Dining: Bar Lunch
I settled in for a bar lunch the other day at Joe’s, an elegant seafood and steak house off Michigan Avenue with my friend and colleague Barbara. I’d been to Joe’s (60 E. Grand St.) several times, for review or to meet with editors. It’s pricey, but the seafood — especially their signature stone crab
(...)Books: The Poet and The Painting
A quiet wing of the Louvre is devoted to Flemish and Dutch painting: landscapes, portraits, still lifes. When I visited recently, my friend Deborah kept referring to lines from a book she’d read — and loved — about a single Dutch painting, “Still Life with Oysters and Lemon,†by Mark Doty, (Beacon Press, $13.) When
(...)Dining: Wells Street
A friend who owns restaurants says patrons come back, time after time, for a signature dish. Something no other restaurant makes or prepares in the same way. I’d widen the reasons for returning to a restaurant: portions, presentation, ingredients, certain servers, a special view. Two restaurants in my Old Town neighborhood, opened within the past
(...)Books: By the Hand
Instead of grabbing you by the throat, some books take you gently by the hand. Soothing, comfortable — ok, slow. But you’ll tote that book around like a third child and finish it, and feel sorry when you have. “The Elegance of the Hedgehog†is one of those books. A 2007 prize-winner in France, it
(...)Dining: Off the Street
Looking for a place to eat? Look up. In Chicago, many of the city’s best restaurants are tucked inside skyscrapers or set in vertical shopping centers Latest entry? Fred’s (15 E. Oak St.), on the sixth floor of the new Barney’s New York. (What a makeover!) My friend Jennifer and I had lunch at Fred’s
(...)Books: Between the covers
Why write about books? Well, for some of us, books are like lovers. We take them to bed. We cuddle up with them. We press them on our friends. We devour them, savor them — and sometimes throw one against the wall. As my friend Jennifer says, “A book should be lucky to have my
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