Rosemont, that steadfast northwest 'burb with little draw other than conventions and concerts, is scoring some major interest with The Rosemont Walk, a $500 million development of shopping and dining, anchored by (yes, even more) hotels and Illinois' first Muvico, a "premium movie theater" and entertainment complex.

Looks to us like conventioneers stuck near the airport won't have to bother making the trip into the city with a mini-Chicago right in town. The dining options slated here, aiming for early 2008 openings, read like a greatest hits of Chicago big names: Osteria di Tramanto (from the folks behind Tru), McCormick & Schmick's, John Barleycorn, and a yet-to-be-named venture from Phil Stefani (Riva, Tuscany, Tavern on Rush).

Muvico sets itself apart from local names like AMC and Loews with upgraded features that are no-brainers as far as audience appeal: Bigger seats, better food and entertainment that moves beyond movies. You can stash the kids in on-site childcare, upgrade your $9.50 general admission ticket to a $15 one and score free valet, free popcorn, reserved VIP seating and access to the 21-and-over Premier Bar & Grill Bogart's, run by Levy Restaurants. (We just received a word of this last-minute name change, which we think is a vast improvement.)

Get to Le Passage as you've come to know it while you can! This Sunday's party (click for info) might just be the last chance to toast the Gold Coast nightclub's past. As soon as permits come through-which should be any day now-Le Passage will close for remodeling, and reopen in the fall.

Three-Headed Productions (Cans, Salud, Junior's and Evil Olive), the nightlife group that took over the property earlier this year, has a lot of plans for the new place-including adding Shawn McClain (Spring, Green Zebra, Custom House) as consulting chef.

In addition to touting their new toque, Le Passage will sport a completely new look and concept-though the name will remain the same. However, the former Yow Bar, located in the back of the club, will soon become The Drawing Room at Le Passage.

What do you think: Was the old Le Passage in need of a new life?

The spot: South Coast, the South Side sister to Bucktown's popular (and also BYOB) Coast, is livening up an otherwise desolate strip of Michigan Avenue. But until they get permanent signage, keep your eyes peeled, or you might miss the place. Inside, a sleek, dark interior contrasts with stark white chandeliers made from small tree branches. Fans of the original Coast will find a lot of the same signature maki, nigiri and cooked entrees here, as well as several new items. Try the signature South Scallop maki ($13), pan fried scallops in garlic wasabi sauce in a dynamite roll with black tobiko (flying fish roe), or the cold hamachi carpaccio appetizer ($13), which combines hamachi, garlic oil, lime, cilantro, jalapeno and a mesclun salad.

The bottle: You won't find a decent liquor store nearby, so it's a good idea to buy your booze in advance-especially if you're looking for more than the usual suspects. We advise a quick stop at Binny's Beverage Depot (213 W. Grand Ave. 312-332-0012) for some sake. Binny's wine manager Kevin Biegler recommends Rihaku Wandering Poet ($34.99 for 720 milliliters), a junmai ginjo sake, in which, as Biegler says, "the rice is milled down to the heart." Less than five percent of sakes are of this quality. For a less expensive option, go for a cloudier nigori sake such as Voices in the Mist by Tozai ($19.99 for 720 milliliters). South Coast charges a $5 per bottle corkage fee and only permits beer, wine and sake. --By Emily Hiser Lobdell, metromix special contributor

Here's the good news: This weekend, summer box office tallies passed the $4 billion mark for the first time in history. The bad news? The week's new releases hardly contributed to that at all.

The hilarious "Superbad" held strong at No. 1, bringing in $18 million in its second week of release. Threequels of vastly varying quality "The Bourne Ultimatum" and "Rush Hour 3" followed. The highest-grossing new release, "Mr. Bean's Holiday," earned only $10.1 million to place fourth, followed by "War" at No. 5 with $10 million. Earnings for "The Nanny Diaries" ($7.81 million) and "Resurrecting the Champ" ($1.8 million) ranged from pathetic to very, very pathetic.

Have you seen "Superbad" yet? Did you really cough up $10 to see "Mr. Bean's Holiday"? Who thinks Rob Zombie's "Halloween" remake looks totally terrifying?

