The Athletics (76-86) played their final game of the 2025 season on Sunday against the Kansas City Royals, but they gave Sacramento fans something to look forward to for next year.The team teased gold jerseys to be worn in 2026 with “Sacramento” displayed on the front in green font. Although their 2025 uniforms have a Tower Bridge sleeve patch on them, this is the first jersey since the A’s moved to Sutter Health Park to say Sacramento on it. Each Saturday home game next season will be part of “Sacramento Saturdays,” according to a release from the Athletics. Players will wear the new gold jerseys every Saturday, while also having the option wear them for other home games and on the road.The A’s are not expected to relocate to Las Vegas until 2028 as stadium construction is still underway. See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel
The Athletics (76-86) played their final game of the 2025 season on Sunday against the Kansas City Royals, but they gave Sacramento fans something to look forward to for next year.
The team teased gold jerseys to be worn in 2026 with “Sacramento” displayed on the front in green font. Although their 2025 uniforms have a Tower Bridge sleeve patch on them, this is the first jersey since the A’s moved to Sutter Health Park to say Sacramento on it.
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Each Saturday home game next season will be part of “Sacramento Saturdays,” according to a release from the Athletics. Players will wear the new gold jerseys every Saturday, while also having the option wear them for other home games and on the road.
The A’s are not expected to relocate to Las Vegas until 2028 as stadium construction is still underway.
PlantX’s roller-coaster journey in Chicago will end this weekend as the grocery store turned vegan food hall has announced its closure in Uptown. The vegan company’s XMarket, which opened in summer 2022, just west of the DuSable Lake Shore Drive’s Montrose exit, will shutter permanently on Sunday, November 3, according to the food hall’s owners.
XMarket was touted as the Midwest’s largest all-vegan food hall. The news hit Wednesday afternoon with Chicago vegans rushing to the venue for discounts. Even before cries of inflation driving up food prices during the pandemic, vegans in general have often complained about the cost of meatless and dairy-free goods, whether sold at grocery stores or restaurants. Though the vegan population is growing, and more vegan options are available at restaurants that serve meat, several restaurant owners have worried if they can succeed while depending on a customer base that still is considered niche.
Last year, PlantX, a publicly-traded Vancouver-based company, converted XMarket from a grocer to a bar and food hall with six food stalls, headlined by Chicago’s Kale by Name and location of popular vegan pizzeria Kitchen 17. Another standout was El Hongo Magico, which sold mushroom tacos. In August, XMarket welcomed Impossible Quality Meats, the first restaurant from Impossible Foods. The faux meat company had made a marketing splash earlier this summer with an endorsement deal from competitive hot dog-eating star Joey Chestnut. XMarket continued to sell some groceries — it never sold produce.
The space also housed a vegan sushi counter from the team behind Bloom Plant Based Kitchen, one of the city’s best vegan restaurants. The stall closed months ago, and while Bloom’s chef and owner Rodolfo Cuadros says he wasn’t surprised by XMarket’s closure — he’s been skeptical of the business model since he joined — the sudden closure caught him off guard.
Kale My Name owner Nemanja Golubovic put a positive spin on the closure in an Instagram post, writing that vendors at the market weren’t paying PlantX for rent or other bills, “just [a] small commission from our sales and we kept [the] majority of our money to ourselves.” Kale My Name’s original location in Albany Park remains unaffected.
As is the case at most food halls, the food hall’s owner — not tenants — is responsible for paying shared staff such as busers and dishwashers, Golubovic adds: “That’s why we had [the] opportunity to do very well here, but sadly [the] market couldn’t.”
Elsewhere, rank-and-file workers bemoaned having only five days of notice that their jobs were about to be eliminated.
PlantX Life operates three other XMarkets in Canada. Recently, they consolidated a location in suburban Vancouver at the Locavore Bar and Grill. Sales increased due to the move, according to an MDA shared this summer. That same report showed falling revenue. At $7.3 million in 2024, revenue has fallen 45 percent since 2023. Earlier in the week, the company announced it was expanding its Bloombox Club plant subscription service to Italy.
While most restaurants have struggled after 2020 with pandemic-related challenges like rising costs including inflation, food halls have suffered particularly. This year, Chicago has seen food hall operators like Urbanspace exit the market, and 16” on Center (the owners of Thalia Hall and Empty Bottle) departed from Revival Food Hall in the Loop. Still, XMarket’s challenges seemed to be unique in Uptown, away from a ton of foot traffic and difficult for suburban vegans to find.
XMarket, 804 W. Montrose Avenue, closing Sunday, November 3.
Earlier this week, Fry the Coop owner Joe Fontana, took to Instagram to show customers how an upcoming Raising Cane’s could harm his business at 2404 N. Lincoln Avenue, just down the street from the busy Halsted, Lincoln, and Fullerton intersection.
“No hate to Raising Cane’s, buuuut we wish they weren’t opening right across the street,” Fry The Coop’s Instagram post reads.
The post brought out legions of fans to praise local chicken shops like Parson’s Chicken & Fish and Red Light Chicken. They also lauded Fry the Coop’s heat levels as the chain specializes in Nashville hot chicken fried in beef tallow.
Three weeks ago, Raising Cane’s plastered its coming soon signs outside the former home of DePaul’s White Elephant. The thrift store closed in 2012 after 93 years of operation, and the new restaurant at 2376 N. Lincoln Avenue could open in February or March. Raising Cane’s arrived in Chicago with a Rogers Park location that opened in 2018.
Fontana founded Fry the Coop in 2017 when he opened in suburban Oak Lawn. He opened in Lincoln Park in October 2023, joining a number of affordable restaurants geared at students at DePaul and nearby Lincoln Park High School. That includes Ghareeb Narwaz and Chipotle. When Fontana hears stories about high school students with short lunch periods sprinting to Fry the Coop, coming into the restaurants out of breath and sweating, so they can grab lunch and make it back to class in time, he’s happy.
But he says “it’s a bummer” that he’ll lose chicken tender business to Raising Cane’s, a national chain that can afford to undercut Fry the Coop’s pricing. A three-piece tender with fries at Raising Cane’s costs about $11, depending on location. At Fry the Coop, a similar combo costs $15. That’s a big difference for students, Fontana says.
Though Fontana is a big fan of rising tides — he notes neighborhood additions, like Parson’s Chicken & Fish, bring more foot traffic and customers to the area — sometimes there’s only room for so many chicken tender slingers. Raising Cane’s is aggressive in opening stores near college campuses. The original debuted near Louisana State University and the Rogers Park location is near Loyola University. Building that brand awareness at a young age is critical, Fontana notes. It even extends to high school students, he adds. Some schools allow advertisements inside their buildings, which helps deep-pocketed companies, like Raising Cane’s — the same company that paid actor Chevy Chase to reenact his Christmas Vacation movie role in the suburbs. There are more than 800 Raising Cane stores across 41 states.
There are eight Fry the Coops around Chicago. A ninth is set to open on October 29 at 274 S. Weber Road in Bolingbrook, near the McDonald’s spin-off, CosMc’s. Fontana has plans to open more, but the Villa Park native knows that the opportunities aren’t as robust as the competition’s. For example, Chick-fil-A just opened a location at Terminal 5 at O’Hare.
