The top fifty.

Chicago.

In this week's Chicago Reader: their "Restaurants Special". It's Chicago-centric, of course. There're articles on various aspects of the Chicago restaurant scene, includingthe Lettuce Entertain You group, the crazy serving gadgets at avant-garde places like Alinea, and a rundown of the local culinary schools. The best part, and clearly the most useful, is their list of the top 50 restaurants in the city.

Note that their list is compiled from readers' reviews on the website, not a professional reviewer. More democratic, for sure, but tougher to compare apples to apples. Does that make it any less valid? Probably not.

I'm thrilled, of course, because Hot Doug's made the list. It's not at all surprising, but it's also great that they've made use of several Hot Doug's photos in putting this list together.¹ You'd have to expect elegant, super-expensive places like Charlie Trotter's, Tru and Alinea to be there, and they are. So's Green Zebra, a haute cuisine vegetarian restaurant that I've heard raves about. They're pretty much the filler on a list like this, with prices marked by ever-increasing quantities of $ signs. It's the little spots, the one-$ restaurants, that are really worth seeking out. Other cheap eats that made the list, for which I've heard glowing recommendations: Art of Pizza and Lula Cafe.

And aren't cheap eats the backbone of the restaurant scene? For me, they are. Five-star restaurants are fantastic - and pretty much worth the exorbitant price tag - but they only make the few-and-far-between list.² The only reason I get to eat at those sorts of places is because Sharon and I save up for the experience. But cheap places? That's where you go when you don't feel like cooking dinner, or you're out of the basic elements of food, or you're trying to get a group together for a movie or something.

I can't claim to be an expert on the Madison food scene³, but I know more than enough places to impress an out-of-towner. We've got plenty of unique restaurants. Wisconsin also has significantly more relaxed liquor laws, which has to be a help. Madison has, what, seven microbreweries⁴ in or near town?

Great Dane, Angelic (if they're still brewing), and J.T. Whitney's in Madison proper; Capital in Middleton; New Glarus in New Glarus; Lake Louie in Arena; Gray's in Janesville... Some're better than others, of course, but at least we've got variety. And that's not even mentioning anything from the Milwaukee area, which is more or less beer central in the popular mind.

Plus my own brews, of course. And this weekend will see the first batch of politically active beer: the ITMFA IPA! More on that as it develops.

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¹Including the top photo on the front page of the Arts & Events section. You can tell that's it, because the half-out-of-focus order sheet has "BAGELS/TOTS" barely legible at the bottom. That's the only Hot Doug's menu item not named after a celebrity, but rather after Doug's two sons, Charlie and James.

²When my entire company came to Madison, they took my recommendation and set us up with a dinner at L'Etoile. Normally, L'Etoile can't handle thirty-one. Maybe in the dining room, total, but we were in addition to the Saturday night crowd, which more or less fills the restaurant. But they stepped up to the plate and accommodated us.

The limits they imposed were a limited wine selection - they had two reds and a white ready to pour as soon as we stepped inside - and a truncated menu. Not that much shorter, though, and the Fountain Prairie sirloin was still there. And, despite the huge group, the service was excellent, and the kitchen delivered everything flawlessly, on time. So, to Tory and the rest of the L'Etoile staff, many thanks.

³I should be, though. Perhaps that's a future blogging challenge.

⁴Also worth making into a reviewing challenge: local beers. Invite a bunch of guys over, and have everyone bring a different six-pack. It's, um, educational.