Restaurant Experience: The Omakase Room at Sushi San River North (Chicago)
The Omakase Room placard (photo by Wade Hall)
Bar at The Omakase Room (Photo courtesy of Wade Hall)
My dinner back in January of this year at The Omakase Room at Sushi-san River North was the best meal of my entire life.
I know, I know. You’re saying to yourself, "But Ghost, how can that possibly be? You’re like old...surely something else beats it.” Nope. What once was Girl & the Goat and then later Husk in Nashville, is now this absurdly stunning jewel of a multi-course sushi spot. Considering it’s one of Lettuce Entertain You’s pricier spots, it definitely should be.*
Opened in early 2022, the 10-seat room sits above Sushi-san (a rowdier crowd comparatively) and guests enjoy a special cocktail in the 30 minutes between arriving and dinner starting. You do not want to be late for this. Not only is it rude, but then you’ll miss some bonkers good fish and seafood.
“Everything we’ve done is designed to break down barriers between chefs and and patrons,” says partner Amarit Dulyapaibul. “The goal here is to showcase the most special ingredients and techniques but do so in a manner that is comfortable, approachable, and fun.”
Settling in, I made the best small talk I could muster (I’m not exactly Mr. Social) until chef Kaze Chan began the festivities with a round of sake from his premium stash. We all cheered. The sake, an alcohol I’m not normally fond of, was pretty damn exceptional.
“For relaxing times, it’s Suntory time.” (Photo courtesy of Wade Hall)
Chan, along with Shigeru Kitano (Momotaro, Japonais by Morimoto), began preparing the first course of abalone. This was my first experience eating abalone and, while nowhere near bad, didn’t send shivers down my spine. Certainly not for a lack of flavor in the braising liquid its presented with. This is quickly followed up by one of the evening’s stellar highlights. Otoro Tartare featuring succulent fatty tuna belly chopped, served with a house cured duck egg yolk and chopped chives with a gorgeous and significant topping of Golden Kaluga caviar from Rare Tea Cellars. My lord was this a splendid experience. Like some sort of made castaway picked up on a deserted island after years of talking to inanimate objects, I practically wolfed this down. I had to restrain myself from licking the serving container.
Otoro Tartare (photo courtesy of LEYE)
Next was a trio of sashimi - Hokkaido scallop, Spanish mackerel (you truly have to try mackerel in different forms, a reliably tasty fish) and Amberjack belly all from Japan. Then, a torchon of monkfish liver (Ankimo), which comes with a lovely red wine and Asian pear reduction. Spectacular taste here.
A lovely red rockfish (Kinki) kicks off the nigiri section of the meal, followed by triggerfish (Kawahagi) that features the flesh of the fish with its seasoned liver. Kicked up by the Yuzu kosho (fermented citrus and pepper paste), the blackthroat sea perch (Nodoguro) delivers high marks. This would be the first time I have tried barracude (Kamasu) and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The miso and preserved plum lets the fish sparkle. Next up was gizzard shad (Kohada) which I also have never had. Close to a sardine without its inherent oiliness, this was a real eye opener.
I have been dying to have Uni (sea urchin roe) for years now. It had been forever and I wanted more and more after finishing mine. Uni is truly one of the great tastes of the world. An intensely pleasurable experience. You can barely catch your breath before the Hamachi Toro (yellowtail belly), sourced from Kyushu, arrives. The Omakase Room gets the prized belly while the remainder of the fish gets used in Sushi-san. The added banana peppers with their subtle char adds a nice bit of mild heat. Then there’s the king crab handroll (Kani Tamaki). I can’t imagine many not liking king crab. It truly is one of those decadent items that people crave. Here it’s given a bruleed housemade plum motoyaki on the top. Delicious.
The restaurant’s tuna is sourced from Balfego, a sustainable source for bluefin tuna from the Mediterranean Sea. In this case, lean bluefin tuna (Akami) with a shiitake mushroom butter - perfection. Then chef Kaze moves on to the tuna I was very excited for. A lightly seared medium fatty bluefin tuna (Chutoro Tataki) gets a truffle vinaigrette and stir-fried maitake mushroom (featuring a bit of abalone and black vinegar) made me salivate for more. Then came the prized fatty bluefin tuna (Otoro), here from the tuna’s cheek. The restaurant buys 400-pound whole tunas, giving chef Kaze the opportunity to choose specific cuts for The Omakase Room. The giant tuna only yields five pounds of cheek, but is prized for it’s marbling, which is higher than the actual tuna belly. On top sits both a dehydrated, compressed daviar from Kaviari, as well as Rare Tea Cellars’ American white sturgeon caviar, and a “make it rain” grating of fresh wasabi.
