Cheese, Please

From fondue to fancy flights

Holiday Havens

Twenty-three restaurants convenient to the Mag Mile and State Street

Restaurants: The Luxurious Liver, March 12, 2009

Eleven restaurants that serve foie gras

Savage Love

Savage Love

Savage Love

Savage Love

What's Black and White and Dead All Over?

Notes on journalism's past, present, and future prompted in part by a meeting held recently in Chicago.

Letters

Letters

This Gun's for Hire

True-life tales of the nobility of the courts

Money for Nothing

How the city managed to spend $1.4 million to turn a commercial strip into empty lots.

Sharp Darts: Grounded Again

If Marshall Preheim can't find a legal way to keep the AV-aerie open while he gets it licensed, it might not survive the wait.

The last days of Valentino

The new Valentino documentary "The Last Emperor" addresses the clash between art and commerce.

Ian Svenonius, Steve Albini, and Mick Collins all in one room

Ian Svenonius of the Nation of Ulysses and the Make-Up will interview Shellac's Steve Albini and the Dirtbombs' Mick Collins on Tuesday, March 24, at the Logan Square Auditorium.

Nick Shuman

When Marshall Field sold the Chicago Sun-Times, Nick Shuman was the editorial writer who called him out.

iCream humans tame rebellious machines

A first taste of iCream, the high-tech Wicker Park ice cream shop that's trying to make a go of it after a disastrous short-lived opening last August.

Monday-afternoon almost-spring playlist

Today's playlist: alt-pop, gore grind, ambient hardcore, and more

Nels Cline's public service announcement

Is there something wrong with the packaging of your copy of Nels Cline's new solo album? The guitarist has a practical solution.

Begushkin's old weird whatever

Begushkin, a New York group with an uncategorizable sound somewhere between psych, folk, and indie rock, opens for Bonnie "Prince" Billy at the Vic on Saturday.

The City Council, for no apparent reason, puts TIF transparency on hold

A proposal to make tax increment financing deals more transparent receives broad support and no opposition in a City Council hearing--then gets tabled anyway.

More from Mark Caro: whose side is he on anyway?

This week in Omnivorous, I talk with Trib entertainment reporter Mark Caro about his book The Foie Gras Wars. During his research Caro visited some ten foie gras farms and interviewed activists, politicians, and chefs on all sides of the issue. He says he was constantly asked where he stood.

Blogger resurrects Chicago's lost Culinary Arts Institute

SAIC writing instructor Terri Griffith is resurrecting the recipes of Chicago's once dominant cookbook empire, the Culinary Arts Institute, and its mysterious director Ruth Berolzheimer.

3/15 -- Free screening of Milking the Rhino documentary

The Illinois Humanities Council presents a free screening of the documentary Milking the Rhino.

A souvenir of the loudness war

Obits make their views on overcompression clear.

Monday 3/16 -- International Bedlam Society Asylum Variety Show

3/9 -- International Bedlam Society Asylum Variety Show at U.S. Beer Company

Trash and Cash

The lousy economy means it's costing Chicago taxpayers more to recycle, but city officials are vowing to press on.

Pardon the interruption

The City Council's hearing on TIF transparency is interrupted by demands for a more inclusive Olympics plan.

3/17 -- Blank Dogs performance

Blank Dogs, Woods, and Naked on the Vague play a free show Tuesday at Cobra Lounge.

Olympic March

The opponents to the Olympics plan an April 2 march on City Hall.

Manny and Scott Take on the TIFS

Aldermen Manny Flores and Scott Waguespack take up Mike Quigley's TIF reform crusade.

So now we wait...

The hearing is over, and a bankruptcy judge says she'll decide in the next several days whether CEO Ben Eason or Atalaya Capital Management gets to run Creative Loafing Inc.

Living in beta

The Reader has a new look, for the most part, and here are some frequently addressed questions and apologies in advance for the stuff I am still trying to track down to put on it.

TIFs: Hidden in plain view

The City Council can approve a 99-year privatization deal in days, but it needs months to decide whether to put public records online.

Pew's take on alternative weeklies

The Pew Research Center reports the readers of alternative weeklies are getting both younger and older.

A sampling of sample sales

If you're lucky enough to still have some disposable income to spend on clothes, there are big sample sales this weekend.