Longing for some hot-off-the grill meat? Then head to Kohan Japanese Restaurant, the University Village sushi spot that features entrees grilled by chefs on a Japanese-style teppan grill (like Benihana, but the tossing and grilling is done in an exhibition kitchen, not at the table), to check out the new DIY option. Owners expanded west, adding a second dining room fitted with semi-private dining and seven tables with built-in gas grills, plus they added yakiniku, the Japanese version of Korean barbecue to the menu. We ordered the kalbi; staffers delivered a platter of bone-in and boneless raw marinated beef short ribs, plus fresh veggies and a variety of panchan, accompaniments like pickled radish and kimchi ($19.95 per person; two order minimum). Don't worry if you're a tabletop novice; helpful staffers got us started and offered advice on how to heat-and-eat (if you're really skittish, the chefs will cook it in the kitchen). For now the only self-cook option is kalbi; they're waiting for the liquor license (which should arrive around September 5) to debut the full menu of grill-able options like ribeye and filet mignon. Bonus: If you're heading elsewhere after dinner; the tabletop grill tables are fitted with individual exhaust systems so we left smelling Downey fresh.

Last night's episode proved the second time is not necessarily a charm -- at least it wasn't for Tre.

The Dallas-based chef packed his knives for a number of culinary sins, chief among them a truly terrible poached salmon. Ms. Padma looked like she was either going to spit it into her napkin or vomit. Honey, it's okay. It's only fish. Swallow. You will survive.

But we liked Tre. We want to see more of Tre (especially after we saw him trotting around in his boxers -- ay, ay, ay.) Why should he be the one caught on the hook? Here are some of the people we would have kicked off last night's episode instead.

Our hometown hero, Dale: We love you but we agree with Ted--the guy who cleans the grease traps has more style than that outfit you had on last night. (P.S. Is it just us or is Ted Allen, like, totally crushing on Dale?) Pack your Mohawk and go home.

Then what was up with Casey? C'mon, sister--chop, chop. We were ready to cry when we saw your lousy knife skills on that onion. Tom Colicchio came to her defense on Bravotv.com, explaining she had a dull knife. Well, still. We say pack your Vidalia Chop Wizard and go home.

And CJ, we all thought you were coasting a little bit. You picked the team. You only made one dish. You didn't really step up to the plate when Tre was being battered and deep fried by the judges. Pack your one good testicle and go home.

Stephen from Season One. Well, you're pretentious, but we have a soft spot for you. Still, when will you learn to stop lecturing your guests and start pouring? Pack your pouilly-fuisse and go home.

Christopher Ciccone. You were annoying. You're the best designer Bravo could get to help on the episode? Uh, get a quote about "food or eating" and stencil it on the wall? Genius. Pure Genius. Your ideas were as trite as your sister's lyrics. Pack your swatches and go home.

Alright, now we're just being bitchy. So who do you think should have gotten whacked last night?

 

See what our friends at The Stew had to say about last night's show.

 

The spot: From the outside, Irazu may not look too promising, a small, green-roofed building surrounded by a well-worn asphalt parking lot. But to pass it by is a mistake. Costa Rican natives Miriam and Gerardo Cerdas opened Irazu, the city's first Costa Rican restaurant, in 1990, naming it after one of the country's many volcanoes. In the cozy, 30-seat room with a bright mural on one wall (outdoor seating is also available) you can enjoy a taco tico, a crispy tortilla filled with skirt steak and dressed with cabbage, mayo, ketchup and spicy-sweet Costa Rican Lizano Sauce ($1.90). Or, go for a full entree such as the casado-your choice of thin ribeye steak or chicken breast caramelized with onions and served with white rice, black beans, sweet plantains, an over-easy egg and cabbage salad ($9.95).

