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Today is Triple Points Day at Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises! Members of the restaurant group’s Frequent Diners program will threefold points toward future meals if they dine at participating restaurants today.
Lettuce Entertain You was the first Chicago chain to offer a Frequent Diners program, one of many innovations the company, perhaps the single most influential in Chicago restaurant history, has brought to Windy City diners in the nearly 40 years since it began.
As the story goes, “Spring, nineteen seventy. A bizarre funk hung over the Windy City. Two men, a flower child named Crazy Alice and an abnormal recipe for ‘killer chili’ were headed for a date with destiny. ‘Let It Be’ was #1 on the charts, Frank Zappa ruled the universe and humans were wearing strange clothes….”
 R.J. Grunts Rich Melman was dishing up deli fare in his dad’s restaurant and chafing under a lack of control. Jerry Orzoff was speculating on Michigan Avenue real estate. The two came together and launched a Lincoln Park restaurant called R.J. Grunts in 1971, the first in what was to be a chain of restaurants that would change Chicago’s perception of eating out, Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises.
Grunts, intended to feed hippies with the munchies, introduced the salad bar to Chicago. It played rock music. It didn’t take reservations. It was casual and fun.
Other offbeat places followed: Fritz That’s It! … Great Gritzbe’s Flying Food Show … Jonathan Livingston Seafood … Lawrence of Oregano…. The restaurants had innovative promotions, such as a passport that got you a free dinner if you visited enough of the eateries and signs that taunted passersby to steal them and bring them in for a discount.
 Richard Melman Then, in 1976, the partners took on the establishment — taking over the famed Pump Room, which had opened on the Gold Coast in 1938 (no longer under Lettuce management, The Pump Room is reportedly facing major downsizing). Orzoff died in 1981, but Melman went on expanding. LEYE first popularized risotto in Chicago with opening of Scoozi! in River North and introduced Spanish tapas with Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba! in Lincoln Park, both in 1986.
According to Melman, the company concentrated on creating a variety of different concepts all in one city instead of launching a national chain of replicated restaurants because he didn’t like to travel. Today, LEYE owns, licenses or manages more than 60 establishments in seven states, with the vast majority in the Chicago area.
Lettuce Entertain You restaurants also include:
- Antico Posto, Italian, Oak Brook
- Ben Pao, Chinese, River North
- Big Bowl, Chinese and Thai, multiple locations
- Brasserie Jo, French, River North
- Di Pescara, Italian, Northbrook
- Everest, French, Loop
- foodlife, eclectic, Magnificent Mile
- Frankie’s Fifth Floor Pizzeria, pizza, Magnificent Mile
- Frankie’s Scaloppine, Italian, Magnificent Mile
- Hub 51, lounge, River North
- Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak & Snow Crab, steaks and seafood, River North
- L2O, contemporary seafood, Lincoln Park
- L. Woods Tap & Pine Lodge, American, Lincolnwood
- Maggiano’s Little Italy, Italian, multiple locations (not participating in Triple Points)
- Magic Pan Crepe Stand, French, Northbrook
- Mity Nice Grill, American, Magnificent Mile
- Mon Ami Gabi, French, Lincoln Park and Oak Brook
- Nacional 27, Latin, River North
- Osteria Via Stato, Italian, River North
- Petterino’s, American, Loop
- Pizzeria Via Stato, pizza, River North
- Reel Club, seafood, Oak Brook
- Shaw’s Crab House, seafood, River North and Schaumburg
- Tru, contemporary American, Streeterville
- Wildfire, American, multiple locations
- Wow Bao, Chinese, multiple locations
 Kevin Sciretta, Karla L. Beard, Colleen Murray, Mark Sutton, Cayne Collier and Bumper Carroll, from left, in “Rush Limbaugh! The Musical.” (Photo by Bob Knuth.) “Does Fox News have a theater critic?” I wondered, after viewing Second City Theatricals’ “Rush Limbaugh! The Musical.” Probably not. Live theater may be deemed too effete for their NASCAR- and gun sports-loving audiences.
If they had, I’m sure he’d have panned this show. As a card-carrying member of the Big-City, Blue-State, Liberal Press, though, I found it mostly funny but uneven.