Otoro with caviar (photo courtesy of LEYE)
We’re nearing the end, folks. and with that, we step away from fish/seafood and walk onto land. If you’ve never had A5 Wagyu (Japanese wagyu, not that American kickboxer crap), you need to. Here, Hokkaido snow beef, directly from Chateau Uenae in Hokkaido is a luxurious and rich piece of ribeye that gets grilled over binchotan charcoal. Snow beef refers to the marbling, not weather, and said to resemble a snowflake. Despite beginning to burst you will still want more of this amazing beef.
It took me most of my life to even begin to appreciate the beauty that is the egg. Here, a Japanese sweet omelette (Tamago) featuring unagi rolled in will make even the most egg-resistant happy. Just a lovely second-to-last piece of food.
Tamago (photo coutesy of Wade Hall)
Sadly, I was not a fan of the uni ice cream that ends the meal. It wasn’t bad, it just bordered on the verge of being unpleasant tasting. I could see the Santa Barbara uni being featured in another style, perhaps add one more savory course and fold that beautiful uni into the omelette? Just spit balling. I’m not a chef, so I’m only relying on base knowledge from eating and watching cooking shows.
I don’t want to leave you with the impression that this last course somehow ruined the meal for me. I will admit that perhaps I don’t have the palette to fully appreciate this dish. I can only give my impression. The other nine diners seemed to make quick haste of it, that’s for sure.
Tamago (photo by Wade Hall)
The Omakase Room’s 18-course menu is, bite for bit, the best meal I have ever experienced in my life. I don’t do tasting menus often, so I’m always over the moon when they work out so well. This one exceeded expectations and, quite frankly, I’m going to do my best to visit again in the fall. If you’ve never tried an Omakase before, I think this is a great one to start with. It’s upscale in terms of ingredients, preparation and presentation, but it’s not stuffy in the least.
Film Review: 12 KM (unreleased) Dir. Mike Pecci
Mike Pecci's 12 KM is a truly fascinating short film. Obviously very influenced by John Carpenter's The Thing, but with a way with mood and cinematography that's reminiscent of Denis Villeneuve (if you listen to Pecci’s podcast In Love With the Process, you’ll know he admires both filmmakers a great deal) as well, Pecci delivers one stunning shot after another.
Set in a remote drilling location in 1980s Russia, a crew drills down deeper and deeper into the ground to record sound. When the project's co-creator's son arrives to shut it down, things go...well...very very wrong. 12 KM is, essentially, a horror film, but, unlike most of the dreck in the genre, Pecci finds a heart in it. Unresolved family issues are at the center of the story, giving the film a great deal more meaning than you might expect. As Pecci explains on a recent episode of his podcast featuring filmmaker Joe Carnahan (a friend of Rock ‘n Roll Ghost), he did the VFX work in camera and the details with how he did so need to be heard to be believed. It might be cooler to see the short film (which to do so, you need to listen to his podcast to find out how as it is not publicly available) before listening to the Carnahan episode.
But either way, Pecci delivers a truly stunning achievement on what I have to assume is a micro or near nil budget. 12 KM is intended to be a way in to make a feature version. But I have to say that I like the idea of the short film being as it is and for Pecci to use it as a spring board to another project. With all the garbage that is being made, how has this guy not been given something to make yet? Hollywood - for shame!
3 1/2 stars (out of 4)
Links:
Mike Pecci (right)
Film Review: X / Pearl (A24) Dir. Ti West
Poster by Bloody Posters
2022 was a bona fide HUGE year for new horror. There were a slew of titles from filmmakers who were doing their best to inject the genre with a new sense of vitality. People who cared about filmmaking as a whole, who inhabited their movies with deeper writing, vibrant direction and characters who were damn compelling.
For me, horror is a genre of filmmaking that generally sits just above rom-coms in terms of styles that I will attend. If you hear someone cackling like some sort of hybrid of a witch and a hyena while the previews are going on, it’s most likely me and it’s also likely to be for an upcoming horror film. What horror I do like, I tend to love. But man, there is so much absolute trash from over the last four decades, especially from this century, that I started to just assume I would never see another horror film I loved again.
