Nite Market

Last Friday we headed down to “Nite Market” in Pilsen. I heard of it through Golden Age, and when I read the description — “…a platform for unlicensed or uncertified artisan food makers to sell their goods to hungry food-geeks [sic] without the high cost of certification” — I was really excited.

This year has seen a big surge in Chicago food trucks… but they’re forced to serve prepared food because  the city of Chicago forbids serving food that hasn’t been prepared in a certified kitchen. As a result, smart and resilient food people have improvised and still serve some pretty tasty stuff. But Nite Market wasn’t really about food trucks, per se; it felt like an open ended event and didn’t seem to provide answers as much as it did a sidewalk to serve food and an audience to eat it. I think that was what made it so fun. The event itself was mostly outside (the homebrew was inside) and wiggled itself way around Chicago vending laws by requiring participants to become “members” by signing up. The result really depicted what I love about eating in Chicago – a sense of place through food (amateur or professional) stripped of absurd trends and, focused on improvisation and creativity.

Here’s some pretty bad phone pics… I sorta need a legit camera.

Grimm Ales was serving up some really solid homebrews. I only tasted the "Amarillo Special", an overhopped Belgian Double. Home made candy sugar, nice honey malt flavor and some mega dry hopping. Awesome.

Grinderman was showcasing his home roasted coffee beans. Delivered by bike.

Sidewalk grilled cheeses.

Another bicycle enabled vendor: mobile bike repair.

Object Design League holding it down with their "CHINETALY" stand. Pizza and Chinese. Duh. The lanterns we're really smart and the noodles were delicious.