“Rush Limbaugh! The Musical” is no “Jerry Springer: The Opera.” The new show from playwrights Ed Furman and T.J. Shanoff and director Matt Hovde, the team behind the wildly popular “Rod Blagojevich Superstar!” is more of an extended comedy sketch with songs than a full-blown musical comedy. Little more in the way of set or costumes features than you’d see in a typical Second City revue and, despite some clever lyrics and one or two good voices, the show isn’t really about the music, which is largely borrowed from Broadway musicals like “Grease,” “Wicked” and “Rent.”
With a “Lion King”-like cadence, Karla L. Beard, the only really fine singer, narrates this humorous, highly fictionalized but only slightly exaggerated look back at arch-Conservative radio shock jock Limbaugh’s career, from the near-future date of 2014 to 1968, when the young Rush was “Holding On to the ’50s” while berating dirty hippies embodied by Hillary Rodham (later, Clinton) and Barney Frank. Steered by the Rev. Rightwing, Rush embraces Christian catchphrases (”You Can’t Argue with Jesus”) and gathers followers and power.
The script is liberally, ahem, sprinkled with real Rushisms, including a musical number (”Our Man Rush”) made up of quotations, but the Limbaugh it lampoons is a lightweight straw man, rather than the weighty character he should be. The musical rarely shows Rush in full stride — outrageous, loud-mouthed and undeniably charismatic — perhaps because the creators feared their expected audiences couldn’t stand it. I confess I’ve never been able to listen to enough of the real thing to be able to catch Mark Sutton out in any missteps, but he seems to have his impersonation down pat otherwise.
We also see very little of Ann Coulter, which is probably just as well. Colleen Murray effectively doubles as Coulter and Clinton; Cayne Collier and Bumper Carroll channel Abbott and Costello as the bumbling duo of Donald Rumsfeld and Karl Rove; and Kevin Sciretta is hilariously apt as Barney Frank.
Mirroring present-day Washington’s misguided and ineffectual efforts at bipartisanship, the musical takes as many cracks at the left as at the right, with jibes about liberals’ wimpiness (”Democrats are F—ed”); vulgar, gay-baiting double entendres mouthed by Frank; and increasingly strident depictions of a flouted, power-hungry Hillary Clinton.
That’s another trouble with the show: We’ve heard many of these jokes before.
Still, if you have any interest in current events at all, there’s plenty to enjoy, and two songs alone are worth the price of admission, the “Oxycontin” calypso and “La Vie Conservative,” a parody of “Rent’s” “La Vie Boheme” that recounts conservative bywords from Terri Schiavo to Joe the Plumber.
Second City Theatricals’‘Rush Limbaugh! The Musical’
Theater: The Second City e.t.c. in Old Town.
Showtimes: 8:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 2 p.m. Thursdays, through March 24.
Tickets: $25.
Dining: I’m tempted to suggest the Old Town branch of Jimmy John’s, as befitting Limbaugh’s white-bread view of America, but instead I’ll propose the nearby Adobo Grill, a fine-dining Mexican restaurant that represents some of the best of the American melting pot.
Deals: Not a very big deal, but get your ticket validated for $1 off the fee at the Piper’s Alley parking garage.
The New Orleans Saints take on the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV on Sunday, Feb. 7. You could stay home and watch it on your dinky TV, but then you’d have to fix your own food and drinks. Here are some great alternatives around Chicago and the suburbs.
- Murphy’s Bleachers Super Bowl Pig Roast, Wrigleyville, 4–10 p.m. $50.
Roast pig, buffet of tailgate favorites and beer and cocktails. Reservations suggested.
- Uncle Fatty’s Rum Resort Super Fish Bowl Party, Lakeview, no cover; optional $30 food and drink package from 5 p.m.
The 32-oz super fishbowl cocktails, $10, include the New Orleans Saints-inspired “Hurricane” (Bacardi Superior Rum, Myers Dark Rum, passion fruit juice, orange juice, grenadine) and the Indianapolis Colts-inspired “Blue Horseshoe” (Absolut Mango, Blue Curacao, lemonade, 7 Up).
- Brasserie Jo Super Bowl with a French Twist, River North, no cover.
