Chicago Michelin Guide 2012

Seventeen new restaurants awarded Bib Gourmand in Michelin Chicago 2012 guide

None promoted from Bib to starred. Notable (to me at least), Fogon made the list. That's the sister restaurant to Amelia's in Canaryville, which is not listed.

No beef stands get Bib honors. Obviously being held back for star ratings.

Glad to see Los Nopales get honored again. They're one of my go-to places for a nice weeknight meal.

I love the skirt steak. Juicy as a mofo, nicely spiced but not overwhelming.

Mrs. spiff is addicted to the green salsa they bring out with the tortilla chips. She tends to go for the chicken enchiladas which are quite good.

But really, the skirt steak. So good.

I don't find the green salsa to be particularly hot. The red salsa carries some definite heat with it, but the green one is relatively mild as salsas go. The puree though is absolutely true.

The panela is pimptastic.

its a good year for Mr Achatz. Alinea given 3 stars again, no surprise there. And I read Next was named restaurant of the year. I am really annoyed with myself that I have not been to either yet. I really hope Alinea sticks around for a long time, or at least long enough until I sack up and drop the money on a meal there.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/enter...2012-star-recipients-20111115,0,4489677.story

I also have been to neither for which I blame Cheeses and Spiffie.

L2O drops as expected. Ria surprisingly does not. Moto steps up.

http://news.yahoo.com/winners-popular-us-food-blogs-awards-announced-141331988.html?bouchon=602,il

saw it on yahoo. looks like its just a national food blog.

for you ipad or tablet users, Next put out an ibook of its first menu, Paris 1906. includes pics and recipes. Not that you could actually recreate these dishes at home, but you can try. For $5 bucks its a cool thing to browse through. http://www.chicagotribune.com/featu...book-in-itunes-store-20110901,0,6033641.story

The Next iBook is sweet. We're going to try and make the gougeres for Thanksgiving.

To celebrate the upcoming end of my Jesus Year I ended up at Bonsoiree last night. Everyone there was still jazzed about the retaining of their star, especially as they had some significant kitchen turnover.

Very good and worthy of its one star, but definitely no more than that. Also, David Byrne was there a couple tables over. Given the amount of wine we had it is a minor miracle he is not telling people this morning about the crazy homeless looking guy who was yelling "HOW DID I GET HERE?" at him or doing the dance from the "Once in a Lifetime" video.

Offer to the 1%, courtesy of Grant Achatz:

We just need to get a dozen or so others together and we can take the Office.

Spif, I need your top recommendation, besides Alinea. The +1 said she'll take me wherever I want for Christmas. Also, wherever you recommend, can I get in on Friday 12/23, in your opinion. I need it to be that day.

I am also making a 2012 resolution to save 50 a month and go to Alinea in 2013 damn it.

Sorry I didn't see this thread until now.

First I would say call Schwa every 3 minutes until someone picks up and see if they can get you in.

Looking at what is available on OpenTable for that night my personal favorite is Bonsoiree. I've never been to Trotter's or Spiaggia, both of which have openings.

Also your resolution is a good one.

Is Schwa really is good choice for a person who absolutely needs to dine on a particular day? Even if you can get a reservation there, don't they routinely dump people at the last minute with no explanation?

I really like Spiaggia, but if you're looking for a place to wow you with an amazing tasting menu, then it's not a great choice IMO.

Having had a reservation on my wedding anniversary canceled by Schwa, I would book a reservation there if at all possible even with the chance of it falling through. There's plenty of other restaurants that you can grab a table at last minute should something happen. Plus if you get canceled on you might get the secret backdoor number to call and get priority on any date you want in the future. Worth the risk, even if unlikely to be anything more than a moot point.

I would also recommend Goosefoot, but mostly just so that you can let us know how it was as I'm curious about it.

If anyone is looking for Next tickets, they just opened the last batch for Childhood now. Run to nextrestaurant.com

Go and get me some tickets, Spiffie. We'll go when I'm in town. Maurice can come too.

I will probably try for a season pass, as we pretty much have a pair who will join us for every seating. Figure if they pay in advance and we throw it on a credit card it shouldn't be too painful. Also as it is only for three seatings, not four, it might not be quite as brutal.

the menu at Schwa wasn't really screaming at me. I went with takashi. the menu is only $100 with wine pairing ($69 without). that menu looks right up my alley, and it does have one Michelin star. I will report back.

If you get the season pass for Next, I am dying to go to the rumored 20 course next menu. take me.

how much is the pass?

ah ok, I was thinking that too. but I was hoping for some kind of discount if you did just buy the whole year. the ticket system is genius. El Bulli will easily be the hardest ticket in town.

Another one will bite the dust:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...t-to-close-in-august-20120101,0,3302178.story

Some details have come out about the El Bulli menu at Next:

-Possibly up to 30 courses
- Only one seating per night, so 64 total seats nightly. 50 to season ticket holders, 12 to same night picks, and 2 auctioned off as fundraiser for the cancer center that treated Achatz.
- $375/pp including wine pairing. No other options/prices. Same price regardless of day/time.

This sounds like they are really trying to replicate the El Bulli experience, rather than giving sort of a sense of it with the 8-10 courses they've done with other menus.

I either need to go have a couple sick nights at the poker tables, or eat ramen for a month or two, because this has to happen.

http://chicago.eater.com/archives/2012/01/05/want-next-season-tickets-youll-have-to-wait-a-bit.php

I see the update that mentions this is w/o tax and tip. So $365 plus 29%. $473 appx.

The cost doesn't bother me. I'm game for that. But the fact that only 12 seats per night are realisticly "available" means that I'll need an awful lot of help from one of you assholes to get a seat at the table.

I've heard up to 30 as a possibility for courses.

Also, they won't have anyone doing the water or non-alc servings which probably weren't as profitable as the wine pairings.

Assuming the other two menus for 2012 are akin to last year's costs, a season ticket should run anywhere from $750-$1000/pp. I think I'm going to try to get in on that.

I was able to get same night for the Childhood menu, so it is possible to do, just makes planning really difficult.

I expect they'll sell 2 and 4 seats in the season ticket batches.

If not, make Maurice buy 2 of them with you. Then he can sell the 4th seat for profitz.

Y'all love dumping mad scrilla on foods...

It's that or buying Sox tickets. I'm content with this decision.

v.

p.s. .480?

Buy the season tix and scalp an individual seating to me at face. Don't mark them up like some kind of asshole Hawks fan.

Post them on Stubhub for $10,000. No one will buy, but you're entitled to your pipedreams while not reasonably giving someone else a chance to go.

Weren't Sox tickets going for like $2 towards the middle and end of last season?

I just ate some sliders

Dynamic pricing! Great seats still available for 99% face value!

I couldn't give my seats away toward the end of last season. I'm talking Sec. 102, Row 8.