What have you taken comfort in during this terrifying, infuriating, exhausting year? Maybe oblivion in an ocean of whiskey? A relentless, endorphin-pumping intake of pasta and pastry? What about just living like there’s no tomorrow with your best friends and lovers? If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions, you’ve likely been taking regular advantage of the great comforts offered by the Chicago restaurant industry. Whether you go out eating and drinking to exorcise your rage or to forget your fears, 2017 had your back. It was yet another year jam-packed with restaurant openings, and believe it or not, considering how terrible everything else is, things on that front are still pretty good. Sure, there are questions about their sustainability, but how can you worry when there are so many great new places to eat your feelings? And on top of that, we’ve only had one public sexual harassment scandal. (So far.)
I probably complained more about hotel restaurants this year than any other, but there were some good ones, particularly City Mouse, on Randolph Row in the Ace Hotel, from Jason Vincent and Ben Lustbader of Logan Square’s Giant along with chef de cuisine Patrick Sheerin. It’s kind of “a satellite operation, serving the same sort of explosively flavored vegetable compositions; luscious, head-slappingly good pastas; and wacky sweet playthings that they made their name on” farther north.
Logan Square developed into the supermercado for fresh ideas about Mexican food with Diana Dávila’s Mi Tocaya Antojeríja, where she mounted the comeback of the year cooking things like fideos secos and tongue in peanut salsa “from memory, channeling the food of uncles, aunts, childhood snacks, and iconic dishes that speak to the soul of cities, states, and Mexico itself.” Nearby, Quiote established itself as Chicago’s headquarters for the mezcal movement while pushing an irreverent menu with surprises like habanero-compounded butter, green chorizo on smashed potatoes, and a dish of fried cauliflower that wants to be a fish taco.
Finally eastern-European food with a few Korean curveballs—and fancy fish eggs—is the MO at Humboldt Park’s Heritage Restaurant & Caviar Bar, which “deserves its place in the neighborhood” as a “broad, imaginative, largely well-executed and affordable concept that ought to be appreciated by all.” You might imagine I turned into a lump of butter after eating all that. But no. Chopping firewood and digging the underground bunker have kept me in fighting trim. Happy New Year. v
