The Daily Parker

Welcome to stop #72 on the Brews and Choos project.

Brewery: Moody Tongue Brewing, 2515 S. Wabash Ave., Chicago
Train line: CTA Green Line, Cermak–McCormick Place
Time from Loop: 6 minutes
Distance from station: 900 m

Moody Tongue surprised everyone when it won two Michelin stars in 2021, in part because of their novel 12-beer parings menu in the dining room. Fortunately for the Brews & Choos Project, they also have a separate bar area, which by itself would qualify for a Bib Gourmand.

I got a reservation for last Thursday, and trudged through Bronzeville during what I hope was Chicago's last significant snowfall of the season. The bar did not disappoint me.

They have 100-mL pours, and I brought a friend, so I got to taste four of their current beers without going broke (or getting intoxicated). That let me enjoy a few of their appetizers as well.

I started with the Caramelized Chocolate Churro Porter (7.0%), with its complex chocolate, red wine, and vanilla notes, about which I wrote "ooooooo!" in my notebook. Next, with my food, I had a 100-mL pour of the Roasted Mocha Scwarzbier (4.9%), which I found lighter than expected, with a clean finish, and a caramel-oaky flavor that only hinted at the espresso they brewed it with. My friend had full pours (that I got to taste) of the Irish Cream Stout (6.6%), a malty and deliciously-balanced dark beer, and the Bourbon Barrel 12 Layer Cake Stout (13.9%), which exploded into chocolate and oaky maltiness that has to be one of the most dangerous beers I've ever had. Despite none of those coming even close to my usual medium-hoppy, English IPA palate, I would drink any one of them again.

And they had food. Oh heavens they had food. I had two appetizers and shared one of my friends', and felt completely satisfied.

Above, on the left, is the smoked beet tartare, with "whipped ricotta, saba, arare, egg yolk jam, and toasted sourdough." My vegetarian friend ate most of that, while I had (on the right) the braised rabbit cavatelli ("Castelvetrano olives, pine nuts, preserved lemon, pecorino"). I wound up using one of the toast points to thoroughly mop up my rabbit. I also had the confit Berkshire pork belly ("smoked pumpkin risotto, bacon, butternut squash, pickled apple, soy caramel chestnuts") and left almost nothing on the plate. My friend also had the roasted lion's mane mushroom entrée, which she enjoyed.

I will, at some point, go back to try the actual Michelin-starred tasting menu. But for $100, the two of us had just the right amount of food and beer, well worth the trip.

Beer garden? No
Dogs OK? No
Televisions? Two, avoidable
Serves food? Yes, Michelin-quality
Would hang out with a book? No
Would hang out with friends? Yes
Would go back? Yes

I've had a lot to do at work the last couple of days, leading to an absolute pile-up of unread press:

• Casey Michael outlines how Russian President Vladimir Putin's aims in Ukraine have little to do with NATO and a lot to do with him wanting to restore the Russian Empire.
• Tom Nichols calls Putin's actions the beginning of "a forever war," and Julia Ioffe calls Putin "a furious and clearly deranged old man, threatening to drag us all into World War III."
• Col. Jerad Harper USA, a professor at the US Army War College, warns that an insurgency in Ukraine could easily bring Russian to blows with NATO directly.
• Max Boot points out just how foolish the XPOTUS's apologists look after his unhinged praise of Putin yesterday.
• John Judis criticizes both the US and Russia for getting us to this point.
• Inae Oh sees Rick Scott's "unhinged, right-wing fever dream" as pretty normal for the GOP.
• Two Manhattan Assistant District Attorneys have resigned amid reports that new DA Alvin Bragg has pulled back from the office's criminal investigation of the XPOTUS.
• John Lee Anderson explains how the Taliban have caught the car they were chasing and don't know how to govern it.
• Illinois State Senator Thomas Cullerton (D-Villa Park) resigned from office as part of a plea deal on charges he drew $275,000 in salary from the Teamsters union despite doing nothing at all for them.
• Paul Krugman wonders whether the Democrats have "a technocrat problem."
• Fourteen restaurants, bars, and chefs in Chicago are James Beard Awards semi-finalists.
• The Chicago Transit Authority plans to have an all-electric bus fleet by 2040. When I'm 70. Yay.
• Professional musicians, particularly the self-taught, find that their playing styles wreak havoc on their bodies, cutting careers short.
• Children brought up in the last few years think the web browser is the computer, and get completely stymied using actual programs.

Finally, on this day in 1940, Woody Guthrie released "This Land is Your Land," a song even more misunderstood than Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA."

I will now take a break from my ongoing struggles to make Blazorise play nicely with Open ID authentication so I can read these:

• Block Club Chicago, which has essentially taken over from the Chicago Tribune in local news coverage as the latter is slowly strangled by a hedge fund, investigated the Amazon carryall boxes that seem to pop up everywhere these days.
• Paul Krugman spends some time explaining inflation in general and our current round of it in specific.
• Gordon Ramsay has opened his third restaurant, right here in Chicago.
• NBC digs into why Internet outages happen, and what technology can do about it.
• Yasmin Tayag advises everyone to prepare for an inevitable bout of Covid, even if you've ben vaccinated.

And finally, WGN confirms we hit back-to-back record temperatures Wednesday and Thursday, both tied for 11th warmest December day in Chicago history.