Watch the Super Bowl with a French twist on the big-screen TV in Brasserie Jo’s bar and enjoy a $14.95, three-course Super Bowl meal featuring gruyere-topped onion soup gratinee, a French-style hot dog, served with pommes frites and Dijon mustard, and chocolate mousse. Super Bowl watchers can also order selections from Bar Jo’s newly enhanced beer menu.
- Cityscape Bar Free Half-Time Buffet, River North, no cover.
Complimentary half-time appetizer buffet includes wings, poppers and hot dogs. Domestic bottled beers and house wines are $4 all day or try a “Football Flight” of three 4-ounce beers for $6, with a choice of Samuel Adams, Guinness, Fat Tire, Hacker Pschorr, Smithwick Ale and Samuel Adams Seasonal Ale.
- Duke’s Alehouse and Kitchen Super Bowl Wing Fest, Crystal Lake, no cover.
Order 35-cent wings all day.
- Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery Chicken Wings and Beer Blast, River North, 11 a.m.–2 a.m., no cover.
Buffalo-style or honey chipotle chicken wings are just 25 cents a piece and all tap beers are $10 a pitcher all day, including Chicago Gold, Brown Bear Brown and Terminal Stout.
- Durty Nellie’s $10 Halftime All-You-Can-Eat Buffet, Palatine, 3 p.m., no cover.
Watch the game on 14 big-screen TVs and a 16-by-19-foot high-definition TV, and then enjoy the big buffet at half-time. Reservations encouraged.
Not a football fan? Here are a few other things to do this Sunday:
- Marriott Theatre ‘My Fair Lady,’ Lincolnshire, 1 p.m. or 5 p.m., $45.
Instead of football, watch Marriott’s critically acclaimed production of My Fair Lady.” Wear NFL paraphernalia to the performance and drop by the box office a half hour before showtime to get two free tickets to the Chicagoland premiere of “The Drowsy Chaperone,” opening April 28.
- Drury Lane ‘Funny Girl,’ Oakbrook Terrace, 2 p.m. ($38) and 6 p.m. ($36); Sunday buffet brunch, 10:30 a.m.– 1 p.m. ($25.95).
In lieu of watching the NFL mayhem hear great music with “Funny Girl” and/or fill up at Drury Lane’s famous brunch. Reservations required.
- Geja’s Cafe Fondue over Football Alternative, Lincoln Park, 4:30–9:30 p.m.
Buy one “Premiere” fondue dinner and get a second dinner of equal or lesser value free. Flamenco and classical guitarists provide live music.
 Texas de Brazil’s feijoada What it is: The national dish of Brazil, feijoada is a flavorful stew of beans, beef and pork, a perfect dish to serve in honor of the Carnival season (Carnaval in Portuguese), which begins in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday, Feb. 13, and runs through Fat Tuesday, Feb. 16.
 Evandro Caregnato Where it comes from: There are a lot of theory about feijoada’s origins. A popular legend says it was created by African slaves from the offal left them after their Portuguese overseers took the best parts. However, the earliest printed references to the dish appeared in the mid-19th century, when it was served in decidedly upper-class restaurants in cities like Recife and Rio. Another story says it was brought by colonists from Portugal. However, black beans are native to South America.
What to do with it: Feijoada is traditionally served with white rice and chopped collard greens (couve mineira) and garnished with a sprinkling of lightly roasted coarse cassava flour (farofa) and a peeled and sliced orange.
Texas de Brazil’s feijoada
Brazilian black bean stew
Chef Evandro Caregnato
This recipe, from Texas de Brazil in River North and Schaumburg, has been adapted for American home kitchens, but you can substitute any pork or beef cuts you prefer. Serve with rice, collards and farofa (recipe follows).
1/2 pound smoked bacon, cut in 1-inch pieces
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 pound Portuguese linguiça or Spanish-style chorizo sausage (available at some specialty markets and ethnic stores such as Brasil Legal in Bucktown and the deli at Cafe Iberico in River North) or other hard, dry, smoked sausage, sliced 1 pound beef sirloin, cut in 1-inch cubes
1/2 onion, diced small
6 to 8 cloves garlic, peeled
About 1/2 gallon water
2 pounds dry black beans, soaked overnight in water and drained
2 bay leaves
1 small hot chili pepper
Salt to taste
In a heavy-bottomed pan, over medium high heat, fry the bacon in the oil and add the sausage and beef, cooking until nicely colored. Add the onion and garlic and cook for about 2 minutes.
