Not your grandmother's theater

CenterStageChicago.net

Head to the theater on a Friday or Saturday night — only, this isn’t the type of performance your grandmother would fancy. Theatro, the new club/lounge in the West Loop was inspired somewhat by the mansion scene in the Tom Cruise-Nicole Kidman flick, “Eyes Wide Shut” (you know, the scene with all the … ahem … masks).

Of course, no actual swingers sex is allowed. Gothic meets sheik at Theatro, in the former home of Reserve. But don’t waste your time studying the decadent chandeliers or the gold-plated masks on the wall behind the DJ. And never mind the nearly dozen bouncers built like Mack trucks. The real entertainment is the actresses.

Sexy waitresses in short black dresses behind the long bar serve a host of fancy cocktails. Or take your bottle and your posse to the large black leather banquettes. Make sure you can see the glass-enclosed stage at the center of the club. Every 45 minutes or so the blinds will be pulled up, revealing the evening’s entertainment. A juggler? A fire-eater? A trans-gender diva? Every weekend’s a surprise. Think you could hold that pose as long as she can?

Theatro
858 W. Lake
Tel: (312) 455-8345
www.theatrochicago.com

Terzo Piano

Location is everything for Terzo Piano, on the third floor of the new Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago, next to the sleek new bridge that crosses over Monroe Street from Millennium Park. The fancy Italian lunch restaurant offers views of Michigan Avenue, the park and the Bluhm Sculpture Garden from its outdoor piazza (with binoculars, you could even watch a performance on the amphitheater stage from here).

The food is all fresh, local and organic, and designed by Chef Tony Mantuano, who food-loving Chicagoans know from his four-star Italian restaurant, Spiaggia. The menu will change seasonally. If you dine here before summer vacation, try the spring salad of local peas, the Chesapeake Bay soft shell crab sandwich with avocado slaw or the sesame crusted Lake Superior whitefish with eggplant and organic cucumber salad. Stick around and enjoy a cheese plate from the cheese cave (cava di stagionatura), which holds a variety of American artisanal cheeses. Terzo Piano serves quality wines and beers, as well as a list of fresh spirits infused with such refreshments as lemon, sage, seasonal fruits, basil or tomato passato. The restaurant is open for dinner on Thursdays only.

Terzo Piano
156 E. Monroe
Tel: 312.443.8650
www.terzopianochicago.com


Tailgate

Gary Applebaum has brought his love of football and pre-game tailgating (and his food knowledge from years in the wine industry) to the Tailgate Restaurant, located inside the U.S. Beer Company building in Lincoln Park. (The U.S. Beer Company opened in 1939 and was the watering hole of choice for generations of factory workers since before the Second World War. The locale also sponsored nearly every softball team in the city.) The U.S. Beer Company’s successor, Tailgate, offers something extra. It’s still a great place to drink, watch the game, take in a concert or hold a private party in one of the private party rooms in the back. In fact, a DePaul student group routinely meets here and breaks into harmonious karaoke.

But since he opened in early March, Gary has already surprised patrons with the quality of his grub — especially the rotisserie chicken and barbecued ribs, served with soup or salad and a choice of potato or baked beans. Not to mention that almost everything on the menu costs less than $10. Tailgate offers choices for health-conscious runners and beefy linebackers, alike. The menu ranges from salads with fresh greens, to ballpark sausage fare, to carbohydrate-filled pasta dishes, to burgers packing half a pound of beef. Gary will cater private parties and deliver all over the near northwest side.


Tailgate
1811 N. Clybourn
Tel: (773) 857-6644
www.thetailgatecatering.com


Latin American Restaurant & Lounge

If you dig the fried Puerto Rican delicacies sold from the trailer at the ball fields in Humboldt Park, then visit the Latin American Restaurant & Lounge on the edge of Division Street’s Paseo Boricua for hearty, inexpensive south-of-the-border and Caribbean fair. And the portions are enormous. For a $4.95 breakfast special, a $5.95 lunch special and dinner specials under $10, you could hang around here all day, practicing your español. Latin American Restaurant just opened a second location as well, at 6001 W. Diversey.

Puerto Rican specialties line the pages of the menu, with offerings like banana dumplings, meat turnovers, jibaritos, plantains, cassava and stuffed potatoes. Keep scanning the extensive menu and you'll find something to write home about, like lobster rice ($12.95), summer sausage soup ($5.99) and blood sausage with boiled green banana ($5.95).