Messages for you, sir:

• As of yesterday, officially 800,000 Americans have died of Covid-19.
• Two members of the president's bi-partisan commission looking at ways to fix the Supreme Court say we shouldn't fix it because "Federal judges aren't politicians." Ah, ha ha, how droll.
• Those non-politicians comprising the Republican wing of the Federal judiciary are helping nudge the country to civil war, according to Charles Blow.
• Why isn't the media covering the war on democracy like an actual war? asks Mother Jones.
• The Atlantic takes another look at California's over-zealous regulations strangling sidewalk cafes.
• The Chicago Tribune takes the time to review The Weiners Circle. It's a much better review than the one Everywhereist gave to Bros', too.

I will now go hug my dog, who set a record yesterday for staying home alone (8 hours, 20 minutes) without watering my carpets.

Today's litany of disappointments, with a couple of bright spots:

• First-term US Representative Peter Meijer (R-MI) has not enjoyed the fallout from taking principled votes his first month in office.
• Designer David Sotokarlin sketches out a map of what the Chicago El could become, and I would love to see at least some of these ideas in reality.
• The Washington Post's TV critic Inkoo Kang calls the Sex and the City reboot a "bloated, laugh-free comedy about grief."
• Travel writer Geraldine DeRuiter ate at Bros., in Lecce, Italy, in her view "the worst Michelin-starred restaurant ever."
• American expat Sara Zaske's book Achtung Baby follows her adventures raising her daughter in Germany, where children still have the freedom—in fact, the expectation—to take risks and learn self-reliance.

Finally, northwest suburban officials continue to track escaped bison "Billy" as she continues her walkabout through McHenry County. She will not be buffaloed back to her ranch!

I have opened these on my Surface at work, but I'll have to read them at home:

• The City of Chicago has sued Grubhub and Doordash for deceptive practices.
• Sue Halpern asks, "Why is Facebook suddenly afraid of the FTC?"
• Paul Krugman worries that California voters might destroy their own economic success if they remove Governor Gavin Newsom from office next week.
• Josh Marshall fisks Robert Kagan's opinion piece on the history of the Afghanistan war.
• Ezra Klein says, "Let's not pretend that the way we withdrew from Afghanistan was the problem."
• Bruce Schneier links to more details about the massive T-Mobile breach, which today appears to have cost me my main credit card and will go on to cost me many hours of work in the next few days to update automated payment systems.
• Paleontologists have discovered an enormous, four-legged, very carnivorous whale. In the Sahara.

Finally, Empirical Brewery has a new line of beer that supports Tree House Cats at Work. I'll try some and let you know.

While I look out my hermetically-sealed office window at some beautiful September weather in Chicago (another argument for working from home), I have a lot of news to digest:

• The infrastructure bill unveiled in the US Senate this morning would give $66 billion to Amtrak, which desperately needs the money.
• Josh Marshall argues that social-group identity drives resistance to vaccination. Brooke Harrington elaborates by pointing out that people who are conned usually can't admit to being conned.
• In Chicago, a growing list of businesses and restaurants have decided simply to refuse service to people who haven't gotten a Covid-19 jab. (My chorus, by the way, is one of them.)
• Illinois now has stronger protections against onerous non-compete agreements, which the conservative Crain's worries will hurt legitimate non-compete agreements.
• Bruce Schneier asks what could possibly go wrong with a European satellite that can be completely reprogrammed from the ground?

And finally, Jakob Nielsen explains to web designers as patiently as possible why pop-ups piss off users.

Yesterday, I went to a movie theater for the first time since 26 January 2020—a gap of 545 days. The movie? Black Widow. You have to watch MCU films on a big screen before watching them at home, really.

I'm also glad the last film I saw in theaters was The Gentlemen, a fun Guy Ritchie romp through London.

Other than the woman a couple rows back who kept coughing (!!!), I thoroughly enjoyed returning to a theater. After, I stopped for a crepe at the local Crêperie, where I last ate almost a year ago.

We're so close to getting back to normal. Come on, red states.

Southport Lanes, the 99-year-old bar and bowling alley in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood, has closed permanently:

The bar, restaurant and bowling alley at 3325 N. Southport Ave. is permanently closed after efforts to revive the business were unsuccessful, said Lacey Irby, a spokeswoman for the group that owns the building at Southport and Henderson Street.

The business had reopened in mid-July after coronavirus restrictions lifted before closing again in the fall, and has not reopened since.

“After giving it a lot of thought, building ownership decided to go the route of auctioning off the assets for the business formerly known as Southport Lanes,” Irby said. “Ownership, unfortunately, does not see the business recovering any time soon, so the business is now permanently closed.”

Items for sale include the venue’s famous sign, bowling lanes and equipment, and pool tables and equipment, according to the Winternitz website.

Other items available in the auction include kitchen equipment, televisions, furniture and two large murals.

Also, The Daily Parker exchanged emails yesterday with Begyle Brewery's front-of-house manager Brett Knickerbocker, who informed us that—no! wait! They're not closing! Read the whole thing!—they have to stop letting dogs in the taproom because they lost the larger upstairs area during the pandemic.

Happy Wednesday! Here's what I'm reading before my 8pm meeting, now that my 6:30pm meeting just ended:

• Alexandra Petri finds exactly the right analogy for the Republican complaints that an investigation into the January 6th insurrection would be "more partisan unfairness."
• Former election official Jennifer Morrell observed the unofficial Maricopa County, Ariz., recount, and found it even worse than you might have expected.
• University of Baltimore Law Professor Kimberly Wehle looks at the implications of the likely first-ever indictment and trial of a former president.
• Bitcoin's wild swings in value have nothing to do with its complete lack of real value, according to its partisans.
• Chicago will once again block off entire streets for outdoor dining this summer.

And finally, the New Yorker's Tom Papa introduces you to "asshole cat behaviors."