A new menu is on deck at Roots Handmade Pizza, and it’s chock full of cheesy, spicy, doughy warmth. Guest chefs, gluten-free pizza, “foldover” sandwiches, and desserts comprise the decadent new offerings, filling up the Quad City-inspired pizzeria’s comfort food quota for the season. You don’t come to a pizzeria to eat light.

For the Roots Guest Chef Series, executive chef Martin Arellano invites various local chefs to design a specialty pizza to augment the menu. This season’s culinary cameos include the likes of Antique Taco’s Rick Ortiz, Homestead’s Chris Curren, and Lillie’s Q’s Charlie McKenna. Ortiz adheres to his Mexican roots (pizza pun!) with a taco chili cheese curd pizza bedecked with chorizo chili, Brunkow cheese curds, Chihuahua cheese, Quad Cities mozzarella blend, pickled jalapeños, pickled onions, avocado cream, tortilla strips, black olives, and scallions. Curren revives one of his signature dishes from his Blue 13 days with a new take on lobster pizza, featuring Maine lobster, roasted garlic puree, roasted cipollini onions, and three-month aged Manchego. Barbecue master McKenna gets meaty with his BBQ pulled pork pizza, smoking the pork over peach wood at Lillie’s Q and accompanying it with Lillie’s Q Hot Smoky BBQ sauce, Quad Cities mozzarella blend, Lillie’s Q Carolina Dirt BBQ rub, and coleslaw.

Save room for the rest of Roots’ new menu items, including a gluten-free pizza, beer-basted bread sticks, and various foldover sandwiches such as the chicken Caesar sandwich and a Fat Eddie stuffed with salami, Canadian bacon, Quad Cities mozzarella blend, shaved Parmesan, marinara sauce, French dressing, diced red onions, and chopped romaine.

Desserts are not to be missed, something not often said about pizzerias. Pastry chef Chris Teixeria gets crafty with familiar Americana flavors such as butterscotch cheesecake, the West Town Bakery brownie sundae, an adult “secret milkshake” spiked with spiced cookie spread and bourbon, and a blueberry flapjack cake, a breakfast-inspired confection featuring layers of flapjacks striated with maple filling.

Roots Handmade Pizza
1924 W. Chicago Avenue, Chicago
(773) 645-4949
Website

There’s more than a little bit of whimsy on the pastry menus at moto and iNG, Homaro Cantu’s double whammy of envelope-pushing molecular gastronomy. The restaurants are revered for their clever preparations and thought-provoking techniques, both of which carry over handily into the sweet realm. At moto, you’ve got Claire Crenshaw to thank for that, while next door at iNG, dessert falls under the tutelage of executive chef Tim Havidic.

The elder of the two restaurants, moto, proves that it’s still as sharp and crafty as ever with desserts like Baking 101. One of the desserts Crenshaw offers on the tasting menu, Baking 101 toys with nostalgia in a way like no other chef, sweet or savory, is doing in Chicago. By tinkering with the idea of childhood memories licking batter off spatulas, the adroit pastry chef is able to contrive an elaborate, molecular dessert that looks homey and simple. The dessert has been an ongoing menu item for more than a year, with Crenshaw curating a veritable curriculum of different Baking 101 dishes every few months. Things started off with cookie dough, then progressed to peppermint brownie batter, followed by white chocolate-raspberry cheesecake. The current iteration is pineapple upside-down cake, and for each dessert guests are presented a tray of ingredients that they simply mix together into a bowl and lick off a spatula. The tray resembles your standard baking mise en place, but there’s so much more than meets the eye. The egg is really creme anglaise dyed with turmeric to resemble a yolk, gelled and frozen in tiny molds before they’re gently cooked in an alginate bath to form a thin membrane around the exterior. They’re immersed in an “egg white” of simple syrup with xantham gum and locust bean gum. A modified buttercream with a one to one ratio of sugar to butter arrives in another vessel, along with dehydrated and ground Italian meringues for sugar, a rice flour-cornstarch mixture, and morsels of yellow cake and roasted pineapple. It’s all served with a glass of pineapple milk made with pineapples, milk powder, rice wine vinegar, and xantham gum. The goal for Crenshaw was to cultivate an ever-evolving dessert that could follow the trajectory of a home economics class, starting with basics such as cookies and brownies and progressing to more elaborate fare. In the future, she has her sights set on chocolate mousse, ice cream, and pies and tarts.

In other moto dessert news, Crenshaw just unveiled her Spooky Tree, the latest example of Chicago’s niftiest mignardise presentation. Recently, the pastry chef has been pimping out small faux trees with edible cherry treats, presenting it to the table along with the check as a wow-inducing finale. Just in time for Halloween and the ensuing fall weeks, she’s changed things up and made them spookier, stripping the trees of their blossoms and replacing them with eerie threads of cotton candy dusted with root beer powder.

