WBEZ | Chicago History Museum

Handpicked Chicago food and drink events: trash fish dinner, mah jongg and more

Fri, 17 May 2013 05:00:00 -0500

Friday, May 17
Unicornucopia: Big Fork, Co-op Sauce, and Pipeworks Brewing collaboration party at Star Lounge. A Chicago Craft Beer Week four course, four beer pairing dinner. First magical course: Wisconsin morels, Michigan asparagus, crispy Don Pedro's prosciutto, shaved salt cured yolk, and fermented poblano vinaigrette; paired with Pipeworks' Ninja Vs. Unicorn Double IPA. Admission $45.

Saturday, May 18
Agroterrorism (Food Poisoning Brought to a New Level!) at the Chicago History Museum. Presented by the Culinary Historians of Chicago, poison expert Dr. Jerrold Leikin will discuss agroterrorism, including the first and biggest bioterrorist attack in U.S. history: the 1984 Rajneeshee salad bar salmonella contamination which poisoned 751 people in 10 Oregon restaurants. What food samples will be served at a food poisoning event? Come and be surprised! This event will be recorded for WBEZ’s Chicago Amplified. Admission FREE for Culinary Historians of Chicago members, $5 general, $3 for students.

Sunday, May 19
Goose Island 25th anniversary party outside at Goose Island’s Fulton Street Brewery. A celebration of beer, with actual craft brewers on-site, plus local food favorites and music. Sample craft beers from Goose Island (including the Fulton and Wood, and Bourbon County collections) plus special guests Half Acre, Emmett’s Brewing, Virtue Cider, and more. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild. Admission $25.

Monday, May 20
Trash Fish Dinner: the Best Seafood You've Never Tried at Big Jones. Asian carp, scup, dogfish, triggerfish, smelt and speckled trout have traditionally been discarded by fishermen, left off menus by chefs, and are virtually unknown to the general public. Presented by Chefs Collaborative, 10 of Chicago’s best chefs turn trash fish into treasured dinner. Hosted by Big Jones chef Paul Fehribach with Avec’s Erling Wu-Bower, Blackbird’s Paul Kahan, North Pond’s Bruce Sherman, Prairie Grass Café’s Sarah Stegner and George Bumbaris, Trattoria No. 10’s Laura Piper, Trenchermen’s Michael and Patrick Sheerin, and Vie and Perennial Virant’s Paul Virant. The dinner is sold out but add your name to the waitlist to be notified when seats become available. Weather permitting, Big Jones will open the patio. All proceeds benefit Chefs Collaborative. Admission $125.

Tuesday, May 21

Chinese Roots of Mah Jongg at the Chicago History Museum. Presented by the Chicago History Museum in collaboration with the Chinese-American Museum of Chicago, discuss the cross-cultural love of Mah Jongg over kosher tea. This event will be recorded for WBEZ’s Chicago Amplified. Admission $8 for Chicago History Museum members, $10 general.

Wednesday, May 22
International Biodiversity Day at The Field Museum. Travel the globe through the lens of photographer David Cavagnaro. Learn the geographic origins of our favorite fruits and vegetables, and the diaspora that's responsible for the diversity we have today. Tour the Edible Treasures Garden at the museum then taste food inspired by this year's plantings. Presented by the Field Museum, Peterson Garden Project, Seed Savers Exchange, and Jewell Events Catering, celebrating seed diversity. Admission $10.

Thursday, May 23
Meet the Market at bellyQ. Presented by the Green City Market Junior Board, kick off this season's series with passed apps and featured cocktails from Koval Distillery and Green Acres Farm of North Judson, Indiana. Admission FREE, food complimentary, Koval cocktails additional and act as your donation.

Follow Louisa Chu @louisachu.

Chicago leaders weigh in on the first 100 days of the Emanuel administration

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 15:07:00 -0500

In the second part of The First 100 community forum, Eight Forty-Eight's Alison Cuddy was joined by a panel of local leaders: Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, Chicago Transit Authority president Forrest Claypool, City of Chicago comptroller Amer Ahmad and Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events commissioner Michelle Boone. Engaged local residents were invited to pose questions--online and in the flesh--to generate a dialogue centered around change within the city of Chicago.

Mayor Emanuel discusses first 100 days in office at community forum

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 14:40:00 -0500

On Wednesday evening, WBEZ hosted a community forum with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and other city officials at the Chicago History Museum. The event was the culmination of WBEZ's series The First 100, features and conversations assessing the mayor’s performance and promises during his first few months in office.

Members of the community, both local leaders and engaged local residents, gathered to facilitate a dialogue around change within the city of Chicago--how its implemented and plans for the future of the city and its residents.

A number of audience members asked questions and made comments about priorities at City Hall.