Sadly, that didn’t happen with Ti West’s two films from 2022, X and Pearl. People raved about both and a third is already done filming, so it’s obvious they were both successful enough to continue making another. But neither film, while both have a lot of qualities I liked, manages to truly bust through as both original and exciting works.
For X, set in 1979 (right before the age of video), a small group of pornographers rent a house on a farm from an old couple who are a bit…well…odd. The old man greets guests at the door with a shotgun, for instance. The young folks begin filming while the old man is in town and then, once filming has been suspended for the day, the homicides begin.
But it takes an awful long time for things to get interesting and the film lacks a sense of urgency even when blood begins to spill. Director West has a fantastic way of setting up scenes and I appreciate his relaxed filmmaking, but it’s a little too relaxed even for my liking. To the point where, even when things start popping off, it still feels empty.
The strange thing is that the characters are all well filled out and every actor brings a lot to each one. I didn’t even know who was in it before I watched it. I was surprised to see music star Kid Cudi (or Scott Mescudi as he’s known when acting), Pitch Perfect’s Brittany Snow and currently everywhere Jenna Ortega (Netflix’s Wednesday).
Cudi is a strong presence as a former Marine who just wants to get high and get laid. He has a truly hysterical scene where he answers the door completely naked and is silhouetted against the moon and you see something giant just…erm…swinging. Snow also shows she has more range than those Pitch Perfect films - here she’s a real cool, sexy chick who tries not to let things get her down. The find appears to be Mia Goth in the dual role of Maxine, the porn producer’s (the producer looks a lot like West really wanted to get a Matthew McConnaughey type) girlfriend who likes cocaine and Pearl, the old woman of the house. Goth has much more to do in Pearl, the prequel.
Pearl, taking place 61 years before X, takes place on the same farm, except now it’s nearly technicolor in its visual vibrancy. The style is old cinema and Goth really feels at home as younger Pearl, who just wants to go somewhere else and become famous. Instead, she’s stuck on the farm with her paralyzed father and her strict German mother. The mother doesn’t stand for any sort of nonsense, no matter how slight. She certainly doesn’t like it when Peal says she spent the extra money from picking up liquid morphine for her father on candy (actually a trip to the local cinema, which would be even worse to admit).
Pearl, as played by Goth, is a dreamer and it seems (at first that is) that her mother is just being too strict. But little things begin to trickle in (like that goose she spears with a pitchfork and then feeds to the alligator in the nearby river) and Pearl becomes more and more unhinged. Goth does a mighty fine job of being 100% in Pearl’s skin, giving every ounce of herself to the performance.
But, while Pearl is in some ways superior to X in its style and its characters, it doesn’t do much better in the tension or horror departments. Pearl goes crazy and starts killing people about as blandly as she and her husband did in X. The last killing, however, had some genuine tension and you just hope and pray that the person actually gets away. So that death holds a deeper meaning than the rest.
The end results leave me puzzled by why these two films caused such an uproar of praise. Both are competently made and feature solid characters and performances, but neither is a game changer for the genre. If both films, particularly X, are supposed to be part of a new “grindhouse” world, neither succeeds because they fail to go all in on the design. If the praise is because the films don’t feature a single stupid person, which is a huge horror cliche - you gotta have a bunch of stupid people to kill off because it’s easier to digest than people who are substantial in any way - then hooray?
West is obviously a talented individual and I look forward to seeing what he does next, and will actually go to the theater to see the forthcoming MaXXXine when it’s released. And Goth has a new film coming out by Brandon Cronenberg this month title Infinity Pool that looks very intriguing, so I’m interested in what she’s up to. Just still scratching my head to why so many fell in love with this pair of films.
Rating:
X - 2 1/2 stars (out of 4)
Pearl - 2 1/2 stars (out of 4)
Links:
Film Review: Babylon (Paramount) Dir: Damien Chazelle
Look at that image from Babylon. It’s just a marvelous encapsulation of the film.
Damien Chazelle has been a filmmaker I have had mixed feelings about in the past. I thought his debut feature, Whiplash, was a tremendous debut. I enjoyed La La Land, but it didn’t really linger past the theater. And I truly despised his First Man, finding it to be a dreadful, boring examination of the great astronaut Neil Armstrong. Each film of his was a diminishing return to me. So I was trepidatious about Babylon, despite the top notch cast. I was even unsure after the wildly fun trailer hit a few months back.
