Chicago Restaurant Week Is Back!

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News of the Week

Chicago Restaurant Week is Back!

Chicago Restaurant Week (CRW) returns early in 2023 from January 20 through February 5! For those unfamiliar, CRW is a multi-week celebration of the city's fantastic food scene showcasing over 300 of Chicago's best restaurants through limited-time, special-menu offerings. These special menus have predetermined price points, and for this year they are $25 for lunch/brunch and $42 and/or $59 for dinner. Some restaurants offer both lunch/brunch and dinner, while others offer just one. Additionally, you will notice that some menus have upgrade options where you can pay a bit more to choose an item that is not a part of the standard selection of offerings.

On the topic of price, you may not have known this but Chicago Restaurant Week originally began years ago as a way to encourage Chicagoans to dine out during the city's hardest time period for the restaurant industry: the middle of winter. CRW provided something to celebrate during late January and early February for both restaurants and customers. Diners scored good deals on meals, and restaurants would fill their tables during what would traditionally be a slower time, making it a win-win for everyone involved.

2023 marks the 16th annual CRW event, so it's safe to say it has been popular with locals. With that being said, we recommend doing your homework because not all CRW menus are created equal. In some cases, a CRW menu is a great opportunity to try multiple dishes at a more manageable size and price. However, this won't always be the case. A lot of factors go into play in determining the actual value you are getting including where you go, what meal you go for, what your specific menu selections are and if you would have otherwise ordered multiple courses.

Something to be mindful of is that participating restaurants will at times scale back the portion of certain items. It's typically appetizers or desserts, but it happens to entrees as well. As a result, comparing a dish to the normal menu price isn't necessarily apples to apples and could be misleading when evaluating the potential CRW menu savings. Additionally, a lot of restaurants will require everyone sitting at the table to participate in the CRW menu. This means you should take the CRW menu price and double it if you are on a date to give you a fair comparison. What dishes could you have otherwise gotten with that same amount of money? Do you value the dessert course or would you never order that normally anyways? All things to consider!

Now that we've got you thinking, let's also look at the positive side of Chicago Restaurant Week! First and foremost, if you know us, you know we love a good deal! So much so that we created an entire Chicago foodie community around them (which you should join)! CRW has plenty of good deals that you can take advantage of; you just need to find the ones that make sense for you!

While we don't know your specific preferences, we have eaten at a decent amount of Chicago restaurants (both during and not during Chicago Restaurant Week), so we have a sense for what is good and what isn't. And chances are that if you are still reading this, you may value our opinion when it comes to these things.

Starting today, we will use a portion of this newsletter to provide you with a CRW menu pick that we think you should check out. We will be vetting for both menu offerings and value to find the ones that we feel are good options. Will each one be a perfect fit for you? Probably not, but it will at least give you a starting point. So without further ado, let's do a quick dive into our first pick: the Lunch Menu at Yardbird!

The Yardbird lunch menu is only available Monday-Friday. You know it's a good deal because it's not offered on the weekend. For $25, you can get a 3 course lunch which includes the menu option of Yardbird's delicious Chicken & Waffles. This is a great example of a valuable CRW menu offering. On their normal menu, the Chicken & Waffles is both huge and pricey ringing in at $42. While we fully expect the CRW Chicken & Waffles to be a smaller portion than usual, the chance to try a smaller portion for a lower price is part of the appeal here. You get a more affordable way to try out this dish (which we highly recommend) while also sampling an appetizer and enjoying a dessert.

For the appetizer options, Yardbird's menu specifies that you get either two Deviled Eggs or two Fried Green Tomato BLTs if you order those options. This is a great opportunity to dine with another person and order one of each. Then each person gets to try one Deviled Egg and one Fried Green Tomato BLT, turning your three course lunch into a four course meal! We've had both of these two appetizers and enjoyed them. If you can only try one, go with the Fried Green Tomato BLT. Lastly, while we haven't tried either of the dessert options, they sound great as well! You have a choice of either Fried Oreos or a slice of Key Lime Pie.

While it might be tough to schedule a nice sit-down lunch during the week, if you can make it happen, we think it is a great way to try out one of Chicago's newest and most stunning restaurants. Stay tuned for some more of our favorite menu picks, and feel free to do some menu studying for yourself in the meantime!

Best of the Rest

• News: Chicago is turning a corner! Yesterday marked the first day that the sun will now set later instead of earlier! Learn more by reading our post.

• Video: This might be the most adorable food video we've ever seen!

• ICYMI: National Cookie Day was earlier this month and one fast-food restaurant went all out. You have heard of $5 dollar footlongs, but have you heard of a footlong cookie?!

Join Best Date Foodies!

Best Date Foodies is our $5 per month Patreon community for Chicagoans that includes three monthly coupons for free food at great, local restaurants, monthly contests with awesome prizes and members-only invites to fun events at restaurants and bars. Our December deals right now are listed below. Sign up here to join the community! You will love it!

• Recess (West Loop) - Choice of one Free Starter with purchase ($17 value)

• 2d Restaurant (Lakeview) - Three Free Sweet Mochi Donuts ($13 value)

• Formento's (West Loop) - Choice of either One Free Pastry Board Trio or Belgium Waffle with purchase ($16 value)

Poll of the Week

We will let you know the poll results in the next newsletter! After clicking to cast your vote, leave your name and a reason why you chose your answer and you may see your answer featured!

Last Week's Poll Results

• Question: You've likely been to at least one of, if not both, the Christkindlmarkets in Chicago before! Which one do you think is superior?

• Result: Downtown at Daley Plaza (53%) vs. Gallagher Way at Wrigley (47%)

• Reader Thoughts: "Downtown was sooo packed. We even went on a Wednesday afternoon to try to avoid large crowds but it was still hard to move through the market. Wrigley had the same food options PLUS fun activities and less of a crowd." -Megan S.

How Did We Do?

If you enjoyed this email, or even if you didn't, reply to us and let us know! We would love to hear your thoughts either way. Thanks for reading and happy Friday!