2022 Chicago Restaurants - The Food Enthusiast’s Long Weekend Guide

By Andrew Delaplaine

Andrew Delaplaine is the ultimate Restaurant Enthusiast.

 

With decades in the food writing business, he has been everywhere and eaten (almost) everything.

 

"Unlike the 'honest' reviews on sites like Yelp, this writer knows what he's talking about. He's a professional,  with decades in the business, not a well-intentioned but clueless amateur."

= Holly Titler, Los Angeles

 

"This concise guidebook was exactly what I needed to make the most of my limited time in town."

= Tanner Davis, Milwaukee

 

This is another of his books with spot-on reviews of the most exciting restaurants in town. Some will merit only a line or two, just to bring them to your attention. Others deserve a half page or more. 

 

"The fact that he doesn't accept free meals in exchange for a good review makes all the difference in his sometimes brutally accurate reviews."

= Jerry Adams, El Paso

 

"Exciting" does not necessarily mean expensive. The area's top spots get the recognition they so richly deserve (and that they so loudly demand), but there are plenty of "sensible alternatives" for those looking for good food handsomely prepared by cooks and chefs who really care what they "plate up" in the kitchen.

For those with a touch of Guy Fieri, Delaplaine ferrets out the best food for those on a budget. That dingy looking dive bar around the corner may serve up one of the juiciest burgers in town, perfect to wash down with a locally brewed craft beer.

 

Whatever your predilection or taste, cuisine of choice or your budget, you may rely on Andrew Delaplaine not to disappoint.

 

Delaplaine dines anonymously at the Publisher's expense. No restaurant listed in this series has paid a penny or given so much as a free meal to be included.

 

Bon Appétit!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gramercy Park Press
• Release date: Nov 8, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201540463

Andrew Delaplaine

Delaplaine lives on South Beach, Miami’s Billion Dollar Sandbar. He writes in widely varied fields: screenplays, novels (adult and juvenile) and journalism. He also has a series of Long Weekend Guides covering some 50 cities around the world. Email: [e-mail] He writes several series: The “JACK HOUSTON ST. CLAIR” political thriller novels. “THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES IV,” a series of novels starring the great-great-grandson of the famous consulting detective. “THE ANNALS OF SANTOPIA” series, an epic that follows a Santa born in 1900 through to his death 82 years later. The AMOS FREEMAN police thrillers. Other novels: “The Trap Door” follows a boy who is taken back in time to 1594 and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. “The Meter Maid Murders,” a comic look at a detective trying to nab a serial killer on South Beach who only murders meter maids. Has written and directed three features (one doc, two narrative features), as well as several short films and won several awards for his film work. (See imdb.com for details).  His latest film, “Meeting Spencer,” starring Jeffrey Tambor, won the prestigious Milan International Film Festival Award for Best Screenplay.  DELAPLAINE’S “LONG WEEKEND” GUIDES These no-nonsense guides contain Delaplaine’s recommendations and advice for travelers visiting these places for 3 or 4 days. As "The Food Enthusiast," he writes a series of restaurants guides, updated annually. He has no hobbies.

Book preview

2022

Chicago

Restaurants

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The Food Enthusiast’s

Long Weekend Guide

Andrew Delaplaine

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A person wearing a suit and tie Description automatically generated

Andrew Delaplaine is the Restaurant Enthusiast.

When he’s not playing tennis,

he dines anonymously

at the Publisher’s (considerable) expense.

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Senior Editor – James Cubby

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Copyright © by Gramercy Park Press - All rights reserved.

Table of Contents

Introduction

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Getting About

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The A to Z Listings

Ridiculously Extravagant

Sensible Alternatives

Quality Bargain Spots

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Nightlife

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INTRODUCTION

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What a wonderful town, Chicagoland.

I couldn’t believe the place when I first saw it. I was coming from New York (back in the ’70s) in fine weather in early summer. It was night. I took a cab into town and walked up the Magnificent Mile in awe. Ladies and gentlemen walked down the street arm-in-arm, actually promenading.

There was grass on Michigan Avenue. Real grass. I reached down and touched it. You wouldn’t find grass like that on Fifth Avenue. No, sir.

There was an electricity in the air in Chicago I noticed that very first night. And I’ve always been aware of it. There’s that same sense in New York, of course, a sensation of excitement, of swiftness, of opportunity—of hustle—but somehow it was different here in Chicago. The pace here has slightly less of an edge to it. The people are nicer. They are polite. They are not rude, crude or rough. Maybe the word I’m looking for is Normal. It’s that Midwest upbringing, I tell myself, and that must be it. This may be the City of Big Shoulders, but the people inhabiting it are as nice as the farmers plowing fields 300 miles away. (Well, there are certain neighborhoods....)

That first night I spent sleeping on the floor of our branch office at the corner of Oak and Rush, which I found out later was quite an exciting corner with a fascinating history. When I woke up in the morning and looked out of the floor-to-ceiling windows, I saw people swimming in the lake.

Swimming!

In the lake. In the 1970s!

I was aghast.

Back in New York, you wouldn’t dip your toe in the Hudson River or the East River.

That was then. This is now. Now they’re harvesting oysters from beds in the East River.

I remember running down and asking a cop how people could swim in the filthy water. He explained that the river flowing into the lake had been reversed. The river flowed backwards! The water was clean.

I couldn’t believe it.

But this was just the beginning of a long love affair with Chicago. There’s