And, when the reviews started coming in - at least half being complete slams on the film (the other half didn’t seem to embrace it fully, but admired its spirit) - I became interested. These critics got themselves worked up into a damn fine lather. They weren’t just put off by the film, they appeared to be actually offended by it. Now I had to see it.
I read an article on Deadline today from before Babylon opened where Paramount were so happy with the film that they signed Chazelle to a first look deal. The expectations were that the film would rake up $18 million in its first four days. SIGH It's been one week and the film has barely made $6.5 million. Babylon cost $90 million to make. It will never make a profit, most likely. It will have a staggered worldwide release, but, unless it catches fire in Europe, I can’t see it happening that money being recouped.
Margot Robbie as Nelly LaRoy and Diego Calva as Manny Torres in Babylon
But Ghost, you say, what did YOU think of the film? Ah, my friend, that’s a great question.
Babylon is the best movie of the year.
Babylon is among the top five best films of this century.
Babylon is one of the most astounding, dazzling, emotional, hilarious, and boldest films I’ve ever seen in my life. This is the closest I’ll probably ever come to going into Apocalypse Now absolutely cold upon its release. Unfortunately, I was too young to do that with Francis Ford Coppola’s epic Vietnam tale - the film I still place as the best ever made.
And the strange thing is that it features several scenes that, were they in say, an Adam Sandler film, I would have probably walked out of it once the third one happened. I mean, barely minutes into it we experience the disgusting (but hysterically funny) head to toe soiling of a man by way of elephant diarrhea. There’s also an underage (not really underage) girl who pisses all over (not real piss) a Fatty Arbuckle type. Then, later in the film, Margot Robbie projectile vomits not once, but twice. And I loved all three moments.
There’s copious amounts of nudity, rampant drug use and alcohol guzzling, simulated hardcore sex acts, big musical numbers, wild scenes of every possible film moments gone wrong, murders, a death by heat box, gross gob spitting, a darkened tunnel that leads to one level after another of moral depravity (sorry rats) and, to top it all off, a completely ghoulish turn by Tobey Maguire, who is so god damn frightening it absolutely needs to be seen to be believed.
I was enthralled pretty much throughout. About halfway through, Chazelle decides to turn down the volume a bit and invest some time getting to know the trouble souls he’s been filming doing outrageously opulent things. It’s a bit jarring, but he ends up building up to a very emotional finale. He earns it. These people just wanted to be loved it turns out, but the world they inhabit isn’t about love, it’s about asses in seats and incorrigible behavior is tolerated, to a point.
Li Jun Li as Lady Fay Zhu in Babylon
The cast, featuring Diego Calva, Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt, Jovan Adepo, Jean Smart, Flea, Lukas Haas, Li Jun Li, Eric Roberts, Samara Weaving (who truly looks like Robbie’s sister), Maguire, Jeff Garlin, Ethan Suplee and Spike Jonze as a completely insane German director, is top notch. The entire team goes all in for Chazelle. They drank the spiked Kool Aid for him and have no problem with whatever befalls them. That’s devotion right there.
You ask, well what’s it about? I say who cares?! Sure, there’s a plot to it all: Silent film at the precipice of the talkies age and the ups and downs that came from this monumental shift in entertainment. My feeling is that Chazelle is not only talking about this era of film, but of the period from the mid-1960s to mid-late 1970s - which is yet another seismic shift for the film industry. What was past became dead and what was new brought audiences into a new era.
He’s talking about the disposability of people. What have you done for me lately? What can you give me? If you cease to be useful, you’re discarded like trash. It’s easy for studio executives to give up on someone like Nelly LaRoy (Robbie) once her descent into alcohol, drug use, flirtations with lesbianism and gambling become too much to bear. But they were like vultures on dead meat when she was plucked out of obscurity and displayed her immense talent.
Same goes for Jack Conrad (Pitt). The biggest silent film star, someone who keeps reaching for beauty even when the cards are against him, is tossed aside from someone that, while, as Conrad says, weren’t friends but were at least friendly.
