spinynorman99 wrote:Boba, again? This was the "hot new thing" about 3 times already, dating back to the early 2000's.

Lake Zurich leaders approved a plan for a new firehouse-themed restaurant at the former Fritzl's European Restaurant & Pub, which was a village mainstay for 36 years before closing in 2021.

Husband-and-wife duo Kris and Moriah Schoenberger received permission to open Station 52 Truck Company Bar & Grill at 377 N. Rand Road. As the name suggests, the restaurant will bear many similarities to the Schoenbergers' Antioch establishment Station 51, which opened in 2021, albeit in a space four times the size.

Midwest’s First La Michoacana Plus Opens On 26th Street, Bringing Ice Cream, Paletas And More To Little Village

Midwest’s First La Michoacana Plus Opens On 26th Street, Bringing Ice Cream, Paletas And More To Little Village

Cathy2 wrote:

Midwest’s First La Michoacana Plus Opens On 26th Street, Bringing Ice Cream, Paletas And More To Little Village

As if these were not already there?

Heck we have a similar shop in Highland Park, believe it or not!

Regards,
Cathy2

spinynorman99 wrote:Boba, again? This was the "hot new thing" about 3 times already, dating back to the early 2000's.

Back in 2017, I wrote a few thousand words about how the best bowl of ramen in Chicago couldn’t be found in a restaurant. Instead, if you wanted to sample the most satisfying bowl of miso ramen in the area, you’d need to ask Mike Satinover, an amateur ramen obsessive, to make it for you.

After growing up in suburban Oak Park, Satinover fell hard for ramen while living in Sapporo, Japan, for a year during college. When he returned to the United States, he found all the ramen he tried lacking. While he spent his days working at a marketing data and analytics company, during his free time he devoted countless hours to understanding every intricacy of the dish. Eventually, he started sharing his results on Reddit, where he went by the username Ramen_Lord.

He gained such a following on Reddit that he started hosting ramen parties at his small condo. But no matter how many times people asked him, he was adamant he didn’t want to open a restaurant.

He has already signed the lease on a space at 2340 N. California Ave., and has hired Siren Betty, a popular firm behind the interiors of The California Clipper, Nine Bar and Giant (to name a few), to design the space. The room will seat about 50, with a six-seat counter facing an open kitchen, a few large booths and a massive communal table that can fit almost 20.

The slim menu will feature four to five bowls of ramen and two or three rice dishes. He’s still tinkering with the official lineup, but you can be sure his miso ramen will make the cut. “The miso ramen will exist forever,” Satinover said. “And I’ll probably serve a shoyu and a tonkotsu. I’ll probably have two soupless styles of ramen because I think Chicago doesn’t know how great those can be.” As for the rice dishes, he’s hoping to serve a chashu don, featuring fatty pork, and an ikura don, which is topped with salmon roe.

He’ll need some specialized equipment to do so, including a $40,000 noodle-making machine that’s currently resting in his living room. (Follow him on Instagram if you want to see his adventures with that piece of equipment.)

polster wrote:Akahoshi Ramen the first brick and mortar by the Chicago famous social media persona as Ramen Lord (aka Mike Satinover).

Back in 2017, I wrote a few thousand words about how the best bowl of ramen in Chicago couldn’t be found in a restaurant. Instead, if you wanted to sample the most satisfying bowl of miso ramen in the area, you’d need to ask Mike Satinover, an amateur ramen obsessive, to make it for you.

After growing up in suburban Oak Park, Satinover fell hard for ramen while living in Sapporo, Japan, for a year during college. When he returned to the United States, he found all the ramen he tried lacking. While he spent his days working at a marketing data and analytics company, during his free time he devoted countless hours to understanding every intricacy of the dish. Eventually, he started sharing his results on Reddit, where he went by the username Ramen_Lord.

He gained such a following on Reddit that he started hosting ramen parties at his small condo. But no matter how many times people asked him, he was adamant he didn’t want to open a restaurant.

He has already signed the lease on a space at 2340 N. California Ave., and has hired Siren Betty, a popular firm behind the interiors of The California Clipper, Nine Bar and Giant (to name a few), to design the space. The room will seat about 50, with a six-seat counter facing an open kitchen, a few large booths and a massive communal table that can fit almost 20.

