Mac N Cheese Food Truck?!

This just in -- there's a mac n cheese food truck soon to be hitting the streets of Chicago. The Southern, a popular restaurant in Wicker Park specializing in Southern fare, is launching a food truck entirely devoted to mac n cheese!

According to The Feast, Southern Chef Cary Taylor will be tooling around town in a Mercedes truck, offering various kinds of mac n cheese to the masses -- including an occasional "specialty" lobster and cheddar mac n cheese!

It's like a dream come true. And this news has also reminded me that I really want to try The Southern in 2011. Two new goals... Find the mac n cheese truck once it's out and about later this month -- and try The Southern! (Yelpers love it. Read reviews here.)

Add them to your list as well!

Bin Wine Cafe

Bin Wine Cafe in Wicker Park is one of my favorite go-to dinner places for the simple fact that it works as well for a dinner out with friends as it does for a date. The space is cool, hip and casual enough that it never seems like it's trying too hard. Exposed brick, warm woods and modern touches (like the tiny vases with minimalist flowers on each table) work together to create an inviting space in the open layout.

The people behind this successful Bucktown eatery are no strangers to the restaurant business. Bin Wine Cafe is the younger sibling of Bin 36 in River North and I have to say this is definitely one of those cases where the younger sib has upstaged the older. I very much prefer Bin Wine Cafe to Bin 36, which I frequented after work at my last agency due to the office's close proximity.

But I am willing to travel for Bin Wine Cafe. Now that Jeff has abandoned his Bucktown roots and therefore eliminated my own Bucktown outpost, a dinner at Bin Wine Cafe requires a little more effort than a casual stroll through the hood. But the drive or cab ride is worth it for some quality wine flights and tasty bistro-inspired fare.

The menu changes seasonally and I've never been displeased with anything I've ordered. Some things have been better than others (a beef stew and the hanger steak frites from last winter's menu, this fall's Gunthorp Chicken breast, the olive selection, various cheese plates, the white pizza, the Top 10 Burger -- yes, Bin Wine Cafe is home to what was named one of the Top Ten burgers in Chicago -- which is only $5 on Tuesdays), but I never leave dissatisfied with the food, the wine or the service at Bin.

Last Friday night, a group of ten of us headed to Bin Wine Cafe to celebrate my friend Steph's birthday. We tried various wine flights, which are also updated frequently -- and everyone seemed to be pleased with the flight they ordered. Some favorites were the Reigning Spanish Reds, The Sexy Reds and The Bin 36 Flight. I'd recommend any of them.

The vast majority of people at the table ordered the Seared Flat Iron Steak and it was pretty tasty, served in a pink peppercorn sauce with Bin's latest take on frites and some little clouds of spinach and cheese that they dubbed gnocchi. The pink peppercorn sauce was a bit more like a straight-up gravy than I'd have liked. It lacked the complexity of a really great sauce, but it was still an interesting complement to the meat. I liked the frites just fine, but don't be fooled into thinking that what you're ordering is anything like the steak frites you'd get at a traditional French bistro. These "frites" are like fancy steak fries -- and if you like steak fries, as I do, you'll be happy. If you had something else in mind, you may be disappointed. The gnocchi were decent, but nothing to write home about. I have to say that this isn't my favorite dish I've ordered at Bin Wine Cafe, which is unfortunate since literally 80% of us ordered it. It was good, but I know Bin's capable of more.

However, my dear friend Brenna branched out and ordered herself the Gunthorp Chicken Breast, which Jeff had the last time we visited, and which is quite delicious. The chicken breast is cooked to perfection and left on the bone so that's tender and juicy when you slice into it. The bird is well-seasoned and the sauce is a worthy accompaniment. All of this is complemented by some slices of chicken rillete served atop a mushroom risotto cake. Very tasty.

For dessert, we enjoyed a trio of gelato (pumpkin, chocolate and apple) and some apple crisps. The gelato was delicious. The fall flavors worked well together and the chocolate gelato was a nice dark chocolate. I could have eaten the entire trio myself. Unfortunately, the apple crisp didn't have enough apple or enough vanilla cream to save it from becoming dry and relatively uninteresting -- which is sad, because it seemed like it could be quite tasty if the proportions were altered.

The service was friendly and attentive, as it always is here. I recommend Bin Wine Cafe, even though my last entree wasn't my favorite dish to date. They do what they do so well so consistently that each meal is enjoyable, even on the nights when I don't order something I feel is the best thing I've ever eaten there.

