The Angry Waiter

The Check Please!-bump can ruin a restaurant for pre-fame customers…but for burger and beer lovers who first learned of Kuma’s Corner (2900 W. Belmont) on an episode of the WTTW hit eight months ago, the bump was a blessing.

Named after owner Mike Cain’s Akita, Kuma’s went from neighborhood hotspot to city-wide sensation in an instant. This Avondale corner pub has so much good word-of-mouth right now that a couple of nights ago when we arrived at another restaurant minutes after their kitchen closed, the waiter there recommended we head on over to Kuma’s where they serve late-night food. We were two neighborhoods away.

I’ll get to the food and beverage, the hook here is atmosphere and attitude. (more…)

Judith “As if Idol isn’t gay enough” Weirauch (pictured), a former bartender who fled the Denver bar scene nine months ago to pursue her dream of going to grad school, won last night’s preliminary round of Gay Idol at @mosphere Bar (5355 N. Clark St.).

Judith brought down the house with a killer rendition of Janis Joplin’s Cry Baby and walked away with $100.

Second place went to James (no last name-pictured with Judith below) who squeezed out a victory singing New York, New York. James won tickets to Broadway in Chicago’s Avenue Q.

Judith and James advance to the semi-finals to be held Saturday, May 31, at Sidetrack (3349 N. Halsted) where they will compete against winners from eight other Chicago bars and the winners from a wild card round.

Semi-final winners, which Judith is sure to be among, compete for a $1000 Grand Prize and other prizes Friday, June 13 at Circuit Night Club (3641 N. Halsted).

Go Judith!

The Note (1565 N. Milwaukee Ave.), one of Wicker Park’s most eclectic and affordable music and performance venues, takes its final bows tonight, Sunday, turning off its iconic neon signs for good.

The owners aren’t abandoning the space, but they are ditching the live music and dj’s in favor of a jukebox. Word is they’re ripping out the stage and dj booth, remodeling the bar and re-opening in one month under a new, yet to be decided (or maybe just yet to be disclosed) name.

The decision to close The Note apparently centers around eliminating the cover charge. Bands and dj’s cost money which means customers here paid a cover - usually $6 - $10 - and that chased away customers just looking to drink and hangout.

The Note first opened in Bucktown as the awesomely loud, always packed “The Blue Note.” In 1996, they moved to Wicker Park, losing the “Blue” along the way. The owners also own Nick’s Beer Garden (1516 N. Milwaukee Ave.) and the new Nick’s on Wilson (1140 W. Wilson).

Though The Note will be missed, most important to The Angry Waiter is the future of the staff. According to a bartender there, all of the staff is being retained.

Cafe Bong (5706 N. Clark) - though it may technically be named “Cafe Bong Ho” - is small, run down, a little gross and kind of pathetic and I hope, selfishly, that it never gains a wide reputation as “The Newest, Coolest Dive Bar.”

No, the beauty of this hole-in-the-wall is that it’s seemingly known to only a few…and I hope it stays that way.

Located about one block north of Bryn Mawr on the west side of Clark Street, Cafe Bong is easy to miss. The sign hanging over the sidewalk gives the impression the place is a cheap Korean restaurant. There are no large picture windows here for passersby to peak in. Instead, the facade is nondescript, bricked up save for a small, rectangular window at eye-level or higher.

Nothing about the outside indicates this is one whacky dive bar.

Everything on the inside screams dive - A few tall tables, about 18 - 20 seats at the long, dusty bar, a slightly under-sized pool table, no real decorations to speak of and bathrooms that make using the alley seem appealing.

Walk into The Bong unprepared and you’re likely to turn right around and go elsewhere…unless you know its secret appeal. (more…)

Fans of art, music, photography and performance packed Plan B (1635 N. Milwaukee) Wednesday night for the first B-Side Art Show - a multi-medium show featuring bands, an original one act play, video art and an Amy Winehouse impersonator so dead -on I feared she’d be hauled away to the nearest rehab center before the show was over.

