The Deliciousness of Chance

There is no substitute for serendipity.

This is why I used to dedicate a full day or more a week to just driving around Chicago, maybe take a day trip to Hegewisch for the fish fry at Club 81 Too, or to pursue a night vigil of eggroll eating in East Rogers Park. Along the way, I’d peel my eyes, hoping to spot other new restaurants.

While Chicago neighborhoods change over decades, the culinary scene often shifts in weeks. Or at least it used to before the pandemic. Now, of course, it’s probably more effective, as a culinary detective, to surf the internet superhighways looking for pop-ups and temporary restaurant residencies than it is to look on the physical roads and corners.

But ten or fifteen years ago, pre-social media boom, the actual street was the beat. Then again, today, as the entrepreneurial wave of pandemic pop-ups gives way to the permanent storefront, chasing pavements is still a good way to discover.

Given a choice, it’s still my preferred method. But, there’s a virus out there - yes, the one that hijacks your respiratory system, but also the one that’s destroying our culture. Being out in the world is a more dangerous business than it generally has been.