“I don’t think we have anybody really pounding on our door,” Fontana says.
Over the weekend, Chicago Chefs raised more than $30,000 to benefit Hurricane Helene relief efforts. The fundraiser, held on Sunday, October 6 at Chicago Q in Gold Coast, was a success, says chef Art Smith.
Smith is from Florida, which was in Helene’s path, and the chef’s connection has led to the launch of a second fundraiser as another storm, Hurricane Milton, is forecast to hit Florida on Wednesday, October 9. As the Chicago Marathon will take place this weekend, Smith is holding an event so runners — and their supporters — can carb-load before Sunday, October 13’s run.
The event will take place from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday, October 12 on the second floor of Chicago Q, 1160 N. Dearborn Street. There’s a suggested donation of $65 with all proceeds going to World Central Kitchen’s hurricane relief efforts. Smith says he’s got a celebrity chef lined up to help at the event but can’t reveal their name due to security reasons.
Milk Bar teams with Portillo’s
As Christina Tosi’s Milk Bar is opening its first Chicago location, the bakery has already lined up a collaboration with another Chicago entity. Portillo’s, the Chicago street food chain with around 80 locations scattered in 10 states is, starting on Tuesday, October 8, launching the Portillo’s Chocolate Cake Cookie. It combines Portillo’s famous chocolate cake — which was the inspiration for the cake that appeared in Season 1 of The Bear, and a Milk Bar chocolate cookie. They’ll be available individually wrapped at Portillo’s or in multiples of six packed into a cookie tin available online on Milk Bar’s site.
Portillo’s and Milk Bar are collaborating.Portillo’s
La Gondola finds a new home
Earlier this year, La Gondola closed its location inside a Lakeview strip mall after 40 years at 2914 N. Ashland Avenue. But ownership has found a new home inside a West Town restaurant with a menu of old favorites. Loyal customers can visit Mirella’s Tavern, 2056 W. Division Street, and find their old Lakeview favorites. Both Mirella’s and La Gondola coexist with the two parties working together.
A judge has denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed against a Hubbard Inn customer who in March posted a TikTok video claiming the venue’s bouncer dragged her out of the bathroom and shoved her, sending her “flying down the staircase.”
The customer, Julia Reel, is the subject of a defamation lawsuit filed by the Hubbard Inn’s lawyers. In the filing, the bar’s council claims that her social media post, which was shared more than 100,000 times, defamed the business, leading to more than $30,000 in canceled reservations, threats to their staff, and negative publicity with their Yelp page review bombed.
“I will never be going back there, and you shouldn’t either,” Reel said in her now-deleted video.
Reel’s video showed her sitting on her bed, calling the March 10 incident “the craziest experience she’s ever been in” and that she was “manhandled.” Cook County circuit court judge Patrick Sherlock denied her motion to dismiss the case on Tuesday, September 25, and ordered a response to the court by Tuesday, October 15.
After Reel posted her video in March, in an unusual move for a restaurant, Hubbard Inn responded with its own video spliced with Reel’s voiceover that included security footage allegedly showing the Tiktokker and a friend walking down a staircase with a bouncer following them. The Hubbard Inn video claimed Reel was “politely escorted off the premises, ensuring a safe exit.” A week later, the club filed the lawsuit against Reel.
Reel quickly turned to a law firm, Corboy & Demetrio, which put out its own TikTok video with a statement defending their client; it’s since been deleted and Reel has since switched attorneys.
Part of Reel’s new council, Rebecca Kaiser Fournier, an attorney at Henderson Parks, didn’t immediately return a request for comment. Reel is also represented by Forde & O’Meara, according to Cook County documents.
As the drama unfolded in March, online observers sat back and took their shots at Reel. The popular social media account Know Your Meme even posted about the conflict.
Reel filed a police report following the alleged altercation at Hubbard Inn claiming she was treated at Northwestern Memorial Hospital after a bouncer removed her from a bathroom while she was urinating. She claims the bouncer pushed her down the stairs causing her head to hit the ground. Reel, 22 at the time, told police she suffered bruises to her head and arm. No arrests were made.
A Hubbard Inn rep says police never contacted the bar for any follow-ups to Reel’s report.
In the motion to dismiss, filed on Wednesday, September 4, Reel’s attorneys argue her client’s video was “not a statement of fact but rather an internet review and her opinion of the business — not grounds for a defamation claim.” Reel’s attorneys also cite a classic piece of Chicago restaurant lore: a lawsuit filed by Peter Schivarelli, the founder of Demon Dogs, a hot dog stand that once stood under the CTA’s Fullerton Red and Brown line stop in Lincoln Park.
Schivarelli, a former streets and sanitation supervisor (who also managed the rock band Chicago), in 1999 sued CBS Chicago over a commercial that referenced a 1997 news report about Schivarelli’s involvement in a ghost payrolling scandal. The ad touted the channel’s investigative reporting unit and featured a clip from Pam Zekman’s piece with the reporter telling Schivarelli “you are cheating the city.” Schivarelli would argue that the clip lacked context and counted as defamation. The case was dismissed in 2001.
Hubbard Inn’s attorneys claim Reel ignored multiple requests in March to remove her post and that pushed them to sue.
As the Athletics arrival in West Sacramento gets closer, small businesses are coming up with a game plan. Ernesto Delgado’s restaurant, Sal’s Tacos, is just a few blocks from Sutter Health Park and is hoping to welcome new customers when the A’s season starts. “What ideas can we bring and do to really prepare and make our businesses thrive and really take advantage of the opportunity?” Delgado said.However, some owners are concerned they won’t be ready to meet the demand. “There’s so many needs that small businesses have,” said Delgado.At a meeting Friday night, West Sacramento Mayor Martha Guerrero and other city leaders gathered with local business owners to address their needs. Among the main concerns were the lack of money to expand and possible delays with licenses and permits. “We are going to be able to provide capital to some of those businesses,” said Guerrero. She told KCRA 3 that the city council will soon have a meeting to discuss details about how much money will be available and who will benefit. “It’s an opportunity for all of us,” said Guerrero. The A’s will arrive in West Sacramento in 2025 and are expected to play at Sutter Health Park for at least three seasons.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter
Ernesto Delgado’s restaurant, Sal’s Tacos, is just a few blocks from Sutter Health Park and is hoping to welcome new customers when the A’s season starts.
“What ideas can we bring and do to really prepare and make our businesses thrive and really take advantage of the opportunity?” Delgado said.
However, some owners are concerned they won’t be ready to meet the demand.
“There’s so many needs that small businesses have,” said Delgado.
At a meeting Friday night, West Sacramento Mayor Martha Guerrero and other city leaders gathered with local business owners to address their needs.
Among the main concerns were the lack of money to expand and possible delays with licenses and permits.
“We are going to be able to provide capital to some of those businesses,” said Guerrero.
She told KCRA 3 that the city council will soon have a meeting to discuss details about how much money will be available and who will benefit.
“It’s an opportunity for all of us,” said Guerrero.
The A’s will arrive in West Sacramento in 2025 and are expected to play at Sutter Health Park for at least three seasons.