Lukas Haas as George Munn, Brad Pitt as Jack Conrad and Spike Jonze as Otto in Babylon
Despite the great turns by Robbie, Pitt and Maguire, the real finds on this film are Jovan Adepo as trumpeter Sidney Palmer and Diego Calva as Manny Torres. Sidney goes from sleeping in a chair to a movie star, but one defining moment puts him on a different, self chosen path. Manny goes from transporting the aforementioned stomach ailing elephant to studio executive. Both men truly shine and I’m damn interested to see what they do next. Calva, in particular, reminded me of a younger, thinner Javier Bardem in many ways. He was just magnificent in a role that, in other hands, probably would have been reduced to a minor character. Bravo to Chazelle for putting the spotlight on a cast of non-white, non-straight characters and, while all may not be the leads of the film, they all get the time to shine and make their characters known - from success to failure or anything in between.
My intention for writing reviews again was to do no more than two paragraphs. I couldn’t do that with Babylon. It’s a whole lot of film to love and it deserves better than what has befallen it. I get why Avatar: The Way of Water is a success, I really do. But film cannot only be about, as Martin Scorsese said, “theme parks.” I love superhero films. I love big action films. But I love adult drama, too. I grew up watching almost everything and did my best to go out of my comfort zone. But when films are relegated to streaming or, god forbid, not made at all, we all lose something. No matter how much I love the ability to see almost anything at home, a movie still needs to be seen in a movie theater. I had begun to forget that. Babylon put me back in place.
You need to go see Babylon in the theaters as soon as possible. It deserves as big of a screen as you can find.
Four stars (out of four)
Film Review: Amsterdam (20th Cenury Studios) Dir. David O. Russell
Between the box office returns of Robert Eggers’ The Northman, Damian Chazelle’s Babylon and David O. Russell’s newest, Amsterdam, I wouldn’t expect to see too many more big budgeted adult skewing dramas to see the light of day in the near future. Which is a damn shame, as the world needs these sorts of films right now. Big, bold, not afraid to take chances with their stories and characters. Films made by writers and directors willing to shoot for the moon, even if they miss. Amsterdam is the only one of those three I mentioned that I’ve actually seen (The Northman is on Amazon right now and Babylon is still in theaters for now (I’m seeing it soon) and let me tell you that it’s much, much better than the critics and the box-office suggest.
The all-star cast is led by Christian Bale, Margot Robbie and John David Washington as friends who meet during WWI, form a bond, Robbie disappears and reappears in time for the plot to kick in. Rounding out the cast are Robert DeNiro, Chris Rock, Michael Shannon, Mike Myers, Rami Malek, Anya Taylor-Joy, Taylor Swift, Zoe Saldana and a nearly unrecognizable Timothy Olyphant, Amsterdam is based on real life events (the desire by corporate interests to back Hitler in case his plans worked out), Amsterdam takes its time to get where it’s going, but manages to fill in that time by getting deep inside all of the characters and their eccentricities. Sure, it could have been trimmed down a bit to turn it into the crackerjack it could have been, but I enjoyed its loopy nature nonetheless. Maybe time will be kinder to this oddball gem. We shall see.
Amsterdam is currently on HBO and HBOMAX.
October 07, 2022 Playlist
This week’s playlist is a collection of 20 of my favorite epic songs.
Stretching from Lou Reed’s dark tale of New York City life (“Street Hassle”) to a live in London version of Marvin Gaye’s “Got To Give It Up” to the prog-metal classic “Porcelina of the Vast Oceans” by The Smashing Pumpkins, this collection is a long playing collection of epic tunes.
The playlist is not in any order, so feel free to use the shuffle feature. Enjoy!
See Brad Pitt & Margot Robbie in the Dazzling Trailer for Babylon
Margot Robbie in Babylon
The trailer for Damien Chazelle’s newest film, Babylon, has arrived today. The film, which centers on the Hollywood world as it moved from silent films to the “talkies.” Starring Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie, the trailer is a dazzler through and through. It reveals pretty much nothing in terms of plot, but the set pieces, photography and revelry in it makes Babylon one of the most anticipated films of the winter season.
The film, Chazelle’s fourth (after Whiplash, La La Land and First Man) also stars Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li, Jean Smart, P.J. Byrne, Lukas Haas, Olivia Hamilton, Tobey Maguire, Max Minghella, Rory Scovel, Katherine Waterston, Flea, Jeff Garlin, Eric Roberts, Ethan Suplee, Samara Weaving and Olivia Wilde.
Babylon starts a limited release on Christmas Day, with a rollout to follow in January.