The bottle: Located just a block up Milwaukee Avenue from Irazu, M W Food & Liquor (1950 N Milwaukee Ave. 773-772-5228) also might not be the most inviting spirits store you've ever seen, but it gets the job done. Buy a bottle of Absolut vodka ($13.99 for 375 milliliters; $23.99 for 750 milliliters) to mix with one of Irazu's water-based shakes. The folks at Irazu recommend a passionfruit shake blended with lemonade for vodka-based concoctions. A strawberry or pineapple shake goes well with Bacardi rum ($6.99 for 375 milliliters). If you'd rather stick with beer, pick up a six-pack of Imperial, a pale Costa Rican lager, for $7.99. Irazu does not charge a corkage fee. -- By Emily Hiser Lobdell

Tickets or no tickets, you won't be seeing the buzzworthy British soul singer this time around. Winehouse's management confirmed today that all of her upcoming U.S. tour dates are cancelled--including her stop at Aragon Oct. 2 --"due to the rigours of touring." Refunds are available at the point of purchase.

Her European and UK dates in October and November are still on, though, and plans are in the works to reschedule the American tour for early 2008. For now, the singer has been ordered to rest. Is anyone willing to fly overseas to check out the show? What did you think of her Lollapalooza performance?

Bravo, America. Despite the minimal star power of the "Superbad" leads (Michael Cera of "Arrested Development" and Jonah Hill of "Knocked Up"), you made the Judd Apatow-produced, Seth Rogen-scripted comedy No. 1 this weekend with a take of $31.2 million. That's slightly more than "Knocked Up" made in its first week ($30.7 million) and much more than the week's No. 2, the completely awful "Rush Hour 3," which earned $21.8 million in its second week of release. Totally tanking was the Nicole Kidman/Daniel Craig thriller "The Invasion," which earned $6 million to place fifth. How hilarious was "Superbad"? Why didn't anyone want to see Nicole Kidman fight off an army of pod people?

Let's just get this out of the way: Nobody went home on last night's episode of 'Top Chef.' That's right. Padma didn't ask anybody to pack their knives and go, and next week is going to be one big do-over. There. It's done. Sorry if we just ruined it for all of you TiVoers out there, but there's really no reason anyone should go through the suspense poor Dale had to go through only to find out it's all for nothing.

While we think the ending was a cop out (hmm ... perhaps because Howie was the obvious choice for knife-packing, with his awful, gummy risotto, but, of course, you can't very well send The Villain home when the season's barely halfway over ... ) the episode did have some season highs.

Here's one: Daniel Boulud as guest judge. Boulud clearly impresses the chefs more than any other guest judge this season. Even Hung is humbled. But Dale, whose sound bites are really starting to grow on us (and the producers, apparently) sums it up better than anyone: "Holy sh*t, it's Daniel Boulud."

While Boulud looks on, the chefs are told they'll have 30 minutes to come up with a gourmet burger. It's the first Quickfire Challenge we've seen in awhile that really forces the chefs to cook, and it's appropriate that Boulud will judge a challenge focusing on gourmet burgers. This is going to be good.

But when the chefs are presented with menus from Red Robin, our hearts sink. For those unfamiliar with this restaurant chain (and if you don't live in Schaumburg, Warrenville, Rockford, Lincolnshire or about a half-dozen other far-flung locales, it's entirely possible that you are) it's a "gourmet burger" establishment. How gourmet? Well, it places a grilled turkey burger in a section of the menu tagged "adventuresome." It's $8.29. And that same menu also features a starter called a Just-in-Quesadilla. Seriously.

The chefs feign interest as the Red Robin menu gets passed around, but it's hard to believe that Daniel Boulud isn't horrified, or at least wondering what the heck he's gotten himself into. Fortunately, it turns out that the whole Red Robin thinh is just wildly gratuitous product placement-yes, more gratuitous than Glad or Toyota or even Coldstone-and it's over quickly. Whew.

But then, in another odd turn of events, it suddenly seems like everyone is making a shrimp burger. Thankfully, we see Dale frying an egg. It's a good move. He uses it to top a burger of ground, seared tuna, with asparagus, onion, mustard and soy, which he serves with a mirin and soy aioli. It gets a nod from Daniel.

Dale also gets props from Daniel for his bread choice, but Tall CJ ends up winning the Quickfire. Tall CJ doesn't get immunity, but he does get to choose his team for Elimination Challenge. And Dale's not on it. Uh oh.

Dale gets stuck with Sara, Howie and Hung-a disaster waiting to happen, if there ever was one. But what actually does happen is more or less irrelevant, since this turns out to be the episode in which, as we already know, everybody wins.