Atelier, the Michelin-starred restaurant in Lincoln Square, has been closed since August 24 as staff contends with a broken air conditioner and wall and ceiling damage caused by heavy rain late last month. As founder Tim Lacey and chef Christian Hunter wait for a new unit to arrive, the small business needs a way to continue in the short term. That’s why they’re offering a special five-course takeout menu from Friday, September 6 through Sunday, September 8.
Lacey admits that his staff is having flashbacks to the start of the pandemic when fine dining restaurants across the country did the unthinkable in offering carryout meals as government officials kept dining rooms closed to curb the spread of COVID. Many fine chefs never thought they would be in the position of creating takeout meals. Chicago’s restaurants leaned into comfort foods which travel well in bags and to-go containers. Even Ever chef Curtis Duffy began selling burgers in December 2020. Atelier, which replaced another Michelin-starred restaurant, Elizabeth, had been blazing its own path and was named a 2024 James Beard Award semifinalist for Best New Restaurant.
The takeout menu — no substitutions — consists of a pita and mezze course (baba ghanoush, pickled summer squash, fermented garlic scape tapenade, rhubarb chutney); grilled Korean pork sausage Bibb lettuce wraps (sea beans, kohlrabi/kimchi slaw); root vegetable fasolada (diced parsnips, celery root, sunchokes, rutabagas); lasagna in lamb neck ragu with ricotta and sourdough garlic knots. and a nectarine and pear galette with caramelized whey, allspice-cinnamon gelee, and spruce chantilly cream.
Hunter and Lacey are hopeful the air conditioning can be fixed by Tuesday, September 10, and that they’ll be back open on Wednesday, September 11. Check their Instagram for updates.
Atelier’s five-course takeout menu is available Friday, September 6 through Sunday, September 8 with pickup between 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Order via Tock.
When Foxtrot relaunches in September and reopens its Gold Coast store, the chain of shoppy shops will stock items from many local brands familiar to fans.
Foxtrot co-founder Mike LaVitola is back leading the newly formed company, separate from Outfox Hospitality, the entity that filed for bankruptcy in May. . It’s supported by New York-based private holding company Further Point Enterprises. The new Foxtrot has gathered 45 former vendors to be part of the relaunch. The list is packed with Chicago brands like Metric Coffee, Marz Community Brewing, All Together Now, Big Fat Cookie, Do-Rite Donuts, Tempesta Market, and Freeman House Chai.
But not all brands will return. Some refused, frustrated by the sudden closures, saying they’re focusing on other retail opportunities. Others, for example, Tortello, the Wicker Park pasta restaurant, weren’t asked to return. Foxtrot does have an agreement with Gemma Foods, a West Town pasta maker. While LaVitola praised the product, he says the new version of Foxtrot will be more curated.
“While it sounds good that you have all this choice, you actually kind of lose your point of view,” LaVitola says. “And it just becomes, you know, it becomes too hard to manage.”
LaVitola adds he’s seen a lot of brands he’s wanted to add over the last year or two: “Now I get the chance to do that, which is just exciting.”
While the initial plan was to open eight Foxtrots in Chicago, with Old Town following Gold Coast, more locations are on their way including “a couple in Texas.” In June, LaVitola floated the comeback would include around 15 stores total. There are no plans to reopen in D.C. LaVitola, who founded Foxtrot in 2013, teased the unannounced reopenings of locations on Wicker Park’s Six Corners and inside the Willis Tower: “We’re looking to open new stores once we feel like we’ve got our operations, just totally, totally nailed down in the stores that we have,” LaVitola says. He adds there will also be changes to the coffee and hot food options with details upcoming.
Many brands have benefited from selling items at Foxtrot, which gives them a chance to grow their customer base and draw attention from bigger national retailers. However, much of that goodwill evaporated on April 23 when the chain, the 33 locations scattered in Chicago, Texas, and Washington, D.C., closed without warning. For the past four months, vendors have been licking their wounds trying to figure out how to make up for lost sales and inventory. After LaVitola regained control of Foxtrot, part of a group that made a $2.2 million winning auction bid in May, Foxtrot 2.0 began making its pitches to vendors, attempting to convince them they had learned from past mistakes, that the new venture would return Foxtrot to its roots in aiding small businesses by showcasing their trendy snacks to diners who frequent chic restaurants with disposable income to spend on items made by well-known chefs.
LaVitola says it’s been a whirlwind few months as he “gets the band back together” in talking with the old company’s former workers, landlords, and vendors, using them to knit the new entity. His role changed at the original Foxtrot in April 2023 after the company named Liz Williams as chief executive officer. Lavitola says he was no longer in control of the company, even though listed as a non-executive chairman: “Probably advisor is the best title,” he says.
In November 2023, Foxtrot would later morph into Outfox Hospitality after merging with Dom’s Kitchen & Market, a two-location grocery chain that also had designs on expansion.
Vendors who spoke with Eater shared trust issues and worried that Foxtrot needed accountability for putting hundreds of workers out of jobs without warning. Many weren’t paid for their food delivered, which remained at stores, visible through windows. Some received court notices as Foxtrot’s original company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. They were free to fill out paperwork to pursue payments, but vendors had little hope that they would recover any money.
LaVitola and company were involved in several email exchanges and meetings to convince vendors to return. Justin Doggett of cold brew coffee maker Kyoto Black is part of the relaunch and was assured that the mistakes of the old Foxtrot wouldn’t be repeated as LaVitola wasn’t involved in that version of the company. He saw it as a positive when he saw former Foxtrot workers were back with the company. After Foxtrot closed, Kyoto Black was left scrambling looking for ways to sell its coffee to make up for lost sales.
Doggett acknowledges there’s a narrative of LaVitola capitalizing on a devalued company, snatching it up, and restarting it without accountability. He says that’s not true.
“The guy who founded it was not involved when this happened,” Doggett says. “…He saw an opportunity to kind of take this company that he started and buy it back and kind of like, uh, revitalize the image and the mission of it.”
Foxtrot has begun offering cash on delivery to more vendors. That’s not a change for wine and beer makers but for other vendors — especially ones who make their items fresh, items that aren’t shelf stable — payment up front provides peace of mind. LaVitola mentions improving vendor communication about the number and frequency of deliveries and marketing support. Vendors also mentioned they don’t have long-term agreements in place. They can leave if the situation goes sideways.
One vendor that wasn’t listed on the Foxtrot’s news release was Pretty Cool Ice Cream, the dessert company founded by former Publican pastry chef Dana Salls Cree. LaVitola says the provided list was preliminary. Customers will still be able to buy Pretty Cool bars at Foxtrot. Salls Cree confirms Foxtrot has ordered an assortment of her ice cream shop’s classic flavors. Pretty Cool wants to take advantage of Foxtrot customers who use the chain to connect with local products, Salls Cree says. However, there won’t be any special flavor collaborations in the near future. As Foxtrot remained in limbo, Salls Cree began partnering with other parties; Foxtrot lost its place on the collaboration schedule. Given the abrupt shutdown of the original venture and given how the company left so many high and dry, Salls Cree took her time weighing the pros and cons of returning to Foxtrot.
“It’s such a sliver of our business,” she says. “But the question that keeps coming in — ’why is this taking up so much emotional bandwidth?’”
