With Ina Pinkney at the Union League Club

Several live events in the last month—Ina Pinkney led a Q&A at the Union League Club to a very appreciative audience of food fans…

I also appeared at Boswell Book Company in Milwaukee with Kyle Cherek, host of the NPR podcast Classic Eats, which I was on this month—listen to it here.

By the way, do you need an autographed copy? I just delivered a bunch to J.P. Graziano Grocery—as seen here with Jim Graziano, who paints a very vivid picture of Randolph Street before Jerry Kleiner, Girl & the Goat and so on in Chapter 10.

Another media appearance—this one was published in the Northwest (Indiana) Times earlier in May, but I just saw it.

But the biggest event was at Carrie Nahabedian’s Brindille, to an audience of around 60 who filled the place. Carrie is a key figure in the early chapters, having worked at the Dining Room at the Ritz Carlton, Le Francais, and Gordon Sinclair’s Sinclair’s in Lake Forest, with a kid named Chuck Trotter in his first real restaurant job. She put on a great spread (with an assist by Sarah Stegner) and invited a bunch of chefs. So it was a big crowd of people who are in the book, from chefs like Kevin Hickey, Michael Foley and Jason Hammel to guests including Maggie Trboyevic, Anne (Trotter) Hinkamp and Carol Mighton Haddix, with a Q&A led by another person in the book—Monica Eng. A really warm, sweet event. Here’s a few more folks who came out for it:

Penny Pollack, Phil Vettel and Ina Pinkney.

Barnes & Noble on Diversey

Lots of appearances on Substack, podcasts, and even old school media, as well as in person:

I talked food with Bob Sirott on WGN Radio here. I also did a bit with Dane Neal, but he was subbing for someone else, which I’d guess is why it’s not online.

I talked with Andrew Davis at his Substack SAVOR. Go here to read it.

Ina Pinkney, who’s in the book, included me in her newsletter here.

I talked restaurants with Carrie Nahabedian at the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago.

Carrie also sent me this review, from the newsletter of a NYC food bookstore, Kitchen Arts & Letters:

Finally, I also did an event at the Old Town Triangle Association, a Q&A hosted by fellow writer Chris LaMorte. Good-sized audience (about 60, I’d guess) which included three interviewees from the book, followed by a healthy number of book sales, plus signing some that people already had. Thanks to them and Chris for a great event.

Chapter 1 of my book in Chicago magazine

If you want to read an actual physical magazine article about my book, Chicago mag’s issue with the first chapter (about Louis Szathmary) is on newsstands now. Go here to read it online.

I was guiltily on Car Con Carne with James Van Osdol. I say “guiltily” because I got to know James appearing on WGN Radio when he’d sub for whoever late at night to talk about my latest Thrillist list of Italian beef or whatever. Now I’m Mister Fancy Pants Fine Dining! We talked a bit about that parked outside Sun Wah; go here, or check your podcast app.

Then I was on WGN Radio’s morning show with Bob Sirott during their weekly food segment. Go here to hear it. I also had an appearance with Dane Neal, but it’s apparently not online.

I was on WGN TV—watch it here.

Monica Eng, who’s in the book, did a piece at Axios here.

I gave a talk on Zoom for Culinary Historians of Chicago/Greater Midwest Foodways, hosted by Scott Warner and Cathy Lambrecht, both of whom are in the book. Watch it on YouTube here, or audio-only in your podcast app.

Finally (for now), I appeared on my own vintage movie podcast, talking with David Hammond about my book. Which is not about old movies, obviously, but I did manage to connect the two subjects a couple of times.

Books on display at a private event at the Chicago Club.

My book is here! Tuesday was the official release date, and also the date of the launch party, held at LouLou by Lula. Big thanks to Jason Hammel and everyone from Lula/LouLou who helped make it happen; to Steve Dolinsky, who did a terrific job running a 30-40 minute Q&A, both his own questions and a few from the audience; to Kevin Hickey, who sent along some Duck Dogs to augment the canapes from Lula; and to about 60 people who showed up, from old friends to a couple of restaurant folks to a bunch of readers of my newsletter.

Anyway, it was a really nice event (Friend of Fooditor Rebecca Fyffe posted some nice pics from it here), and I sold and signed a bunch of books.  But we had some left over which I signed for the bookstore to have inventory, so if you want one, head over to City Lit Books, just a few doors south of Lula, and you’ll find them there. Or you can order from them to have a signed copy shipped. I just popped over there and signed some more on Friday.

Q&A at the LouLou launch party.

On to more publicity! Another nice print piece, by Daniel Hautzinger at WTTW, talks about the long span of continuity between restaurant people in Chicago:

Charlie Trotter’s eponymous Lincoln Park restaurant was one of the most famous and influential in America. But when we first meet Trotter in The Chicago Way: An Oral History of Chicago Dining, a new book by longtime food reporter Michael Gebert, he’s a high schooler dining at The Bakery before his prom. Kevin Boehm is one of the most successful restaurateurs in Chicago, with The Girl & the Goat, Boka, and Momotaro among the many spots he has opened with his partner Rob Katz under the name Boka – but his first appearance in the book is as a young man who has the wine list from Gordon faxed to him in order to precisely plan out a tight budget; he and his girlfriend go to Chicago just to have this one meal.

“I wanted to introduce everybody at their early point and follow them through,” says Gebert.

So far it’s mostly been print pieces plus my morning show appearances last week, but the podcast attention is beginning—exciting for me to get a chance to talk at greater length. First up was with David Manilow (who’s interviewed in the book about Check, Please!), a really good half hour conversation that includes him talking about reacting to reading himself quoted by someone else. Unfortunately, there’s no easy way to link directly to it, but look for The Dining Table in your podcast app and then scroll to episode 151, “The Tastemakers Who Define Chicago Dining.”

And I returned to a favorite program I’ve been on several times before—Outside the Loop with Mike Stephen. Our ten-minute chat ran early Saturday morning on WGN Radio; now you can go here to catch up with it.

That’s all for this week, but more to come!

Signing books!

Me in the green room at NBC Chicago

So that was me slightly before 6:00 am (yikes!) at NBC Chicago, in their green room/staff lounge area, which doubled as the set where we shot me in conversation with Matt Rodrigues for Matt in the Morning, part of their local morning line up with the Today show. Very snazzy new studio there, which looks like it’s not just making TV shows, it looks like it’s on one.

A bunch of things in the process of becoming publicity as we approach the book’s official release next Tuesday—I did NBC Chicago’s morning show, and then I did Fox’s Good Day Chicago. The latter has a clip up which you can watch here.

But the main thing to click on to check out is my old friend Lisa Shames’ excellent piece at the Sun-Times, which really is everything I could hope for in a profile of the book, including vintage photos from the Sun-Times’ own archives. Go here to read it, or if that requires logging in, it’s also at WBEZ here.

Lisa’s piece also got called out in Ray Pride’s column at NewCity. More to come next week!

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