Hyde Park is Getting a Korean-Mexican Fast-Casual Restaurant

— Hyde Park and Naperville are getting locations of growing fast-casual Korean-Mexican brand Seoul Taco. Chef David Choi’s St. Louis import, which opened its first Chicago location in River North in June 2016, takes over the Edwardo’s Natural Pizza, Packed, and Cemitas Puebla space at 1321 E. 57th Street in Hyde Park and at 206 S. Washington Street in suburban Naperville, according to a news release and multiple reports. The brand, which is popular for fusion items such as bulgogi steak tacos, plans to open the new spots this winter.

— Crate & Barrel will open a restaurant at its suburban Oakbrook Center store next spring — with help from an acclaimed chef. Bill Kim of BellyQ and Urbanbelly will oversee the restaurant’s menu. Restoration Hardware, which opened the eye-popping restaurant Three Arts Club Cafe with help from Brendan Sodikoff in 2015, sued Crate & Barrel last year and accused the company of copying its food and beverage concept, the Tribune reports. That suit was reportedly resolved.

— Wilson Bauer, the acclaimed former Schwa chef de cuisine who launched the underground dinner club Chicago, Washington in March, went missing on Thursday and Chicago Police put out an alert. He was found Saturday, however, and no additional information was available, according to multiple reports.

— Riot Fest, the three-day punk rock-focused music festival, took place over the weekend in Douglas Park and it was scaled back with fewer bands and food offerings versus other years. Hip-hop duo Run the Jewels headlined Sunday’s lineup and during the performance Killer Mike took to time to mention Brian Fisher, the chef from Michelin-starred Entente in Lakeview. Fisher is a big RTJ fan; he ran a food truck outside Emporium Arcade Bar’s pop-up in Logan Square in 2017. He was backstage during the show and was stoked even though the audio of the shout out was garbled. If anyone has footage of the show with clear audio, drop a link at chicago@eater.com.

Brian Fisher

— Lettuce Entertain You patriarch Rich Melman, a longtime supporter of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, has donated to the campaign of former police Superintendent Gerry McCarthy now that Emanuel announced he won’t run for reelection. The Melman family and Lettuce Entertain You restaurants and employees donated more than $700,000 to Emanuel since 2010, the Tribune reports, so they have a big influence on the race.

— And finally, Benihana chefs in Chicago and New York will attempt to break the Guinness World Record for longest cooking marathon starting tomorrow. Raymundo Mendez will start cooking fried rice at the 875 N. Michigan Avenue location at 4 p.m. on September 18 and doesn’t plan to stop until he’s awarded the Guinness certificate at 10 a.m. on September 20. All customers will get free fried rice with the purchase of an entree on Thursday too.