Two bartenders and a dj-turned-photographer were the real hit of the show, though.

Plan B’s own Jamie Reda (pictured), one of the event’s organizers, offered up probably the hottest exhibit of the evening, drawings of human nudes. But, these aren’t your run-of-the-mill nudes - rather than human heads, Jamie draws cartoon rabbit faces and heads on her figures.

Her work combines the beauty of the adult human form with the playfulness and unexpectedness of childhood. If you’re interested in seeing more of Jamie’s work, you can call her at 773-541-1310, but don’t expect her to answer…just leave a message.

Rodney Toler, a professional photographer who took the night off from his part-time bartending gig at T’s Bar and Restaurant (5025 N. Clark), showed six of his pieces - 20 inch by 20 inch photos shot with a 35mm camera, transfered to poloraids and then manipulated giving the photos a somewhat surrealistic feel. Viewers asked him all evening if they wear photos or paintings.

My favorite was a picture of Chicago’s skyline reflected off The Bean sculpture in Millenium Park and then manipulated so the buildings looked as if they were being blown sideways by the wind.

Ben Zeab, a dj and a photographer who chronicles Chicago’s nightlife scene, obviously has a talent for capturing the essence of his subjects. His portraits were hard to miss and few did. Maybe it’s all his years in the club scene - Ben obviously knows how to spot a pretty face and he knows how to shoot one too.

Let’s hope this is just the beginning for B-Side. The crowd has a good time, the entertainment was a blast and, as far as The Angry Waiter is concerned, it was great way for at least three people in the service industry to get some exporsure.

Word is Uncommon Ground (1401 W. Devon) in Edgewater is planning to host an Industry Performance Night on Mondays starting in June.

I don’t have all the details, but as I understand it, the idea is to provide a space for service industry people to come out and play their music.  Since so many restaurant, bar and coffee house people work nights, they miss out on a lot of opportunities to play.  This is Uncommon Ground’s answer to that problem.

This is exactly the type of event The Angry Waiter can get behind.  So, start practicing your guitar licks, warm up those voices and get ready to show your fellow bartenders, servers and baristas what you’ve got.

And, for those of you not in the service industry…don’t worry, you’re invited to come and play too.

As I said, I’ll provide more details as they become available.  Oh, and the picture here is of the original Uncommon Ground (3800 N. Clark St.) sorry for the confusion.

Looking for something fun and cheap to do tonight?

Get yourself over to Plan B, 1635 N. Milwaukee, for the B-Side Art Show.

The show features the art and photography of seven artists, including a few who work in the bar business.  There’ll also be dj’s and performances.

The show runs from 7pm to 2am,  it’s free, there’s no cover and on Wednesday’s Plan B offers half-priced bottles of wine and appetizers, $3 bud light drafts and $5 burgers.

Support your fellow service industry workers!

Eight days. That’s how long I’ve debated over what to write about the newest bar in Rogers Park, The Glenwood Bar (6962 N. Glenwood). And, as of today, that’s how long it’s been since the place opened.

My job here at The Angry Waiter is to write about the restaurant, bar and coffee house scene, especially the scene here in Chicago, from an insider’s perspective. I tap my sources in the industry - bartenders, servers, baristas, managers, owners - for information only they would know. When I tell those stories, I do it with a certain amount of professional distance.

That’s not possible with The Glenwood Bar.

My dilemma is that I’ve known the owner, Colm Treacy, for more than five years. He also owns T’s Bar and Restaurant (5025 N. Clark St.) and Sofo Bar (4923 N. Clark St.). (more…)

The Chicago Reader’s restaurant writer/blogger Mike Sula in his “Omnivorous” column this week (March 27, 2008) tells the fabulous tale of a new Chicago restaurant, “The Crib,” opening next week in a very unlikely location - the Carter H. Harrison water intake crib - two miles off-shore of Oak Street Beach.

