The most gorgeous of Chicago’s remaining Schlitz Brewery tied houses, the Victorian 1891 edifice in the Fulton Market area, located beside the Green Line and home, until 2016, of La Luce Restaurant at 1393-1399 West Lake, has momentary reprieve from demolition. Preservation Chicago’s executive director Ward Miller told Block Club Chicago that Thursday’s review by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks “should really be a signal to developers that when they look at redeveloping a site, they should work around and integrate these historic resources into their development.” The preservation good guys win for a Chicago minute: The commission voted unanimously Thursday to grant temporary landmark status, reports Block Club, “following impassioned pleas from preservationists and dozens of citizens. Commissioners also rejected the owner’s permit application seeking to tear down the Queen Anne Victorian building.” The process for permanent protection is now expedited: “Under the city code, the commission must schedule a public hearing and notify City Council of its recommendation within 90 days.”
The Sun-Times reports on the Chicago Restaurant Coalition urging priority vaccination for restaurant workers. Dan Conroe, marketing director of City Winery Chicago tells the paper, “None of our businesses can afford to move backward at this point. And frankly, we can’t afford to not move forward with reopening. Some of our staff work multiple jobs, and they don’t have a lot of time to play the website game trying to find a vaccine.”
“Celebrate Argyle” is on the menu, set up by five Southeast Asian American organizers to encourage Chicagoans to frequent fifty of Uptown’s Asia on Argyle businesses and counter xenophobia. “There’s been an increase in anti-Asian hate during this pandemic, and we’ve felt the impact of this hate,” Celebrate Argyle c0-founder Hoan Huynh tells Block Club. “We want to get people to come out and experience Argyle. We want people to chose hope and love over fear and hate.”
Chef Rick Bayless has fashioned a limited-edition pork dish for delivery in seventeen states with Chicago-based vending machine food company Farmer’s Fridge, Eater Chicago reports. Proceeds from the bowl are set to go toward providing support to farmers through the chef’s Frontera Farmer Foundation. “The collaboration with Bayless was actually created by chef Rishi Manoj Kumar who oversees the kitchen at Bar Sótano, the restaurant underneath Frontera,” writes Eater. “It’s a limited-edition bowl of red chile-braised pork with black beans, caramelized plantains and cilantro rice.”
It’s Not Who You Know, It’s What You Know About Chicago
Newcity Dining and Drinking editor David Hammond is a contestant on tonight’s second episode of WTTW’s “Great Chicago Quiz Show,” featuring an extravagant range of trivia about the great city, hosted by Geoffrey Baer with socially distanced contestants from the city and suburbs. (Other contestants include Lupe Fiasco and George Wendt.) WTTW, Friday, April 2, 8pm. Also on WTTW apps and at WTTW.com/quiz.
In lieu of an official announcement, AMC’s website posted that their IMAX site, the 330-seat big black box at Navy Pier, will not reopen; the Tribune’s Nina Metz got confirmation from Pier management. “We are devastated to see the impact that [the] pandemic has had on the theater industry and are sad to see this treasured experience go from the Pier as a result,” they told the Trib. “While we will miss our partnership with AMC, we look forward to exploring and introducing a new and exciting attraction in that space very soon.” (Writer Daniel Kibblesmith tweeted in response, “It is impossible to fully explain how it felt to ride the bus and then go see an IMAX movie here it was an endless journey to literal edge of the earth like finding the big sky wall at the end of ‘Truman Show.'”)
STAGE
Teatro Vista Scans Horizon For New Artistic Director
April 23 is the deadline for applications in the search for the next artistic director to Teatro Vista, Chicago’s largest professional Latinx theater company.
Since 1990, Teatro Vista has grown to be “in the vanguard of Latinx theater in the United States, a place where Latinx artists can expressively flourish and excel to the highest level of theatrical professionalism,” Teatro Vista Board President Adela Cepeda says in a release. “We are seeking applications from candidates who possess a deep knowledge of various Latinx communities, both culturally and within the arts industry, locally and internationally. Ultimately, we are looking for a dynamic, capable and collaborative leader who will help us build on Teatro Vista’s significant accomplishments and help envision the company’s future direction and growth.”
Lakeview theater mainstay Stage 773 is pulling back, the Tribune reports. The affordable stages on Belmont Avenue rented by peripatetic players like American Blues Theater and commercial producers are being reduced to a single space. “The building is going to be completely re-imagined, re-invented and re-constructed to house a ‘Willy Wonka’ meets ‘Burning Man’ meets the Museum of Modern Art immersive experience” by November, Stage 773 executive director Jill Valentine tells Chris Jones, “We are embracing a bold new theatrical world as we reconceive the relationship between artist and audience. We dreamt of creating a venue like no other in Chicago, one that would become an immersive art playground—part theatrical performance, part an artistic experience, part lighting and media installation, and part experiential wild rollercoaster—one that could be considered a national destination.”
Chris Jones tweets foreshadowing of a tale of the Jeffs: “In an update for the theater community, Chicago’s Joseph Jefferson Awards committee says it wants to demystify its own criteria and commits to ‘helping the community better understand the process we use for awards.'”
Julie Bosman has been elevated to Chicago Bureau Chief of the New York Times, while Mitch Smith has been named Midwest National Correspondent. The Times celebrates their promotions with their curricula vitae, writing of Bosman:
“Julie has so many qualities that we value in a national correspondent. She is a spectacular writer of both enterprise and breaking news. She brings tremendous empathy to her subjects and wins their trust. She has enormous intellectual range. Her career at The Times has also spanned business, politics, education and culture. And Julie is also a natural leader—someone who thinks of ways to make our team stronger by looking out for her colleagues.
And of former Trib scribe Smith:
“Mitch, who has long been one of our most collaborative and generous colleagues, has been a true leader over the past year in helping to create and coordinate the Times’s coronavirus data tracking project… and he has guided The Times’s coverage and understanding of the virus… from the coronavirus live briefing to nightly notes outlining the virus’ path. If you have wondered at any point in this complex event: What’s the latest? How are things going? Mitch has been our clear-eyed, rigorous guide at every turn.”
Editor's Letter: April 2021 Of the 132 Breakout Artists before this year, forty-two have gallery representation, which is a status accorded to a select few artists.