Next door at iNG, Havidic has his own style of dessert cookery. Here, sweets are themed to fall under the umbrella of whatever tasting menu is currently in place. The current iteration is street food, so naturally Havidic seeks to completely reinterpret and re-invigorate what it is to eat dessert on the streets. There are snow cones, cannolis, and churros like you’ve never seen or tasted before. The snow cone is designed to mimic a snow cone a kid dropped on the ground (or a clumsy adult), featuring roasted barley powder reminiscent of dirt, micro oxalis standing in for greenery, and a snow cone made with plum snow, plum-soy puree, candied plums, and candied plum skins. Havidic goes Italian with his interpretation of a cannoli, a deconstructed version made with goat’s milk ricotta mousse, bits of cannoli shell, ground-up cannoli bits, and adjoined by accompaniments typically found in or with cannolis. Cherry puree, pistachio puree, and espresso puree are all present and accounted for, flecked with dainty rose petals. Then there’s the churro, an elaborate Mexican street food renaissance made with cocoa nib cookies, orange-lime-vanilla sauce, champurrado cream, a champurrado cookie, a churro cookie, burnt cinnamon ice cream, and churro ice cream with cinnamon and white chocolate. Lime pastry cream and micro cinnamon basil round out the most elegant churro you’ll ever eat. And in preparation for iNG’s forthcoming Salvador Dali-themed tasting menu launching November 19, Havidic will soon veer away from street food, opting to create dishes inspired by pieces of art or quotes by Dali. One dessert to look forward to is a course inspired by Architechtonic Angelus, an artistic medley of brioche mousse, apricot-wine puree, dried cherry, roasted pistachio-honey puree, and a spear of Spanish nougat immersed in liquid nitrogen to create a crackly texture and facilitate cloud-like puffs of smoke. 

moto
945 W. Fulton Market, Chicago
(312) 491-0088
Website

iNG
951 W. Fulton Market, Chicago
(855) 834-6464
Website

As the weather continues to shift into coldness and darkness, boozy dinners are a great way to navigate the throes of autumn in Chicago. Particularly when said dinners are curated by esteemed winemakers, breweries, and acclaimed chefs. In the coming weeks, a trio of restaurants hone in on some extraordinary liquor-themed dinners that you won’t want to miss.

The first can’t-miss wine dinner to put squarely on your radar takes place November 5 at L20. The pristine fine dining destination welcomes winemaker Alex Gambal for a special wine dinner featuring the contemporary Michelin-starred stylings of chef Matthew Kirkley. The partnership is a glamorous one, considering Gambal’s prestige in the wine industry, whose terroir-driven American wines have amassed considerable acclaim among oenophiles. The winemaker will come armed with eight incredible wines, including 2009 Alex Gambal Meursault Clos du Cromin, 2011 Alex Gambal Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru, and 2008 Alex Gambal Le Chambertin Grand Cru. Kirkley will prepare a tasting menu to match with each wine, resulting in one seriously first-rate degustation.

Also taking place November 5 is the final installment in Fountainhead’s Harvest Dinner Series, wherein chef Cleetus Friedman teams up with New Holland Brewing Co. and a different regional farm to create a spectacularly seasonal tasting menu. Inspired by the wares at each farm, Friedman crafted fresh-as-can-be menus, dutifully paired with beers from New Holland or spirits selected by New Holland’s Fred Bueltmann. The menu includes sunchoke and caramelized leek pancakes paired with New Holland Full Circle; slow-roasted pork and creamy polenta with smoked apples and New Holland Cabin Fever; and ginger-rum apple pie washed down with New Holland BeerHive.

The Titanic of wine dinners takes place November 18, when mk The Restaurant hosts an impressive array of guest chefs from near and far for a Friends of the James Beard Benefit Dinner. Owner Michael Kornick is to be joined in the kitchen by culinary heavy-hitters such as Grant Achatz (Next and Alinea), Paul Kahan (One Off Hospitality), Grant MacPherson (Scotch Myst in Las Vegas), Lachlan MacKinnon-Patterson (Frasca Food and Wine in Boulder), and Mindy Segal (HotChocolate). The smorgasbord of gourmet culinary creations will be adjoined by wines selected by master sommelier Ken Fredrickson. The proceeds for the dinner benefit the James Beard Foundation’s Scholarship Program for Chicago culinary students, so you can feel altruistic about your overindulgence.

L20
2300 N. Lincoln Park West, Chicago
(773) 868-0002
Website

Fountainhead
1970 W. Montrose Avenue, Chicago
(773) 697-8204
Website

mk The Restaurant
868 N. Franklin Street, Chicago
(312) 482-9179
Website

Leaves and tolerance for cold weather aren’t the only things rapidly changing in Chicago these days. Menus are evolving at a speedy pace as well, adapting to seasonal changes with an uptick in comfort food, from gnocchi carbonara to Italian beef-inspired pork heart sandwiches. Here are some of the latest must-eat new menu items in Chicago.

Start your day with a scone or two (or four) from Caffe Streets. The chic Wicker Park coffee shop just introduced a new pastry menu, complete with a variety of housemade scones. The hand-crafted pastries are the perfect complement to the shop’s carefully roasted coffee beans, prepared daily by owner Darko Arandjelovic’s wife Jelena. Flavors include pumpkin with candied pecan and ginger, dark chocolate with hazelnuts, bacon with Parmesan and chive, and a gluten-free blueberry with orange zest.

Consider this an appetizer to breakfast at 2 Sparrows, where a new fall menu just took flight. Chef Gregory Ellis’ locally sourced, seasonally driven restaurant now boasts breakfast with some autumnal spice in the form of pancakes with pear compote, pumpkin spice glazed doughnuts, couscous with Moroccan spiced butternut squash, and a breakfast chile relleno stuffed with cream cheese, cheddar, queso fresco, almonds, and cranberries with chipotle sauce and Southwestern scrambled eggs.