Brad Pitt and Diego Calva in Babylon
Jovan Adepo in Babylon
Margot Robbie in Babylon
Tobey Maguire in Babylon
Li Jun Li in Babylon
Brad Pitt in Babylon
Diego Calva and Jean Smart in Babylon
August 19, 2022 Playlist
This week’s playlist is a collection of 20 Rolling Stones songs that I feel are under the radar in their catalog.
From their earliest days doing covers (“Down Home Girl”), to an country-tinged album cut (“Dead Flowers”) up to a Keith Richards track from their late 90s album Bridges To Babylon (“You Don’t Have To Mean It”), you should enjoy this collection of Stones material.
The playlist is not in any order, so feel free to use the shuffle feature. Enjoy!
Star Wars’ Rogue One Makes IMAX Return With Sneak Preview of Andor
Lucasfilm will re-release Rogue One: A Star Wars Story in IMAX for one week starting August 26 with the kicker of including “exclusive, special footage” from the new Disney+ series Andor. Tickets are on sale now at participating IMAX theaters and at Fandango.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story in IMAX is getting a digital re-mastering. Expect “crystal-clear images, coupled with IMAX’s customized theatre geometry and powerful digital audio.”
Andor will premiere on Disney+ September 21st with three episodes ahead of its 12-episode season.
“Andor” takes place five years before the events of “Rogue One,” when the seeds of rebellion against the Empire were germinating. The special footage from “Andor” offers audiences a look at the story, which explores a new perspective from the Star Wars galaxy, focusing on Cassian Andor’s journey to discover the difference he can make. The series brings forward the tale of the burgeoning rebellion against the Empire and how people and planets became involved. It is an era filled with danger, deception and intrigue where Cassian will embark on the path that is destined to turn him into the rebel hero that we see in “Rogue One.”
I’m Breaking Up With You, Popeyes
That ^^^ looks good, doesn’t it? I mean, if you don’t love fried chicken can you even consider yourself an American? And for decades of my life the best fried chicken I could find regularly near me was from Popeyes. Corporate chain food never got better than this. Until it didn’t.
Backstory: I grew up in Blue Island, IL and as a kid fried chicken for my family was either from the KFC that used to be on Western Avenue (it turned into a title loan place I believe and now even that’s empty) across from my dad’s favorite liquor store, Miska’s Liquors (now named United Liquors) or from Riverdale Broasted Chicken in Calumet City on Halsted Street (rest in peace - the building is still there - a haunting reminder of the ghost of chicken past). Riverdale Broasted Chicken was the absolute bomb, if I may get all Guy Fieri on you. They put out amazing chicken with a crackly crust and moist flesh. They did a great broasted potato as well. You just couldn’t beat this place. I distinctly remember my mother, my brother and/or sister and myself almost always being the only white folk in there (one day let me regale you with my memories of the great George’s Rib Shack on Sibley Boulevard in Harvey, IL that was my de facto place for BBQ in my pre-25 years).
Our family loved some fried chicken back then. For some reason though, KFC was always “special” chicken. Back then my mom was raising the three of us pretty much on her own. My dad had fled to Florida after the police became too much of a problem for him here and she not only held two or three jobs at any given time, but also went and got an associate’s degree from a community college. I’ve never put effort into anything in my life that matches what that amazing woman did back then. So when I say that KFC was “special” you better believe having takeout fried chicken was truly a huge thing for us.
Not to get maudlin, but the night after my brother Jeffrey died (at the way too young age of 15) in November 1991, once my grandparents drove up from North Carolina, we got KFC for dinner. I believe I insisted upon it.
Then, mere weeks after his passing, I was coming home from work and decided to take a detour and finally try the Popeyes (12100 Western Avenue) that had been there for years. I don’t know why it took me that long to finally try Popeyes. I was already years into a fascination with New Orleans, its music and its food, so Popeyes would have seemed like a natural entryway for me into New Orleans cuisine.
I honestly cannot remember what I ordered that day. I figure it was probably a 2 piece, mild & dark with mashed potatoes and a small drink (I don’t think I wanted to risk too much at first - similar to how I tend to get a sausage pizza when trying a new pizzeria). All I do know is that when I bit into that chicken my senses went into overdrive. Even the mild had a flavor that was missing in all the other fried chicken I had ever eaten. I went back to Popeyes another few times before the end of the year. I was a bit obsessed.
