Travel + Leisure Does Chicago

Um, finally. A national magazine has done a roundup of Chicago food, and traveled further north than Chicago Ave for her research. Hats off to you, Travel + Leisure's Francine Maroukian. Welcome to the real world of Chicago dining.

Inspired by the mass wave of southern style, comfort food dining that landed in Chicago last year, Francine ate and drank her way through a number of neighborhood favorites, from Bucktown all the way to Andersonville. See below for a few of our favorites of her per-restaurant descriptions:

Ukranian Village: Jam
"What do you do on a Sunday when you’re hungry but desperate to avoid typically treacly brunch food? Get in line at Jam, where dishes tilt the scale toward the savory side."

Wicker Park: Big Star
"Big Star is a self-billed honky-tonk taqueria that’s been a neighborhood favorite since the day it opened."

Bucktown: The Bristol
"One thing’s for sure: Pandel doesn’t play coy with food. His approach is head-on and all about bold juxtapositions."

Bucktown: The Southern
"Taylor straddles Southern and Midwestern cooking with hybrids such as his Cajun send-up of Canada’s beloved poutine: layers of freshly cut potato fries drenched in house-made tasso gravy, then topped by Wisconsin cheese curds solid enough to soften up but still hold their shape."

Andersonville: Big Jones
"Just one spoonful of his chocolate-colored chicken-and-andouille gumbo, made with a traditional dark roux, will have you feeling like you’re on the Bayou."

Andersonville: Vincent
"The rich palette of van Gogh red and Prussian blue, aglow beneath amber filament lighting, paints the perfect facsimile of Dutch gezelligheid."

View article here.
*photo from Travel + Leisure