Books

Local Flavor: Restaurants That Shaped Chicago’s Neighborhoods (Northwestern University Press, 2018) chronicles the histories of eight legendary Chicago restaurants and traces the stories of how they all helped anchor some of Chicago’s neighborhoods.

Learn the histories of: Won Kow in Chinatown; Tufano’s Vernon Park Tap in Little Italy; Nuevo Leon/Canton Regio in Pilsen; The Parthenon in Greektown; Borinquen in Humboldt Park; Red Apple Buffet in Avondale; Hema’s Kitchen in West Rogers Park; and Noon O Kabab in Albany Park. Rich with firsthand accounts from Chicago restaurateurs, their families, long-time customers, and staff, Local Flavor is a community-driven look at Chicago through a gastronomical lens.

Praise for Local Flavor

This book gave me a much better idea of how these immigration waves created the neighborhoods as they are today—a key part of the Chicago experience. This would be a perfect gift for anyone who loves this city and its many neighborhoods as much as I do, and has made each of these places a part of their lives over the years.
—Steve Dolinsky, “The Hungry Hound,” food reporter for ABC 7

This well-researched and fascinating paean to Chicago’s ethnic cuisine profiles the proprietors and founders of eight iconic Chicago restaurants.  But it’s more than a tour of Chicago’s vibrant restaurant scene;  it’s a history of American immigration  and the enormous and beneficial impact immigrants have had on our culinary culture.”
—Colleen Taylor Sen, author of Feasts and Fasts: A History of Food in India and coeditor of The Chicago Food Encyclopedia

Anyone who cherishes Chicago’s rich multicultural history will enjoy this book. It’s a love letter to Chicago told through food.
— Jan Parr, Crain’s Chicago Business

Available now! It’s Belt Publishing latest offering in its idiosyncratic neighborhood guidebook series, The Chicago Neighborhood Guidebook (Belt Publishing, September 2019).

Included in this anthology of essays on many of Chicago’s 77 defined neighborhoods is Jean’s contribution, “Counting Cranes,” in which she regales her experiences living through the housing bubble on the Milwaukee Corridor in River West. From near-death blows with angry bikers to basking in the wafts of chocolate and bread factories, “Counting Cranes” is one of many upcoming essays based on decades of living in Chicago.

BYOB Chicago is the definitive guide to Chicagoland’s bring-your-own-bottle dining scene. It features hundreds of BYOBs, beverage retailers, and corkage fees for licensed restaurants. Though the book is now out of print, limited copies are available.

Praise for BYOB Chicago

A great resource that I turn to time and time again.
—Alpana Singh, Master Sommelier

We can’t think of a more useful guidebook to Chicago.
—Time Out Chicago

For the budget-minded diner, as well as the wine enthusiast and the beer lover.
—Chicago magazine