For most of the next decade or so I cannot seem to remember eating Popeyes all that much. No idea why I didn’t. Maybe it had to do with evolving forays into cooking. It wasn’t until my ex-wife and our son moved from Wheeling, IL to Grayslake, IL that I recall reingratiating myself with their food. There was one a few miles away in Round Lake Beach, IL (221 E. Rollins Road) and I just started gravitating back to it. By this time my palette had changed dramatically and with the rise of Food Network and Anthony Bourdain entering my stratosphere I found myself trying to purposefully avoiding boring food that lacked flavor. The Round Lake Beach Popeyes was intoxicating to me. I would pass by it and the smell of the fried chicken wafting in the air would call to me. It could even bring me out of a bad mood. That bad mood improved considerably once I started eating.
Eventually my son grew up and moved out and my wife and I divorced. In 2016 I moved to an apartment near Logan Square and had to find my Popeyes hook up. Luckily, the location at the corner of Diversey and California (2800 W Diversey Avenue) was there to help me out.
I may have loved Popeyes before then, but now I was in lust. This location absolutely, 100% killed it every single damn time I visited. They never forgot napkins. They never forgot sporks. The chicken always tasted as if it JUST came out of the fryer. I don’t know who is in charge of that location, but they run it as efficiently and as perfectly as I assume Charlie Trotter ran his restaurant back in the day. Every person behind the mic when you order and every person at the window when you pull up is kind and helpful. After years of slowly degrading work ethics in fast food places, this location still stands as the best run of any I’ve ever been to.
But then I had to move to…Lansing, IL. Oh there’s a Popeyes in Lansing, alright. The problem is it’s terrible. The staff seriously do not give a shit about you, your food, what they do, what they don’t do, etc. 1 out of 10 times I have received both the right order, with napkins, with sporks and with all of the food at the correct temperature. The last straw was a couple of months ago when I put my order in through the Popeyes app. I drove through the drive-thru (the option I chose on the app) and told the speaker my name and order number. I was told to come to the window. I was asked again what my name was and then to go park somewhere indecipherable to wait. So I pulled into the front of the store. Eventually moving because the lawn maintenance crew needed more room to enter the parking lot. So I moved to the parking lot and waited. And waited. And waited. After 25 minutes and after seeing someone come out to hand a bag of food to someone who showed up 10 minutes after I did, I went back through the drive-thru. Finally getting my meal, I headed home. And found: no napkins, no sporks, the wrong drink and cold, nearly petrified chicken. I had to complain to Popeyes via the app. They were understanding and refunded me the entire meal. That was it for the Lansing, IL location and me.
But I wasn’t done with Popeyes yet. I visited the Diversey location a couple of times after and the chicken was as it always was: perfect. Then I visited the generally reliable Dolton, IL location on Sibley Boulevard recently and it was subpar. My patience for Popeyes was dangerously close to being destroyed.
Today I was out doing some rideshare driving on my day off from my day job - I’ll give you a minute to contemplate that bit of insanity - and was in the Hazel Crest, IL area having just dropped someone off. My initial thought was to set a destination to the Raising Cane’s location in Oak Lawn, IL. But then I remembered there was a Popeyes nearby that I had passed. I said to myself - just go there and grab some nuggets and a mac and cheese and be done with it.
I get up to the speaker and immediately there’s trouble. The person on the other end doesn’t seem to hear anything I’m saying. Same old speaker set up, but somehow a brand new TV menu. Makes total sense. Ask for mac and cheese. They’re out of mac and cheese. So I get the mashed potatoes. I get up to the window and they don’t have the sauce I wanted. So I just take ranch and Mardi Gras mustard. I park nearby, dig into the bag. No napkins, no spork, no Mardis Gras mustard. I could feel my blood pressure rising from my inner anger.
I ate the food and decided right there and then that I was breaking up with Popeyes. I can’t keep doing this. It’s not me, it’s you Popeyes. Your quality control has gone in the toilet and I can’t do it anymore. You don’t make me happy anymore. I’ll be going out of my way to get my fried chicken from either Fry the Coop in Tinley Park, IL or a Raising Cane’s location or even chicken from Jewel’s deli. Hell, even KFC, which began its slow descent into sub-mediocrity. Like sex, when I want truly superior fried chicken, I’ll just do it myself. I just can’t have your bullshit in my life anymore.
