Women+Chefs+in+Chicago



**You Have to Eat! **
 * Women Chefs in Chicago **

// [This article was created for the 2013 ALA Annual meeting in Chicago -- we're in the process of updating it for 2017] //

There are many ways to approach the decision of where to eat if you’re in Chicago for ALA Annual 2013. You can choose the first place you come to (perhaps not the best idea if you are near the Convention Center, given ALA’s own attendance estimate of 25,000, including 18,000 paid registrants), use one of the many restaurant lists provided by the association and its various sub-groups, use outside recommendations such as Yelp or TripAdvisor, or even ask your Chicago friends and family. Whatever method you employ, there will be more appealing possibilities than most of us can fit into the conference’s five-day span.

To narrow the field a bit, here is a list of Chicago restaurants that feature women chefs – several of which are also owned by women. To help you decide, check this **Google map** of the restaurants and a few key conference sites. Price ratings are from Urbanspoon: $ cheap eats ● $$ moderately priced ● $$$ higher priced ● $$$$ fine dining.

** Bttersweet Pastry Shop & Café ** 1114 West Belmont Avenue #8, Chicago, IL, (773) 929-1100; $ breakfast, lunch, early dinner, snacks - desserts, coffee, soups, sandwiches, and salads Yelp ● Urbanspoon● TripAdvisor // European style pastry by self-taught chef Judy Contino and her talented staff. Contino pastries have been recognized as Chicago's best by Chicago Magazine and New City and New Woman Magazine chose her as one of the top 10 female chefs in America. [Contino handed over the reins to Chef Mindy Gohr and Esther Griego in 2015.] // ** Black Dog Gelato ** 859 North Damen Avenue & 1955 W. Belmont Ave, Chicago, IL, (773) 235-3116; $ gelato and sorbet  Yelp ● Urbanspoon ● TripAdvisor  // Before opening her own store //// Jessica Oloroso had been selling her gourmet gelato and sorbet with unusual combinations of flavors through other restaurants for a number of years. The Chicago CBS affiliate named Black Dog best gelato in 2012. // Yelp ● Urbanspoon ● TripAdvisor // Owner and executive chef Stephanie Izard was the first woman to win Brovo’s Top Chef and Girl & the Goat was named America’s Best New Restaurant by Saveur magazine in 2011. //
 * Girl & The Goat** 809 West Randolph Street, Chicago, IL, (312) 492-6262; $$$ dinner (opens at 4:30) - new American cuisine, vegetables, fish, meats, craft beers, house-made wines, vegan, gluten-free

Yelp ● Urbanspoon ● TripAdvisor // HotChocolate Chef and Owner Mindy Segal won the 2012 James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry. The restaurant and dessert bar is an “urban café” specializing in contemporary food and desserts inspired by seasonal and local ingredients. //
 * Mindy's HotChocolate** 1747 North Damen Avenue, Chicago, IL, (773) 489-1747; $$$ weekend brunch, lunch, dinner and dessert - traditional American, salads, entrees, sandwiches, seasonal desserts

Yelp ● Urbanspoon ● TripAdvisor // Gourmet magazine said “NAHA is solidly installed on the city's restaurant A-List. It is likely to stay there as long as it continues to serve Carrie Nahabedian's sophisticated comfort food.” Chicago Magazine said James Beard Award winner Nahabedian “reels in Mediterranean-influenced American. Sophisticated cooking is far from low key.” //
 * NAHA** 500 North Clark Street, Chicago, IL, (312) 321-6242; $$$$ lunch and dinner - Mediterranean-influenced American cuisine, tea and herbal infusions, beer, cocktails