James Beard Award winner Mindy Segal says she hasn’t been doing business with Foxtrot since Mindy’s Bakery opened in Bucktown. Foxtrot has sold Mindy’s branded hot chocolate mixes and other items. Segal says they have plenty of other business but would consider working with Foxtrot in the future.
Meanwhile, Marz Community Brewing will once again sell beer and other beverages at Foxtrot. As the craft beer market has imploded, it’s important for Marz to be available in as many stores as possible, says Ed Marszewski. He’s hopeful the new ownership can clean up the “garbage fire” left by the previous regime.
“They are going back to doing right to small guys, indies, etc. a platform,” Marszewski says. “We need places like this. Pre-merger, they really helped small manufacturers get traction. I think they want to do right again. Plus, they didn’t screw us over — our invoices were always paid.”
As I tried to login and download Minecraft after years of not playing I’m hit with the news the my Mojang account that I purchased over a decade ago back when the beta was up is no longer valid. not only that but a new copy is almost triple what I paid originally. This is outrageous, this is unfair.
Thor is associated with Offbrand Games, publisher of Rivals 2. As Thor confirmed on stream Rivals 2 will be an always-online live-service game. Stop Killing Games is a conflict of interest for him. That’s it. That is the real reason he is so against it. And sure, he will try to act all high and mighty, but still it’s just ******** he made up, while the true reason is this: he left Blizzard, but Blizzard didn’t leave him. He is a corporate shill and the mask is off.
I’d long forgotten the enlightening words I heard from the depths of my mind on an lsd trip as a young man. I was upon a sailing ship in the vacuum of space when a tidal wave of cosmos crashed down and pitched the boat around. The words, “your greatest joy will be furthest from shore” rang out.
The depository hasn’t heard from parent company Outfox Hospitality, and neither have vendors like Dana Cree Salls, owner of Pretty Cool Ice Cream. Salls Cree, an acclaimed pastry chef and author, tells Eater she’s reached out to Outfox — Foxtrot represented her largest account — but no one has responded. She’s asked for the public’s help in buying inventory that Pretty Cool was to deliver to Foxtrot. To worsen matters? Foxtrot closed on Salls Cree’s birthday.
Despite the challenge, Salls Cree says Pretty Cool is hiring which would make the ice cream shop a nice land spot for former Dom’s or Foxtrot workers. Others in Chicago’s culinary community are stepping up. Derrick Tung at Paulie Gee’s Pizza is offering specials for Foxtrot and Dom’s workers throughout May. For vendors, like Pretty Cool, that need a place to sell their goods, Tung is offering vendors space at his pizzeria on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in Logan Square. Interested vendors can register via a Google Form. Tung says he lacks any direct connections with Foxtrot. His Wicker Park pizzeria is across from a Foxtrot store and some workers would stop in for a slice.
While some note — and resent — that Foxtrot and Dom’s only had North Side locations, one South Sider wants to help. Ed Marszewski of Marz Community Brewing is pushing his brewery’s initiative, Snack Wave, to help former Foxtrot and Dom’s vendors. The program’s purpose is to sell snacks made in Chicago or its surroundings at Marz’s McKinley Park and Bucktown breweries: “If you are a producer or know someone who is a producer who has been affected by the closures, contact us, or please tag them and send them our way,” Marszewski writes on Instagram. “We will do our best to try selling the products in our spots. We can’t guarantee that everything will be a fit with us, but we will consider every product sent our way.”
Signage remains at all Foxtrot’s and Dom’s locations, including in River North where “coming soon” messages are up where Dom’s planned to open. In Lincoln Park, paper signs list Cash App and Venmo handles from former employees at a space shared with Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, 900 W. Armitage Avenue. A “for lease” sign is also up in the window, though it’s partially covered by painted letters. A small paper sign reads that Jeni’s remains open. Another reads that Jeni’s is “getting a facelift, but are still open!”
Despite the signs, a Jeni’s rep tells Eater that the store is temporarily closed and that they have no further information. Large lines are familiar sights during the summer with customers waiting for ice cream on Armitage. As Foxtrot and Dom’s closures surprised its employees, Jeni’s also seems to need a minute to plot their next step in Lincoln Park.
Chicago’s famed boat-shaped restaurant and bar on North Avenue Beach will reopen on Memorial Day Weekend for the first time since 2022. Castaways Beach Club, an unmistakable symbol of summer along Lake Michigan, is returning after a $3 million renovation and new menu items.
After spending last summer in stasis, the beachside staple (formerly called Castaways Bar & Grill) is poised to unveil its freshly revamped two-floor, 22,000-square-foot space with dining decks, bar sections, patio areas, and cabanas with bottle service available for rental and private events, according to a rep.
The renovation increased Castaways’ footprint to 22,000 square feet.Castaways Beach Club
Castaways 2.0 will aim for a more polished approach than its previous sandy sports bar vibe. Workers have replaced its distressed paint with a more contemporary ocean blue and cream color scheme to evoke the breezy style of beach clubs in Miami or the Mediterranean, Stefani Restaurant Group managing partner Anthony Stefani tells theSun-Times.
Castaways has added a tented structure on the north end of the venue that on weekends will become a 21-and-older section aptly dubbed the North End Club that will also host live music and DJ sets. To capitalize on the location’s sweeping views of the Chicago skyline, the team has installed a new bar section for happy hours and corporate events on the south end of the second floor.
The family-friendly upstairs restaurant also saw upgrades like new tile, paint, and furniture, and will reopen with a new, as-yet-unreleased food menu of “global beach fare” and cocktails for lunch and dinner, per a rep. Downstairs, two walk-up concession windows will channel sticky summer nostalgia. One will sling street food favorites like burgers, tacos, and wraps; the other, run by local mini-chain JoJo’s Shake Bar, will sell ice cream, according to Crain’s.
Castaways hasn’t missed many summers in its more than two-decade-long tenure under Stefani Restaurant Group, which contracts the space from the Chicago Park District. The group, founded by prolific Chicago restaurateur (and Anthony Stefani’s father) Phil Stefani, operates 10 Chicago area restaurants including Bar Cargo pizzeria in River North, Tuscany Taylor in Little Italy, and Stefani Prime steakhouse in Lincolnwood. Phil Stefani is due for a busy season, as he’s also on the cusp of relaunching downtown stalwart Tavern on Rush around the corner from its original home in Gold Coast.
Castaways Beach Club, 1603 Lake Shore Drive, Scheduled to open Memorial Day weekend (Friday, May 24 through Monday, May 27).
A Nebraska woman was arrested for double-swiping her gas rewards card for months, taking advantage of a glitch that allowed her to get almost $28,000 worth of gas for free. What do you think?
“It’s sickening to see someone take advantage of an innocent fossil fuel company.”
Jose Markis, Bible Assembler
Women Explain How They’d Like To Have Their Bodies Restricted Next
“Doesn’t she know exploitative loopholes are only for the 1%?”
Leyla Mccarthy, Mortgage Approver
“So you’re telling me it’s possible to acquire things through less-than-honest means?”