Here's the abbreviated version: The teams have 24 hours to open a restaurant. Dale assumes front-of-house duties for his team. He shops. He decorates. He says this: "Queer Eye's got nothing on my ass!" (Oooh! Look out, Ted Allen! Dale's comin' for you!) He buys vanilla-scented candles. Ted Allen does not like the vanilla-scented candles. (Take that, Dale!) At some point, Daniel Boulud uses the word "yummy." And next week, we'll do it all over again.

But until then, we're probably going to feel a little empty inside. Because, though we didn't realize it until last night, we sort of look forward to Padma asking someone to pack his knives are go every week. Maybe that's mean-spirited of us. But really, isn't that what reality TV is all about? Winners, losers, the epic struggle of it all? We sure think so ... right up until our favorite contestant gets booted, that is ...

The spot: Inspired by coal-oven pizza joints like Frank Pepe's (New Haven, Conn.) and Lombardi's (New York City), Chicago bar industry vets Bill Carroll and J. Spillane opened Coalfire, a one-room West Town pizzeria in May. They've got the only coal-fired pizza oven in town, and because coal tends to heat more evenly than wood, it turns out near-perfect thin crusts. Coalfire's top-selling 14-inchers include an Italian sausage pie ($13.99) and a pizza margherita ($12.99), with the traditional fresh mozzarella, basil and tomato. We like the pesto pizza ($13.99), its crisp crust topped with a dash of olive oil, pesto, black olives, ricotta and a bit of mozzarella.

The bottle: It's a long walk to the closest liquor store, a CVS near the intersection of Ogden and Milwaukee Avenues, so Coalfire servers often steer customers across the street to Cafe Fresco. The Italian cafe is licensed to sell liquor to-go, so you can pick up a bottle for the road. Try the Gravity Hills Tumbling Tractor Zinfindel ($15), a juicy red with hints of currant and chocolate and enough acidity to stand up to tomato sauce. Coalfire doesn't charge a corkage fee, and if you're drinking beer or a lighter wine, they'll ice down your stash in a giant tomato can. (The containers double as pizza stands.) Carroll says he'll eventually apply for a liquor license and start serving beer and wine, but Coalfire will remain BYOB until at least the end of the year. --M. Kathleen Pratt, Metromix print editor

"Locally grown" has a whole new meaning at the Four Seasons; now the chef won't even need to take the elevator to go to the farmer's market. Owners have sent out a press release touting their new herb and vegetable garden, which just opened on the 10th floor rooftop. Executive chef Kevin Hickey (left) says he plans to grow rosemary, coriander, French tarragon, basil and seasonal vegetables in the plot.

 

My name is Chris, and I am a takeout addict. OK, that's not entirely true. I also have a co-dependent relationship with several deliverymen around town. But, apparently, I am not alone. Today's RedEye cover story "Deliver us from cooking," by Michael Hines has a amazing stat: "More than half of the meals purchased at the nation's estiamated 557,000 restaurants are eaten at home," according to consumer market research organization NPD Group. The average person ate 127 to-go meals, and 81 inside a restaurant, according to another stat the article cites.

What do you think? Are you a takeout addict? Do we need a support group?

Wow, this has not been a good time to be in the restaurant business. We've got even more closings to report. Sugar & Brown's, the River North gourmet grocery and quick serve, is done. Ranalli and Ryan's has also served its last pie (but you can still get delivery from this Ranalli's).

Don't despair--for every closed restaurant, new ones have sprung up, including a new sushi joint.

The spot: Sabor a Cuba, a quaint, two-room operation in Ravenswood, serves up authentic Cuban cuisine near the Brown Line "L" tracks over Wilson Avenue. The Famous Sandwich Cubano, with tender pork loin, ham, Swiss cheese and pickles resting on toasted French bread ($4.75; $8.75 as a dinner plate, which includes white rice and black bean soup), is a bestseller. Skip the bread altogether with a jibarito, a steak sandwich served between two large, fried plantains ($5.25; dinner plate $9.25). Seafood lovers will dig the enchilado de camarone, shrimp served in a Cuban-style Creole sauce ($11.95).