Come dinnertime, you’ll undoubtedly be hungry for more. Apparently fall is prime pork season because it’s out in droves at The Purple Pig. Pig out on chef Jimmy Bannos Jr.’s novel takes on meat cookery with dishes such as pork brisket (think corned beef, but porky); piadina sandwiches inspired by the popular Emilia-Romagna flatbread ’wiches; and a “hearty” Italian pork heart sandwich à la Italian beef, shaved razor thin, cooked on the plancha, and heaped on bread with spicy giardiniera and sweet peppers. The restaurant is also prepared to launch a new salumi program, elaborating on the newly installed curing room by releasing an all-Mangalitsa pig selection of lardo, capicola, bresaola, lomo, pancetta, guanciale, and more.

Another new dinner menu has made its seasonal debut at Fulton’s on the River. Here, executive chef Kevin Schulz innovates riverside dining by subbing unexpected ingredients in popular eclectic comfort food. Get hungry for gnocchi carbonara with poached egg, pork belly, and brown butter; swordfish au poivre with roasted mushrooms, veal reduction, and tellicherry peppercorn; and yellowfin tuna puttanesca with bacon, tomato-ginger coulis, capers, and olives.

Now it’s time for dessert. Sable Kitchen & Bar turns its attention to classic European pudding-type creations for its latest dessert inspirations. Chef Heather Terhune is the woman behind the whimsy, serving up warm sticky toffee pudding cake, butterscotch pot de creme, warm pumpkin-pecan bread pudding, Michigan apple cake, tiramisu trifle, and more.

Caffe Streets
1750 W. Division Street, Chicago
(773) 278-2739
Website

2 Sparrows
553 W. Diversey Parkway, Chicago
(773) 234-2320
Website

The Purple Pig
500 N. Michigan Avenue, Chicago
(312) 464-1744
Website

Fulton’s on the River
315 N. LaSalle Street, Chicago
(312) 822-0100
Website

Sable Kitchen & Bar
505 N. State Street, Chicago
(312) 755-9704
Website

Put down the mojitos, it’s time to get serious about drinking. Patio drinks are all well and good, but when it comes to drinking in Chicago, we go big and bold, and it's basically the only thing that makes frigid temperatures worthwhile. This means cocktails made with coffee and tequila, housemade limoncello, boozy sundaes studded with Chartreuse gelato, and lots more. Here’s the latest batch of booze news in Chicago.

Drumbar’s new mixologist Alex Renshaw recently rolled out his new cocktail menu, providing a medley of revised classics and singular creations. Across the board, drinks skew heady and hearty, as with the brandy-based Rocket Science, splashed with averna, grenadine, lemon, mint, egg white, and walnut bitters. Portlandia combines coffee and tequila for an unusual-yet-delicious potable finished with sherry, angostura bitters, and orange. The Road Less Traveled is a fall-centric mixture of fresh-pressed apple juice, whiskey, Cardamaro, lemon, and grated cinnamon. Then there’s the Honor Amongst Thieves, a drink featuring dual spirits bourbon and cachaca adjoined by Velvet Falernum, pineapple, lemon, and a Peychaud float.

Good news for all you Sunday drinkers! Barrelhouse Flat is henceforth open on Sunday evenings, and to honor the occasion, the cocktail bar is hosting a boozy sundae Sunday party on November 10 from 6:00 pm until 2:00 am. Chef Erik Chizeck will team up with the bar staff to concoct sundae fixings the likes of which you’ve never seen before, unless your childhood was a little bit racy. Attendees can fawn over housemade gelato options such as salted vanilla-bourbon, Chartreuse-mint chocolate chip, and coffee-averna. Go nuts with accoutrements such as chocolate-rum, Fernet whipped cream, cherry Kirsch, butterscotch, and peanut butter. Other add-ons include sprinkles, chocolate chips, toasted coconut, bacon praline, pecans, and more. Barrelhouse Flat will also be featuring one designated sundae each forthcoming weekend as well, so don’t fret if you can’t make this boozy sugar bash.

There’s plenty to look forward to this season at CH Distillery, the West Loop’s new liquor distillery-cum-cocktail barstaurant. Already renowned for their vodka and gin, CH is poised to debut their own limoncello this month. Adhering to a recipe from Giuliana Vitagliano, a Naples native and CH pal, the limoncello will feature CH vodka, lemons, milk, and sugar. Guests can sip it at the bar or take home a bottle. Also, with the holidays fast approaching, CH is readying holiday gift packages stocked with everything your booze-obsessed friends and family could ever want. Packages include an engraved CH flask, a bottle of CH vodka, Key gin, or London Dry gin, and some finocchiona salami from West Loop Salumi. Because nothing says “happy holidays!” quite like booze and cured meat.

Drumbar
201 E. Delaware Place, Chicago
(312) 933-4805
Website

Barrelhouse Flat
2624 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago
(773) 857-0421
Website

CH Distillery
564 W. Randolph Street, Chicago
(312) 707-8780
Website

Before you get all feasted out this holiday season, one particular smorgasbord to consider is the harvest feast being held at Kendall College on November 17. Four female chefs head up the culinary talent behind the event, showcasing seasonal wares from Spence Farm in Fairbury, Illinois.

