The Slow Food Guide to Chicago

Restaurants, Markets, Bars

by Kelly Gibson, Portia Belloc Lowndes

with Slow Food Chicago

For the Media

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
For more information contact Jon-Mikel Gates at jgates@chelseagreen.com, 802-295-6300, ext. 111.

New Chicago Food Guide Proves Once Again That “Slow” Is Beautiful

Chicago is famous around the world for the Bears and the Blues. But the Windy City is also a great American food town, known for its wide range of ethnic restaurants (everything from Polish to Thai, African to Swedish), as well as local inventions like the deep-dish pizza and the Italian beef sandwich. The city was even the birthplace of the Twinkie and the Tootsie Roll.

Now there’s a new guide to the city’s incredibly rich “food landscape,” written from the unique perspective of Slow Food USA. Slow Food is a growing international movement committed to sustainable agriculture, local food traditions, and the honest pleasures of the table. More than 80,000 members worldwide have fought successfully to protect raw milk cheeses, heritage breeds of American turkeys, and many other outstanding foods that are either threatened, or simply deserve to be more widely known and enjoyed.

The Slow Food Guide to Chicago features more than 550 listings of Chicago’s best restaurants, bars, markets, food shops scattered throughout the city’s neighborhoods and suburbs. Compiled, written, and edited by more than 50 expert local food-lovers, the entries are engaging, informative, and fun and read. Even local Chicagoans will discover out-of-the-way places that will be new to them, and visitors to the city will have a field day checking out their favorite foods and cuisines when planning their next trip.

Kelly Gibson, a Slow Food Chicago leader and the book’s co-editor, puts it this way: “The greatest thing about doing this book was the fact that we could shine a light on terrific local places that are often overlooked. We found lots of people in this city who are cooking from the heart – working hard and often using traditional methods, or making connections with local farmers to source the freshest and best possible ingredients. Celebrating these local food heroes is what our organization is all about.”

This is the second in a series of national Slow Food City Guides to be published by Chelsea Green and Slow Food USA. The Slow Food Guide to New York City was released in 2003 and San Francisco will come out in the spring of 2005.