Saveur and the Windy City

For October, Saveur has chosen to do a Chicago-themed issue. Chicago-themed doesn’t mean one big story and a flight of smaller sidebars. It means no fewer than seven full-on features and a crazy assortment of smaller stories covering everything from the city’s ethnic grocery markets to Frango mints to a profile on Ed Debevic’s entrepeneur Rich Melman and a highly informative blurb on what (and who) makes a Chicago hot dog so distinctive. Web-exclusive content covers Chicago taverns, the Chicago incarnation of Puebla, Mexico’s Lebanese-style tacos, and the restoration of the kitchen in a Frank Lloyd Wright–designed house.

Also: the obligatory story on that Midwestern abomination known as deep-dish pizza.

The beauty of this issue—which may, truth be told, contain more information about Chicago food trends and history than anyone might ever want to read—is that it’s far more like a guidebook than a magazine. If you subscribe to Saveur, you should save this issue in case you travel to Chicago; if you don’t, you should seek out a copy if you know you’re heading there sometime in the next year.

And while regular Saveur readers might miss the magazine’s typical National Geographic–style look at obscure global customs, there’s enough ephemera about Chicago soul food, foie gras, and Polish butchers to keep even the most jaded reader entertained.