BIG STAR = BIG WINNER

I have been dying to go to Big Star since it opened, but hadn't made it over since I just haven't been around Bucktown much lately. However, I couldn't wait any longer and some friends and I made plans to go for a late lunch/early happy hour.

For those who haven't heard, Big Star is the latest "street food" venture by well-known gourmet chefs. The main man behind Big Star is Chef Paul Kahan of Blackbird, Avec and Publican acclaim. Let me tell you, the man knows what he's doing with this honkey tonk taco stand in the former Pontiac Cafe space on Damen -- and he's gotta be bringing home big money. The place is crowded at all times.

My friends and I snagged seats on their patio. Big Star specializes in whiskey and is supposed to have some pretty amazing cocktails, as the man running the libations part of this show is the same mastermind behind Big Star's famous neighbor, The Violet Hour. Though it was tempting, we felt that 2:00 p.m. was a little too early to start hitting the hard stuff. Instead, we decided on some Tecate (and Miller High Life). And then we concentrated on the menu.

Naturally, I ordered pretty much everything on it. Literally. We ordered some chips and guacamole and some queso fundido to start. The guacamole was delicious. It may rival Adobo in terms of delicious gauc in Chicago. The chips were a little bit hit or miss in terms of uniform crispiness, but the guac absolutely made up for them.

The queso fundido was absolutely the best queso fundido I've had in a long time. It was layers of deliciousness -- a layer of roasted poblano peppers, followed by chorizo, followed by delicious melted cheese. It was savory and spicy and a little bit sweet mixed with gooey cheesy goodness. I need to eat it again soon.

Then I ordered four tacos... for myself. But most importantly, between the three of us, here's what we had:

Tacos Al Pastor (traditional pork shoulder with grilled pineapple)
Tacos de Borrego (lamb shoulder)
Tacos de Panza (pork belly)
Tacos de Raza de Poblano (poblano chilis)
Tostada de Pollo (chicken tostada)

The Tacos al Pastor were awesome. The sweetness of the grilled pineapple is the perfect complement to the savory pork shoulder. A classic favorite done well.

The Tacos de Panza, with pork belly and a fabulous tomato-guajillo sauce, topped off with onions, cilantro and queso fresco, were probably my favorite of the tacos I tried. The savory richness of the pork belly was tempered by the sauce and the onions. The cilantro added some freshness and the queso fresco balanced everything out. This was probably my favorite menu item. Definitely give it a try.

The Tacos de Raza de Poblano were also tasty -- a nice combination of roasted sweetness from the poblanos, along with some cheesy, creamy goodness and a hint of spice. Well done.

The Tacos de Borrego were the low point of my meal for the simple reason that it lacked the complexity I found in the rest of the dishes I tried. I love lamb and think it's great that more and more chefs are doing interesting things with it. However, it's a tricky meat since it is so rich (read: fatty) and can have a flavor that may be too gamey for some people's taste. The Tacos de Borrego fell victim to lamb's richness. It was overwhelming -- even thought the taco also featured radishes (interesting!) and queso fresco. Maybe I just got a taco that didn't have enough radish because that flavor should do the trick to cut into the richness and balance it out. Instead, it just tasted like I was eating flour tortilla, lamb and queso fresco. Disappointing.

The Tostada de Pollo was fabulous -- and I even went ahead and got it with the poblano crema (big step since I absolutely abhor sour cream -- and all creamy condiments really)! It was so well done. The flavors combined perfectly -- and there were many layers of them. The tostada was crispy, the chicken thigh was perfectly cooked, the black beans added depth, the crema was not overwhelming and added a cool creaminess. The spices and red onions added a pop of fresh flavor that rounded the whole thing out impeccably.

The service was great -- everyone from the hostess to the servers were super friendly and attentive. I'm happy to report that I didn't experience any attitude here, despite the fact that it's on everyone's hot list. And with good reason, since the food's delicious and it is home to one of the absolute best patios in the city. The people-watching is incredible. Such a fun place to spend an afternoon. (And by the way, our tab only came out to a total of $63 for food and drink for three people, all of whom had between 3-4 beers each. Awesome.)

I can't wait to get back to Big Star to try everything else on the menu -- and I'll definitely be ordering up some more Tacos Al Pastor, Tacos de Panza and Tostadas de Pollo. Since I didn't try any whiskey or cocktails during this visit, I absolutely plan to do so next time around.

Way to live up to the hype, Big Star. See you again soon.