The harvest feast kicks off at 6:00 pm with an hors d’oeuvres- and drinks-filled reception, followed by dinner at 7:00 pm. Chrissy Camba from Bar Pastoral, Nicole Pederson from Found, Mindy Segal from HotChocolate, and Molly Johnson from Calihan Catering are the chefs du jour, cooking up a four-course feast celebrating the season and the farm. A few male compatriots will also be on hand, including Jonathan Goldsmith from Spacca Napoli, Josh Hasho from 676 Restaurant Omni Hotel, Thomas Leavitt from White Oak Gourmet, and Sean Sanders from Browntrout. A live and silent auction will also take place, and proceeds from the event go towards the Spence Farm Foundation.

The Spence Farm Foundation serves to endorse and promote the practice of small, sustainable family farming across the country. The foundation hosts classes, workshops, and seminars about farming, informing attendees about techniques and their benefits, and ultimately how small family farms can survive and thrive.

Kendall College
900 N. North Branch Street, Chicago
(312) 752-2000
Website

Art and food are two mediums that dovetail better than most any other cultural entities, so it’s apropos that they’re the co-stars of the show at The Art Institute of Chicago’s new Art and Appetite exhibit. Running now through January 27, 2014 in the Regenstein Hall, the lavish exhibition depicts vivid art pieces that span 250 years in American history, showing the trajectory of dining in various times and places. Through 100 paintings, sculptures, and decorations, Art and Appetite goes to show how food has played muse for so many artists over the centuries, and just how vital it has been as part of our American identity.

Through food and art, elements of politics, gender roles, and regional traditions are explored, from the meager Depression era to the boom of cocktail culture and much more. Divvied into 10 different galleries, the exhibit takes guests on a tour of food as expressed through vivid visual arts, timeworn cookbooks, tea pots, and a variety of other pieces. The first gallery concentrates on Thanksgiving, depicting the preeminent American feast over the years. Gallery two explores Horticulture in the Early Republic, brimming with the types of flora and fruits popular during the Colonial Era. World Markets take the stage in gallery three, showcasing exotic imports such as spirits, fruits, and porcelain that poured into America in the early Republic. Gallery four celebrates convivial pastimes such as Parties, Picnics, and Feasts, with a heavy focus on large family gatherings amassed around tables full of food. Antebellum Abundance and the Dining Room is the focal point of gallery five, recalling the rise of dining etiquette, specialized silverware, and plenty of pomp and circumstance. This gallery spills over into the next room, concentrating on Temperate Drinking. Gallery six is all about Modest Meals in the Gilded Age, while gallery seven progresses to Trompe l’Oeil Painting and Politics, an homage to the still life style of paintings popularized in 1880 Philadelphia. Restaurants first come into the picture in gallery 8A, spotlighting Dining Out at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, then 8B delves into Modernity and Cocktail Culture. Changing Times: Modernity in Food and Art is held in gallery 9, a showroom for the period in time post-World War I when artists sought to depict American dining in a new light. The exhibit wraps up in gallery 10. Here, it’s all about Pop Art: Mass Consumption and the Production of Pop Art.

The Art Institute of Chicago
111 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago
(312) 443-3626
Website

If you’re looking to learn how to cook, go right to the head of the class and learn from the best at a series of upcoming cooking classes helmed by some of Chicago’s culinary elite. It’s certainly a lot less of a commitment than culinary school. Top Chef alum Fabio Viviani kicks things off with a special cooking event at his Chicago restaurant Siena Tavern on November 24, followed by a year-long spree of demos by the One Off Hospitality brigade in 2014.

You know him and love him from Top Chef. Now learn his ways at a special Fabio Live! event at Siena Tavern. Taking place from noon until 2:00 pm on November 24, Viviani will highlight some of the restaurant’s signature Italian dishes. As the vivacious chef cooks his way through a handful of dishes, guests will have the opportunity to sample his rubric in the form of a three-course meal, plus dessert. Dishes include eggs Benedict with crispy mortadella and pesto hollandaise, Tuscan kale Caesar salad, gnocchi with truffle cream and crispy pancetta, and bombolini with pumpkin spice cream. Attendees will leave with custom Siena Tavern aprons and dough cutters to practice embracing their inner Viviani at home.

As 2013 winds down, One Off Hospitality is planning ahead for 2014 with an impressive lineup of cooking classes all year long. The Master Cooking Class series highlights the roster of talent employed throughout the One Off gamut of restaurants, with each class offering the opportunity for guests to learn directly from an esteemed chef at a designated restaurant. The series kicks off with a class led by Publican Quality Meats’ chef de cuisine Chris Kuziemko, followed by a February 23 class by Blackbird’s chef de cuisine David Posey, and a March 30 demo by the One Off head honcho himself, Paul Kahan. Throughout the rest of the year, eager culinarians can learn from Big Star’s Cary Taylor, The Publican’s Brian Huston, avec’s Perry Hendrix, and more. Each class begins at 7:00 pm, with space limited to 12. To reserve your spot, contact Deanne Devries at (312) 496-0012.

