All y’all who’ve been asking that question in re: the Creative Loafing bankruptcy filing should read this great, thorough, and at times chilling article on the past, present, and future of the CL business plan, by a former CL staffer now at Atlanta Magazine. (h/t Whet) The nuts and bolts of it: “In July of … Continued
I wrote something for Time Out Chicago. Here it is. Please save the “dark side” jokes. It feels weird enough as it is, especially given this crazy week. But, seriously, you should go to Thai Aree. Just don’t order the som tum unless you’re feeling particularly butch.
Sources inside the Reader tell me that the staff found out about the Chapter 11 filing in time-honored fashion: they read about it on the internet, 15 minutes before the staff meeting scheduled to announce it was convened. For those with short memories, this is a nice echo of the day last year when the … Continued
In non-food, non-Wisconsin related news, Creative Loafing Inc., the new owners of my former employer, the Chicago Reader, filed for Chapter 11 bankrupcy protection this morning, exactly one year and four days after its first wave of layoffs hit. So far only the Washington City Paper (formerly owned by Chicago Reader Inc., and now also … Continued
Yesterday’s Trib offers this travel feature on Washington Island, which is . . . a decent overview of island basics (ferry, lawyers, Iceland). But, based on the graf on the hotel, I wonder about the writer’s sources, as she repeats the weirdly ubiquitous misconception that the hotel staff are all “chefs in training” at the … Continued
I’d be remiss to not point out this piece from yesterday’s NYT, on the boom in . . . wait for it . . . organic/artisanal/small-batch wheat farming. Hello, New York publishers! This is so money! Where is my book deal?? Oh right. I haven’t finished the proposal. Right. Anyway. The piece (which is focused … Continued
Victual Reality columnist/farmer Tom Philpott snaps the locavore’s Achilles tendon in a recent review of Paul Roberts’s The End of Food, on the eco-news site Grist. [snip] “Reading through the recent food-politics bookshelf, it’s too easy to take away an “industrial food bad, local food good” attitude. But how many modern-day locavores would readily embrace … Continued
French fries on wheels. I have been talking about this–my fantasy new career–for a year now, and it’s finally happening. In New York. Come on Chicago, step it up! Or, give me a small business loan. [Toronto is hip to this as well, only in Canadian they’re called chip trucks.]
That’s what I called Washington Island last year, in a blog post about a weekend trip up here. I think I was trying for a sort of tongue-in-cheek, self-conscious hyperbole (Wisconsin? Paradise?), but obviously my writing skills weren’t up to snuff, because the phrase turned up, attributed to me with utmost sincerity, on the Death’s … Continued
Anthony Bourdain does Hot Doug’s.