Tru

Chef Tim Graham talks about coming-soon restaurant Travelle

2013-05-21 00:00:00

Tim Graham, the former executive chef of Tru and Paris Club, is helming the restaurant at The Langham, Chicago hotel, which is set to open in July. Located at 330 N. Wabash Ave., Travelle will serve Mediterranean-inspired cuisine in a setting that's...

Boca Raton, FL

2013-03-14 12:49:00

BOCA RATON -- Toll Brothers, a leading builder of luxury homes, is attracting new homebuyers to its prestigious Azura community in Boca Raton with expansive estate homes defined by outstanding design features. Nestled in an intimate, gated community,...

Rare treats

2012-11-29 00:00:00

Rodrick Markus reached for the top shelf of a metal cabinet at the back of his office. "I know, I know, I know," he said to himself. His fingers worked across a row of jars and stopped at a tall glass cylinder. I had asked him about rare ingredients. Rare...

A potluck kind of year

2013-01-03 00:00:00

If only it were so easy to pithily proclaim 2012 as the Year of the (fill-in-the-blank). But there's really no one thread that neatly ties together the Chicago restaurant scene these last 12 months. A restaurant that put Chicago on the culinary map 25...

Ready, reserved

2012-12-27 00:00:00

I have this problem. I made more New Year's Eve reservations than I can use. More than 100 of them, actually. Which is why, for the 12th straight year (and the 17th time in the past 19 years), I'll be giving them away to nimble-fingered readers who ask....

The cutting edge

2012-12-02 16:16:00

OMAHA, Neb. — Whether they're driving through, stuck here for work or savvy enough to make a long weekend out of this under-the-radar city, travelers tend to want a darn fine hunk of meat when visiting Omaha. Steak from steak country. Omaha offers...

Reservations please

2012-11-15 00:00:00

Here's something you may not know about Open Table, the predominant online restaurant reservations system: When you book a table through the Open Table website, the restaurant is charged $1 per seated guest — so if you show up as a foursome, that'...

Charlie Trotter's pressure cooker

2012-08-29 03:00:00

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'...

Charlie Trotter preaches excellence to the extreme

2012-08-28 03:00:00

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...

Let's break out the old crystal ball

2012-11-08 00:00:00

Time once again for my annual exercise in humiliation, as I try to predict the star recipients in the 2013 Michelin Chicago Guide, which hits bookstores Wednesday. This is the third year that Michelin has published a Chicago guide, and if there's one...

Review: Bonsoiree (closed)

2012-08-31 00:00:00

Editor's Note:�In the time since our review, Bonsoiree has closed. Review: Bonsoiree 2728 W. Armitage Ave. 773-486-7511 Rating: 2.5 stars (out of four) Take it or leave it Beverly Kim was perhaps the most controversial contestant on "Top Chef: Texas"...

Problem Solver: Mustard stains shirt, strains relations

2012-10-07 00:00:00

The only thing everyone seems to agree on is this: Matt Gudgeon walked into Honky Tonk BBQ in Pilsen on Sept. 8 wearing a perfectly clean J. Crew shirt. He walked out wearing a mustard-stained mess. Almost every detail of how his shirt got stained is...

Balena's Peter Becker and Amanda Rockman are two faces in an unjustly anonymous position, that of the baker and pastry chef. First, the baker: I recall seeing "Peter's Bread" on Balena's menu and wondered who Peter was.

2013-01-16 14:26:53

From Phil Vettel's original four-star review, published October 6, 2010: Can a chef be a rising star if he's already a partner in one of Chicago's top-tier restaurants? Anthony Martin turned 30 two weeks ago.

2011-04-06 15:11:43