The restaurant itself is a dive, but features a few gems, like a pull-down movie projector screen hanging behind the bar, model ships and a push car grill that warms up fried foods for Humboldt Park. And don't miss the naughty, naughty video slot machines, on the way to the restrooms.

Latin American Restaurant & Lounge
2743 W. Division
Tel: (773) 235-7290


The Rockhouse

Cheap beer drinkers from DePaul, rockers and those who enjoy good alcohol all share this new Lincoln Park joint, which replaces Deja Vu. There’s no cover here, any time. Get familiar with the shot machines dispensing Jager, Patron and Bacardi behind the bar, enjoy the art tattooed on the wait staff’s bodies if you can see them through the fog machine, and rock out to the bands jamming on stage until the wee hours on Friday and Saturday nights (the juke box will have to suffice, Tuesday-Thursday). Dan Aykroyd wants you to try his Crystal Skull vodka, stocked behind the bar in (what else?) skulls. The Rockhouse will eventually offer cocktails named, and perhaps styled, after dead rockers like Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain.

But the true highlight of your night (or morning) may come upstairs, where you’ll be able to hear your own voice, and where three elegantly decorated rooms with comfy couches and portraits of the rock bands of yesteryear — Elvis, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, the Who — might make you feel like you’ve entered a time warp and are partying with your parent’s crowd (assuming your folks were hip). Check out the love suite in the corner, separated from the room by drapes and offering a bird’s eye view of Lincoln Avenue, but the wait staff asks you and your sweety not to get too cozy there. The Rockhouse may open up the basement — a former speakeasy — some day. Well drinks cost $5 or $6, and you’ll find specials on cheap beer throughout the week. Of course, who’d want $1 Busch on Wednesdays when you can have a $4 Maker’s Mark.

The Rockhouse
2624 N. Lincoln
Tel: (773) 871-0205
www.rockhousechicago.com


Baza Sports Club

Restaurants in Eastern European cities are typically located in the basement, so Nicolai Perepitchka’s new Baza Sports Club in Ukrainian Village is naturally underground (a patio outside also seats approximately 16). “Baza,” which means “home” in the mother tongue, boasts old-fashioned wood paneling and softly lit lanterns, suggestive of an eatery in Kiev. But the 19 televisions on the walls, airing everything from baseball to boxing, the posters of a young Michael Jordan and other Chicago sports icons, and the marble-topped bar all remind you that this is the Windy City. Nicolai, who’s lived in the States for 18 years, is a true sports fanatic.

Once Baza gets its liquor license, this will become the perfect tavern in Ukrainian Village to watch the game and drink a cold one (currently BYOB, the restaurant serves $4 fresh orange, grapefruit and pomegranate juice for mixed drinks). For now, the cuisine alone is worth the trip. Baza offers a global menu that includes Eastern European-specialties like borscht ($5), but also Asian items (pork potstickers, $8) and comida Mexicana (mushroom-goat cheese empanadas, $7). If you’re ravenously hungry, then splurge on the high-end entrees such as the 12-ounce New York strip steak ($18) or the pan-seared salmon with asparagus ($14).

The executive chef at Wolfgang Puck designed Baza’s menu, and it shows. You’d expect the beef borscht to be hearty, and that it is, but the popular dish also offers a cornucopia of different tastes — owing to the crème fraiche and dill. All in all, this fusion restaurant is worth a visit.

Baza Sports Club
2500 W. Chicago Ave.
Tel: (773) 252-4775/2292
www.bazasportsclub.com


Witt’s

After owning the popular Lakeview tavern, Witt’s, for three years, Christy and Donald Agee felt the place needed a facelift. The specials and beer prices are still listed on the horizontal chalkboard along the back wall, and you can still fraternize with old friends here while watching the game. But Witt’s updated its menu in May, as Christy puts it, to play up their chef Jeffrey’s talents, and to appeal to a broader audience. Chef Jeff visits the Green City Market once a week and prepares delicious meals with fresh, local produce. The menu now features homemade pastas ($12), a house salad and different seafood options including shrimp and halibut ($14), but the bar favorites like the burger ($9) and the popular pulled pork sandwich ($10) remain. Christy says the Chicken Cordon Bleu sandwich served on a croissant ($10) goes particularly well with whatever’s on tap.