Three years after Billy Dec’s announcement, the second Chicago outpost of Sunda Fulton Market, the former nightlife magnate’s Southeast Asian restaurant, will open tonight — Monday, February 26 — on the ground floor inside the headquarters of prolific developer Sterling Bay.
It’s been 15 years since Sunda New Asian debuted in River North. Dec and his crew have been quiet about the opening, quietly sinking significant resources into the design, trying to keep pace with other area restaurants, a collection including newcomers like Cocina Tulum and Fioretta. The restaurant presents a return to home turf for Dec, a Chicago native and co-founder of downtown nightlife pioneer Rockit Bar & Grill. With co-owner Brad Young, Dec opened Sunda River North in 2009, where a continent-traversing menu from late Chicago chef Rodelio Aglibot and a lively see-and-be-seen atmosphere made it one of the city’s hottest spots, attracting luminaries like Michelle Obama, Barbara Streisand, and Vanilla Ice.
In the Philippines, capiz shells were used for window panes before glass became available.John Stoffer/Sunda New Asian
After splitting with Rockit’s co-owner and hanging onto Sunda, Dec and his team have opened Sunda outposts in Nashville and Tampa, Florida, but deep down, “you can’t take [Chicago] out of me,” he says. “To me, [Sunda] is a Chicago-born concept — we’re based in Chicago, it’s a Chicago company and creation… I want to keep reinvesting in the city and being a contributor in some fashion.”
Sunda fans will recognize much of the Fulton Market menu from executive chef Mike Morales, which touches on dishes from a wide swath of countries including China, Thailand, Japan, Vietnam, and the Philippines, including longtime hits like spicy tuna crispy rice (masago, chives, sriracha, serrano) and truffled chicken siu mai (shiitake, hon-shimeji, hot mustard). It follows the same format as its predecessors, with one-third devoted to Japanese dishes, one-third to Chinese, and the remaining third set aside for options from the Philippines and other nearby countries.
Ube espresso martinis add a Filipino boost to the trendy cocktail.Sunda New Asian
Former Sushi Wabi chef Ise Matsunobu is back to serve Chicago diners.Sunda New Asian
Dim sum and sushi feature prominently, and through a series of unlikely encounters, Dec managed to track down chef Ise Matsunobu, formerly of longtime Chicago favoriteSushi Wabi, to helm the sushi bar. “When we opened Sunda [in 2009], Sushi Wabi was closed so I looked all over for [Matsunobu] but couldn’t find him,” says Dec, who heard through the grapevine that the Japanese chef had returned to Tokyo. In the meantime, Dec moved to Nashville and was struggling to find the right staff members for his restaurant. “In walks [Matsunobu] on a random Nashville street on a random day — we had a slo-mo run-hug. Now, here we are, he’s back in Fulton Market and we’re so happy to be back where we started.”
Sunda Fulton Market was initially pegged to launch in spring 2022, but the delay may ultimately prove fortuitous as that exact timeframe saw a surge of Filipino restaurants in Chicago, including Michelin-starred Kasama in West Town and smash-hit Boonie’s Filipino Restaurant in Lincoln Square. Dec, who is Filipino American, is quick to point out that Sunda has always served Filipino cuisine but a heightened spotlight on the country’s food has welcomed more fans into the fold. “I knew once [more people] gave Filipino food a chance, they’d be incredibly excited and mesmerized,” he says.
The island bar seats 26.John Stoffer/Sunda New Asian
Well-regarded Chicago design firm Studio K Creative has woven Dec’s heritage into the design at Sunda Fulton Market, installing a jaw-dropping sculpture made with thousands of pearlescent Filipino capiz shells above the 26-seat island bar where customers can find new cocktails like an ube espresso martini (1800 reposado, coffee liqueur, ube milk) and Low Thai’d (Tanduay Silver, strega, hopped pineapple, Thai basil, white peppercorn). The design team has also layered the walls with traditional woven pamaypay hand fans — a preferred accessory for Dec’s lola, or grandmother — to create a distinctive organic texture. Bamboo wall treatments juxtapose neatly with sleek, contemporary furniture seen throughout the 146-seat main dining room and 18-seat sushi bar.
Those details contain great meaning for Dec, who recently starred in Food Roots, a documentary film that followed him on a trip through the Philippines in pursuit of his family’s stories and recipes. The film is now making its way through the festival circuit.
Sunda New Asian Fulton Market, 333 N. Green Street, Open 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday; 5 p.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday.
No streaming service can pull off a perfect batting average with its original programming, but when it comes to Netflix’s live-action anime adaptations, the company has long been hitting below the Mendoza Line. Storied animes likeCowboy Bebop and Death Note arrived on the streamer with plenty of fanfare, only to be eviscerated by the very communities to which Netflix was trying to cater. Every live-action anime adaptation faces a unique challenge: the fantastical, seemingly limitless possibilities of animation are something even the best special effects can fail to capture. But Netflix has kept trying despite those high-profile early failures because the shows tend to come with a large built-in audience. If an anime adaptation can appease the fandom and become a hit with the rest of its subscriber base, Netflix could be sitting on a gold mine—perhaps even the next Stranger Things.
To the streamer’s credit, Netflix finally made some progress on the live-action anime front last year. The first season of the One Piece adaptation, which premiered in August, was beloved by critics and fans alike for embodying the kinetic energy of the manga. (The show has since been renewed for a second season. The only problem: One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda still hasn’t finished writing the series, which has been active since 1997. In theory, Netflix could roll out a dozen seasons of One Piece and barely scratch the surface of the source material.) Then, in December, the streamer dropped a live-action adaptation of Yu Yu Hakusho. While Yu Yu Hakusho didn’t carry the same hype as One Piece, it also scored favorable reviews—in fact, the biggest complaint about the show was that its first season was far too short.
After so many whiffs on the live-action anime front, Netflix was suddenly two for two on major titles, which appeared to bode well heading into arguably its buzziest adaptation to date. Whether the Nickelodeon animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender qualifies as anime is something even its own creators debate, but at the very least, it’s heavily influenced by the genre. (Dante Basco, who voiced Prince Zuko, considers it “American anime,” which is a solid compromise.) In any case, Avatar is a franchise that’s treated with the kind of reverence that’s rare among American animation: a story that gracefully touches on mature themes such as genocide, war, and imperialism for a younger audience. (The animation itself is also stunning, echoing the esteemed works of Hayao Miyazaki, another major inspiration for the show.) In the nearly two decades since Avatar first aired on Nickelodeon, it’s been widely regarded as one of the best animated series ever made.
With all the adoration surrounding Avatar, however, an adaptation of the series is a terrifying prospect. (Even the sequel series made by the original creators, The Legend of Korra, divided the fandom—and it was very good!) The last time the world got a live-action Avatar adaptation, M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender, it was universally panned. How bad was it? Well, the film earned a whopping 5 percent on Rotten Tomatoes—when something as notoriously reviled as Dragonball: Evolution has better reviews, you know something went horribly wrong. Surely, Netflix’s adaptation (also called Avatar: The Last Airbender) couldn’t fumble the bag as badly as Shyamalan, right?
