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What to eat. What to watch. What you need to live your best life ... now.
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Eat. Watch. Do.

Thursday, June 26, 2025

It’s Thursday, Chicago.

We hope you’re staying cool and dry after some sweltering heat and humidity this week.

Our food and entertainment desks are prepped for the return of FX’s “The Bear” last night. Read our interviews with actors Liza Colón-Zayas and Lionel Boyce, as well as film critic Nina Metz’s review of the fourth season here.

Plus, don’t miss our roundup of all the Fourth of July fireworks to dazzle your Independence Day Weekend.

Enjoy the weekend, we’ll see you back here next week.

— Lauryn Azu, deputy editor

Fireworks 2025: All the Fourth of July shows in the Chicago area

Here’s our guide to July 4 fireworks displays in the Chicago area, with shows from almost a hundred communities.

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‘The Bear’ review: With the threat of closure imminent in Season 4, can the restaurant live to cook another day?

The ongoing misadventures of Carmy & Co. as they work to sustain a viable fine dining establishment in Chicago.

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Chicago pizza royalty Great Lake returns, idiosyncratic as ever

Great Lake, the legendary (and legendarily iconoclastic) pizza joint that fixated (and sometimes frustrated) Andersonville for five years, has returned, a dozen years later.

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‘The Bear’ Q&A: Lionel Boyce dishes on what it takes to play pastry chef Marcus

Lionel Boyce spoke with enthusiasm and thoughtful detail about his training as an actor to portray a pastry chef on “The Bear,” staging at restaurants and learning skills and techniques to help launch him into new heights.

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Evanston uncorked: From restaurants to retail stores, the best wine destinations

A core of tightly-knit, independent businesses has shaped a uniquely thriving wine and food culture in Evanston.

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‘The Bear’ Q&A: Liza Colón-Zayas on playing Tina, a chef rooted in reality

Liza Colón-Zayas spoke about learning how to play a chef on “The Bear,” and how she’s “glad Tina wasn’t sanitized and sugar-coated.”

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‘F1’ review: With Brad Pitt as the seasoned old-timer, it’s ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ on wheels

“F1” is a pretty decent summer picture, and if it were half as crisp off the track as it is on the track, we’d really have something. But few will complain.

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PETA names Chicago the country’s most vegan-friendly city

Runaway Cow was one of several vegan spots named by PETA in early June when the animal rights organization recognized Chicago as the top vegan-friendly city in the country.

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Review: ‘That’s What Friends Are For’ celebrates the songs of Patti LaBelle, Dionne Warwick and Gladys Knight