Monday Night Foodball has been on a holiday hiatus for more than a month, and I’m soooooo bored. I can’t spend another Monday night pacing the empty, echoing void of the Kedzie Inn, balancing imaginary plates of curried lamb ddukboki, Cambodian fried chicken sandwiches, and pimento cheese hash brown jalapeno poppers, plaintively calling out your name.
Can someone let me out? I’m running out of beer. There’s only Malört left.
I guess I can wait until January 24. That’s when the Reader’s weekly guest chef pop-up series at the Kedzie in Irving Park returns with an all-star lineup of ronin chefs, most of whom you’ve read about here—and some you will in the coming weeks.
If your rearview has been fogged since the hazy days of late 2021, this is how it works: chefs, most of them operating outside the traditional brick-and-mortar hospitality structure, take over the Kedzie’s spacious kitchen and dining room each Monday, cooking a fresh, à la minute menu. We’ll publish the menus a week beforehand, and I’ll catch up with the chefs right here. You can preorder from them directly (I’ll tell you how), or you can roll the dice, show up any time after five, place an order, and grab a drink at the bar while you wait.
What’s different this year? You’ll need proof of vaccination to get in. I’ll be masked up at the door, checking and personally congratulating you on your fully vaxxed status—unless you aren’t. Please don’t make us say no to you.
First up on Monday, January 24, is Nemanja Milunovic, who’s mounting a Rocky Balboa-style comeback after abruptly closing his marvelous Kiosk Balkan Street Food ghost kitchen last October. I’ll tell you now, the menu Milunovic has planned is a major flex relative to Kiosk’s. Until I fill you in on the full story next week, I have two more words for you: pizza burek.
Here’s the current lineup for Monday Night Foodball 2022. More coming.
January 24: Nemanja and Marko Milunovic, formerly of Kiosk Balkan Street Food
January 31: Arlene Luna and Jack Blue of Moonwalker Cafe
February 7: TBA
February 14: bye week for Valentine’s Day
February 21: Oskar Singer, aka @ryehumorbaking, and Uma Jupiter, aka @_fa1th_of_the_hrt_, present “Chateau Picklebone”
February 28: Thattu and Jaye Fong of Maa Maa Dei
March 7: “Hot Mix Beef” with Titus Ruscitti, aka @chibbqking, and Eric May, aka @easy_eats_chi
March 14: Joey Pham, aka @flavorsupreme, and Kelly Ijichi of Mom’s Chicago, present “MSG (Monday Snack Gathering)”
March 21: Lorraine Nguyen, aka @lolo_agogo, and Joey Pham, aka @flavorsupreme, present “SUPRANOS: a Viet-Alo Experience”
Kedzie Inn
4100 N. Kedzie
(773) 293-6368
kedzieinn.com
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