Siena Tavern
51 W. Kinzie Street, Chicago
(312) 595-1322
Website

One Off Hospitality Group
622 W. Randolph Street, Chicago
(312) 496-0012
Website

Doc B’s Fresh Kitchen has only been open for a short while, but it’s already amassed acclaim for its reputable approach to wholesome, fresh cookery. From nourishing breakfast sandwiches and noodle bowls to crisp cocktails and locally sourced mise en place, Doc B’s talks the talk and walks the walk. The Gold Coast newcomer is drawing attention from some notable clientele as well, earning accolades from the likes of model and reality TV star Joanna Krupa, who stopped in for dinner on a recent trip to Chicago. Here’s the dish on Doc B’s from Krupa herself.

Matt Kirouac: Tell me about your experience at Doc B’s Fresh Kitchen. How did it go and what did you like about the restaurant?

Joanna Krupa: I loved the casual yet still sophisticated atmosphere, friendly staff and fresh, locally sourced food. I’ve never been anywhere like it and the concept is unlike anything I’ve seen. When you go in, you order off of digital screens, pick your own seat, and the food is delivered to your table.

Kirouac: What did you eat and how did you like it?

Krupa: I had their Wok Out Bowl. It’s veggies and then you pick what kind of protein, sauce, and rice or noodles you want. I loved it. The fish was so fresh and the noodles were the best I’ve had. I later learned that their Shanghai lo main noodles are shipped in from San Francisco because they make the best ones in the country! I also couldn’t resist their French fries.

Kirouac: What are one or two things on the menu that you didn’t get a chance to try that you would like to try on your next visit?

Krupa: If I wanted to indulge, the classic grilled cheese. Who doesn’t love grilled cheese sandwiches? If I wanted something a bit healthier, the #1 tuna salad. It’s served with avocados, cucumbers, and mangos with a ginger vinaigrette.

Kirouac: Why do you like restaurants such as Doc B’s?

Krupa: I love that more restaurants are starting to carry fresh food from quality producers. You feel better about the meal you ate when it just came from the farm versus the freezer. It takes a little more effort to run a restaurant like that, but I think people definitely appreciate the difference in taste and quality.

Kirouac: Doc B’s serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner. What’s your favorite meal of the day and why? Which meal would you be most eager to come here for?

Krupa: Dinner is my favorite meal because it’s nice to come home and unwind with a great meal after a long day of meetings or shooting. Next time I’m in Chicago, I would love to come back to Doc B’s for dinner.

Kirouac: Cocktails, wines, and beers. Doc B’s does it all. What’s your go-to beverage?

Krupa: Something light and fresh. I really want to try one cocktail they have called The Natural. It has strawberries and mint.

Kirouac: Doc B’s is a seasonally focused restaurant with menus that shift per ingredient availability. What is your favorite season for dining and why?

Krupa: Definitely summer. Luckily I live in warmer weather, so I can eat outside almost year round. I also enjoy summer produce and fresh fruit.

Kirouac: A big part of Doc B’s mantra is wholesome, balanced living, and diet. How do you find that balance in your day-to-day?

Krupa: Between traveling across the world and shooting for Real Housewives, I find balance by trying to fit in something I love to do each day. Often that’s playing with my dogs, getting lunch with friends, talking to my mom and sister, or hitting the gym. I always try and fit in a little me time so I don’t get too stressed out.

Doc B’s Fresh Kitchen
100 E. Walton Street, Chicago
(312) 626-1300
Website

Thanksgiving is coming up fast, and you can practically feel your belt tightening already. Sure you could go the traditional route and grapple with your own turkey at home, but if you’re looking for a stress- and mess-free holiday, there are plenty of restaurants in Chicago open for Thanksgiving. With so many options to wade through, here’s a honed list of four spots doling out menus that are extra special and unique, which is something to truly be thankful for.

There really isn’t anything more apropos on Thanksgiving than a restaurant renowned for its indulgent comfort food. Head to Hash House A Go Go this Thanksgiving and feast your way through a spread of re-imagined holiday fixtures, such as pumpkin bisque speckled with sea salted almonds, stuffed turkey meatloaf with griddled mortadella, linguini pasta in pumpkin cream, and pumpkin bread pudding with vanilla ice cream.

The emphasis is on beer over at Jake Melnick’s Corner Tap this Thanksgiving, as the downtown haunt rolls out “tipsy turkey platters” all day long. The intoxicating spread features beer-brined smoked turkey served with peppercorn gravy, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole infused with milk stout brown butter cream. Even the stuffing comes with a wallop of booze, featuring cornbread, chorizo, herbs, dried cranberries, roasted peppers, and Stella Artois. And a tipsy Thanksgiving smorgasbord would not be complete without pumpkin spiced hard cider.

Thanksgiving gets elegant at Acadia, wherein a four-course tasting menu lends fine dining flair to the holiday repast. The first course is game consommé with pumpkin ravioli and porcini mushroom, followed by wild boar terrine with violet mustard and pickled mustard seeds. Gunthorp Farms turkey roulade is the main course, adjoined by cranberry-turkey sausage, lobster truffled bisque, “green bean casserole” (the quotations bode well), and potato puree. For dessert, roasted apples and white cheddar with pecan ice cream. A kids’ menu is also available, with the likes of smoked cheddar mac and cheese, chicken tenders, and pudding.

