In "Chew on this," we filter through food articles, online buzz and press releases so you don’t have to.
A press release from Libertine had this tidbit buried in its announcement about Dale Levitski’s appearance at its Shift Drink event (that we told you about months ago): "Sara [Nguyen, fellow Top Chef Season 3 chef] has just moved to Chicago after working at some of New York’s top restaurants including Thomas Keller’s Per Se, and will be Dale’s Sous-Chef at his new place Town and Country." Readers may remember that Sara and Dale were as close as a straight girl and a gay man can be. But she may not have wanted to move out here so soon—Town and Country (525 W Monroe St) isn’t slated to open until August.
Red Bull is putting more caffeine into their drinks, thereby lessening crack’s street value even more.
Speaking of caffeine: Coke is coming out with a new (that is, an old) label design.
And speaking of America’s obesity epidemic, check this out: Potbelly has installed a new tool on their website that gages the exact nutritional makeup of the food they serve. As it turns out, those smoothies will make you chunky.
Goose Island made the Brewers Association’s recently released annual list of top 50 breweries, coming in just behind Bell’s at #25 in the "Overall Brewing Company" category (there’s also a "Craft Brewing Company" award; download the entire list via the .pdf found here). The rankings are based on 2007 beer sales, and not surprisingly, Anheuser-Busch took top rank in that category, proving the Belgians theory that most Americans have horrible taste in beer. But growth of the craft beer industry—defined as small, independent and traditional in methods—had a 12% growth last year, so there may be hope after all. (Miller must have gotten the memo; they’re releasing three popular craft brewery styles in September—wheat, amber and blond ales.)
In more beer news, Coors will unveil its new "vented wide mouth" can on Tax Day at retailers around the nation. Apparently Coors drinkers (hello to you, Papa Shouse) have long complained that they just don’t get a smooth, draft-like pour from the current can, so Coors bigwigs decided not only to add a vent to help with that, but also enlarge the size of the opening 8%. If we were math geniuses we could tell you just how much faster Coors-drinking slobs will soon be able to get their cold-filtered delight down the hatch, but we’re not, so let’s just say "faster."
Eat Out editor Heather Shouse contributed to this post. Guess which one?









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