Critics' Picks, Chicago Reader

Best Secret Menu Item

Mike Sula — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Guapichosa, Scofflaw by Mike Sula Scofflaw chef Mickey Neely was inspired to create this delectable behemoth in tribute to the stacked "supertortas" served at Pilsen's Doña Torta Chilanga. Depending on whom you ask, the name means "groovy" or "sexy lady," but either way, the former Longman & Eagle cook combines the meats from his three on-menu sandwiches into this utterly depraved nine-deck monstrosity containing braised brisket, lard-fried pork belly, and roasted pork loin, plus pork jus, white bean puree, pimenton aioli, butter, avocado, lettuce, tomatoes, sriracha, cilantro, whole-grain mustard, creme fraiche, pickled cauliflower, pickled red onion, and chicken liver mousse—all on a toasted telera from nearby Panaderia La Estrella.…

Best Stoplight for a Catnap

Steve Bogira — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Hayes Drive at Lake Shore Drive by Steve Bogira Leaving 63rd Street Beach can take awhile: during the afternoon rush, the westbound light at Hayes and LSD can be the longest red of any stoplight in the city. Drivers coming from the parking lot for the beach and beach house can turn right on red onto northbound LSD, but those who want to go west on Hayes or turn left onto southbound LSD may have as long as two minutes—just enough time to catch a few winks.…

Best Recurring Artistic Theme

Sam Worley — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Humans and the natural world by Sam Worley In 2011 a private collector of exotic animals went mad and turned his charges loose on a little town in Ohio. He was then eaten by a tiger, and the police killed 50 of his former pets.…

Best Nonalcoholic Cocktail

Kate Schmidt — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Strawberry-Rhubarb-Citrus Ade, Frog N Snail by Kate Schmidt When Dale Levitski's new Lakeview bistro, Frog N Snail, opened without a liquor license this spring, he and his GM/beverage director, Briar Brackney (who filled the same roles at Sprout), put their heads together. In search of an alternative to "Pepsi and Diet Pepsi," as Brackney puts it—and in keeping with the restaurant's seasonal emphasis—they turned to the farmers' market for rhubarb and strawberries, which they preserved with the Moroccan spice blend ras el hanout.…

Best Corner for Rowdy Latino Seafood

Asher Klein — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Ashland and Cortez by Asher Klein I begin with a disclaimer: I do not know where to find the best mariscos in the city. I only know that there's one corner in Chicago with two west Mexican mariscos places competing like hookers in the red-light district.…

Best Politician We'd Like to Resurrect

Mick Dumke — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0500

1990s Helen Shiller (46th) by Mick Dumke Chicago once appeared to be on the cusp of a new era. Back then, the monarchy had run its course and candidates for office were openly talking about reform, sometimes in complete sentences.…

Best-Named Arts Grant

Peter Margasak — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Critical Fierceness Grant by Peter Margasak Latham Zearfoss started Chances Dances in 2005 to produce monthly LGBTQ dance parties, but over the years its scope has expanded. In 2008 the organization launched its biannual Critical Fierceness grant, which gives up to $500 to Chicago-based, queer-identified individuals or groups for any sort of artistic purpose.…

Best Chicagoan to Introduce a Film Screening

Ben Sachs — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Jim Trainor by Ben Sachs I'll never forget the time Jim Trainor introduced a screening of Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries (1957) at the Chopin Theatre. An accomplished animator and a professor at the School of the Art Institute, Trainor spoke knowingly of the film but also interspersed his critical observations with personal stories and lots of humor ("Woody Allen once said he was apprehensive to visit Bergman in Sweden because he was afraid there'd be nothing to eat but yogurt").…

Best Public School Parents

Ben Joravsky — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Tie: Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization, Raise Your Hand Coalition, and Parents in Beverly, and Mount Greenwood by Ben Joravsky In the past year the members of KOCO valiantly fought against Mayor Rahm Emanuel's efforts to close Dyett High School. The parents in Raise Your Hand called for more school funding from the state despite getting no help from the mayor.…

Best Subversive Dance

Laura Molzahn — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0500

The Other Dance Festival by Laura Molzahn What better time to foment revolution than now? And what better place than on government property?…

Best Coffee Shop That Is Nothing Like a Coffee Shop

Tal Rosenberg — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Caffé Streets by Tal Rosenberg Tired of huge rooms full of grubby layabouts sitting on color-clashing vintage furniture gazing into MacBook Matrix portals? Not to mention establishments that serve overpriced, muddy coffee to said layabouts and let them sit there all day?…

Best Suspense Novelist

Jerome Ludwig — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Gillian Flynn by Jerome Ludwig Having interviewed Gillian Flynn when her first book, Sharp Objects, came out in 2006, and then reviewed her second, Dark Places, when that arrived in 2009, I consider myself a bit of an authority on Flynnish fiction. So when I was about halfway through her latest, Gone Girl (Crown), I smugly thought I had a pretty good idea how things might shake out.…

Best Activist Hipster Magazine

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Lumpen Editor and publisher Ed Marszewski has built a small empire for the artistic left, from spearheading alternative arts festivals such as Version and the MDW Fair to creating the Co-Prosperity Sphere, a Bridgeport cultural center. First published in 1991, Lumpen stays on top of the liberal underground with quality articles, reviews, interviews, and essays about art, politics, and everything we should be pissed off about, such as privatization, militarism, and corporate power.…

