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Lisa Shames of CS • Bon Appetit’s Jason Kessler • Tiki Symposium With Paul McGee of Three Dots and a Dash • BBQ Legend Mike Mills

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In the new Airwaves Full of Bacon podcast, I mark a milestone— the first piece produced by somebody else for the show. But first…

I talk on the phone to Lisa Shames, dining editor of CS (Chicago Social), about what she saw as she put together this year’s dining issue (which you can read in “digital edition” form here; the food part starts around page 86).

Then I talk to Jason Kessler, who writes for TV as well as The Kessler Report for Food Republic and The Nitpicker for Bon Appetit, about what an expat in LA eats when he comes back to Chicago. Here’s his satirical piece about the Food Network, referenced in the podcast. He also appears on camera in this Sky Full of Bacon video about St. Croix:

Paul McGee at Three Dots and a Dash, photo courtesy LEYE.

Our Tiki Symposium was produced by Roger Kamholz and features Paul McGee, who is the mixologist behind Chicago’s new Tiki bar Three Dots and a Dash; Rob Christopher who writes for Chicagoist and covered the closing of Trader Vic’s in Chicago here; and rum expert Ed Hamilton who wrote this collectible and has this site.

The music for the Tiki segment is by Mr. Ho’s Orchestrotica, a modern ensemble playing exotica and Esquivel among other things. You can check them out and get some free tracks from them by signing up for their website, or contribute to their in-progress new album; check that out at pledgemusic.com/orchestrotica.

A couple of references that pass quickly in that conversation: Witco was the company that made much of the vintage Tiki decor (giant Eastern Island heads and that sort of thing), and one of the best places to see that is in the Chicago area, Hala Kahiki in River Grove. The central figure in Tiki revivalism that Ed mentions is Martin Cate; here’s his site. Another author mentioned is Jeff Berry; here’s his site.

Finally, I talk barbecue with a true legend of BBQ, Mike Mills of 17th Street Bar & Grill in Murphysboro, Illinois, who is the central figure in my latest video podcast, Woodsmoke Nation:

More about him, and that video (which follows a BBQ competition for 28 hours), here.