Celebrating the rare overlap of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah, Red Door is cooking up a series of Thanksgivukkah dishes that honor both distinct holidays. Dishes are served family-style and include items such as roast turkey breast with confit leg, Brussels sprouts with lamb bacon, pumpkin brioche stuffing, brisket, noodle kugel, and latkes.

Hash House A Go Go
1212 N. State Parkway, Chicago
(312) 202-0994
Website

Jake Melnick’s Corner Tap
41 E. Superior Street, Chicago
(312) 266-0400
Website

Acadia
1639 S Wabash Avenue, Chicago
(312) 360-9500
Website

Red Door
2118 N. Damen Avenue, Chicago
(773) 697-7221
Website

This weekend, Dose Market begins a four-week spree of holiday markets chock full of food, fashion, and festivities. It’s the most comprehensive and ambitious string of Dose Market events the organization has ever done, hosted at 1st Ward at Chop Shop. It all starts this Sunday, November 24, with Kitchen Bliss, the foodiest Dose to date, featuring a tasty amalgam of pantry provisions, prepared food, beverages, planters, confections, and lots more. Overdosing as never tasted so delicious.

Eating and holidays go together like winter and pneumonia, which is what makes Kitchen Bliss the perfect debut for Dose Market’s four-week holiday-centric run. The food-oriented market marks the debut of G & C Pantry Co., a collaborative endeavor between chefs Mark Steuer and Sean Spradlin of Carriage House and The Bedford, and Johnny Auer. The new company specializes in pantry provisions and kitchen essentials, starting with two kinds of hot sauce – sweet potato and smoked jalapeno – plus an all-purpose kitchen brine, perfect for all your Thanksgiving turkey needs. G & C will also be serving up cold fried chicken made with brined chicken thigh and buttermilk breading; bread and butter pickles; cornbread; and sweet tea made with Rare Tea Cellars’ Sweet Peach Noir. Kitchen Bliss also welcomes retail newbie Modern Sprout, a company specializing in hydroponic planters, as well as other food and beverage companies such as Katherine Anne Confections, Next Star Vodka, Bolzano Artisan Meats, Karl’s Kraft Soup, Pleasant House Bakery, and more.

The rest of Dose’s holiday smorgasbord continues with the On Top market on December 1; the Every Gift market on December 8; and finally, the HoliDose market on December 15.

Dose Market takes place the next four Sundays at 1st Ward at Chop Shop from 10:00 am until 4:00 pm.

Dose Market
1st Ward
2033 W. North Avenue
(773) 537-4440
Website

Before you get all turkey’d out from your Thanksgiving feasts, it’s important to note that Chicago has a surprisingly superb turkey burger scene. Sure, turkey burgers are often ballyhooed as the ne’er-do-well, bland cousin to the attention-grabbing beef burger, but in fact when done diligently, turkey burgers have their deserved place in the pantheon of burger cravings. Here are some spots that take the turkey burger prize in Chicago.

The vibe at Eleven City Diner may be a throwback, but their approach to turkey burger cookery is anything but dated. One of the best turkey burgers in Chicago can be had at this nostalgic comfort food wonderland. You may not know it from a place best known for piled-high corned beef and gut-busting phosphates, but the turkey burger is a genuine sleeper hit. Served on a warm, pillow-soft bun, the burger is fresh, tender, and succulent in a way that most burgers only dream about. It’s pretty bare-bones and simplistic, but the quality of the freshly ground poultry, interspersed with notes of sage and rosemary and slapped with a bit of Swiss cheese, speaks for itself.

One thing to be thankful for is Grange Hall Burger Bar’s reputable turkey burger, aptly dubbed the Thankful burger. You’ll see why as you sink your teeth into the sage- and onion-flecked turkey patty, Muenster cheese, arugula, and cranberry aïoli. What makes Grange Hall’s turkey burger so delicious is in its sourcing. The restaurant prides itself on sourcing ingredients from local farms and making as much in-house as possible, resulting in a burger that is as farm-to-patty as they come.

The best example of a quick service turkey burger is the one being served at Epic Burger. True to its lofty moniker, this thing is indeed epic. The formula is straightforward and unadulterated, featuring lean ground turkey formed into relatively loose, thin patties seasoned with sea salt and black pepper. They’re slapped on the griddle and cooked gingerly so as to develop crisp, slightly fatty edges while the center remains moist and supple. It’s served on your choice of bun, although whole-wheat best compliments the turkey meat. Add on your pick of cheese, onions, lettuce, tomato, and all that good stuff, plus bacon and an egg if you’re feeling like not being so healthy after all.

Some prefer turkey burgers topped with cheddar cheese, others may like Burrata. For the create-your-own burger junkie, 25 Degrees is Mecca. The crafty burger haven gives burgers the upscale treatment, offering a more chef-minded approach to burger creations and customizations. Beef often takes the spotlight, but 25 Degrees’ turkey burgers are equally exceptional. Featured as one of the craft-your-own burger options, the turkey patty can be topped with any number of extras, sauces, and cheeses. Options are limitless, from caramelized onions, prosciutto, and hatch green chiles to sauces such as lemon-dill, tarragon rémoulade, and horseradish cream, and cheeses including Burrata, smoked mozzarella, Grand Cru Gruyere Surchoix, butterkase, and lots more.

Decisions, decisions.

