Our tour guide Casey, currently perched at the front of our bus, isn’t Carmy, the surprise hunk of The Bear TV show about a chef who has to haul himself home to Chicago to take over his family’s sandwich shop. Casey also isn’t actor Jeremy Allen White, who catapulted his starring role as Carmen Berzatto into superstardom. But Casey is a cute actor who also happens to be wearing Carmy’s iconic blue apron on Yes, Chef!, our Chicago Food & City Tours’ The Bear-themed eating extravaganza, and that is enough for this busload of fans.
“Are you ready, fellow eaters?” he yells.
“Yes!” we shout.
“Yes what?”
“YES CHEF!”
Launched last fall in response to Bear hype, this tour is just the latest way the Emmy-winning show is pushing a new version of Chicago – one where niche experiences now compete with its famous architecture, gangster history and Second City comedy troupe bona fides – as a reason to visit. When I heard about a tour that hits two of my sweetest spots – eating, and one of my favourite shows, I knew I had to try it. While I would never dream of doing, say, one of those Sex and The City tours that’s brought every Midwesterner in her going-out top to Magnolia Bakery in New York because that would feel just so … basic … this still feels insider-y. Maybe that’s because the critically acclaimed show has yet to hit the mega mainstream. Which means this tour is still flying under the radar, which means I’m still ahead of the curve (right?).
Photo: Ionel Lupu/Getty Images
As much as it’s a tasty way to get a crash course in Chicago, as our minibus careens all over the city with its ever heavier load, it’s also a tasty way to (sort of) get closer to White, the surprising breakout heartthrob whose appearance in a Calvin Klein advert in tighty-whities is seared on many a retina. If none of us can get close to White in the flesh, at least we can eat our way closer to him via Carmy. Chicago was a restaurant town long before Carmy arrived. Its chefs are swimming in James Beard awards and it’s home to 21 Michelin-starred restaurants, though it’s more known for its totemic street foods like deep-dish pizza, hot dogs, and, most importantly, Italian beef sandwiches.
Photo: Courtesy Pizza Lobo
The Bear tour is inspired by an episode where sous chef Sydney (played by Ayo Edibiri) goes on an eating marathon around Chicago, which means that I get to do the same. We start at Mr.Beef in the historic working-class River North neighbourhood. The show’s creator Christopher Storer is a childhood friend of Mr.Beef co-owner Christopher Zucchero, and parts of the show are shot at this tiny shop that’s been serving up classic beef sammies since 1979. I feel like a capital-T tourist posing in front as locals amble by with barely concealed chuckles, but I lean in. We can’t go inside because there’s a Bear crew setting up to shoot a scene, so Casey brings our sandwiches onto the bus. My sandwich is tender and tasty, though we’re not allowed to order them “extra wet” (ie double dunked in jus) like customers do on the show.
Want to go deeper on the food scene in River North? Start at Lure Fishbar., the tasty seafood-forward resto in the cool 21c Museum Hotel (at $25/per person, the daily Power Lunch prix fixe menu is a particularly good deal). Make sure you check out the art installations that appear throughout 21c, or double down and stay the night in one of their airy contemporary rooms.
Next, head to Indienne, where chef Sujan Sarkar was awarded the city’s first-ever Michelin star for Indian food for his innovative menu of Indian-flavours-by-way-of-French techniques. You can order a la carte, but to truly get the full experience sign up for one of the tasting menus (vegan, vegetarian and pescetarian and carnivorous lineups are available), and be sure to summon the gin and tonic cart over to your table for a bespoke G&T made with rare and interesting gins.
Give a nod to Carmy’s Italian heritage with a dinner at RPM Italian, an upscale but unfussy restaurant which, as our server cheerfully informs us: “Will punch you in the face with those Nonna flavours!” Choose from a long list of modern Italian classics like king crab and squid ink spaghetti, black truffle Vesuvio and dry-aged Bistecca Fiorentina porterhouse.
Activities: Ok, these classic attractions aren’t in River North, but I have to pass on the hot tip that if you’re planning on hitting tourist hot spots like the Shedd Aquarium, Skydeck Chicago, the Art Institute of Chicago or the 360 Chicago Observation Deck (and others) it’s super worth it to get a CityPASS where you can save big on admission to Windy City sights. And if you’re an architecture nerd (guilty!) and want the backstory about Chicago’s iconic skyline, hop on the Chicago Architecture Foundation Center River Cruise for a crash course.
Photo: Courtesy Mr. beef
Our next stop is for crispy chicken dumplings at Urbanbelly Dumplings at the Time Out Market in the Fulton River district. We then turn our bellies to Pizza Lobo for a slice of pepperoni pizza (it’s not, however, Chicago deep-dish: For that, you’ll want to head to Pequods). I still have room for a donut piled high with strawberries from Roeser’s Bakery, which has been churning out cakes since 1911, in the historically Puerto Rican Humboldt Park neighbourhood, but I barely make a dent in the hot fudge sundae that lands with a thud in front of me at Margie’s Fine Candies, an adorably retro ice cream parlour in Bucktown, that’s been scooping since 1921. By the time we roll up to Green Door Tavern, one of the oldest bars in the city, for digestifs, I’m happily face down in my Old Fashioned.
Photo: Robert Daly/Getty Images
We don’t get to hit all the restaurants that Sydney visits (Avec, Giant, Lao Peng You and Kasama) in that episode, but when the tour is over, my Bear-themed journey through Chi-town is only just beginning. The show is meticulous about portraying life in the restaurant biz authentically: Toronto chef Matty Matheson stars as adorably bungling handyman-turned-server Neil Fak, and Chicago’s most recognizable cooks and foodie hotspots make regular appearances. I get to make a pilgrimage to one of them: the double-Michelin-starred Ever for a mindblowing 10-course tasting menu.
The double-Michelin-starred ‘Ever’. Photo: Michael Muser
It’s a place where the food is more art than straight-up dinner, but even more excitingly for this superfan, it’s the setting where one of The Bear’s most beloved episodes, Forks, was filmed. It featured rough-and-ready “cousin” Richie’s miraculous conversion from sandwich slinger to Michelin maestro. At first, Richie spends his days there polishing forks, a not-so-lowly task that our server laughs at: “I’d never let that guy touch my forks.” When they give me a secret tour of the kitchen and I get to pose in the spot where actress Olivia Colman (who made a guest appearance as Chef Terry) stood sanguinely peeling mushrooms with Richie, it’s like I’m a Friends fan rolling around on that famous purple couch.
Mushroom arancini: maitake, cheddar, chive. Photo: Michael Muser
Chicago is, like its beef, both tender and tough. A city known by the blues, the Bulls, soaring architecture and now sloppy sandwiches. Seeing it through Carmy’s eyes was the perfect introduction to one of America’s greatest cities that’s forever in flux.