The bottle: What goes better with hearty roasted Cuban meats than sweet, minty mojitos? Pretty much nothing. The U.S. trade embargo has made it impossible to purchase authentic Cuban rum (legally) in the States, so unless you've recently been to Canada and smuggled back a bottle of Havana Club, the Puerto Rican variety is your best bet. Pick up a 750-milliliter bottle of Bacardi light rum ($11.99) just a few blocks from Sabor a Cuba at Rayan's Discount Liquors (1532 W Montrose Ave. 773-728-7765). BYOM- as in, bring your own mixers: sugar, limes, crushed mint leaves and club soda; the restaurant does not supply them for you.  --Emily Hiser Lobdell, Metromix special contributor

Yesterday, we told you Yak-Zies Bar & Grill, one of Lakeview's venerable late night spots, called its last "last call" on Sunday, but we've also heard about recent under-the-radar closings for a trio of recent debuts.

Cosmospolitan, the cute little Humboldt Park pan-Mediterranean eatery, which opened earlier this summer, served its last supper over the weekend; co-owner Dimitra Bourounis, understandably, is being tight-lipped with details.

Dudley Nieto, the acclaimed chef who is almost as well known for his stove hopping as he is for his food, is pulling yet another disappearing act. Nieto, who clocked kitchen time at multiple Mexican spots (Adobo Grill, Zapatista, San Gabriel Mexican Café and more) before opening Xel-Ha in River North last winter, closed the restaurant on Monday citing lease issues. Nieto says he's planning another restaurant in the Chicago area; check back for future updates.

Bucktown's Barcello's closed Friday, August 3. Look for another concept from chef-owner David Richards to debut mid-September in the same address. He won't give up much right now, but tells us "it won't be called Barcello's, it won't be Italian, and it won't be yellow inside." Check back for additional details.

UPDATE:

I owe my existence to many things, my parents being one of them, Yak-Zies being another.

My mom and dad met at the Diversey Parkway bar roughly 35 years ago, so I was bummed to read Kevin Pang's report that the bar served its last pint Sunday. (The Clark Street location is still open.) I'd always meant to visit the scene of the crime but never did.

The exact details of their first encounter vary depending on who you ask, but it generally goes something like this: My future dad overhears my future mom making a snide comment to one of her friends; my dad in turn makes a snide comment to my mom; some attempt at flirtatious conversation ensues; my mom sneaks out the back door to avoid further conversation with my dad. They somehow meet up later. The rest is history.

Ah, romance.

"I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did," my mom said when I called her this afternoon with the news, referring to the bar. "It was always kind of a dump."

Perhaps. But I'm quite thankful for that dump.

--Matt McGuire, Metromix editor

=======

Fans of some of the best buffalo wings in town are mourning the loss the Yak-Zies Diversey Parkway location. The spot closed after business Sunday night-a closing that happened rather quietly during one of the busiest weekends in Chicago, what with Lollapalooza and other fests going on all across town. The Tribune is reporting that the original owner passed away, and that the general manager was unable to elaborate on the future of the 41-year-old bar. The Wrigleyville Yak-zies on Clark Street is still open.

--Karen Budell, Metromix Bars and Clubs producer

After a summer full of sequels, America still has a taste for more, and it's a good thing. Director Paul Greengrass' exciting and excellent "The Bourne Ultimatum" took in $70.2 million this weekend to top the box office, exceed tallies for the first two "Bourne" movies ($27.1 million, $52.5 million, respectively) and become the biggest August opening ever--besting the previous champ, "Rush Hour 2," which made $67.4 million over the same weekend in 2001. "Ultimatum" was also well ahead of the week's No. 2, "The Simpsons Movie," which dipped to $25.6 million in its second week of release. No other new releases made any significant waves, with the corny "Underdog" coming in at No. 3 with $12 million and Andy Samberg crashing and burning with his big-screen debut, with "Hot Rod" earning $5.01 million to finish at No. 9.

Which is your favorite "Bourne" movie? Was "Ultimatum" good enough to make you believe in this week's sequel, the awful-looking "Rush Hour 3"?

Last night's episode marked the point on a season of "Top Chef" at which no one can fly under the radar anymore, and, in a heartening twist for fans of local fave Dale Levitski, it also marked the night where Dale came into his own.

