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Leor Galil Inside Cafe Mustache’s new space Logan Square coffee shop Cafe Mustache officially opened its second room, which sits in an adjacent storefront at 2313 North Milwaukee Avenue. Owners Kerry Couch, James Stieglitz, and Ralph Darski (of rock outfit Rabble Rabble) have been working on Cafe Mustache’s expansion for about two years. In May 2013 the owners publicly announced plans to take over the storefront next door, which used to house a hair salon, by launching a Kickstarter campaign to cover the costs for permits and hire an architect and contractor to build out the space; the fund-raiser reached its $20,000 goal by the end of June....

“Does journalism have a future?” Jill Lepore asked in the most recent issue of the New Yorker, as prankster turned media innovator Jonah Peretti laid off 15 percent of his workforce at BuzzFeed and then refused to pay most former employees their paid time off. Meanwhile, we’re over here adding pages to our print edition, launching a podcast, and tracking gains in Web traffic month after month (after month). (We also expanded our staff—Davon Clark, welcome to the graphic design team!...

Backstage at the Annoyance Theatre in Lakeview on a recent Saturday evening, a table is arrayed with a ghastly buffet: an assortment of knives, a pair of gardening shears, plastic containers full of fake blood, a decapitated head made of foam, a pumpkin stuffed with pig intestines. Standing beside the eyebrow-raising collection of props, stirring a tub of red liquid with a wooden spoon, is Emily Spindler, the blood master for that night’s entertainment, Splatter Theater....

Photography: Lisa Predko; art direction: Jamie Ramsay; assisting: Brian Gladkowski; retouching: Sarah Crump Sports & Recreation Model: Janaya Greene Animal talent: Patti the dog courtesy Zena Sakowski and Rob Kelly Bowling ball courtesy Lisa Predko Softball courtesy Chicago Reader, Kup Cup 2019 Champions Moxi roller skates courtesy Athena Smith Music & Nightlife Model: S. Nicole Lane Off Color Squoke courtesy Off Color Brewery

Outside Saint Francis of Assisi Church On weekends when the weather is right, half a dozen temporary kitchens pop up on the sidewalk next to this University Village Catholic church to crank out an impressive variety of tacos, gorditas, tortas, tostadas, elotes, and huaraches with freshly pressed masa. Business is brisk and turnover high, so the food is always fresh. Wash it down with a rainbow of aquas frescas and finish with some frutas con chile y limon....

Andrew Tham, 31, is a composer and performer who grew up in Edgewater. He’s a founder of art-music cassette label Parlour Tapes, a member of performance collective Mocrep, and an occasional sound designer for the Neo-Futurists. I was a music director at our college radio station and I booked this band called Volcano! from Chicago, and Sam Scranton—he’s a good friend of mine now and a composer—he was the drummer in the band....

Minneapolis native Bryan Black was fronting an industrial band called Haloblack when Prince invited him to work as an engineer at Paisley Park, a position he held for only six months. Later, he told the bloggers at his label, Electric Deluxe, that the work was “tedious and painful,” but he gained knowledge he wound up applying to his own music, first as part of a “techno punk” duo called Motor, and currently as a solo techno artist under the name Black Asteroid....

Chef Jassy Lee is a living embodiment of an international fried chicken triangulation, a case study in the global affinity for spicy, battered, and crispy poultry. Born in Taishan, Guangdong, she emigrated to the U.S. in 1991 with her parents, but also visited relatives in Belize, members of that country’s Chinese immigrant community, which is largely responsible for another beloved expression of deep-fried poultry. Lee’s Belizean family owned restaurants and served fried chicken—uhhh, BFC?...

In 2019, singer-songwriter Savanna Dickhut caught Gossip Wolf’s ear with “Southsider,” the debut single by her project Burr Oak—it details the heartbreaking end of a relationship over folky indie pop. Last March, Dickhut was set to tour as keyboardist in local darlings Varsity, but COVID-19 curtailed those plans and gave her plenty of time to work on her debut full-length, Late Bloomer, which hit streaming services last week (and is up for preorder on cassette via Burr Oak’s Bandcamp)....

“Never told this to anyone,” says Chance the Rapper, recounting in a revealing GQ profile how a scary period during his girlfriend’s pregnancy last year helped strengthen their relationship and restore his faith in God. He says touring and merch sales are solid and that he’ll never participate in the “dick-swinging contest” of signing to a label. He appreciated the benediction. But also: “I’m thinking, like, damn, I don’t even know if God likes rap!...

Blue Buddha Boutique bluebuddhaboutique.com Anybody who’s in the business of brainwashing women into buying more clothing and accessories will tell you the best way to brighten up a blah outfit is to add some statement jewelry. There are plenty of stores in Chicago selling jewelry that will help you state that you are a fun, fearless, sexy female. But sometimes you do not want to look fun and fearless and sexy....

The Rubicon A few months ago, a group of friends whispered something about heading to an underground party called the Rubicon. I couldn’t go that night, but thinking that I might experience an affair equivalent to a mid-70s Tangerine Dream album, I made it my business to get to a Rubicon rave a few months later. In a subterranean space in Pilsen, club kids and art-school graduates danced to local DJs in a giant smoke-machine cloud....

Barrel-Aged Ceres Vodka from Chicago Distilling Company chicagodistilling.com Bartenders and distillers are barrel aging everything these days, from gin to cocktails—but barrel-aged vodka is still fairly rare. And that alone was enough reason for Two mixologist Graham Crowe and Chicago Distilling Company owner Jay DiPrizio to want to make one. They collaborated in late January to fill a used whiskey barrel—from the distillery’s in-the-works malt whiskey program—with their Ceres vodka. About six weeks of barrel aging smoothed and mellowed the vodka, giving it a pale gold color and faint notes of chocolate, caramel, and oak, with a sweet spiciness....

Monica Schipper/Getty Images for New York Comedy Festival The danger Brian Williams was most in was the danger of letting his little story run away from him. A story in Monday’s New York Times hails the photography of Spider Martin, who in 1965 was assigned by the Birmingham News to shoot pictures of the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Art historian Martin Berger is quoted by the Times observing that several scenes from the new movie Selma seem to be based on Martin’s pictures....

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.

Welcome to the Reader’s morning briefing for Friday, September 9, 2016. Have a great weekend! City Council committee approves controversial water and sewer tax increases The City Council Finance Committee approved increases in the city’s water and sewer taxes Thursday. The proposal would increase water taxes by 30 percent in phases over the next five years. Mayor Rahm Emanuel hopes the revenue will raise hundreds of millions of dollars for city pension funds....

Robin Williams on Milwaukee Mile of Murals 

There are plenty of shows, films, and concerts to see this week. Here’s some of what we recommend: Wed 5/9: “He’s always been intensely ensemble minded, adding drive, color, and presence to every project he’s part of,” the Reader’s Peter Margasak writes about drummer Chad Taylor. Now Taylor, who’s created beats for jazz players such as Jaime Branch and Mara Rosenblum, has dropped a solo debut, Myths & Morals, out next week....

Our poster this week is for a drive-in concert and anniversary party. Artist Jay Ryan created it for a celebration by longtime Chicago punk band Pegboy, who are commemorating 30 years of music. They’ll be joined by three opening acts—Local H, Stiff Little Fingers front man Jake Burns, and the Bollweevils—for an outdoor drive-up show in the parking lot of SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview. There’s sure to be a tribute to former Pegboy member Pierre Kezdy, who lost his fight against cancer earlier this month....