Gapers Block Drive-Thru is the food blog I'd like to have on a desert island. Even without the actual eateries to satisfy my palate on that humble, hidden isle, the honesty of the food and drink descriptions by this volunteer team of Windy City foodie bloggers is surely powerful enough to break anyone out of their gastronomic rut. No personified soccer ball required.
Drive-Thru: Chicago's Foodie Food Blog
There are several great foodie blog sites in Chicago--for example, LTH Forum, Chicagoist Food, the Time Out Chicago Food Blog, and the seminal Chicago-centric video food blog, Sky Full of Bacon). I would tell you not to miss any of them.
My affection for Drive-Thru comes from its origins. An outgrowth of rock star local blog impresario (he hates when I call him that) Andrew Huff's six-year old Gapers Block group news-and-features blog, the site is written by Chicago's most grassroots foodie bloggers. (Disclosure: I briefly served a personally drool-inducing stint as a Drive-Thru scribe from August 2008 through February of this year.)
You're just as likely to find a celebrity chef interview or a review of the latest hot eatery as you are to read a discussion of the local slow-food movement, a recipe handed down by someone's grandmother, or a manifesto on the benefits of going vegan.
You never quite know in what direction Drive-Thru will go next, and that's its charm. But wherever it heads, the excitement about the repasts and refreshments in question is never less than readily apparent. Here are some recent personal favorite posts:
- Quirky reviews like these of Lebanese eatery Maza, Loop healthy storefront Protein Bar, and Albany Park Chinese grand-dame Great Sea (original home of Pilsen eatery Take Me Out's astounding Little Hottie hot wings);
- An opinionated review of recent BBQ and beer books;
- A love letter to Chicago's downtown farmers markets;
- A visit to an edible garden in Logan Square;
- A garden-photo contest benefiting Grow Your Own, Chicago's community-development oriented community garden; and
- What foodie blog would be complete without a primer on miso?
Seriously.
You can and should explore beyond Drive-Thru to the rest of Gapers Block (it never ceases to amaze me when my friends, clued-in Internauts I take them to be, say to me, "What's Gapers Block?") Their headline blog (Merge), music coverage (Transmission), political coverage (Mechanics), book notes (Book Club), and sports coverage (Tailgate) are all equally as nifty as Drive-Thru.
But if you're the type who gravitates toward the quirky end of Chicago gastronomy, start with Drive-Thru. And let me know where you end up. Likely a pretty cool hole-in-the-wall eatery. You'll love it. You're welcome.
Bring me a matchbook.
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5 Comments
Fernando Diaz said:
It never ceases to amaze me that while 99.9 percent of restaurants and bars are non-smoking (you know who you are 4 a.m. joints that reek of smoke in the afternoon) still provide matchbooks. I'll keep an eye out for you Mike. Still on the lookout for the best Reuben. Perhaps Merge is my ticket.
Mike Doyle said:
One of my favorite Reubens, surprisingly for a meat-eater like me, is the vegetarian Reuben at Lakeview's Chicago Diner. See the Drive-Thru article, When an Omnivore Loves a Veggie Reuben: Drive-Thru scribe Chris Brunn did a radio interview of me eating and professing my love for the sandwich at Chicago Diner and I penned this accompanying DT article.
winediva said:
Thanks for the shout out on my missive to Great Sea. Little hotties, indeed!
Tony said:
I regulalry read Drive-Thru, but still tend to prefer LTH as my go-to-guide after I've read a singular review elsewhere. While the elitist attitude is sometimes a put off, I enjoy the impassioned posts from a number of people reviewing one restaurant. They've rarely steered me wrong.
Mike Doyle said:
I like LTH Forum as well. If Drive-Thru is where foodies go to blog, LTH Forum is where they go to talk about food amongst each other. Besides, they love my favorite Chinese joint, Sun Wah, so they must have good taste!
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