“Without exception, your recommendations are el supremo, for which all of my senses will be forever grateful.”
I thoroughly enjoyed the [June 26] Best of Chicago edition. Without exception, your recommendations are el supremo, for which all of my senses will be forever grateful. Buuuuuut, I do have one eensy-teensy, tiny-hiney disagreement. In the ever expanding world of restaurants, food, and cuisine we have a new distinction between bakeries and pastry shops. Though I thoroughly agree with your reviewer that my good friends Natalie and Nick Zarzour have deepened and altered the gastronomic geography of Chicago with their exquisite offerings at Pasticceria Natalina, I believe they too would agree that it’s a pastry shop offering only desserts, not necessarily a bakery.
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A true traditional bakery also offers a variety of breads, scones, muffins, and cakes to be picked up on the spur of the moment, as well as delicious homemade sweets. With that distinction, I believe most of my contemporaries would agree that the Best Bakery in Chicago, for this year, and the previous 17, would be Bittersweet on Belmont. Whenever I discuss baking with a fellow business owners Bittersweet invariably comes up, and we always speak of it as the standard to which we hold ourselves. It’s the only bakery I know of that I’m truly humbled by the work they do every time I go in. Viva Judy Contino!!
On the “Best of ’08” site, there are two groups listed in each category, one with an article and one without. What’s the differentiation between the winners that have articles and the pick underneath, such as the difference, in Best Theater Company, between the Neo-Futurists and Steppenwolf? Is it a winner/runner-up-type listing?
One to Grow On
You couldn’t have made a better choice! I’m a volunteer at the Chicago Architecture Foundation, and we give 45-minute lunchtime tours of the Monadnock Building twice every month. It’s a great way to study this incredible building in-depth and learn about John Root’s genius, the vision of the Brooks Brothers, and the incredible restoration work done by the current owner, Bill Donnell. Sorry for the shameless plug, but it’s an amazing building and we want people to learn about it.
Re Savage Love by Dan Savage, June 19