Yelp ● Urbanspoon ● TripAdvisor // In 2003 Rohini Dey gave up an exutive management consultant career to open Vermilion, an “Indian-Latin hot spot.” Dey also supports the James Beard Foundation Vermilion Women in Culinary Leadership Scholarship, intended to encourage more women to take on //// leadership roles in the food industry. "There are so many women in culinary school, but it dies out in the field," she told the Wall Street Journal. "It's appalling." //
 * Vermilion** 10 West Hubbard Street, Chicago, IL, (312) 527-4060; $$$$ lunch, dinner, cocktails - Indian, Latin, tapas, vegetarian


 * If you decide to make the trek to Evanston to tour the Frances Willard House, check out **

Yelp ● Urbanspoon ● TripAdvisor // Named one of 2013’s best new restaurants by Chicago Magazine, Found is Amy Morton’s “socially conscious American bistro.” In May the New York Times described the restaurant’s “succulent local fare.” The menu, created with chef Nicole Pederson, is focused on seasonal small plates. //
 * Found Kitchen and Social House** 1631 Chicago Avenue, Evanston, IL, (847) 868-8945; $$$ lunch (Friday-Sunday), dinner - new American cuisine, flatbreads, sandwiches, salads, seafood

**Now Closed or No Longer Women-Owned**

Yelp ● Urbanspoon ● TripAdvisor //"I always experience discrimination because I am a woman in BBQ," Lee Ann Whippen, chef and partner at Chicago's Chicago q restaurant, told Inc. magazine in 2011. "It has been a rough road but with tenacity and being goal-driven, I have received a lot of respect from my peers." [Whippen left Chicago Q in 2015]//
 * Chicago Q** 1160 North Dearborn Street, Chicago, IL, (312) 642-1160; $$$ lunch and dinner - appetizers, salads, barbecue, entrees, desserts, gluten-free

Yelp ● Urbanspoon ● TripAdvisor //Ina Pinkney, the chef/owner of Ina's, was one of the first successful women in the culinary profession in Chicago. In 2011 Pinkney, the self-proclaimed “breakfast queen,” and restaurateur Dan Rosenthal won a Chicago Green Award for the Green Chicago Restaurant Co-op, a collective that helps make green purchases affordable for chefs and restaurateurs.//
 * Ina's** [closed in 2013] 1235 West Randolph Street, Chicago, IL, (312) 226-8227; $ breakfast and lunch - omelettes, pancakes, salads, chicken, gluten-free

Yelp ● Urbanspoon ● TripAdvisor //Chef Priscila Satkoff has been offering classic and contemporary Mexican cuisine at Salpicon since 1995. Michelin Guide calls her “this town’s unsung hero of contemporary Mexican cuisine”. In September 2011 s Satkoff was inducted into the Chicago Culinary Museum’s ‘Chefs Hall of Fame’. In honor of her induction, Mayor Rahm Emanuel proclaimed September 29, 2011 as “Chef Priscila Satkoff Day”.//
 * Salpicón ** [closed in 2016] 1252 North Wells Street, Chicago, IL, (312) 988-7811; $$$ dinner, dessert, Sunday brunch - contemporary Mexican, gluten-free

Yelp ● Urbanspoon ● TripAdvisor //Chef/Owner Carol Wallack’s lifelong love of the Hawaiian sun and surf led her to open sola – a restaurant “committed to// //celebrating the flavors and philosophies of Hawaii’s unique culinary culture” using locally raised ingredients and supporting sustainability.//
 * sola** [closed in 2015] 3868 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL, (773) 327-3868; $$ dinner - contemporary American with Hawaiian influences, Asian fusion, seafood

Yelp ● Urbanspoon ● TripAdvisor //Chef Susan Goss and husband Drew Goss have been fixtures in the Chicago restaurant community since 1993; West Town Tavern hosts the Annual Girl Food Dinner each May. The dinner, which features an all-female-chef lineup, has raised nearly $200,000 over the last 16 years for the Chicago Food Depository.//
 * West Town Tavern** //[closed in 2014]// 1329 West Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL, (312) 666-6175; $$$ dinner, dessert, cocktails - gastropub, burgers, salads, pasta