Bring Back the Draught

From A Native's Guide to Chicago contributor, John Greenfield:

Yak pobachu pyvo, ne proidu mymo
("I will not walk past a beer, when I see it near.")

The Ukrainian Village Draught Beer Preservation Society

The UVDBPS will work to support taverns in Chicago's Ukrainian Village community. There are 29 bars in the neighborhood, liberally defined as the area bounded by Division St., Ashland Ave., Grand Ave. and Western Ave. To pursue the goal of drinking in every bar in this (roughly) square mile, the Society will meet sporadically at various watering holes. The first meeting will be this Wednesday, October 12, at Nilda's Place, 1858 W. Iowa (900 N.), at 9 PM. There will be no particular agenda, but ideas for the upcoming UVDPS Pub Stroll and various propaganda strategies may be discussed. The Pub Stroll, a free walking tour of five area drinking establishments, will take place on Friday, November 18, assembling at Sak's Ukrainian Village Lounge and Restaurant, 2301 W. Chicago Ave., at 7 PM. For more information about Chicago's draught beer preservation movement, visit Bring Back the Draught. [There are already chapters/activities for Logan Square and Andersonville.]

Headstone Crawl

Join Richard Bjorklund for The Ravenswood-Lake View Historical Association's annual fall Graceland Cemetery History Walk, Saturday, October 15, 1 p.m. - 3 p.m. Bjorklund, past president of the association, author of books and articles on Chicago history, and encyclopedic collector of intriguing local tales, provides colorful introduction to over 20 significant gravesites in the history of the North Side, Chicago, and the country. $10, or $7.50 for association members. Reservations not necessary. Tour begins at Graceland's Clark & Irving entrance. Call 312/742-4455 for more information. For a sneak preview of Graceland, see Matt Hucke's (Graveyards of Chicago) Graveyards.com website for stunning photos of Chicago's most historic cemetery.

Think: Month-old Endorsement (and Gripe)

Even after enjoying its many delights, I still haven't figured out why someone would call a restaurant, and this one in particular, "Think," but it's one to move near the top of your restaurants-to-try queue. (Since becoming hooked on the whole Netflix set-up, everything's a queue for me.) At 2235 N. Western, I'd walked by Think umpteen times until the random day at the end of August I passed it on the way to the Bucktown Arts Fest and saw that someone had proclaimed it the Best BYOB in the city. I grabbed a friend and we went that night.

With a charming ambience, lovely service, pasta and risotto dishes that left us swooning, and a reasonable $4/bottle corkage fee, the critics may be right. But here's my gripe. The lovely service included an emphatic recommendation for the appetizer special. When the bill came, we were kind of suprised to learn our special stuffed mini-peppers cost $15, almost twice as much as the average price of regular appetizers on the menu and about what our entrees cost. Having worked in fine dining before LCP and having been a secret restaurant reviewer for a quality control company at some of the city's best restaurants for five years, this was my first case of appetizer sticker shock. Sure a good rule of thumb is: if you have to ask about price, then do ask. Still, diners are customers and restaurants are in the hospitality business. At the level of BYOB neighborhood bistro, top-of-the-line or not, it seems most hospitable to alert eaters if specials of the day are priced noticeably different than menu offerings.