Eight Forty-Eight presented an edited version of The First 100 – Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Early Impact on Chicago event on Friday.

Emanuel backs smaller teacher raise for longer school day

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 10:49:00 -0500

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is backing a plan to give teachers a small raise in exchange for extending the school day.

Emanuel's schools chief, Jean Claude Brizard, this week said he's willing to give teachers a two percent raise, in exchange for 90 extra minutes in kindergarten through eighth grades. This follows a June decision by the Chicago Public Schools board to cancel a previously negotiated four percent raise for teachers, citing budget concerns.

On Wednesday night, the mayor described the moves as a change from how past negotiations took place.

"The elected officials said, 'I don't want a strike.' Teachers said, 'I want a pay raise.' The adults won, and the kids got left on the side of the road. And I'm not going to be a party to that anymore," Emanuel said.

Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said earlier on Wednesday that the union will consider the proposal, but chastised district leadership for first proposing it in the media. Brizard floated the idea during an appearance Tuesday on WTTW's Chicago Tonight.

Meanwhile, Emanuel also defended a property tax increase the school board passed Wednesday. He insisted his pledge not to hike property taxes only applies to city government, not the schools.

The mayor's comments came at a forum sponsored by WBEZ at the Chicago History Museum. He took questions for roughly 40 minutes, but refused to take any directly from the crowd.

New City Council, old ways?

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 21:30:00 -0500

As the dust settles on Tuesday’s Aldermanic run-off elections, the lingering question remains: How will this new crew of lawmakers interact with Chicago’s new mayor?

Former iterations of the City Council have been accused rubber-stamping outgoing Mayor Richard M. Daley’s agenda, for better or worse (See the city’s parking meter deal for a commonly cited example of “worse.”) A recent study conducted by UIC’s Dick Simpson found that over the last four years the outgoing City Council voted with Mayor Daley 88% of the time. And, that during the same period, the mayor lost no votes.

So will the revamped City Council, with its crop of 15 new Aldermen, prove more of a challenge for Mayor Elect Rahm Emanuel? This was one question tackled in recent conversation at the Chicago History Museum featuring political analysts like WBEZ’s own Steve Edwards.

In the audio excerpt above, Edwards argues that at least from the mayor’s side, there’s not much incentive for change.

Dynamic Range showcases hidden gems unearthed from Chicago Amplified’s vast archive of public events and appears on weekends. WBEZ’s Steve Edwards spoke to an audience at the Chicago History Museum in March. Click here to hear the event in its entirety, and click here to subscribe to the Dynamic Range podcast.

Book compiles the big and small facts about Chicago history

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 14:54:00 -0600

When Rahm Emanuel takes over City Hall in May, the post-Daley era will officially begin! But how will official history treat the Mayor’s tenure? A good place to turn for answers is the Encyclopedia of Chicago. The massive reference book first published in 2004 is an effort to take stock of the news, ideas and culture that constantly redefine Chicago. Via research from scholars and journalists the Encyclopedia covers everything - from political conventions to polka and pollution! Jim Grossman, one of the editors of the book, joined Eight Forty-Eight from Washington D.C. where he's executive director of the American Historical Association.

Prohibition’s doctor-sanctioned drunkenness

Fri, 31 Dec 2010 18:22:00 -0600

As you raise your glass of champagne tonight, toast the fact that you’re not celebrating New Year’s Eve between 1919 and 1933. The “Noble Experiment” better known as Prohibition caused drinking rates to drop precipitously and made it a lot harder to get that precious glass of bubbly.

Harder that is, but not impossible. Drinking didn’t stop in the U.S. during Prohibition, nor was it technically illegal. (Only selling, making or transporting alcohol was.) We all know the legends of the speakeasies, those password-protected watering holes lousy with dolled-up dames and their mobster dates. But writer Daniel Okrent traces a less glamorous set of work-arounds in his book Last Call: the Rise and Fall of Prohibition. According to Okrent, you were just as likely to end up in the doctor’s office or the pharmacy as the speakeasy. For $3, or about $37 in today’s money, you could get a weekly prescription to keep the taps running.

In the audio excerpt above, Okrent describes how the medical establishment was in cahoots with the liquor biz, underground as it was. As you’re listening, just be glad you can go to a bar this weekend. So much less romantic to steal a boozy New Year’s kiss under the cold, unflattering fluorescent lights of a CVS.

Dynamic Range showcases hidden gems unearthed from Chicago Amplified’s vast archive of public events and appears on weekends. David Okrent’s talk was presented by the Chicago History Museum in May of 2010, and was recorded by Chicago Amplified. Click here to hear Okrent’s talk in its entirety, and click here to subscribe to the Dynamic Range podcast.