Eleven City Diner
1112 S. Wabash Avenue, Chicago
(312) 212-1112
2301 N Clark Street, Chicago
(773) 244-1112
Website

Grange Hall Burger Bar
844 W. Randolph Street, Chicago
(312) 491-0844
Website

Epic Burger
Multiple locations, Chicago
(312) 243-3605
Website

25 Degrees
736 N. Clark Street, Chicago
(312) 943-9700
Website

Thanksgiving is Thursday, but you may want to save some of your appetite for the two “Black” days that bookend it. Black Wednesday and Black Friday are much more than Thanksgiving afterthoughts and shopping melees, as proven by the array of dining and drinking deals taking place this year. Whether you’re preparing for the Thanksgiving onslaught or unwinding after too much family time, here are some reputable spots to check out.

In case you just can’t wait any longer for Mercadito Counter, the forthcoming Mexican deli from Mercadito Hospitality, you can taste a preview this week in the form of a piquant chili dog laden with pinto and black bean chili, onions, mustard, cheddar, and crema fresca. The perfect Thanksgiving prefix, a complimentary amuse bouche of Mercadito Counter’s chili dog is available through Wednesday, November 27, at Mercadito.

“Black” beverages take the lead at Franklin Tap all day long on Wednesday. There’s really no better way to amass a Thanksgiving appetite than by guzzling Guinness “Black List” drafts, various Black & Tan specials, and something called “Black Chub,” aka Guinness mixed with Oskar Blues Old Chub. Bargains on other craft beer cans and wines by the glass will also be available.

Conveniently, Black Wednesday also happens to coincide with the arrival of this year’s Beaujolais Nouveau. The much-adored, eagerly awaited French Gamay wine bows in all its glory with a fitting tribute party at Untitled. The clandestine bar and restaurant celebrates on Wednesday with a complimentary tasting event featuring passed appetizers and wine samples. Later in the evening, the soiree gets saucier, transforming into a Parisian-inspired nightclub featuring the Unbridled French Connection. The tasting event runs from 7:00 pm until 9:30 pm, at which point Unbridled takes the lead.

Fast forward to Black Friday and restaurants are graciously rolling out more menu specials to help ease the Thanksgiving hangover. Kanela Breakfast Club in Old Town opens at 7:00 am on Friday, featuring bottomless mimosas and specials such as pumpkin caramel waffles and Rumchata chai toddies. Amidst all your downtown shopping, J. Rocco Italian Table & Bar is the perfect respite. Starting Black Friday and running through New Year’s, the restaurant is offering a can’t-miss combo of soup, housemade focaccia, and chocolate mint martini. After hoofing it around Michigan Avenue all morning/day, show your receipt at Epic to earn a price break on your much-needed dining and drinking between 11:30 am and 5:00 pm.

Mercadito
108 W Kinzie Street, Chicago
(312) 329-9555
Website

Franklin Tap
325 S Franklin Street, Chicago
(312) 212-3262
Website

Untitled
111 W Kinzie Street, Chicago
(312) 880-1511
Website

Kanela Breakfast Club
1552 N Wells Street, Chicago
(312) 255-1206
Website

J. Rocco Italian Table & Bar
749 N Clark Street, Chicago
(312) 475-0271
Website

Epic
112 W Hubbard Street, Chicago
(312) 222-4940
Website

Chicago’s Italian (and foodie) scene is about to explode like never before, with the simultaneous arrivals of two of the most anticipated openings of the year Eataly and Nico Osteria on Monday, December 2. Both boast Italian philosophies, but they’re worlds apart in terms of style, atmosphere, and approach. Here’s a sampling of what to expect from these forthcoming Italian juggernauts.

Whereas Nico will hone in on Italian seafood, Eataly has a broad scope to celebrate all things Italian in the heart of River North’s tourist Mecca. The new multi-tiered concept marks the second U.S. location of Eataly, with the first being in New York City. Chicago’s outpost is 30% larger than New York’s, split into two levels and divvied into a myriad of various dining stations, shopping areas, a bookstore, a cooking school, a microbrewery, a bread department, and loads more throughout the open warehouse-like space. A partnership between Eataly Italia, Mario Batali, Joe and Lidia Bastianich, and Adam and Alex Saper, Eataly Chicago pays homage to the original Eataly in Turin, Italy, while infusing its own Midwestern flavors. In addition to all things Italian, shoppers and diners can peruse Lake Michigan walleye in the fish department, locally sourced meats in the butchery area, and a wonderland of cheeses from the dairy division and “mozzarella lab.” The 63,000 square foot space starts with a Nutella bar, gelato station, coffee bar, and market on the first floor. Make your way upstairs and get lost in the wonders of Eataly. Enjoy a meal at one of seven eateries, each one focusing on a different concept such as meat, fried food, vegetables, seafood, pizza, and beer. There’s also a fine dining restaurant called Baffo opening a little later in December. Another unique aspect is the in-house vegetable butcher, who serves to prepare any vegetables you’d like as you do more shopping, dining, and drinking.

