Lao Sze Chuan Runner-Up: Sun Wah BBQ

Furious Spoon Wasabi Ramen Finalists: High Five Ramen, Strings Ramen Shop, Oiistar Chicago

Opart Thai Sticky Rice Finalists: Siam Noodle & Rice, Thai Lagoon, Yes Thai, Aroy Thai

The Reader’s exposé of Profiles Theatre triggered something in Chicago that one theater-world friend calls “incredibly important”—an overdue acknowledgement and fierce repudiation of abuses to which the theater world had remained willfully blind. “These were not children in these shows, these were adults,” Mitchell marveled, “and they all decided to just go along with all this crap? . . . Were all these women and stage managers and directors bedazzled by all the attention and full houses to the point where they simply had to submit to the abuse?...

Q: Now that Bill Cosby has been found guilty, it seems possible President Trump could issue a pardon, letting Cosby off scot-free. Congress has the authority to override a presidential veto. Couldn’t we also give Congress the ability to override a presidential pardon? —Curious in Indy If you’re looking to challenge a presidential pardon, then, don’t call your congressperson—call your lawyer, because the real action is in court.

The Chicago high school students enrolled in 826CHI’s Teen Writers Studio aren’t afraid to learn from each other. “Everyone is welcoming and willing to help each other grow and learn,” says 11th-grader Stephanie R. of her experience in the program. For fellow 11th-grader Kara K., being a part of the encouraging environment at the Writers Studio has helped her become more confident in her skills and given her a community to engage in discussions over difficult, but relevant topics, like gun violence....

Caroline Neff Steep Theatre Company carolineneff.com Runner-Up: Carisa Barreca

Ne-Hi @nehi_band OK, maybe not so much “primed” as “teetering on the edge of.” Indie-rock four-piece Ne-Hi dropped their raw self-titled debut a little over a year ago via local label Manic Static (which has since issued a second pressing), so by now its wistful, reverb-washed melodies, perfectly simple guitar leads, and swooshing, all-for-one choruses have had plenty of time to pinball around the collective brain space of concertgoers at Lincoln Hall, the Empty Bottle, Animal Kingdom, the Hideout, and the like....

Kingston Mines 2548 N. Halsted 773-477-4646 kingstonmines.com Runner-Up: Rosa’s Lounge

While putting the finishing touches on this year’s Best of Chicago issue, I had one of the most oft-cited lines about our fair city running through my mind. You know the one. Nelson Algren in City on the Make, remarking about Chicago’s rough-edged charm: “Like loving a woman with a broken nose, you may well find lovelier lovelies, but never a lovely so real.” In the 65 years since Algren made the observation, it’s become, in my estimation, the most nauseating of Chicago cliches....

Northwestern University University of Chicago Finalists: DePaul University, Loyola University

Everyone has a podcast. Even your dog has a podcast. But when it comes to diversity, it’s no surprise that white people dominate the platform. According to 2018 data from Edison Research, 59 percent of U.S. podcast listeners were white—only 12 percent were Black and 11 percent were Latinx. While podcasting continues to rapidly grow, its diversity and accessibility are slowly catching up. “[Being Latinx] doesn’t mean that you need to be fluent....

Street View is a fashion series in which Isa Giallorenzo spotlights some of the coolest styles seen in Chicago. See more street style in the Chicago Looks blog.

When I was seven I broke into a house with some older kids one summer. This was in Russia in the 90s, as the society around us was collapsing. The fall of the Soviet Union and the descent of the country into sudden, unregulated capitalism yielded the rapid development of inequality. Seemingly overnight a place in which, for decades, people basically had the same homes, made the same paychecks, and got access to the same opportunities became a place where ostentatious wealth coexisted with grinding poverty....

ARTIST: Trek Matthews SHOW: Mourning [A] BLKstar, the Ben LaMar Gay Quartet, and DJ Hippo at the Hideout on Wed 4/10 MORE INFO: trekmatthews.com

I’m never at a loss for invigorating new music, but few emerging artists I encountered last year entranced me like Chicago bedroom-pop singer-songwriter Serena Isioma. The idiosyncratic and fully evolved aesthetic of their March 2020 EP, Sensitive, fulfills the promise of our allegedly “genreless” future, incorporating signifiers from across the pop spectrum: its radio-ready songs combine sensitive R&B singing, sophisticated indie-rock riffs, suave hip-hop rhythms, and featherweight synth-pop melodies, deploying every element for maximum immediacy....

Chicago Athletic Association 12 S. Michigan 312-940-3552 chicagoathletichotel.com Runner-Up: The Peninsula Chicago

Radish goradish.com Too tired to cook and put off by all the usual unhealthy delivery options? Lazy man cannot live on pizza alone, and Radish, a local tech start-up that launched in April, offers a needed solution to that dilemma: a smartphone app that seems like a mashup of Uber and Whole Foods’ food court. After downloading the app and setting up an account, you order a freshly prepared dinner to be delivered in less than 20 minutes....

Sharkula sharkula.info, @caviarbrian182 Runner-Up: Puppet Bike

Brooklyn label Nature Sounds reissued Common’s 1992 debut album, Can I Borrow a Dollar?, for this year’s Record Store Day, but last week’s most intriguing new Common release came out on an entirely different label and isn’t in brick-and-mortar stores at all yet. Last Wednesday, local DJ and record collector Marc Davis announced that his microlabel Black Pegasus was putting out a seven-inch of two previously unissued recordings from Common’s Can I Borrow a Dollar?...