The slim menu will feature four to five bowls of ramen and two or three rice dishes. He’s still tinkering with the official lineup, but you can be sure his miso ramen will make the cut. “The miso ramen will exist forever,” Satinover said. “And I’ll probably serve a shoyu and a tonkotsu. I’ll probably have two soupless styles of ramen because I think Chicago doesn’t know how great those can be.” As for the rice dishes, he’s hoping to serve a chashu don, featuring fatty pork, and an ikura don, which is topped with salmon roe.

He’ll need some specialized equipment to do so, including a $40,000 noodle-making machine that’s currently resting in his living room. (Follow him on Instagram if you want to see his adventures with that piece of equipment.)

https://www.chicagotribune.com/dining/c ... story.html

Akahoshi Ramen
2340 N. California Ave
Chicago, IL 60647
https://www.akahoshiramen.com/
https://www.instagram.com/ramen__lord/

spinynorman99 wrote:Still a trend that has never really broken through. When we first tried it in Hawaii a couple of decades back we thought it would become the hot new thing on the mainland and it did pop up here and there. Our kids would always stop at the stand in Mitsuwa's food court whenever we stopped in and there were a few scattered places in the area that seemed to stick around (like Tea Rex) but it's never had more than fringe appeal.

chezbrad wrote:Um, what? It’s a multi-billion dollar industry; there are multiple boba shops in Lakeview, Evanston, et al. It broke through; it is permanent.

spinynorman99 wrote:

chezbrad wrote:Um, what? It’s a multi-billion dollar industry; there are multiple boba shops in Lakeview, Evanston, et al. It broke through; it is permanent.

Billions globally, primarily in Asia where it's had a foothold for decades. In the states it has ebbed and flowed over the past two decades, as many shops close as they open.

MarlaCollins'Husband wrote:Yeah, that's just wrong. 30 seconds on Google will take you to any number of industry reports that make clear the boba industry has consistently grown in the US and is quite large. Hell, Baskin Robbins had it last summer and Peet's has added a permanent menu item (sugar jelly) that's openly boba-inspired.

spinynorman99 wrote:

MarlaCollins'Husband wrote:Yeah, that's just wrong. 30 seconds on Google will take you to any number of industry reports that make clear the boba industry has consistently grown in the US and is quite large. Hell, Baskin Robbins had it last summer and Peet's has added a permanent menu item (sugar jelly) that's openly boba-inspired.

Again, I'm not disputing its current popularity, just noting that we've been here before. It has remained wildly popular abroad but has had waves of popularity here over the last 20 years. It seemed like they were opening all over the place when my kids were teens (well over a decade back) but then a number of those locations closed. I'm just noting that it seems to be coming back again but, as I said, we have been here before.

G Wiv wrote:Boba tea intermission: The tea became known as boba because the term is slang for breasts in Chinese (a reference the spherical shape of the tapioca balls).. I had originally heard the tapioca balls were call boba as that was slang for nipple, but Food and Wine disagrees.

My favorite Chinese milk tea is Chiu Quon Bakery on Argyle's milk tea. No boba, but hot/strong/lightly sweet, milky and delicious.

Now back to your regularly scheduled 246 toothpicks on the floor.

excelsior wrote:Walking home from Old Town School last night, saw that Boonie's Filipino Restaurant was coming soon to 4337 N. Western.

ekreider wrote:Note that Boonie's is in North Center, not Lincoln Square. Eater's poor grasp of community boundaries strikes again.

WhyBeeSea wrote:

ekreider wrote:Note that Boonie's is in North Center, not Lincoln Square. Eater's poor grasp of community boundaries strikes again.

I'd like to point out that the article never specifically references that this restaurant is in a certain community area. Lincoln Square is used by many, including myself, to denote the neighborhood that Boonie's has opened in.

bweiny wrote:Eater isn't an adversarial critic of restaurants, they're a collaborative PR enterprise. Pivoting to a geographic authority role would be inconsistent with the mission. If a restaurant formally in Lincoln Square preferred North Center, they'd go with the restaurant's preference.

WhyBeeSea wrote:

ekreider wrote:Note that Boonie's is in North Center, not Lincoln Square. Eater's poor grasp of community boundaries strikes again.

I'd like to point out that the article never specifically references that this restaurant is in a certain community area. Lincoln Square is used by many, including myself, to denote the neighborhood that Boonie's has opened in.