Local Foodie Events of the Week / More Film Criticism

Kra.se's Burger Stand and Esquina aren't the only local establishments helping to make Larryville an important foodie destination. There's also 715, which is hosting a "Butchery Dinner" this Sunday evening: "The private dinner, which still has a limited number of reservations, will include a session in which the Italian-trained Beard will demonstrate how he butchers a whole hog each week for the restaurant’s use in the hand-created pork products that pepper many of its entrees" (LJ-World).

Richard: "Sounds fun, but I'd prefer they were hosting a rabbit-butchering seminar/dinner."

Our vegetarian readers: "We agree, simply because we suspect that a lot fewer people would order the rabbit ravioli dish if they saw the cute fluffy bunnies being needlessly slaughtered for their dining pleasure."

Chip: "I dined at 715 recently and found my portion of lasagna to be distressingly small. True story."

For those who like their food/entertainment options a little less high-falutin' (and a little more hipster) than a private dinner, we recommend the Jackpot's second annual chili-cookoff tonight at 7:00, accompanied by "rock Djs playing deep dish blues" (L.com). Our guess is that the secret ingredient of almost every single pot of hipster chili is either PBR or Hamm's.

And in other food-related news, word arrived today that Old Chicago will be abruptly closing on Friday.

Our foodie readers: "This would be a great opportunity for Kra.se to expand his gourmet empire far enough to reach the fucking Philistines who dine along Iowa Street."

Our Westside readers: "Please let it be replaced by a Red Lobster or Olive Garden."

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When the boys occasionally see romantic comedies, it's almost always in an effort to get laid, but they found a surprising amount to enjoy in the new Jake Gyllenhaal/Anne Hathaway film Love and Other Drugs, namely the fact that Hathaway is extremely naked throughout much of the film. But just how great of a match are Gyllenhaal and Hathaway. Let's turn to the New Yorker's David Denby to find out:

"...what [the film] delivers at its core is as indelible as (and a lot more explicit than) the work of such legendary teams as Clark Gable and Joan Crawford, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn."

Exactly right, Denby. When we saw the scene where Gyllenhaal experiences a raging Viagra-boner and his wacky brother keeps accidentally slapping him on his boner, we thought to ourselves that we were witnessing nothing less than the rebirth of an 'indelible' leading man in the manner of Gable, Tracy, or (we might add) Cary Grant.

Chip: "I also like the scene where Gyllenhaal and Hathaway make a sex tape and the wacky brother gets caught jerking off to the sex tape!"