Shake-Up in South Loop!

The acclaimed Shawn McClain is out as head chef at Custom House, says Dish:

"Shawn McClain, the original exec chef/partner/driving force, is on his way out at the South Loop standout. While still a part owner, McClain and his long-time partners at Custom House, Green Zebra, and Spring, Sue and Peter Drohomyrecky, are trying to figure out how to divide the business. 'Now, my focus is on Spring and Green Zebra,' says McClain. 'Sue and Peter are taking over Custom House. We have had such a hard year with the economy, it just drove us back to try to focus on individual projects.'

"Meanwhile, per the Drohomyreckys, Custom House’s new exec chef is Aaron Deal, a Johnson & Wales graduate. 'We are going to redefine ourselves as a tavern,' says Deal, who was executive chef at Charleston, South Carolina's Tristan for the past two years. 'The menu will be influenced by my experiences at [New York’s] Gramercy Tavern.' The only new dish Deal would tell us about was his foie gras pot de crème with pickled grapes, toasted almonds, and blue cheese—but he's headed to Ferran Adrià’s endlessly innovative El Bulli in Roses, Spain, so lord only knows what he’ll come back with."

One Good Pizza Slice One Parlor at A Time

Pizza Freaks!

Boy, have I found something you'll love:

WorstPizza.com is a new site by Craig Agranoff, a self-described "pizza expert," who's cataloging the best pizza in South Florida and the entire United States. It's complete with a interactive pizza map, easy-to-find slice ratings and a special section on new store openings and closings in local areas.

There's a ton of Chicago restos on here, including Giordano’s, Panino's, Lou Malnati’s and Stefano's.

The site also had this pretty glowing review for the much-heralded Sapore di Napoli:

"I’m not sure how authentic Sapore di Napoli’s Neapolitan pizzas are, but they definitely fulfill the fragrant requirement. The ingredients are incredibly fresh; the Salsiccia pizza’s Italian sausage was homemade and tasted incredible, and the mushrooms from the Funghi pizza were more complementary to the pizza than any pizza I can remember eating. The Margherita pizza was ranked best in town by Chicago magazine, so you might choose to evaluate the restaurant by its known dish. I was pleased by my Neapolitan pizza-eating experience, and the restaurant is clean, comfortable, and a good place to have dinner and a bottle of wine on a warm summer’s night."

Chicago Doesn't Make Cut; Gets Honorable Mentions

Bristol gets "honorable mention" as a "Best New Restaurant of the Year" from Esquire. (Photo: Neil Burger)


When Esquire's controversial writer John Mariani was in town last fall giving props to Mercat a la Planxa for being named to the mag's prestigious Best Restaurants of the Year list, who knew that would be the last time we'd see a winner in a while.

Since then, he's dined at a number of notable eateries, causing even more controversy in Chicago, and made a few enemies.

Could that be the reason not one Chicago restaurant made the big list for 2009?! Instead, The Bristol, Publican, Province and Sepia (which opened in July 2007, so confused why it's on the list . . .maybe it missed the deadline for 2008?!) had to settle for "noteworthy honorees of the year." Interesting stuff.

Eating Las Vegas has the entire list of winners—and Top Places Not to Miss—here.

Look for the November 2009 issue of Esquire on newsstands next week.

Enough Chef Shufflings to Make Your Head Spin

Lockwood's kitchen at full speed. (Photo: The Pickled Tongue)


OK, now. Let's see if we can keep up.

Monday word broke about C-House's new executive chef.

Also, we discovered from Eating Las Vegas that Sixteen acquired Sarah Kosikowski, a Las Vegas-based pastry chef who's also a James Beard Rising Star nominee.

Sugartoad's Jimmy Sneed moves on to make way for Geoff Rhyne, who's placing greater emphasis on seasonality and regional products.

And big news comes from Time Out that Boka and Blackbird finally hired new pastry chefs. Say hello to Kate Neumann and Patrick Fahy respectively.

By the way, that sous chef position still needs filling over at the Palmer House's Lockwood.

Fashionable Plates in the Kitchen, on the Runway

C-House partner/chef Marcus Samuelsson (left) cooking with designer Zac Posen. (Photo: WWD)


Marcus Samuelsson's star continues to shine, this time next to one of our favorite designers, Zac Posen.

The C-House partner/executive chef discusses with WWD on how similar fashion and food are:

"You really appreciate somebody that uses good fabric or uses good ingredients. I don’t know how it is for Zac, but for a chef you constantly ask, ‘Doesn’t it taste good? Doesn’t it taste great?"

At least with the clothes we don't have to worry about the carbs!

This is Why I Love Twitter!

Hot shot celeb deejay/producer Mark Ronson's getting us totally worked up for New Year's Eve already.

The English star's set to headline a Chicago event that night—with a pretty generous budget to boot—so he took to his Twitter account to ask his followers who they'd like to see accompany him:

"Children of Tweet! Doing a show in the Chi on New Years Eve and have been given the open checkbook 2 bring in whoever i want (within reason). . . . which dj's/artists 2 book, i want your voice heard cause if it sucks you only have yourselves to blame.

"Santigold or Stevie Wonder? Carl Cox, Carl Craig, Daniel Craig or Craig T. Nelson? I NEED TO KNOW!!!!"

Stevie Wonder?! Wow. Craig T. Nelson?! That dude from that show "Coach?!" WTF is he talking about?

Seriously, Ronson's quite a big deal, as he's worked with just about everyone, including Mos Def, Duran Duran, Christina Aguilera, Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen, Robbie Williams and Bob Dylan.

This should definitely be HOT.

Chef Shufflings at C-House

C-House executive pastry chef Toni Roberts and former executive chef Seth Siegel-Gardner. (Photo: C-House)


Just out of the blue, 312DD just found out C-House Exec Chef Seth Siegel-Gardner's been replaced, but thank God it's for a good reason.

Says the publicist: "He moved to London with his wife. She was going to grad school out there, and has followed him all over the world/country, so it was his turn."

Taking over the kitchen is Minnesota native Nicole Pederson, who's worked at NYC's Gramercy Tavern and most recently Lula Cafe in Logan Square.

Pederson joins forces with executive pastry chef Toni Roberts in Marcus Samuelsson's celebrated seafood restaurant.

Can you say, Girl Power?!

Eat Your Way Through River North

The Devil’s Basket with soft shell crab is one of Sunda's signature dishes. (Photo: Sunda)


The Andersonville Dessert Crawl goes down on Sunday, but if you cannot wait that long, we've come across a similar one happening Tuesday.

The first-ever OctoberFeast is River North's answer to the Andersonville deal, featuring some of the area's top restos and bars. Get a ticket and enjoy a bunch of bites and booze at Harry Caray's, Hub 51, Italiasia, La Madia, Mercadito, NAHA, Osteria via Stato, Prosecco, Sunda, Zocalo and others. You'll get 45 minutes to hang at each spot, but since there are 25 venues, you'd better make that 10 or 15.

OctoberFeast happens 5-10pm, with the after party taking place at Martini Park. Get the $50 ticket at River North Business Association.