 2010 as a good reference to try places.
http://chicago.timeout.com/articles/restaurants-bars/84645/eat-out-awards-readers-choice/20.html
P.S. I love Revision3, can you mention how much Chicago would love to have Diggnation live……and iFanboy of course. I will take TRS attending C2E2 next year as a consolation.
Hope the tips sway your food choices.
See you at C2E2, long time listener/watcher first time commenter.
Xoco’s is great.
Frontera is better but I’m sorry guys, unless you made a rez for the weekend, good luck.
Kuma’s has great burgers, but it is also not worth the wait. Come on, how good can a burger be? After 45 minutes of nonstop earbleeding deathmetal and not being able to hear your waitress or your friend who is sitting right next to you, a burger just becomes a burger.
Do you like duck fat? You should. Hot doug’s is where to go for that.
I think this city has great food. Just make sure to get more than just deep dish. Get it, it’s awesome, but eat only a bit because we have so much to offer. And Lucky you, the weather is finally good.
Basically did a food tour of Chicago when I was there in November hitting lots of great places. Since I’m going down with my gf for C2E2 we’re splitting time between eating and conning. Here’s where we’re going.
1) Hot Doug’s loved it last time and have to go back
2) Purple Pig
3) Xoco (went to Frontera last time, trying Xoco this time)
4) The Southern (looked like great food and awesome cocktails)
5) Publican (apparently has a fantastic brunch)
6) Kuma’s Corner (sadly missed it last time, couldn’t let it happen again)
Highlight last time for me was definitely Hopleaf, a fantastic selection of beer with seriously great food.
Oh and the Mezcal Margaritas at Frontera… holy crap were those good.