Loss of Chicago Food Critics in Washington Post

Chicago’s revered dining scene recently lost a key ingredient: Experienced, trustworthy critics (Washington Post - subscription may be required)

There are plenty of places for food-loving locals to get the scoop on area restaurants: Chicago Eater, Chicago Magazine, Infatuation, Resy and Yelp. (Jeff Ruby, the veteran critic for Chicago Magazine, last filed a column in March 2020. Headlined “The Last Supper,” it looked at RPM Seafood.)

I wish he mentioned the Chicago Reader. While restaurants were last open in their prior iterations 14 months ago, Mike Sula was writing the best reviews in my opinion. I expect him to go back to brick and mortar reviews soon enough after his year of various independent food profiles.

There are so many sad things in that article I lost count.

Katie wrote:There are so many sad things in that article I lost count.

Especially that Tom Sietsema's favorite Chicago food is a "dragged through the garden" dog.

There are plenty of places for food-loving locals to get the scoop on area restaurants: ... and Yelp.

There are various things about this particular article that are objectionable (including a link to an article about John Kessler, who apparently moved here from Atlanta a couple of years ago with the sole intention of ignorantly slamming our food scene).

However, despite not living in DC, I am an avid reader of Tom Sietsema, the author of this article and the restaurant critic at the Post. I have tremendous respect for his food knowledge and insightful reviews. One of the things that he does in the Post, that is a great feature that was never done here, is a one-hour chat with readers every week, in which he covers requests for where to go as well as how various restaurant situations might be handled. It's entertaining and instructive even if you have no intention of dining in DC. He is a huge asset to the DC restaurant scene.

Another Chicago restaurant critic has walked away from their post. Jeff Ruby, a Chicago magazine fixture since 1997, last week announced his departure in a Twitter thread.

https://chicago.eater.com/2021/4/19/223 ... -departure