Giant meteor. Alien invasion. Nukes. World economic collapse. Zombie plague. Famine. Melting of the ice caps. Rapidly mutating airborne virus.
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What follows is a bunch of places that, like Monti’s, I would return to without hesitation after writing about them. To me, they’re the most important new restaurants of the year.
I kept going back to Avondale’s Yusho for completely different reasons. Monti’s is a terrific place to eat but a terrible place to drink. Yusho, the best in a recent rash of izakaya-ish spots, is both a great place to eat and a great place to drink. It’s also a terrific place to hang out, due in part to the congeniality of the staff. As I observed in my review: “It’s impossible to overstate how the primal act of applying direct flame to all manner of foods caused the human brain to grow, but here the skewers are garnished and accented with a mostly Japanese palette of interesting exotica that recalls the same precise and audacious flavoring schemes that Trotter’s became known for decades ago.”
Unlike good Japanese, we’re used to uncompromising Thai food in Chicago but it was still a relief when Andy Aroonrasameruang decamped from TAC Quick to open his own Andy’s Thai Kitchen and didn’t change a thing about his “explosively flavorful cooking” that has always been the easiest for non-Thais to navigate.
Over on the Bleader, read my expressions of love for the dozens and dozens of great things I ate all year long.