Add the water, beans, bay leaves and hot pepper, and simmer for about 45 minutes or until the bean are soft and the sauce is thick. Salt to taste. 8 servings.
Farofa
2 tablespoons butter
6 ounces bacon, diced (1 cup)
1/2 Spanish onion, diced
1/2 cup kalamata olives, cut in half
1 cup golden raisons
1 500-gram package seasoned cassava or manioc flour (farinha de mandioca, such as Farofa Pronta Yoki, available at ethnic stores)
2 tablespoons parsley chopped
3 hard-cooked eggs, diced
Heat the butter in a saute pan and cook the bacon; add the onions and cook until caramelized. Stir in all the remaining ingredients. About 5 cups.
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 The Caribbean Reef at the Shedd Aquarium OK, they’re not fish to eat, but only to look at.
The Shedd Aquarium is open for free on Mondays and Tuesdays all this month, as well the whole of next week, Feb. 15 through 19.
The free admission applies only to the original galleries, and not special exhibits or the Oceanarium, but there are plenty of fascinating fish to see, even if you only look at the Caribbean Reef, Shedd’s 90,000-gallon circular habitat in the grand rotunda. Built more than 70 years ago, the giant tank is home to more than 70 species, including butterflyfishes, stingrays, sharks, pufferfish, tarpon, lobsters, parrotfish, lookdowns, royal grammas and a moray eel.
Historic fixtures in the rotunda range from terra cotta tiles depicting crabs, lobsters and fishes to bronze skates and nautilus-shaped lamps made of capiz to the grand aquatic clock.
The Shedd offers three lunch spots for your visit: the table-service Soundings Cafe, the Bubble Net food court and the Deep Ocean Cafe snack bar.
These Chicagoland wine shops host weekly free wine tastings where you’re welcome to sip and sample highlighted vintages.
- Just Grapes, West Loop, 2–4 p.m. Saturdays.
- Red & White, Bucktown, 2–5 p.m. Saturdays.
- Schaefer’s, Skokie, 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Saturdays.
- Taste Food and Wine, Rogers Park, 6–7:30pm Mondays and Fridays.
- Wine Discount Center, Clybourn Corridor, Barrington, Forest Park and Highland Park, noon–4 p.m. Saturdays.
Have you attended one of these tastings? What did you think? Do you know of other free wine tastings? Let us know!
 Kellen Alexander, John Hartman and Seth Dodson, from left, in “123...Fag!” (Photo by Nathan Keay.) “Holla, Hola, Heeey (Oy Vey!),” brings together Chicago’s gay, Latina, African-American and Jewish comedy communities for a one-night, cross-cultural show celebrating the city’s diversity at 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 5 at iO’s Cabaret Theater in Wrigleyville. Tickets are $14.
This one-of-a-kind, major minority evening features:
- BlackOut, a variety show by African-American improvisers Sherman Edwards, Darwin Smith, Ramon Smith and Warren Phynix Johnson, With special guest, token Jew Seth Weitberg.
- Dominizuelan, a sketch show by Latina duo Lorena Diaz and Wendy Mateo, directed by iO founder Charna Halpern.
- 1,2,3…Fag! Gay improvisers Kellen Alexander, Seth Dodson and John Hartman perform bold comedy.
- Ranjit Souri performs a number from “Cupid Has a Heart On: A Musical Guide to Relationships.”
For a pre- or post-show bite, stop in to Goose Island Wrigleyville for a diverse selection of food and drink.
The Haiti-ade, a smooth new cocktail of Kraken Black Spiced Rum with cranberry and orange juices, is this week’s hot drink in Chicago. The complete proceeds from purchases of the $6.50 drink, through Sunday, Jan. 31 (or till the Kraken runs out), will go to the American Red Cross for earthquake relief efforts. 10 local bars, mainly on the Gold Coast, are participating:
- Bootleggers, Gold Coast
- The Hangge-Uppe, Gold Coast
- The Lodge Tavern, Gold Coast
- Mahoney’s Pub & Grille, River West
- Mother’s Too, Gold Coast
- The Original Mother’s, Gold Coast
- Pippin’s Tavern, River North
- River Shannon, Lincoln Park
- Streeter’s Tavern, River North
- She-Nannigan’s, Gold Coast
 Kit Kat’s blackened Berkshire pork chops  Mark Kasper Berkshire pork is meat from a pedigreed breed of black-coated swine prized for juiciness, flavor and tenderness. The breed is also known as kurobuta, Japanese for “black pork.” It is a deeper-hued, more heavily marbled pork than “the other white meat” widely promoted in recent years.