Maybe, just maybe, if I am near the Diversey location, I’ll stop by. But, in the immortal words of Michael Corleone: “You broke my heart Popeyes. You broke my heart.”
Walking Dead Alumni Sarah Wayne Callies Talks Darabont Firing; Much More on Real Ones with fellow alumni Jon Bernthal
Sarah Wayne Callies and Jon Bernthal on the red carpet for The Walking Dead
If you didn’t know, actor Jon Bernthal started a podcast earlier this year called Real Ones where he has very real conversations with people in all walks of life. So far he’s mostly avoided talking to people in the arts/entertainment world, focusing instead on criminals who have reformed themselves, cops, armed forces veterans and more. But in the latest episode, Bernthal sits down with fellow The Walking Dead actor Sarah Wayne Callies to discuss a wide range of important issues (toxic masculinity, gender roles, work conditions), as well as open up about original The Walking Dead showrunner Frank Darabont’s firing early into season 2 for, essentially “incompetence.” This, despite him having six completed scripts a month before shooting on the second season began. See below for a preview of that discussion. Say what you will about The Walking Dead, but that first season still stands far taller than the rest of the series for this fan.
Callies also gets very personal towards the latter portion of the interview when she reveals that a family member sexually assaulted her multiple times and how she had to work hard in order to forgive that person so that she could heal. It’s harrowing stuff, but it’s honorable of Callies to bring it out into the light.
The whole episode can be found by subscribing to the Real Ones Patreon channel. It’s well worth the small charge, in my opinion.
Links:
Real Ones with Jon Bernthal on Patreon
August 12, 2022 Playlist
Now that I’ve got this website, I’ve decided to have some fun with it. I’m going to try to post a new 20 song playlist every Friday as something that indicates what I’m into for people to enjoy. This week it’s simply 20 songs that are on a rotation for me right now. One week it could be 20 songs from a specific year or from a certain artist or genre, etc.
Like I said, just having some fun with it.
This week we have everything from the secretly penned Charles Manson track the Beach Boys did (Never Learn Not To Love) to rockabilly legend Billy Swan’s way cool cover of the Elvis Presley classic Don’t Be Cruel to a recent release from Yeah Yeah Yeahs with Perfume Genius (Spitting Off the Edge of the World).
The playlist is not in any order, so feel free to use the shuffle feature. Enjoy!
IFC’s Futuristic Trailer for Vesper
IFC Films has released a trailer for a new sci-fi film, Vesper, about a 13 year-old girl (Raffiella Chapman) who navigates a world whose ecosystem has been damaged seemingly beyond repair. Vesper discovers an injured woman who may be the key to unlocking the path to restoring food growth, but that she is being pursued by a neighbor of Vesper’s (Eddie Marsan) for an unknown reason.
Link:
Ralph Fiennes in The Menu
Searchlight Pictures has unveiled a new trailer for The Menu starring Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult. The Menu features a couple (Taylor-Joy and Hoult) who visit a destination restaurant on a coastal island to enjoy an extravagant menu prepared by a renowned chef (Fiennes). But The Menu is not about the rich enjoying a lavish lifestyle, but rather a dark suspense/horror film. The Menu opens in theaters November 18.
Secret Machines’ S/T Release Getting Digital Reissue
Exclusive updated version of Secret Machines’ “The Fire Is Waiting” Inside
Secret Machines’ S/T Release Getting Digital Reissue
Listen To An Updated Version of The Fire Is Waiting Below
Rock band Secret Machines, Brandon Curtis and Josh Garza, have announced the digital reissue of their heralded self-titled album. Originally released in 2008, Secret Machines will be available for purchase on September 23rd. The album has been remastered by Slowdive member Simon Scott, and an updated version of The Fire Is Waiting, with famed producer Tony Visconti on recorder, is available to listen to below.
Speaking on The Fire Is Waiting, Curtis wrote:
”When we recorded the demo for this song, everyone told us it was too long. We decided it wasn’t long enough. Sometimes you wait for the fire. Sometimes the fire waits for you.”
The band also recently put out a double EP, a reissue of Dreaming of Dreaming and a new release, Day 21, which Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds member Jim Sclavunos recorded/engineered.
Jim Sclavunos said of Secret Machines:
“Secret Machines were one of the absolute coolest live bands from this wonderful era of the NY scene. Getting to work with them in the studio was a thrill & a downright pleasure.”
