Hide from this autumnal snap at some of the city's newest restaurants (and a spice shop), including a pizza place in an old body shop and a place that sells the world's spiciest pepper.
• The owners behind Stout Barrel House and Cedar Hotel have set their sights on Chicago's favorite dish: pizza. Parlor Pizza Bar in the West Loop opened Friday.
The restaurant and bar, which features an expansive outdoor patio and second-story rooftop deck, will offer lunch, dinner and late-night menus seven days a week, including weekend brunch.
Alongside traditional offerings like margherita and marinara pizzas, Parlor Pizza Bar will offer pizzas with original ingredients, including Dijon bechamel, spicy pineapple with coconut cheese, smoked speck, sunflower seed basil pesto, and duck confit.
Parlor Pizza Bar, 108 N. Green St.
• Celebrate Savory Spice Shop's one-year anniversary with free samples and cake.
There will be cake (rumor has it in the shape of a spice bottle), free samples and a gift box giveaway.
Among the hundreds of herbs, spices, salts and seasonings carried by the shop, look for the world's hottest pepper: the Trinidad Scorpion chili.
Savory Spice Shop, 4753 N. Lincoln Ave.
• Pierogi's? Check. Dancing? Check.
Chicago’s first and only Pierogi food truck, Pierogi Wagon, has found a new home in Logan Square, and is teamin up with dancehall Slippery Slope, 2357 N. Milwaukee Ave., to offer weekend food service at the location — just in time to refuel for the dance floor this weekend.
The Kickstarter-funded food truck started its Slippery Slope run Thursday. It will be open from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. Thursdays and Fridays and 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. on Saturdays.
• Ukrainian Village's newest restaurant is now open at Chicago and Damen. El Metro opened Tuesday.
Owner Veronica Pineau said her favorite items on the new menu were cochina pibil tacos, made with slow roasted pork, pickled red onion and habanero sauce and pombazos, which are bread soaked in Guajillo chili pepper sauce and stuffed with potatoes, sausage, lettuce, sour cream and cheese.
The menu offers seven varieties of tacos, including pork, chicken, fish, potato, corn and pork belly.
El Metro, 1959 W. Chicago Ave.
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