Chicago's Best Spring Dining | Chicago
Scouring the city for the spring's best food
Cruelest month? Not for us. April's exciting openings and edible discoveries will keep us eating and drinking well for weeks. Below, our favorite new haunts and current obsessions:
• Owen & Engine's fresh-baked bread is one of the English-American gastropub's unsung joys. Seek out the treacle-sweetened brown bread, the darkly sweet date-walnut bread and the excellent, airy baguette.
• On your next trip to Chinatown Square, take a detour to Japan at Lure Izakaya, a new restaurant inspired by Japanese pub food. Yuzu-marinated cod and air-dried, wood-grilled fish are worthy additions to any Chinatown itinerary.
• Real Kitchen, a tiny new Ravenswood storefront, has the potential to revolutionize your fridge. Fresh pasta, house-made sauces and stocks are instant boosts to your dinner capabilities.
• J.P. Graziano has been providing fridge and pantry fodder for the better part of a century. New in-store offerings–plus tables and a new patio–are reasons to revisit this historic shop today.
• We don't condone drinking and driving. But we do advise driving to the Indiana brewery Three Floyds to eat the Chicago area's most exciting brewpub cuisine, courtesy of former Blackbird chef Mike Sheerin. Catch him there while you can.