Witt’s has always appealed to the neighborhood sports crowd, but those who want to go out on a date and have a nice meal can now enjoy it too. The classy menu presentation doesn’t hurt either. Witt’s outdoor patio seats 75, and you’re tucked away from the streets, so ladies, wear whatever you like after Cubs games … street pedestrians won’t gawk at you. And if you live in the neighborhood, stop by for trivia night on Wednesdays at 8 p.m., and get to know the summer specials: $9 burger and draft on Mondays; $6 Belgian brew and 2 for $25 menu including wine on Tuesdays; $1 off cocktails on Wednesdays; $4 Bell’s and $5 pulled pork sandwiches on Thursdays; $5 Captain Morgan cocktails on Fridays; $4 vodka cranberries on Saturdays; $5 bloody Marys on Sundays, and more.

Witt’s
2913 N Lincoln Ave
Tel: (773) 528-7032
www.wittschicago.com


Lan's Old Town

Jimmy, the owner of Lan’s, the new Szechwan, Mandarin restaurant in Old Town, knows a thing or two about Chinese restaurants. The original Lan’s — which is named after his wife and his mother, and means “orchid” in the old country — opened in 1980 at Armitage and Sedgewick. Another Lan’s was born in River North in 1988, and Jimmy opened Lan’s Old Town in May after tiring of the commute between Chicago and Cabo San Lucas, where he ran yet another Chinese joint and worked three weeks there for every week in the Windy City. In Cabo, of course, he could fish for a fresh catch every single day, whereas here he settles for fresh fish from the market on Thursdays and Fridays.

Lan’s Old Town, which is BYOB, sports a classy interior with white linens, a wooden bar countertop and an orchid painting behind the bar. Much of his business, though, is takeout orders. Jimmy’s neighborhood customers know him by his first name, and return again and again, for the perfect blend of spice and flavor in his MSG-free dishes. The fish pot stickers ($5.95) are favorites (you’ll never go back to pork after trying fish pot stickers, he insists), as are the Moo Shu pork, the Lan’s Manchurian beef and the Szechwan beef (all $9.95). Lan’s Old Town offers catering, and a bounty of affordable food.

Lan's Old Town
1507 N. Sedgwick
Tel: (312) 255-9888


Los Dos Laredos

One of the first Mexican restaurants to open its doors 42 years ago in the Little Village neighborhood on the city’s southwest side, Los Dos Laredos offers a colorful and open atmosphere with seating for 99 and a dance floor and cocktail bar perfect for private parties, banquets and weddings. Serving liquor and open all night during the weekends, Jesus Lopez’s restaurant will resume live music in the fall.

Named after two towns named Laredo on both sides of the Rio Grande, where the river splits Mexico and Texas, Los Dos Laredos has adjusted its menu within the past year to adhere to customer demand. Tapas de carnita, tamales and salads are all new, as diners want healthier, and smaller, options. But the mixed grill platters made for two or four are still the signature order. Bring your spouse and kids, or three pals, and enjoy the pollo rostizado family pack ($12.99) or the popular taquiza ($21.99) or a bounty of meaty choices including skirt steak, beef ribs, pork chops, bacon and Mexican sausage.

Daytime meals are cheap. Breakfast specials go for $3.99 and include huevos rancheros, huevos a la Mexicana and huevos con chorizo. Lunch specials served between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. generally don’t exceed $5. Try the giant quesadilla, handmade in a corn tortilla and stuffed with mushrooms and cheese or chicken.

Los Dos Laredos
3120 W. 26th
Tel: (773) 376-3218


Mangia Fresca

Stuff yourself full of pasta, designed the way you like it, at Mangia Fresca, a new Italian café/lunch counter that opened in early 2009 in Bridgeport. Mangia Fresca is a block west of Halsted and just steps from the Orange Line and the expressway. It’s a great place to order takeout on your way to the Sox game, and owner Paul Impallaria has also installed a couple flat-screen televisions, and a dozen tables, where you can watch the first inning if you’re running late.

You can be the boss and create your own pasta meal for just $4.99. Choices include angel hair, linguine, spaghetti, mostaccioli, rigatoni, bowtie and fettucine, with marinara, vodka, arrabiata, aglio & olio, alfredo, meat sauce or pesto. Add sausage, chicken, meatballs, shrimp, salmon or fresh veggies for a few bucks more. Mangia Fresca serves a variety of paninis, sandwiches and burgers ranging in price from $3-$9. Paul says that his original breaded steak is the most popular, and brick oven pizza will be here soon. Mangia Fresca also offers complete catering for family parties, office events and business meetings.

Mangia Fresca
2556 S. Archer
Tel: (312) 225-7100