I know I’ve whinged quite a bit over the years about the declining quality in Korean restaurants in the city over the years, largely in part due to the slow evacuation of Koreatown’s inhabitants for the suburbs. I should qualify that by saying it ignores all the interesting next-gen activity that’s happening in other parts of the city (Parachute, Kimski), and even the resurrection of old favorites like Han Bat (more on that later)....

For better or worse, former Gage chef Dirk Flanigan is largely responsible for bringing back the Scotch egg over the last decade, as Chicago writhed in the throes of its love affair with gastropubbery. The snack quickly proliferated all over town, and for every molten ovum core jacketed in crispy, hot sausage there were a dozen fryer-petrified fossils as rock solid as a carbon-frozen Han Solo. The preponderance of snacky, meaty, beer-friendly foods is practically a given, so maybe that’s how I got snookered by the Scotch egg....

The Reader has announced a new leadership structure as it navigates the transition to a full nonprofit. Tracy Baim, publisher for the past two years, will now be co-publisher alongside Karen Hawkins, who has been co-editor in chief with Sujay Kumar since 2019. The Reader Institute for Community Journalism (RICJ), the new organization that will soon take over the Reader, has received its nonprofit designation from the IRS. RICJ has begun operations and is soliciting individual donations and foundation grants....

Update: buy tickets for the CME/CEU credit class and RSVP for the free market & cannabis conversations here. See the press release. Facebook event: We’re teaming up with MOCA – Modern Cannabis and Emporium Arcade Bar for Yes We Cann, a cannabis market and symposium!… Posted by Chicago Reader on Monday, September 23, 2019

Patrick Kane blackhawks.nhl.com Runner-Up: Joakim Noah

Logan Theatre 2646 N. Milwaukee 773-342-5555 thelogantheatre.com Runner-Up: Music Box Theatre

Co-op Hot Sauce coopsauce.com Runner-Up: Pizza

Verde Wellness & Massage 2122 S. Ashland 312-243-4530 verdewm.com Runner-Up: Millennium Park Massage

Ajamu Baraka is tired of the “lesser of two evils” argument frequently invoked during this presidential election to encourage support for Hillary Clinton as the only true alternative to Donald Trump. The Green Party vice presidential nominee sees the Democratic presidential nominee not as an antidote to Trumpism, but as a partial cause of it—a warmongering, corporate, right-winger who serves the “liberal bourgeoisie” instead of ordinary working people. He saves his harshest words, however, for Barack Obama, whom he calls a “political hack” and a “moral disaster....

Since its 1841 premiere, Giselle has been an exemplar of romanticism, with its depictions of frolicking country folk, feminine virtue, and ghosts. The innocent peasant girl Giselle dies of heartbreak when her lover, Albrecht, turns out to be an aristocrat in disguise with a well-to-do fiancee. Like other maidens who perish before their wedding day, Giselle joins the wilis, spirits dressed like brides who lurk in the woods, luring men into furious, fatal dances....

As soon as I read about Bill Daley’s call for a referendum on reducing the City Council from 50 to 15 aldermen, I had three questions: Would it pass? Would I vote for it? And what does this have to do with Ratgate? Chicagoans have a schizophrenic attitude toward aldermen. By and large, we despise the full council but like our individual alderman. How else to explain why we bitch and moan about every dumb, rubber-stamping thing the City Council does, then turn right around and reelect the aldermen who, you know, voted for those dumb, rubber-stamped projects....

Chicago Music Exchange Runner-Up: Andy’s

Laurie’s Planet of Sound’s Sharkula section lauriesplanetofsound.blogspot.com These days a portion of the music-consuming public talks about CDs as if they’re the child kept in a crawl space beneath the stairs and fed an unsteady diet of fish heads. When it comes to music media, even the eight-track tape has more cool cachet. But CDs still move, albeit in fewer quantities than in decades past: Nielsen Music reported that in 2014, U....

These days it seems like every city in America has its own Afrobeat combo, if not two or three. We have the Chicago Afrobeat Project, which tomorrow drops a new album, What Goes Up, featuring a guest appearance by the legendary Tony Allen—the drummer who helped create the style in the 1960s as the musical director of bands led by Nigerian agitprop-funk hero Fela Anikulapo Kuti. But once upon a time, Afrobeat was a rare commodity in this country—formed in the late 90s, powerful Brooklyn ensemble Antibalas were the first to popularize it here....

884 778 Chicago Bagel Authority New York Bagel & Bialy Corporation Finalists: Steingold’s of Chicago, Brobagel

For me, a staycation has typically involved finding a hotel deal downtown, doing embarrassingly touristy things like paying too much for cocktails and making ridiculously early or scandalously late reservations at the new cool-kid restaurant, and throwing shade at actual tourists. It’s not uncommon for guests, especially wedding and birthday parties, to rent out the whole place for the weekend, and it feels so much like someone’s house that owners Shawn Uldridge and Kimberly Lowery have found folks crashed out on the common-area couch in front of the two-sided fireplace....

Afro-Futurism The seven members of Afro-Futurism may perform at Second City, but they don’t deal in sketch revues. In fact, they’re less a company than a collection of black comics—performing solo stand-up routines, for the most part, punctuated with rap segments fronted by Marcel “Mr. Greenweedz” Wilks. There were a couple misfirings on the night I attended, as when an overly zealous Shantira Jackson tried to make a political point by getting the audience to yell out “No!...