Pitchfork tickets go on sale today at noon

Tickets go on sale Friday at noon for the Pitchfork Music Festival with the Jesus Lizard, Built to Spill, Pharoahe Monch, the National, the Walkmen, Grizzly Bear, and others set to appear.

Nothing to see here, move along, peons

The Chicago Tribune officially and kindly asks that you lay off the geniuses at AIG who just blew up the world and their just compensation for being much smarter than you.

Should have insured that planet before it crashed

The Obama administration seems to have explored all its legal avenues for getting that AIG bonus money back in about 24 hours. AIG meanwhile asks that we not make them blow up the world.

New life for SoKo

Ukrainian Village boutique SoKo narrowly avoided closing its doors when it was rescued by a loyal customer. Tonight's celebration, however, has been cancelled.

I saw the surprise, and the fear in his eyes, when I took his glass of champagne

Barack Obama declines a party invitation, and the implications to Establishment Washington Journalism and his relations with it are tremendous, or whatever.

3/14 -- Open House at Lillstreet

Lillstreet Art Center's open house Saturday offers free demos and workshops in ceramics, embroidery, screenprinting, metals, and drawing.

3/12 -- Laughter Yoga

At 6 PM at the Renaissance Society (5811 S. Ellis), University of Chicago student group the Wrens hosts a free session of Laughter Yoga.

Flying the EduCap Skies

Mayor Daley thinks the EduCap people are swell - but the way they pay for that Gulfstream jet and their worldwide jaunts with the powerful are questionable at best.

Before she wrote to the Wall Street Journal, she wrote to the Tribune

The Chicago Tribune pulled out the stops to hang on to Coleen Davison, the former subscriber whose letter praising the Wall Street Journal became a Journal ad.

World Theater Day

Mayor Daley's issued a proclamation for World Theater Day, coming up on Friday, March 27.

3/16 -- Reading by Francine Prose

Novelist Francine Prose reads and is interviewed by Booklist associate editor Donna Seaman tonight.

Following the money

Empty lots, beer companies, river walks, and the 2016 Olympics are weathering the downturn with help from the city and state, while the CPS and the CTA face severe shortfalls.

No news would have been better news than this

The annual media survey by the Pew Research Center reports chilling numbers from an industry in crisis.

Heads Up

This week's food-related talks, tastings, and other events.

Who gets to sign my next paycheck?

Will a bankruptcy judge in Tampa decide today who runs Creative Loafing Inc.?

So wildly inappropriate that it's actually kinda appropriate

Now that the Sears Tower is being renamed the Willis Tower, a Facebook group has formed to make sure we're all talking about the right Willis. Hint: No "Diff'rent Strokes" reference is involved.

Fashion events this weekend

Akira, Koros, Tula and Knee Deep Vintage are among the local spots having shopping and fashion-related events this weekend.

3/19 -- Fair trade chocolate and wine tasting

Fair trade chocolate and wine tasting Thursday at the Greenheart Shop.

You've got to fight for your right to keep your dog from being neutered

The universe is full of wonders and mysteries, but where alderman Ray Suarez stands on a proposed pet sterilization ordinance is not among them.

The BPA ban is back

A proposed ban on children's products using the chemical BPA resurfaces in the City Council.

You Shoot

Gargoyles past and present on North State Street.

A right to be hostile

I hope you have some populist outrage left in you after the Jon Stewart-Jim Cramer entertainment/lion-feeding/distraction, because AIG would like more of your money today.

How Chicago reinvented comedy

Theater historian Jeffrey Sweet recaps Chicago improv history with a multimedia presentation.

Oh, yeah, take care of arts and culture too, will ya?

Arts afterthoughts: Chicago lawyer Kareem Dale is to be Obama's senior staff adviser on the arts. Never mind that he's already serving as senior adviser on disability policy.

You get what you pay for?

Back in September of last year Mayor Daley bluntly said that attrition in the Chicago Police Department wouldn't affect public safety. But is the move from cops to cameras undermining the CPD's effectiveness?

That's entertainment

Jon Stewart's condemnation of Jim Cramer last night was invigorating, but don't let the conversation end there: a guide to what was going on behind it.

This week's movie action

Screening this week: new films by Jan Troell, Shane Meadows, and Anne Fontaine, plus a revival of Jacques Tourneur's Technicolor western Canyon Passage.