"Local Flavor" by Jean Iverson is a culinary adventure through the various neighborhoods of Chicago that unveils the history of the local flavor and the eras and times that these iconic restaurants have endured. It was an interesting way to narrate the history of the Second City through its various restaurants, pubs and the like.

I believe Iverson's unique means for bringing the reader through Chicago's history makes it stand alone among other travel books or historical accounts.

I received this eBook free of charge from Northwestern University Press via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. I did not receive any fiscal compensation from either company for this review and the opinions expressed herein are entirely my own.

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The book catalogs the most iconic and historical restaurant of Chicago. This is a very book to be inspired before visit for the first time or revisit Chicago. Wonderful pictures and amazing facts.

I picked up Local Flavor imagining it was one of these books that lists a bunch of places to visit in the Chicago area. You’ve probably seen the type. On one page is a picture of a quirky landmark and on the facing page, a few paragraphs tell you why it’s worth a trip. A good example is 111 Places in Chicago That You Must Not Miss. I like these books. They’re fun and they give you ideas on how to spend your weekends. But it turns out that isn’t the kind of book Local Flavor is meant to be.

Instead, Jean Iversen has written a Chicago history book, digging into the stories of eight ethnic neighborhoods and showing how a great restaurant can shape the blocks around it. It isn’t a travel guide. Some of the restaurants Iversen focuses on aren’t even open anymore. Her interviews and conversations with the owners, cooks, staff, and customers of these restaurant give a street level look at how communities develop through family, hard work, and the love of sharing a meal. And these folks are definitely not afraid to share; each chapter ends with a recipe or two, giving away the secrets of signature dishes.

Won Kow in Chinatown served American Chinese food since 1928 until it closed in February. Tufano’s Vernon Park Tap in Little Italy/University Village is still going strong after 89 years. Nuevo León and Cantón Regio in Pilsen continues on despite a devastating fire. The famous Parthenon, birthplace of flaming saganaki, unexpectedly closed in 2016. Another birthplace, this time of the Puerto Rican-inspired jibarito sandwich, Borinquen closed as well. Red Apple Buffet‘s locations are mainstays of Milwaukee Avenue’s Polish Corridor. Hema’s Kitchen, predicted to close after six months, instead kickstarted the development of the Little India area on Devon. Noon O Kabab offers a place in Albany Park for a small but loyal Persian population.

Interesting read, and I definitely love to visit some of the restaurants mentioned in the book (especially the Italian one), as one of my favorite things to do when in Chicago is visit new restaurants. However, I feel as though there were some nationalities and neighborhoods that should have been included but were not. As other reviewers mentioned, there were no African American restaurants mentioned, and the Swedish community was left out as well.

I'll certainly get copies of this book for the store. That said, as someone in Chicago, it was really limited in its scope. Part of this is due to the fact that the history of the restaurant, the restaurants' impact on the neighborhood, and quite a bit of family history was put into the few restaurants in the book. The focus was on eight, but Chinatown was as far south as it bothered to go. I'm another 81 blocks south. That's a lot of territory. The book is very well researched, but the African American community was left (as far as I saw) unrepresented. With this much detail, of course the book couldn't hit every community, but it was an issue for me. I really did get caught up in some of the stories behind these restaurants.