Skip To Main Content
Michael Gebert on Muck Rack

Michael Gebert

Verified
Chicago
As seen in: Nature, Thrillist, Cell Press, Cell Reports, Chicago Reader, Chicago Magazine, Grub Street, Fine Dining Lovers, Textile Technology, NextByte1
Covers:  chicago restaurants, food & dining, chicago, food culture, restaurants
Author of THE CHICAGO WAY: AN ORAL HISTORY OF CHICAGO DINING (Agate). James Beard Award-winning food writer/video producer.
Back to Michael Gebert’s profile

Michael Gebert’s Journalist Portfolio

View as a grid

One of the best cheeses in America came from Wisconsin, until new regulation stepped in

One of the best cheeses in America came from Wisconsin, until new regulation stepped in

www.chicagoreader.com — Four years ago this fall I was on a cheese junket, a tour of Wisconsin cheesemakers arranged by the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board (being so perishable, milk's only shot at wider markets comes in cheese form). We were at Uplands Cheese Co. near Dodgeville, makers of Pleasant Ridge Reserve, which had just won Best of Show at the American Cheese Society's annual competition for a record third time. We were offered tastes of it, a wonderful nutty aged Alpine cheese a bit like Gruyere.
Who shared?

Ivy's: Building a better hot dog for the neighborhood

Ivy's: Building a better hot dog for the neighborhood

www.chicagoreader.com — When Hot Doug's was in its first bloom of world-historical fame, I often wondered why, in a city full of hot dog stands, almost no one else seemed to be following in the footsteps of the only hot dog stand with a line wrapped around its building. Wouldn't it be worth adding a few specialty sausages with exotic toppings and charging $6 instead of $1.75? Wouldn't it be worth trying something, anything different to stand out? Well, we're approaching the Hot Doug-alypse in less than two months, but when I recently wrote a citywide hot dog survey for another publication, I was pleased to find that quietly, without a lot of fanfare, hot dog creativity had broken out in many parts of the city.
Who shared?

13 classic Chicago sandwiches from classic Chicago joints

13 classic Chicago sandwiches from classic Chicago joints

Thrillist — Some cities were built on rock 'n' roll, but Chicago was built on big, greasy meat mountains ON rolls. Because someone had to, we scoured the city for 13 native Chicago sandwiches -- invented, or honed to perfection, here -- from 12 joints with real Chicago flavor (one makes the list twice). It's a crash-course in being a Chicago guy. Plus, it's guaranteed to help you pack on some outer layers for the Winter. Will Special J.P. Graziano Grocery Co.
Who shared?

Anarchists eating Gettysburgers: Farewell to a supremely strange restaurant

Anarchists eating Gettysburgers: Farewell to a supremely strange restaurant

www.chicagoreader.com — It hasn't received the same kind of love as, say, Ina's Restaurant-not by a long shot-but the year-end closing of the Lincoln Restaurant has drawn a certain amount of nostalgic farewell coverage. It's the kind of place you think will be there forever: the Greek coffee shop with an improbable historical-Americana theme and "country" decor. A place where the hostess has bouffant hair like she's on The Lawrence Welk Show, and the dishes hilariously bear Civil War names like "Gettysburger" and "Saratoga Sandwiches" (prompting smart-asses like me to make jokes about "Hooker specials" and sitting in the "John Wilkes booth").
Who shared?

Father-and-son Mexican-American dreams clash at Cemitas Puebla

Father-and-son Mexican-American dreams clash at Cemitas Puebla

www.chicagoreader.com — If 18th Street in Pilsen is Chicago's gringo-friendly Mexican strip, 26th Street in La Villita/Little Village is the chaotic one, a sensory overload of music, street vendors, cell phones and LED license-plate holders and quinceañera dresses, all competing for attention. It can be hard to make sense of, but then suddenly you come across a face you recognize. Two of them, in fact: Guy Fieri and Antonio Anteliz Zurida. Actually, you only recognize the second one if you've been a customer at Cemitas Puebla, the Humboldt Park restaurant owned by his son, Tony Anteliz.
Who shared?

Slideshow: Take a Savage Journey With Next: The Hunt

Slideshow: Take a Savage Journey With Next: The Hunt

chicago.grubstreet.com — Next's menus have hit many notes, from reverent to decadent to gently humorous, but Next: The Hunt is the first one that could be termed in any way subversive. Here is a meal, in one of the hottest restaurants ever to exist, which looks fine dining right in the eye and invites you to confront the primal, primitive carnality at its core. It is a meal devoted to meat, yes though vegetables are by no means ignored but one conceived in the context of how humans collect that meat and how they dress it up culturally to tell themselves they are something other than just another mammal, red in tooth and claw.
Who shared?

Sepia's Andrew Zimmerman On Being a First-Time Beard Nominee (And Kids Today)

Sepia's Andrew Zimmerman On Being a First-Time Beard Nominee (And Kids Today)

chicago.grubstreet.com — In a city of extravagantly-bearded, rock and roll-living chefs, Andrew Zimmerman looks like the rare grownup, cleancut, levelheaded and (so far as we have ever observed) tattoo-free. Ironically, he actually was an aspiring rock musician who goofed around in kitchens for a long time without getting serious, but his career from some point in his 20s has been the classic one of hard work, seizing opportunities when they presented themselves and steadily rising to better and better positions. He took over Sepia in 2009 and guided it through the period after its opening hype when many restaurants falter, winning a Michelin star the first year they were awarded in Chicago (which he has retained since).
Who shared?