Restaurant

Chicago Restaurant Week returns for its 5th annual culinary celebration featuring value pricing at more than 230 restaurants.  The 10-day dining festival runs from February 17 through February 26 and will feature prix fixe menus starting at $22 for lunch and $33/$44 for dinner.  For more details, visit www.EatitUpChicago.com . Also, we've prepped a guide to the best of the week ahead here.

Eating slices of cold fish might not sound as comforting in the dead of winter as slurping a bowl of hot soup, but that hasn't slowed a recent mini-burst of new sushi spots. From a charming BYOB in Lakeview to a sleek bar and kitchen in the South Loop, these four new additions to the sushi scene have no shortage of expertly rolled maki - and plenty of cooked dishes, too, to warm you from the inside out. Stetsons Modern Steak & Sushi 151 E. Wacker Drive 312-239-4491 Opened in: Early January Backstory: Inside the Hyatt Regency, Stetson's Chop House belonged to the tradition of old Chicago steakhouses - it was dark, played a lot of Frank Sinatra and had the requisite grand piano.

All around Chicago, restaurants and bars are in a constant cycle of opening and closing. As the lights go out at a kitchen in Andersonville, a new tavern is putting up signs in the South Loop, and it's all just part of the circle of nightlife. But if you look closely, you'll see a handful of in-the-works hangouts making a few already hot downtown blocks even hotter. Read on for four good guesses as to where the city's foodies and scenesters will be flocking in upcoming months. CLARK BETWEEN ILLINOIS & HUBBARD This block of River North has been celeb chef Rick Bayless' row for years, but now some other big names have joined the party.

The Chicago Diner 3411 N. Halsted St. 773-935-6696 “Meat-free since '83” is the motto at this restaurant, which looks like a classic American diner but serves vegetarian and vegan versions of comfort foods such as reuben sandwiches, country-fried steak and even a turkey dinner on Thanksgiving. For a serious feast, order the Southern Style, a vegan platter of spicy buffalo wings, mac 'n' cheese, greens, black-eyed peas and jalapeno corn fritters. Tac Quick Thai Kitchen 3930 N. Sheridan Road.

When Alpana Singh left Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises late last year, she hinted that she'd be moving on to work on a new project, and the details are starting to come into focus. "The lease has not yet been signed so all we have to share at this point is that she is working on a project with John Ward and Matt Fisher [of Gold Coast restaurant Bistronomic ] and that there will be a wine focus, as you can imagine," said publicist Abby Dunn. Singh announced her new project in an e-mail to Crain's.

Hey college grads, are you fed up because you paid all that money for a degree and can't use it because the job market is saturated? Are you thinking about the 20-something Hail Mary pass of grad school because you don't know what else to do? Maybe you don't have to. Instead of diving deeper into college debt, let me present another option: the restaurant industry. I know, you're all thinking something like, "But I have a degree in business/philosophy/sandwiches! I'm gonna do bigger things than wait tables!"