The guest judge for Episode 6 is one of the more recognizable names we've seen this season, Rocco DiSpirito. Except it's not the Rocco DiSpirito we know from our ... let's see ... maybe eighth or ninth favorite food-based reality show, "The Restaurant." It's kind of a futuristic, Ken doll-esque Rocco DiSpirito. Or maybe ... did you ever go to Disneyland as a kid? Remember Futureland? Remember those plastic (There! We said it! Plastic!) futuremen standing around their futurekitchens? Yeah. That's all we're going to say about that.

This week's Quickfire Challenge seems simple enough: The chefs will be put on the spot in a "culinary bee," an elimination contest in which they have to identify various ingredients by sight or taste alone. Get one wrong, and it's over. Get one right, and you survive to see another round. Fun! We could get into this.

Sadly, Dale stumbles quickly, mistaking taro root for water chestnuts, while some of the other chefs (ahem, Brian and Casey) skate through with no-brainers like kidney beans and bowtie pasta. (For the record, we think this is total B.S.-are kidney beans and things like taro root and daikon radish sprouts even remotely on the same level in terms of difficulty?) Others (ahem, Hung) get lucky-oatmeal, really? Oatmeal? Then they throw it all way when they get cocky and make careless errors, such as mistaking anise seed for celery seed before tasting it. In the end, it's Casey versus Brian, and Casey hangs on with chayote and roasted red bell peppers while Brian falters on Asian eggplant.

It looks like Rocco DiSpirito is sticking around for the Elimination Challenge so he can creep us out some more. He does have some interesting info to share, however. Like, did you know the frozen meal market is worth about $8.6 billion a year? This bit of shocking news, of course, is the set-up for the night's challenge: to create a quickly re-heatable frozen dinner based on frozen Bertolli products.

The chefs draw knives to pair up; with their partners, they'll have 30 minutes and $100 to shop, two hours to cook and two hours to package their meals. At stake: two tickets to Italy for each member of the winning team-courtesy of Bertolli, natch.

Dale is paired with Casey, who we're thinking might be a bit of a sleeper so far this season. There's only one problem: She just won immunity, and immune chefs have been known to slack or try wacky dishes just because they can.

Dale admits he and Casey haven't hung out much, but they "instantly, instantly clicked." And it does look as if they're genuinely having a good time working together. (Shh ... don't tell Lia, looks like Casey has a new BFF!) We can't say the same for Howie and Sara M., whose passive-aggressive exchanges are interspersed with confessional-style shots of Howie saying things to the camera like, "I wouldn't hire her to wash dishes in my kitchen."

Joey and Hung are running a close second in the Team Most Likely to Spontaneously Combust category. There's not as much open animosity, but it's clear that Joey's hard-headed, plodding mentality clashes badly with Hung's hyper-driven tendency to dash about in small spaces brandishing sharp knives.

As the chefs get down to business, the love fest continues over at Casey and Dale's counter, where Casey proudly declares that they've wisely chosen two ingredients that freeze well: pesto and meatballs. Yep, they sure do freeze well ... but, pesto with ... meatballs? We're not convinced.

It turns out the meatballs are going to be made with ground turkey and pork, and the pesto is not a traditional basil pesto, but rather a spinach-based sauce. They're tossing them with orecchiette, a small pasta that means "little ear" in Italian-the petite, pinched lobes will catch the sauce nicely. Artichokes-canned artichokes, the sight of which make Tom bristle-also fit into the dish somehow.

Dale and Casey are smart enough to figure out that they need to create a separate sauce pack before freezing their dish, but Tre and Tall C.J. seem to be the only pair who have caught on to the fact that they should be quick-freezing everything individually. (Well, actually, Hung figured it out too and was typically proud of himself for doing so; but in the end, he let Joey bulldoze him into dumping everything into the same container.)

The next day at the Fresh Market, the chefs have 10 minutes to heat their frozen meals; then shoppers begin to arrive. Dale is looking mighty dapper with a French-cuffed lime-green shirt under his chef's jacket. We think the attire is a subtle clue to his savvy. Around the Fontainebleau, he's as sloppy and unkempt as they come. But when he knows he's going to be selling to an impressionable public, the boy steps it up. Big time.

