Millennium Park to Host an International Dumpling Fest and More Intel

— It might be sacrilegious to talk about Columbus Day weekend in the middle of July in Chicago, but make those plans now for the first-annual World Dumpling Fest, which hopes to gather food from all parts of the globe. The new event, first reported by TimeOut, will take place on Oct. 7 at Millennium Park. There’s no food vendor lineup, yet, but it’s general admission. Tickets (click here) cost $10 for three dumplings and $50 for 18. It’s the kickoff event for Inherit Chicago, a new month-long fest involving 30 organizations representing different cultures and presented by the Chicago Cultural Alliance.

— The Blind Robin, the Ukrainian Village bar that closed last month at 853 N. Western Ave., looks like it’s reopening. A Facebook post on the bar’s page claimed they’ve found new owners and have hired a new staff. However, some neighborhood locals are salty that old servers weren’t rehired. Will they come back to the bar?

— City officials are ramping up efforts to allow food trucks to serve customers at O’Hare International Airport. The latest proposal, according to the Sun-Times, has food truck owners paying an annual fee of $200 to the city to vend food from the city’s larger airport. The city council is focusing on O’Hare for the time being, leaving Midway International Airport out of proposals. They’re still working on details, but the city may arrange it so food trucks could dock at O’Hare’s cell phone parking lot.

— It’s been more than a month since 42 Grams, the 2-Michelin-starred restaurant in Uptown, has closed. Chef Jake Bickelhaupt is keeping busy. He’s teamed up with chef Trevor Teich for a collaborative dinners series next month at Teich’s pop-up restaurant. The two chefs will team up on Aug. 11 and Aug. 13 at Claudia, 327 N. Bell Ave., with two seatings on each day. The early seatings will be eight courses for $225 per person and the late seating will have 12 courses for $325 per person. Tickets can be reserved here. The dinners are BYO and there’s 16 seats for each seating.

— Matthias Merges talked with the Tribune about the reasons he closed his South Side Japanese restaurant, Yusho Hyde Park. He cited difficulty in hiring dependable and quality workers. He also mentioned the typical hardships cited by business owners across many industries: Increasing minimum wage and higher insurance costs. The Trib also mentioned that Jared Leonard is looking at the Hyde Park space to open a second BBQ Supply Co. Leonard runs The Budlong hot chicken mini-chain. He recently gave his Rogers Park restaurant a facelift.