Nico Osteria is the latest endeavor from One Off Hospitality, the restaurant group responsible for Blackbird, avec, Big Star, The Publican, Publican Quality Meats, and The Violet Hour. The restaurant marks a major departure for the group in that it not only shifts gears to focus on Italian food with a nautical tilt, but it’s located in the Gold Coast’s new Thompson Hotel, a setting entirely new for the One Off brood. Erling Wu-Bower takes the reigns as chef de cuisine. An alum of The Publican and avec, he’s worked for years under executive chef Paul Kahan, and the two work harmoniously in tandem to curate a seafood-centric Italian menu like none other in Chicago. Expect an ever-changing roster of pristine fare such as seafood crudos, whole-roasted snapper in salt crust, squid and rice bean fett’unta, and lobster spaghetti. Of course, this being an Italian restaurant, you can of course anticipate pizzas cooked in a wood-fired oven, charcuterie, Italian wine, aperitif-style cocktails, and more. Amanda Rockman, nee of The Bristol and Balena, is the pastry chef turning out affogatos aplenty and a number of other contemporary, seasonal Italian desserts and pastries. The decor boasts a soothing Mediterranean vibe, with subway tile walls, a long bar primed for kitchen-watching, plush booths, and a fully-loaded espresso station. Eventually, Nico will be open all day long for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Salone Nico, located just next door, offers a more loungey vibe, complete with its own sprawling bar and more shareable, snackable plates in addition to the regular menu.

Italy has never tasted closer.

Nico Osteria
1015 N Rush Street, Chicago
(312) 994-7100
Website

Eataly
43 E Ohio Street, Chicago
(312) 321-5944
Website

The onset of December means comfort food intake must escalate drastically in order to endure another overwrought Chicago winter. But there’s much more to wintry comfort food than egg nog and second servings of pie. Comfort food takes on a variety of shapes and flavors in Chicago restaurants, from porcine cazuelas and red wine-braised short ribs to outre pot pies and lots more.

Pumpkin, pork, red wine, and brown butter form the A-Team of comfort food ingredients in a particularly soulful dish on the menu at Filini Bar & Restaurant. Chef de cuisine Carolina Diaz serves up spiced pumpkin gnocchi with braised pork belly, red wine, and brown butter reduction, warming souls with each mouthful. “The spiced pumpkin gnocchi is so rich and creamy” says the chef. “Serving the gnocchi with a piece of perfectly braised pork belly, it’s just unbeatable.”

Pie practically has a monopoly on comfort food cravings during the fall and winter months, and you won’t hear Hearty’s Dan Smith debating that. One half of the Hearty Boys duo and head chef at the Americana nostalgia-inspired restaurant, Smith states pie as his quintessential comfort food. And he doesn’t play favorites in the sweet vs. savory debate either, spreading the love equally between chicken pot pie, pumpkin pie, chocolate-pecan pie, and so forth. One stunner currently on the menu is “chowdah” pot pie, an amalgam of seafood chowder and pot pie in one convenient, belt-buckling bowl. A medley of Prince Edward Island mussels, bay scallops, and rock shrimp are bathed in sauce Americaine, then ensconced in a puff pastry lattice crust.

Carrie Nahabedian of NAHA and Brindille has a fondness for succulent meats this time of year, particularly items such as pork chops, venison, game birds, and prime rib of beef. Her dinner menu at NAHA pays dutiful homage to those comfort urges with the likes of braised beef short ribs with a cannelloni of Swiss chard and mascarpone; New Zealand venison with parsnips and slow-cooked bacon; Scottish wood pigeon with foie gras, sweet potatoes, wild rice, and orzo; and wood-grilled rib-eye of beef with Russian fingerling potatoes, spigarello, and bone marrow.

In case you haven’t had enough pork, it’s pretty hard to beat braised pork belly swimming in Serrano broth. The cazuela de puerko is a favorite menu item for Mercat a la Planxa’s Cory Morris, who braises pork belly and white beans for three hours and serves it in mini cast-iron pans along with that heady, unctuous broth and celery root.

Red wine-braised short ribs get a boost of spice at Mercadito, the mod Mexican restaurant with a knack for contemporary comfort concoctions. Chef/partner Patricio Sandoval honors the tradition of taquiza parties for this salacious dish, made with red wine-braised short ribs, chipotle reduction, roasted turnips, and a side of cauliflower casserole. “Taquiza parties are celebrations of the ultimate Mexican comfort food, the taco,” says Sandoval. “So we brought that to Mercadito’s menu with this fun and interactive dish.” And there’s nothing more fun than shoveling fork-tender meat into your mouth.  

Finally, who can forget sweet potato casserole? Maybe you’d try to forget, considering the marshmallow-y, treacly dish is one of the most polarizing of the comfort food bunch. But when places like Eddie Merlot’s give sweet potato casserole the diligent treatment it deserves, then it’s a casserole worth eating. Chef Anthony Dee serves the casserole as a side, hand-mashing sweet potatoes and bedecking them with spiced pecans and brown sugar.

Filini Bar & Restaurant
221 N. Columbus Drive, Chicago
(312) 477-0234
Website

Hearty
3819 N. Broadway, Chicago
(773) 868-9866
Website

NAHA
500 N. Clark Street, Chicago
(312) 321-6242
Website

Mercat a la Planxa
638 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago
(312) 765-0524
Website

Mercadito
108 W. Kinzie Street, Chicago
(312) 329-9555
Website

Eddie Merlot’s
201 Bridewell Drive, Burr Ridge
(630) 468-2098
Website