Aside from being the cutest team, Casey and Dale are undoubtedly the most energized. Dale, who the producers appear to have tapped as de facto narrator for this episode, recounts the palpable excitement for the camera: "Casey and I look at each other, and we're like, 'We're going to sell these b**ches!'"

Dale and Casey are indeed the first team to sell out, and they're pretty sure they have a good shot at the top. So do we. It's looking like a showdown with Tre and Tall C.J., who devised a tasty-looking black truffle and parmesan linguini-with every element individually quick-frozen.

Before the judges table, however, the truth comes out. Rocco got a meatball that was still a bit frozen, and Tom really didn't like those canned artichokes. Still, Dale and Casey make it into the top four alongside Tall C.J. and Tre.

Rocco calls Casey and Dale's pesto, a spinach-almond creation, one of the most "beautiful and balanced" he's ever seen. But it's apparently not quite as beautiful as black truffles (then again, what is?) because Tre and C.J. edge them out and win the trip to Italy.

Joey and Hung and Howie and Sara M. are called before the judges table to defend their mushy pastas. Howie and Sara M. argue in front of the judges, then go back to the kitchen and fight some more. Back at the table, Hung and Joey bicker for a bit, then Hung throws Joey under the bus.

In the end, Padma asks Joey to please pack his knives and go, and he does-but not until after he's delivered one of the most blubbering, teary parting soliloquies ever seen on "Top Chef."

So other than the fact that Rocco DiSpirito may have been cryogenically frozen during a trip to Anaheim a few years back, what did we learn in Episode 6? Well, the other chefs seem to like working with Dale. And we're starting to think the producers like him too-he wasn't even an option on the "which chef annoys you most" text poll. (Hung swept that one-shocker.) As we enter the team-challenge portion of the competition, this bodes well for Dale. Finally, and perhaps best of all, we also learned that he's playing the game-and he's in it to win it. Though his laid-back demeanor doesn't always show it, that neatly pressed lime-green shirt was a dead giveaway.

Talk about splashy! River North's newest lounge/club opened Wednesday with a preview party that drew media, scenesters and aging club guys sporting too-tight Ts and faux tans. Brought to you by the owner of Moda, get ready for Climax (insert joke here), which opens to the public Friday. The 6,250-square-foot nightspot is certainly spacious! Three bars are spread across four rooms, including one with a 35-foot ceiling and dramatic skylight.

We spied gorgeous architectural artifacts on our visit--check out the pair of 750-pound griffin lights flanking the main bar. The enormous, turn-of-the-century gargoyle light fixtures were salvaged from an East Coast mansion; the adjacent room features a couple of large stone pieces saved from a building lost in the Chicago fire. While those expensive details are certainly impressive, a leopard print wall and other elements show that a discernable design theme is certainly lacking.

One final thought ... We're not sure what, uh, moved us more: The groan-worthy name, which brings the posh factor down a notch, or the tacky light box images of a scantily clad, wet young woman frolicking with half-naked men.

The spot: Walking into Sticky Rice is like stumbling into the dream-like world of Willy Wonka; the crayon-yellow walls are adorned with brightly colored giant flowers and paper umbrellas. A couple of the Northern Thai menu items seem just as whimsical, such as the deep-fried silk worm ($4.95; available seasonally) or the khai jiaw khai Mod, an omelet packed with ant eggs ($5.75). If you're on an insect-free diet, not to worry-you'll find all of the expected Thai noodle and rice dishes at reasonable prices. For a spicy kick, try the Northern Thai sausage, house-made with ground pork, pork skin, Thai herbs and red curry paste ($2); it's served with jasmine rice, or for $1 more, you can get the restaurant's namesake sticky rice.

 

The bottle: What wine goes with ant eggs? Good question. Cool the palate with some Thai beer from nearby West Lakeview Liquors. Family-owned and -operated since 1988, this charming corner shop sells Singha Lager and Phuket six-packs for $8.99 each. If sipping wine with your silk worms is more your style, store owner Kristina Bozic recommends pairing Thai food with a 2005 gewurztraminer from northern Sonoma County's Alexander Valley Vineyards for $8.99. -- Emily Hiser Lobdell is a Metromix special contributor.