Best Place to Get Rare Vinyl and a High Score on BurgerTime

Miles Raymer — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Logan Hardware by Miles Raymer In late 2009 Jim Zespy took over the American headquarters of London-based Southern Records at Fullerton and Western and launched his own Chicago Independent Distribution to pick up Southern's slack. He also turned the space into a record store specializing in vinyl, in particular oddball genre releases most shops consider an afterthought.…

Best Screen Performance by a Chicago Actor

J.R. Jones — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Michael Shannon, Take Shelter by J.R. Jones "Jesus Christ, is that Michael Shannon?" I blurted out recently while watching Groundhog Day (1993)—specifically the scene in which Bill Murray delights a young husband and wife by giving them tickets to Wrestlemania.…

Best Match of a New Organ with an Old Organist

Ted Cox — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Frank Pellico, Blackhawks by Ted Cox When the Blackhawks moved from the Chicago Stadium to the United Center in 1994, they found the cost of breaking down and reinstalling the mighty old Barton pipe organ prohibitive (at least by the standards of "Dollar" Bill Wirtz, God rest his puck-pinching soul). So they installed a new Allen organ designed to have the same reedy sound, and to provide continuity they kept organist Frank Pellico to run it.…

Best Sense of When the Writing Is on the Wall

Tony Adler — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Timothy Douglas by Tony Adler You could see there was something out of whack right from the start. For his debut production as artistic director of Remy Bumppo Theatre, Timothy Douglas had chosen Mourning Becomes Electra, one of the vast and earnest dramas Eugene O'Neill wrote as he struggled to create an American equivalent of classical tragedy.…

Best Rolfer

Andrea Bauer — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Jill Coyne by Andrea Bauer There's a hot rumor going around that having your fascia manipulated is excruciatingly painful, but a session with certified Rolfer Jill Coyne quickly dispels this myth. Her studio in the Fine Arts Building is a pleasant retreat where she carefully guides your body back to the structural fluidity and freedom it was meant to have.…

Best Film Retrospective

Ben Sachs — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Mikio Naruse and Hideko Takamine at Doc Films by Ben Sachs After the legendary Japanese actress Hideko Takamine died in December 2010, Doc Films programmer Edo Choi and local video artist Kyle Canterbury set to work organizing a film series in her memory. The resulting retrospective, which ran at Doc last January through March, doubled as a tribute to director Mikio Naruse, Takamine's frequent collaborator, whose hard-hitting domestic dramas are often cited as being among the greatest in Japanese cinema.…

Best Local Writer who Excels at Social Media

Tal Rosenberg — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Britt Julious by Tal Rosenberg The best indication of what to expect from 25-year-old writer Britt Julious can be found in her Twitter handle, which is also the title of her Tumblr: the witty portmanteau "Britticisms." It's remarkable how active she is on both platforms, even as she works at Groupon, serves as a senior editor at the terrific high/low culture blog This Recording, and writes regularly for Gapers Block, Rhizome, and Design Bureau, among others.…

Best Supercreepy Exhibit

Sam Worley — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0500

"Morbid Curiosity" at the Chicago Cultural Center by Sam Worley This "paean to death" looks formidable on paper, with its big names (Rembrandt, Goya) and extensive inventory of objects (nearly 1,000, all from the holdings of art collector Richard Harris). But the bare facts are nothing compared to the show as experienced.…

Best Bitters-Based Cocktail Menu

Julia Thiel — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Balena by Julia Thiel "People say that a bottle of Angostura lasts longer than most marriages, but not here," Balena mixologist Debbi Peek says. She's based her cocktail menu on not only Angostura bitters, but a whole host of other herbal alcohols in the bitters family—mostly amaro, an Italian liqueur.…

Best Vegan Korean Buffet

Kevin Warwick — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Dragonlady Lounge by Kevin Warwick Though it's been scaled back from a weekly to a monthly event, Dragonlady Lounge's vegan Korean buffet is a holy shrine for the sometimes gluttonous vegan who appreciates a good food pile. Cooked solely by superwoman Sue Chong, the buffet—which falls on the third Thursday of the month and runs 15 bucks—is an almost indiscernible mess of dumplings, kimchi, and bi bim bop served against a wall in the dimly lit, low-key bar.…

Best People Who Come Over and Remove Cat Pee From Your Furniture so You can Pretend Like Your Cat Never Pees on Anything

Andrea Bauer — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0500

A-Abace Cleaning Services by Andrea Bauer So I have, um, a friend whose cat occasionally forgoes the litter box for more luxurious places to take care of business—like that gorgeous vintage chair or, say, the brand-new couch. My, ahem, friend's boyfriend really doesn't like cats; in fact, he can hardly tolerate the sight of them.…

Best Architecturally Significant Hospital Threatened With Destruction That Looks a Lot Like a Certain New Architecturally Significant Chicago Hospital

Deanna Isaacs — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0500

"Old" Prentice Women's Hospital by Deanna Isaacs The cloverleaf design Bertrand Goldberg used for Prentice Women's Hospital was groundbreaking back in 1975, when the distinctive concrete structure went up on Northwestern University's Streeterville campus. Supports for its four cylindrical towers were confined to the building's core, allowing for open floor plans, with patient rooms fanning out conveniently from centralized nursing stations.…