Rick Bayless
Rick Bayless, top toque of regional Mexican faves Frontera Grill and Topolobampo, is planning a tortería (aka sandwich shop) with a wood-burning oven for April 2009. Focusing on classic regional Mexican sandwiches featuring ingredients like tongue and fresh blood sausage, Bayless' crew will also be grinding their own chocolate from Mexican cacao beans on-site and serving up fresh hot chocolate and churros for breakfast and late post-dinner snacking. And fans of his restaurants' housemade ice cream (in intriguing flavors like rhubarb, cinnamon and plantain) have reason to rejoice: for the first time it will be available for takeaway at the new place. Located in River North, the tortería will be set in a refurbished and LEED certified old Champagne Furniture Gallery space with solar panels on the roof and sustainable building materials down to the caulking (65 W. Illinois Ave.).