‘HOT ONES’ PICKS CHICAGO FOR FIRST LIVE SHOW

Hot Ones, the talk show centered around daring celebrities to eat hot chicken wings while being interviewed, is coming to Chicago later this summer. The brass isn’t saying exactly when or where either. A press release teases the show will take place at an iconic Chicago location.

The show, which debuted in 2015, is produced by First We Feast and features Chicago-area native Sean Evans using extensive research from AMAs, online articles — you name it — for remarkably in-depth interviews. Stars sit through 10 questions and 10 wings, with each piece of chicken doused in increasingly spicy sauces flavored with exotic peppers, the kind spice bros record YouTube videos about with milk nearby to further dull their insides.

First We Feast is touting the Chicago event as Hot Ones’s first live show in front of an audience with Stella Artois as its sponsor (Stella’s parent, the multi-national company behind Anheuser-Busch, is also in charge of Chicago’s Goose Island Beer Co.). Stella has kicked off its advertising campaign with a video featuring rapper Ludacris.

Stella declined a request to interview Evans. Perhaps the suburban Evanston native feared he’d be accountable as a fan for the White Sox’s lurid season. Instead, a Stella rep pointed toward a contest giving 10 winners a free trip to Chicago to see the event.

Cafe Selmarie closes this week

Cafe Selmarie, the Lincoln Square icon that announced its closure last year, is announced when it will shutter. Breakfast and lunch will be served on Thursday, April 25; and Friday, April 26. Dinner on those two days will be reserved for mostly friends and family, with limited seating available to the public, according to a news release. The owner is retiring and has sold the business, which had been open for four decades. The owner of Lincoln Square Taproom is taking over the space. Andrew Pillman is replacing Selmarie with Willow Café and Bistro.

The possibility of a free lunch

In other contest news, Farmer’s Fridge — the company that uses vending machines to find a niche at convention centers, airports, and other locations where it’s hard to find healthy meals — is giving out $10 credits for new customers who download its app. The interesting bit is the company could be positioning itself as a less-expensive alternative to buying lunch from a restaurant. The lunch market has boomed in neighborhoods since 2020 and the pandemic’s start, while downtown restaurants have seen mixed results and often rolling back hours to deal with rising labor costs and more employees working from home.

2024-04-22T15:27:25Z dg43tfdfdgfd