Christkindlmarket Christmas Bazaar Reveals 25th Anniversary Mug

The Chicago Christkindlmarket, which is returning to both Daley Plaza and Gallagher Way this year after a pandemic hiatus in 2020, has announced the designs for not just its 2021 souvenir beer stein and non-alcoholic beverage mug, but its first-ever ornament, all of which will celebrate the market’s 25th anniversary.

The stein will feature a drawing of the market itself in front of the Chicago skyline, with metallic fireworks overhead and the words “25th anniversary.” While boot shapes have been popular in previous years, this year’s mug will be a simple cylindrical flute shape. At the market, the mugs will be filled with Krombacher, the this year’s official beer sponsor.

The non-alcoholic beverage mug, meanwhile, bears the image of the market mascot Peppermint the Penguin, dressed in a natty green-trimmed tuxedo, and the ornament is a glass globe hand-painted with a design of a giant Christmas tree and one of the red-striped market booths in front of the city skyline. Both mugs are $7 and the ornament is $35; all are now available for advance purchase on the Christkindlmarket website.

Logan Square Farmers Market finds a permanent winter home

Logan Square’s popular farmers market will operate out of a new location this winter starting Sunday, November 21 in a warehouse at 2537 N. Pulaski Road, according to Block Club Chicago. A former marble plant, the site has space for about 30 vendors and its indoor season is slated to run on Sundays for the next 19 weeks. Market organizers have been on the hunt for a new indoor winter space since last fall when they were ejected from the Fields on Diversey Avenue over “confusion” with the ground-floor tenant, Cermak Fresh Market.

Cap off Fil-Am History Month with comforting favorites in Albany Park

October is Filipino American History Month, so Axios reporter Monica Eng sought the counsel of writer (and Eater Chicago contributor) Sarah Lynn Pablo to find recommendations for heartwarming homestyle foods. Pablo points to Ruby’s Fast Food in Albany Park, a neighborhood staple for more than two decades featuring hits like crispy pata (deep fried pork knuckle), kare kare, and sapin sapin for dessert.

Late night hours are back at a cool cocktail haven in River North

In a sign of some creeping normalcy, hip River North cocktail bar Good Measure has brought back its late-night kitchen hours, according to a rep. That means patrons can drop in for patty melts, Suntory Toki highballs, and more until midnight on Tuesdays through Thursdays and until 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

For local brewers, the ‘year of the lager’ has finally arrived

The Tribune explores the wonderful world of lagers — the reliable, easy-drinking standbys that aren’t usually associated with craft breweries yet have become central to Chicago area operations like Dovetail, Metropolitan, and Goldfinger Brewing in suburban Downers Grove. Writer Josh Noel also calls out a dozen spots where curious drinkers can find local lagers in the city and suburbs.

Miami-themed bar shut down for building violations

Wynwood Kitchen and Spirits, a Miami-wannabe bar in Wicker Park, was shut down last week by the city after failing a building inspection on October 16, Block Club Chicago reported. The bar was also cited for operating a sidewalk cafe without a proper license and for violating the city’s mask mandate. Owner Samantha Lukaszewski told Block Club that the building violations, which included no smoke detectors, inoperable exit signs, and exposed wiring in the basement, were holdovers from when she took over the building in 2019 and that she would address them immediately. It appears that she did: an Instagram post from last Friday invited diners to come in for Saturday brunch. The patio, however, remains closed for the rest of the year; although Lukaszewski said she paid her licensing fee, it never showed up in the city’s system.

The Tribune goes to Bar Goa

This week’s Tribune restaurant review finds Louisa Chu visiting Bar Goa, a new spot from the owners of Rooh that features the Portuguese-influenced cuisine of the southwest Indian state of Goa, in both its incarnations: a River North restaurant and a stall at the Time Out Market. Chu was impressed with the pork vindaloo poi-wich and the prawn and chorizo fried rice and the Toes in the Sand cocktail, but she found many of the dishes she tried too tepid, both in temperature and spiciness (heat is something Indian restaurants are stereotypically damned if they do and damned if they don’t), and she was bewildered by the manager’s refusal to let her have a front table when no one else was in the restaurant.