“To me Berkshire pork is the Kobe beef of the pork world,” says Chef Mark Kasper of the Kit Kat Lounge & Supper Club in Northalsted. “I prefer Berkshire pork because of the tenderness and the flavor. I support sustainable cooking, and when I get Berkshire pork, I know it comes from organic farms here in the Midwest.”
 Berkshire hog Where it comes from: One of the oldest identifiable breeds, Berkshires are descended from the pig herd of the British House of Windsor of some 300 years ago. The American Berkshire Association, established in 1875, accepts for registration only only hogs directly imported from established English herds, or hogs tracing directly back to such imported animals.
What to do with it: Berkshire pork is especially suited for dishes where you want its rich flavor to shine through. Because it has a high fat content, it also holds up well both to long cooking and high-temperature cooking, such as in Kasper’s recipe for blackened pork chops.
Kit Kat’s blackened Berkshire pork chops
Chef Mark Kasper
Kasper serves these garnished with fried dill pickle chips and collard greens over cornbread sauce.
4 teaspoons salt
4 teaspoons paprika
3 teaspoons garlic powder
3 teaspoons freshly ground pepper
2-1/2 teaspoons onion powder
1-1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1-1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, crumbled
1-1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, crumbled
4 12-ounce bone-in pork chops, frenched
Combine the spices and dust generously on the pork chops.
On a preheated, seasoned grill or a cast-iron frying pan, cook the pork chops roughly 8 minutes per side, depending on the thickness, to medium rare. Allow the meat to rest for at least 5 minute before serving. If desired, slice into a fan shape and serve over cornbread sauce. 4 servings.
Cornbread sauce
1/4 cup chicken stock
2 tablespoons butter
1-1/2 cups whole milk
8 ounces prepared cornbread, broken into small pieces
Salt and pepper to taste
In a saucepan, heat the stock, butter and milk until simmering, then add the cornbread and whisk together, if too thick add 1/4 more chicken stock. Once smooth, place in a blender and blend until very smooth. Season with salt and pepper. 2 cups.
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 Tumbleweed the groundhog looks for her shadow at Brookfield Zoo.
Will the groundhogs see their shadows Tuesday, Feb. 2, and give us six more weeks of winter? Or can we expect an early spring?
 The historic Woodstock Opera House forms a backdrop to the village’s Groundhog Days, starting Thursday. While you’re waiting to find out, head for northwest suburban Woodstock. The historic village, where the 1993 movie, “Groundhog Day,” with Bill Murray was filmed, holds its annual Groundhog Days celebration beginning Thursday, Jan. 28.
You, too, can put your foot on a plaque reading “Bill Murray Stepped Here,” on the spot where the actor stepped into a huge hole in the movie.
Events begin at 6 p.m. Thursday with the Groundhog Days Beer & Wine Sampling Social at D.C. Cobb’s. Weekend events include the “Awakening of the Groundhog” ceremony at 6 p.m. Friday, Jan. 29, at the historic 1889 Woodstock Opera House, where Murray’s character took a fateful dive from the belfry; hot chocolate and Groundhog Day movie trivia at Stage Left Cafe; a “Shake Off the Winter Blues Dinner Dance”; walking tours of the filming sites and free showings of the movie; the Groundhog Days Chili Cook-Off; and more.
The fest culminates at 7 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 2, when fest goers gather on Woodstock Square to see furry prognosticator Woodstock Willie emerge from his tree trunk home to the tune of a polka band, followed by the Groundhog Days Breakfast at Pirro’s Restaurante.
Closer to Chicago, the weather critters at Brookfield Zoo, Tumbleweed and Cloudy, will be coaxed out of their winter quarters at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, by a breakfast of specially made sweet potato cakes. The Groundhog Day Parade follows, plus afternoon kids’ activities. After your day at the zoo, check out Brookfield’s Xni-pec, which serves authentic Mayan cuisine from the Yucatan.
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