Fans certainly had reason to worry when the original Avatar creators, Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, left the project over creative differences. The promotional rollout for Avatar didn’t exactly inspire confidence, either, with showrunner Albert Kim explaining that the adaptation would bypass many of the story’s side adventures and that character traits deemed “iffy” were removed entirely. But despite all signs pointing to the live-action series being a misfire, that’s not what transpired. The new Avatar is just … fine.
For the uninitiated, Avatar takes place in a fantastical world composed of four nations related to one of the classical elements: Water, Fire, Earth, and Air. Gifted individuals from each nation are capable of “bending”: essentially, manipulating their native element in an elevated form of martial arts. But one being, the Avatar, is able to master all four elements and maintain peace among the nations. Similar to the Dalai Lama, the Avatar reincarnates and passes to a different nation with each life cycle. Before the start of the series, the Fire Nation eradicates all of the Air Nomads, knowing that the Avatar lives among them: the first step in an ambitious plan to conquer the world. A young Airbender named Aang (Gordon Cormier in the Netflix series), the Avatar in training, isn’t with the Air Nomads during the fateful attack; instead, he’s caught in a terrible storm, and his Avatar State (a heightened ability that’s akin to going Super Saiyan) freezes him in a block of ice for a century as a defense mechanism.
In the time that the Avatar disappeared, the Earth and Water nations have isolated themselves from the rest of the world in a handful of cities: the last strongholds standing in the way of the Fire Nation. The story begins with two siblings from the Southern Water Tribe, Waterbender Katara (Kiawentiio) and her sardonic older brother, Sokka (Ian Ousley), inadvertently stumbling upon Aang as he awakens from his century-long slumber. Aang’s reemergence quickly captures the attention of Zuko (Dallas Liu), the Fire Nation’s exiled prince who has spent years searching for the Avatar—his only hope of being welcomed home by his father, Fire Lord Ozai (Daniel Dae Kim), the show’s Big Bad. With threats lurking around every corner, Aang and his new pals must travel the world so that he can master the other three elements and stop the Fire Nation before it’s too late.
Netflix’s Avatar broadly covers the first season of the animated series, during which Aang focuses on mastering Waterbending while traveling to the Northern Water Tribe to help defend it from a Fire Nation assault. Along the way, Aang must contend with what’s happened to the world in the century he’s been gone—the extermination of his people, the loss of hope among the other nations—and what sorts of sacrifices are required to become a fully realized Avatar. As far as adapting the story to live action, it’s a pretty seamless transition, aided in part by a young cast that not only looks the part, but also largely embodies their respective characters. Ousley, in particular, absolutely nails Sokka—someone whose constant wisecracks hide a well of insecurities that he’s not the fearsome warrior he makes himself out to be.
Really, the show’s greatest strength is its ability to lean on such gripping source material. While some story lines from the original series are meshed together for the sake of brevity, all of the rich character dynamics remain intact: the relationship between the emotionally wounded Zuko and the kindly Uncle Iroh (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) will once again tug at the heartstrings; Sokka, somehow, remains the franchise’s most eligible bachelor, spitting game at warriors and princesses alike. Perhaps the show’s finest improvement on its animated predecessor is a secondary antagonist from the Fire Nation, Commander Zhao, whose guile and arrogance are given new dimensions by Industry’s Ken Leung. (Performance-wise, Leung and Lee are at the top of their game, with few weak links in the sprawling cast.)
The biggest problem for Avatar is a familiar one for many live-action adaptations: By streamlining the narrative into eight episodes, the show loses sight of the idiosyncrasies that made the animated series so beloved in the first place. Some of the best moments in the original Avatar happened during Team Avatar’s side adventures, which weren’t just important from a character development standpoint, but also allowed the viewer to become engrossed in the world. This version of Avatar is like doing a speedrun in a video game, rather than savoring every little detail: you may get to the finish line faster, but the journey isn’t nearly as memorable. In fact, the characters bounce between major locations so quickly—the Earth Kingdom city of Omashu, Kyoshi Island, and so on—that the world can’t help but feel smaller in the process.
Of course, it wouldn’t have been possible for Avatar to adapt the entirety of the animated series without Netflix spending the equivalent of a small nation’s GDP. What we do get visually, however, is a bit of a mixed bag. Appa the flying bison and Momo the winged lemur have been impressively brought to life with CGI, but some of the bending sequences more closely resemble PS2 cutscenes. (The same sentiment applies to the show’s many locations: Omashu and the Fire Nation’s throne room are clear winners; the Water Tribe communities look glaringly artificial.) Thankfully, the show does excel in some of the finer details: Each nation is inspired by Asian and Indigenous culture and folklore, which is reflected in everything from the set design and artwork to the food. (Not gonna lie: I wanted to devour every tastefully presented meal.) It’s the kind of authenticity that Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender notoriously lacked, so seeing that cultural representation realized on-screen is commendable in and of itself.
All told, a solid if unspectacular Avatar adaptation is probably the least interesting outcome. After months—if not years—of anticipation, Netflix has delivered neither a masterpiece nor a colossal failure; instead, the show gets a passing grade, at least from this fan of the animated series. I’m much more curious to see how Avatar is received by people unfamiliar with the franchise, and whether this unique universe of benders, animal hybrids, mythical spirits, and ill-fated cabbages draws them in. If that does happen, then Netflix could have another massive hit on its hands, and, hopefully, a chance to improve on some of the show’s early shortcomings in future seasons. Trying to live up to the legacy of the original series was always going to be a losing battle, but while Netflix’s Avatar isn’t off to a flawless start, I still believe Aang can save the world.
I heard the news, and my face fell, but then my face brightened again at the mere thought of him yelling MANDO!! repeatedly, warmly, boisterously. A dear old friend of Mando’s greeting his old friend Mando, and a dear old friend of ours greeting all of us.
Maybe you miss his voice already, in which case I encourage you to just sit with this and luxuriate in his warm, boisterous, too-loud-but-that’s-why-we-love-him voice for a while. Ahhhh! Mando! They all hate you, Mando! Only you, Mando! Welcome back, Mando! Sorry for the remote rendezvous, Mando! His name, in the quite popular Star Wars Disney+ series The Mandalorian, is Greef Karga, but of course that’s not his name. His name, in any context and on any planet, is Carl Weathers, and we are forever delighted to hear his voice, to see our warm and boisterous old friend who greets us too loudly and claps us on the back so hard it hurts. Carl Weathers died on Thursday. He was 76. He is immortal for any one of roughly a dozen roles across a dozen beloved pop-cultural universes, and maybe Greef Karga makes your personal list of Most Beloved Carl Weathers Roles and maybe Greef Karga doesn’t, because that’s the towering stature of the beloved actor and old friend we’re dealing with here.
Carl Weathers was born in New Orleans, played defensive end for San Diego State (where he helped win the 1969 Pasadena Bowl and also got his master’s in theater arts), played eight games at linebacker for the Raiders (no stats but presumably fantastic vibes), and moved on to the Canadian Football League (where he once recovered a fumble as a member of the BC Lions). Then he became heavyweight champion of the world.