Sula travels out to The Crib to interview Albert D’Angelo - the 24-year-old pot smoking, prep school dropout who began his culinary career as a dishwasher in New York’s most exclusive restaurants, thumbed his nose at the establishment and started hosting underground nomadic dining adventures for Manhattan’s cultural elite in places like a subway power station.

D’Angelo claims to be the first chef to use edible menus and to serve foie gras lollipops.

According to Sula, Chicagoans will never eat at The Crib. Instead, D’Angelo reserves his 13 tables for people who truly appreciate inventive cuisine - New Yorkers, Los Angelians and Londoners. And, he’s opening the restaurant in the one place these people would never look for some of America’s best food - Chicago.

But don’t rent a boat and beg to be let in on the party just yet. Why? Because The Crib doesn’t exist…and never will. It’s a joke, an April Fool’s joke.

Sula’s column is a great read - funny and filled with so many inside jokes and references I’m sure I only caught a handful.

Look for these clues while you read:

• The sub-head of the column is “Don’t Fool Yourself - If You Live in Chicago You’ll Never Get a Reservation at The Crib.” At least Mike’s fair - he’s cluing us in right off the bat.
• Albert D’Angelo is a fictional character in a T.C. Boyle short story. In the story, D’Angelo is a chef who uses food to seduce a female food critic who relies on her boyfriend’s opinion when critiquing restaurants because she’s afraid of being wrong.
• Foie Gras Lollipops were first served by Graham Elliot Bowles of Avenues at the Peninsula Hotel. Bowles is a 2008 James Beard Award nominee.
• In the column, D’Angelo says he’s sick of his creations ending up on the menus of restaurants like Chicago’s Alinea. Alinea’s Grant Achatz was also nominated this week for a James Beard Award.
• The Crib opens April 1st. O.K., there’s your dead-giveaway.
• In the column, Sula writes that D’Angelo substitutes water in his bong for a 1982 Chateau Petrus, Bordeaux’s most expensive and possibly best wine. A bottle of ‘82 Petrus retails for between $2,500 and $5,500.
• Chef D’Angelo says he had to “go out and grease palms to get my permits and location like anybody else.” Maybe the most realistic aspect of the story, but nobody actually says it out loud, especially to a reporter.
• Edible menus were invented by Chicago chef Homaru Canto of Moto.
• Sula’s D’Angelo says he was the first to serve food on a naked woman. Instead of sushi, though, he used pasta. Pretty funny image, guests eating pasta off a naked model. I guess it’s a poke a New York and L.A. chefs who actually did serve food on naked models. (see video)
• In his blog, Sula writes about the duck D’Angelo uses to sire offspring whose livers will be served on opening night. The duck’s name is Joe Moore…after the alderman who fought for Chicago’s foie gras ban.

There may be more clues and inside jokes. See if you can find them.

[youtube width="425" height="355"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PjDFPwoeSI[/youtube]

I don’t usually side with corporate giants in fights with the little guys, like baristas, but something about last week’s $100 million judgment against Starbucks didn’t sit quite right with me.

The ruling stems from a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of California baristas who claim Starbucks unfairly and illegally forced them to share their tips with “shift supervisors.” According to the lawsuit, rather than pay their shift supervisors more out of the corporate coffers, the company used tips as a means of subsidizing the supervisors’ income. The complaintants say shift supervisors are managers and managers in the service industry are not to a share of the tips.

This is true. In restaurants, bars and coffee houses, managers are not tipped employees. When tips are combined and then split among servers, as with Starbuck’s tip pool, or when one tipped employee shares a portion of tips with another employee, like when a waitress “tips out” a busser, managers receive no cut of the tips. Many states specifically prohibit employers from forcing tipped employees to share tips with traditionally non-tipped employees.

The real question, though, is what is the role of the shift supervisor? Is the shift supervisor an actual member of the management team? (more…)