Bucktown, Wicker Park Dominate Time Out Restaurant Awards

The end of the year beckons "Best of" reports when it comes to anything from photographs to customer service.

We'll be the first to admit that not all lists are worth a look. But this one is. Time Out Chicago recently released—a tad early, this year—its 100 Favorite Things we Ate or Drank in 2012 rundown. Bucktown, Wicker Park had particularly impressive showings.

Be sure to visit Time Out for a printable wish list that includes every nugget that made the cut.

Until then, we've plucked out the Bucktown, Wicker Park and Logan Square (just for the heck of it) foods that ranked, along with comments from Time Out food reviewers, Julia Kramer, Heather Shouse and David Tamarkin. Bon appétit!

Logan Square

Bang Bang Pie Shop, 2051 N. California Ave.

• Biscuits and gravy
  • Comment: This café’s buttery biscuits, cloaked in peppery gravy, are the ugliest plate of food we’ve ever wanted to bathe ourselves in.

Wicker Park

Trenchermen, 2039 W. North Ave. 

• Kimchee mortadella bao
  • Comments: "Any place that has La Colombe’s Pure Black iced coffee on tap is going to be serious about mornings, and Trenchermen’s Sunday brunch doesn’t disappoint. Barely anything on this menu resembles other brunches in the city, especially this hot, gooey mess of a ham-and-cheese sandwich."

Bucktown

The Charleston, 2076 N. Hoyne Ave.

• Aviation Jell-O shot
  • Comments: "Annemarie Sagoi made a name for herself this year as the 'Jell-O-shot girl' at the Charleston, but she’s hardly the picture of a scantily clad airhead doling out test tubes of Jäger on Division Street. Her concoctions lean classic, as in turning gin, Luxardo maraschino, crème de violette and lemon into a solid-state slurper."

Wicker Park

Trenchermen, 2039 W. North Ave. 

• Green Hornet
  • Comments: Tona Palomino is a cocktail minimalist, a guy more interested in teasing out a single clean flavor than in the pageantry of garnishes and billion-ingredient drinks. Case in point: the power of mere celery juice in this riff on a gin and tonic.

Logan Square

Katherine Anne Confections, 2745 W. Armitage Ave.

• Hot chocolate
  • Comments: "Okay, $7 for one cup of hot chocolate is ridiculous. But not when you think about the fact that it contains nearly as much chocolate as a half-pound box of truffles, and it’s so thick and intense that you have to share it with a friend."

Scofflaw

Scofflaw, 3201 W. Armitage Ave.

• Neo Negroni
  • Comments: "Danny Shapiro’s adaptation of this classic cocktail (traditionally equal parts gin, vermouth and Campari) is like a Negroni on steroids: He subs Byrrh Grand Quinquina (a wine-based aperitif) for vermouth to enhance the drink’s bitterness, ditches Campari for less cloying Luxardo Bitter and (this might be the kicker) doubles up on the usual amount of gin."

The Whistler, 2421 N. Milwaukee Ave.

• Verdita
  • Comment: "Unlike your typical chaser, this fiery juice (a blend of cilantro, mint, pineapple, lime, jalapeños and habanero peppers) doesn’t so much erase the taste of tequila as enrich it."

Wicker Park

Black Bull, 1721 W. Division St.

• Pa amb tomàquet con jamón serrano y queso Manchego.
  • Comment: "True, there is no actual cooking involved in the making of this simple dish, unless you count the toasting of the bread, which is softened with tomato and topped with a slice of earthy Manchego and a ribbon of great Spanish ham. Tell us why that’s a problem?"

Falafel & Grill, 1317 N. Milwaukee Ave.

• Hummus
  • Comment: "Every grimy exterior cue to the contrary, this dive is doing everything right, down to the shockingly creamy, tahini-rich hummus." 

Logan Square

Lula Cafe, 2537 N. Kedzie Boulevard

• Soup 
  • Comment: "If this year’s frequently changing, always surprising soups—squash with cacao nibs, apple with black quinoa—are any indication, we will never be able to predict what Lula will put into a soup, and the combination of flavors and textures will always be astounding."

Yusho 2853 N. Kedzie Ave.

• Beef tongue
  • Comment: "Just like all the small plates at Yusho, the tongue dish changes week to week. Here, we’re referring to the first iteration, where thin slices of tender, fat-slicked tongue, tasting like the best pastrami, were bunched together on a skewer." 

Wicker Park

Antique Taco, 1360 N. Milwaukee Ave.

• Fish taco 
  • Comment: "First and foremost, a fried fish taco has to be crispy. This one is. The fact that it’s also smoky (thanks to the smoked cabbage slaw) and hot (sriracha tartar sauce) is just a bonus."

Tozi Korean BBQ, 1265 N. Milwaukee Ave.

• Grilled salted mackerel
• Comment: "We don’t understand how something so simple—whole mackerel salted, grilled and spritzed with lemon—could be this good."

 The Savoy, 1408 N. Milwaukee Ave.

• Crispy whole fish
  • Comment: "You’ll have to stare down a whole lubina fish (think sea bass, but Spanish), but thankfully it’s been deboned to make getting at the crispy-skinned bites easier."

Carriage House, 1700 W. Division St.

• Low-country boil
  • Comment: "We could drink the Old Bay broth that forms the base for this endlessly satisfying boil, but we’re too full from the sweet shrimp, fresh clams, spicy rabbit sausage, corn cobs, red potatoes and slices of housemade Pullman bread."

Covo, 1482 N. Milwaukee Ave.

• Classic gyro
  • Comment: "Chicago is the city that invented the frozen mystery-meat cones rampant at gyro shops around the country. But if Covo has anything to do with it, Chicago will also be the city that reinvented the gyro, thanks to this shop’s fillings of slow-roasted, all-natural pork, chicken and (our favorite) the lamb-and-beef combo."

Bucktown

Bento Box, 2246 W. Armitage Ave.

• Jidori chicken Singapore noodles
  • Comment: "If Chinese takeout died and went to heaven, it’d become chef Rick Spiros’s toothsome noodles, strewn with Thai basil and topped with chili-rubbed chicken." 

Logan Square

Owen & Engine, 2700 N. Western Ave.

• Burger
  • Comments: "Leave the crazy toppings for the imposters: The burger at this gastropub needs no more than juicy Slagel Farm beef, deeply caramelized onions and a housemade potato bun to achieve perfection."

Urbanbelly, 3053 N. California Ave.

• Rice cake noodles
  • Comment: "Sweet, cooling mango is chef Bill Kim’s foil to a hot chili-infused broth laden with fried chicken and oblong rice cakes."

Bucktown

HotChocolate, 1747 N. Damen Ave.

• Rugelach
  • Comment: "We kid you not when we say the cart is the best dessert option on the menu, and that the rugelach—cream-cheese tang, sweet-tart filling (such as hot fudge and raspberry), crisp-soft dough—is the best thing on the cart."

Logan Square

Telegraph, 2601 N. Milwaukee Ave.

• Red-bean pound cake
  • Comments: "A few days before Christmas last year, Telegraph brought on pastry chef Katie Wyer and, well, the girl’s a little wild. Her desserts (often playing with savory ingredients) don’t always sound enticing on paper, but most are like this dense, toffee-strewn cake: surprising. Happily."

Logan Square

Longman & Eagle, 2657 N. Kedzie Ave.

• Chicken and waffles
  • Comments: "Longman & Eagle’s chicken and waffles, which itself is as democratic as a brunch dish can get—because it’s served every day of the week."