With apologies to that time in 1975 when he almost beat J.J. into oblivion on Good Times, the wider world first met Carl Weathers as Apollo Creed, ultra-charismatic semi-villain of the original 1976 Rocky, an astoundingly dapper champ (he had a 46-0 record with 46 KOs!) angrily boasting about how “none of ’em got a prayer of whippin’ me,” which nobody did, in that one anyway. What follows, over the first four Rocky movies—including Rocky II in 1979 (Creed loses, Rocky wins); Rocky III in 1982 (Creed trains, Rocky wins); and Rocky IV in 1985 (Creed dies, Rocky avenges)—is one of the great franchise-spanning character arcs in American cinema, from the mountain the hero has to climb to the wise mentor that spurs the hero to climb the next mountain. And it all peaks with the super-macho and absurdly joyous Rocky + Creed training montage in the third movie, which remains the purest Dudes Rock moment in global cultural history.
Apollo Creed is an all-timer, noble beyond measure in both victory and defeat, and the sheer embodiment of tender-badass American greatness, his hallowed last name alone fueling the greatest boxing franchise of our time. “See, we’re born with a killer instinct that you can’t just turn off and on like some radio,” Creed tells Rocky in Rocky IV, inspiring several generations of rapt moviegoers to run through walls. “’Cause we the warriors. And without some challenge—without some damn war to fight—then the warrior may as well be dead, Stallion.”
And then, with absurdly genial aplomb, Weathers found so many other damn wars to fight. In 1987, for example, he bursts onto (and off of) the screen in the original Predator, hooking up with Arnold Schwarzenegger for literally the single most macho handshake in recorded human history.
Who else could’ve possibly embodied the titular supercop role in the delightfully cheeseball 1988 action movie called Action Jackson? (“Mr. Jackson is so vicious we don’t even let him have a gun.”) Who else do you get to lead your two-season early-’90s TV cop drama literally called Street Justice? (All TV intros should feature all the characters smiling, or at least they should when Carl Weathers is one of the smilers.) Who else do you get to lend gravitas and credibility to the later mid-’90s seasons of the TV cop drama they actually had the balls to call In the Heat of the Night? And then. And then! Who else do you get to sell this?
Who else could’ve seen hapless ol’ Happy Gilmore as golf-pro material? Who else do you get to sell that pastel sweater-hat combo, that ludicrously too-long prosthetic hand, that alligator eye in the jar he still carries with him everywhere because Carl Weathers doesn’t even lose the fights he loses? Who else fits the character name “Chubbs Peterson”? Carl’s turn to pure screwball bliss in the 1996 Adam Sandler no-bullshit classic Happy Gilmore was long overdue and warmly received, giving our dear friend yet another iconic death scene and a second life in comedy. He’d go on to play a fictionialized version of himself and a less effective mentor in Arrested Development (where he always managed to get a stew going) and voice the battle-hardened Combat Carl in the Toy Story universe, where he occasionally gets to say things like, “Combat Carl’s seen things. Horrible things.” Because who else do you get to voice a character called Combat Carl?
A true great man. Great dad. Great actor. Great athlete. So much fun to be around always. Smart as hell. Loyal as hell. Funny as hell. Loved his sons more than anything. What a guy!! Everyone loved him. My wife and I had the best times with him every time we saw him. Love to… pic.twitter.com/Gi2lPWFTgt
And so, when Carl Weathers yells, Ahhhh! Mando!, the response from literally everyone watching is grateful, boisterous, warm: Ahhhh! Carl! Only you, Carl! They all love you, Carl! He got to host Saturday Night Live, too, in 1988, where he touted his role as Apollo Creed (“Only in a movie could a white man beat a Black man who was bigger, stronger, faster, and a better fighter”) and then sang a goofy little song called “What About a Rainbow” in a perfectly imperfect falsetto. Just a cheerful and beloved warrior who’d found another challenge to meet, another damn war to fight and win. He was the People’s Champion. He died undefeated.
It’s no secret that the Polygon staff loves to read. We’re genre agnostic, with tastes spanning categories such as mystery, science fiction and fantasy, literary fiction, romance, and even nonfiction, and we love manga and comics, too. But we’re also sympathetic to how hard it is to find time to do it. By the time the workday is over, you might be too exhausted to consume words on the page — or maybe you’re a parent, working hard to take care of yourself and your family. It also can be difficult to focus, with endless emails, texts, and social media notifications taking up brain space or needing immediate attention.
But there are so many different ways to add reading into your life. There’s this perception of reading as an activity that you need to dedicate discrete time and space to — that it’s uninterrupted and relaxing. Maybe that’s an accessible option for you, which is wonderful, but maybe it’s simply become difficult to focus for long stretches. Maybe you try to read before bed but keep falling asleep. Or maybe you’re busy as hell and wonder, How could I even find time to start a book, much less finish it?
We’re here to help. Some of the regular readers on the Polygon staff have shared our stories of how we’ve found time to read in the past year. We all had wildly different answers, which is to say, there are many different ways to add it to your life. We hope these ideas can serve you in your reading journey.
Start your day with a good book
Working from home is the best thing that’s happened to my reading habits. When I stopped going into the office in 2020, I suddenly had an extra hour in the morning where my commute used to be. Instead of taking this as an opportunity to sleep in, I kept the time of my morning alarm the same, giving myself a bonus hour each morning to fill however I wanted. I tried a variety of things, including yoga and long walks with my dog, but nothing set a better tone for my day than using that time to read.
To this day, once I finish getting ready for work, I make myself a cup of coffee, curl up with my cats and a cozy blanket, and read for anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes. Starting my mornings this way helps me relax and feel more grounded before signing on to work, and the joy I still get from this routine nearly four years later is more than worth losing that bonus hour of sleep. —Sadie Gennis
Try a dedicated reading device
Photo: Ana Diaz/Polygon
I’ve probably written about this enough already, but I got back into reading by reading manga on my tablet using the Shonen Jump app.
I think it’s really easy to get all high and mighty about what is and isn’t worth reading, but comics are great. Reading manga before bed has become a treasured part of my evening routine, and genuinely feels like me time. My tablet doesn’t have any messaging or social media apps, so I’m not interrupted while reading and I get a nice break from the internet. It’s like a little oasis of my own every night.
Other folks have already shared variations of the golden rule for finding pleasure in reading: “Stop assigning yourself homework.” Now let’s go a step further. Try stuff that you explicitly weren’t allowed to read in school. Books are sick, and I don’t mean cool; I mean depraved.
In high school, I, like so many millennial teenagers, had my Chuck Palahniuk period. Giggle all you want, but reading novels like Survivor and Choke felt like gaining access behind the beaded curtain. You can go highbrow with Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock, the tale of a pier-loitering teenage sociopath. Or you can opt for a legend of the airport bookstore, like Anne Rice. You’ve heard of Interview with the Vampire, but if you haven’t read it, trust me, you’re in for some grade-A filth. —Chris Plante
‘Having fun isn’t hard when you have a library card’
In 2023, I read more books than I had in the previous three years combined. My favorite animated aardvark knew what he was about. Moving to a place with a library less than a 10-minute walk away has been a game changer. I’d previously used apps like Libby and Overdrive, but there’s just something about waltzing into a library without knowing exactly what you’re looking for and letting the stacks whisper to you. Last year, I discovered a bunch of new favorites and also became a certified romance reader, all because I took a chance on a library book.
But while the library definitely solved my “access to books without committing to buying something that you may not like and it will take up space on your bookshelf and haunt you for years to come” problem, there’s also another hurdle to address. Even with library access, you still have to find the time to read — which can be hard, with a million shows and movies on streaming, a ton of games in my backlog to play, and other hobbies that I could be spending time on.
Last year, though, I made it a point to get off social media. It actually wasn’t that hard, considering that Twitter kinda set itself on fire and TikTok was making me so enraged that I just deleted the app. I started to use that time to read instead. It especially works for in-between moments — waiting for my pasta water to boil, or grabbing a snack and not wanting to commit to watching a television show. As much as I love to just spend hours poring over a book, that’s not the only way to read. I can get the same fix in bite-sized chunks, the same quick hit I used to get from Twitter or TikTok. It’s just as entertaining (dare I say… even more so?), without the negative side effects of doomscrolling! —Petrana Radulovic
Mix it up with an old classic or a new co-reader
A lot of things have helped me pull out of periodic reading slumps — taking recommendations from friends, tracking down old favorite authors to see what they’ve been up to, getting into ebooks and instant downloads from libraries via Libby and Hoopla, reading a lot of Book Riot for sales and recommendations. But two comparatively offbeat things spiced up my reading more than usual last year, and I’d recommend giving both of them a try.
Go back to some old favorites — I mean really old favorites.Susana Polo’s 2023 piece on Disney’s animated movie One Hundred and One Dalmatians reminded me of a writer I haven’t thought about in decades: Bill Peet, the movie’s writer and storyboarder, and the author of a huge pile of weird, wild picture booksI read in childhood. Armed with nostalgia, I hit the library and reread a bunch of those picture books — none of them were challenging or enlightening reading, obviously, but the memories they called up were a lot of fun, and they reconnected me with a different era of my connection to books. And then I got to recommend them to, and buy some of them for, my friends with young kids.
Similarly, a stray memory late last year took me back to Island of the Blue Dolphins, a favorite classic from my early reading years. It only took an hour or so to reread, and it brought back a lot of memories — and sent me off looking for more contemporary books about Native islanders, ones up to today’s standards instead of the standards of when it was written. Touching base with things I read and loved in childhood let me think more about what I like to read today, and why — and helped me think about some of the messages I internalized from books as a kid, which has been worth thinking and talking about with friends.
Read to someone else, or have someone read to you. Revisiting childhood picture books reminded me of the times I’ve read books to kids, and made me want to spend more time doing that. But we don’t put enough value on adults reading to each other. Inspired by a friend of mine who says he and his wife take turns reading A Christmas Carol to each other every holiday season, I started asking my husband to read out loud to me on long car trips. It’s a surprisingly pleasant social activity, with all the enjoyment of a good audiobook combined with the connection factor of focusing us both on the same story and making it an active process instead of a passive one.
This is a good one to try for evenings at home with a significant other or family member. Most of us who don’t have kids in the immediate family have probably gotten out of the habit of reading out loud, but it can be a really satisfying way to enjoy and engage with a story — and with someone else who’s interested in reading more, too! —Tasha Robinson
Listening is also reading
Photo illustration: James Bareham/Polygon | Source image: Netflix
Reading has always been one of my favorite pastimes, to the extent that it’s a hobby I identify with on the level of who I am as a person. But as I’ve balanced more and more responsibilities in my life, I’ve had to get more creative with how I keep reading. For the past few years, I’ve found it harder to find uninterrupted reading time — which has atrophied the muscle of being able to focus, even, with a book. I kept assuming that I’d ease back into it, but I never did. I’d sit with a book and find myself hopelessly distracted just a few pages in.
Instead, I’ve gotten really into audiobooks, which I can listen to while going on a daily walk, doing the laundry, or washing the dishes. It motivates me to actually get the chores done — I want to know what’s happening next — but it helps settle my fidgety nature, too. I’ve also started reading essay collections while my partner plays single-player video games. We both love gaming and reading, so if either of us hits an exhaustion point, we’ll simply trade: I’ll play the section he’s stuck in, and he’ll make his way through an essay in the collection. It’s a fun way of sharing media together that’s typically consumed individually. And it’s made the whole thing way more social. —Nicole Clark
Don’t forget — there are other kinds of reading out there
You want to read more books? Sorry, can’t help you there; I start way more of them than I finish, and haven’t read them regularly since college.
Would it be nice if I read more books? Sure, and maybe I’ll check out some of the suggestions from my co-workers above. But my wife and I are about to have our first child, so I don’t know that I’ll have the time or the inclination to make it through book-length works anytime soon.
What I do read a ton of, though, is journalism. I was a news junkie long before I started working in the media, but I’d say that it comprises something like 90% of what I read these days — and that’s everything from bullet-point news bites to magazine-length features. I’m not just talking about reporting here; I also mean analysis, explainers, movie/TV/game criticism, personal essays, interviews, and data journalism. I’ve always been a fundamentally curious person, and reading journalism is the main way that I learn and stay informed about the world and what’s happening in it.
Twitter used to be my primary curation tool here — I currently have nearly 180 tabs open across three Chrome windows, and the vast majority of them function as bookmarks: They’re tweets of stories that I intended to read at some point. It’s not the best strategy for actually reading more journalism, as you can see, but I do make attempts to chip away at that backlog every so often.
Something that facilitates this is that I maintain subscriptions to the New York Times (including The Athletic), the Washington Post, and The New Yorker. If you want to read more journalism, and in particular, great journalism, it helps if you can afford to pay for it! —Samit Sarkar
Kolachi cafe on Emerson St lost most its power on Monday and was forced to close temporarily at a peak time. Pictured are owner Jaz Singh (left), along with his staff team. Photo / Gary Hamilton-Irvine
A power outage took out supply to a chunk of Napier’s central business district during a busy retail period with passengers from two cruise ships in town.
The unscheduled outage hit late morning on Monday and was caused by a suspected cable fault, according to Unison.
The outage started at 10.41am and power began to return to some businesses by 11.15am, but power supply continued to fluctuate in the city for the next 45 minutes.
The outage affected about 200 properties on Dickens St, Dalton St, Station St, Emerson St, Hastings St and Marine Parade, among others.
Some shops and eateries were without power for over an hour. All properties had power returned by noon.
The outage hit as passengers from two cruise ships, the 3100-passenger cruise ship Grand Princess and the 2770-passenger Resilient Lady, were in town.
The owner of Kolachi cafe on Emerson St, Jaz Singh, said it was tough timing, and they were forced to close while the power was out and eventually opted not to reopen for the day as it was one of the last areas to have power restored.
“We have no other option than to close at this point because we don’t know when power is returning,” Singh said during the outage, which hit his cafe for more than an hour.
Have you taken the VHS pill yet? A few years ago I started collecting VHS tapes as kind of a joke. But then I realized you can snag CRT TV’s for next to nothing, if not free on marketplace. Next thing I know I am watching Raiders of the lost ark on a luxury 90s media setup with over 700 more classic titles. My wife and I do weekly movie nights now and the kids are watching magic school bus. N64, pS1, movies, all look better on the native hardware. Take the VHS pill and join us in the last good era the world knew.
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