The business publication Crain’s Chicago Business reports that one of the biggest names in the Windy City’s restaurant scene plans to open a new restaurant in New Orleans.

Chef Rick Tramonto has racked up quite a few national culinary accolades during his career, and this week he will unveil a new partnership with Louisiana chef and food entrepreneur John Folse. The chefs plan to announce details on Wednesday.

When Xavier Laurentino, owner of the Spanish restaurant Barcelona Tapas, explained the concept for last month’s inaugural Riverbend International Tapas Crawl, he told me he hoped it would eventually grow into a regular event.

That seemed like a good idea to me, though it’s come together faster than I thought.
This Wednesday, Aug. 25, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., a group of restaurants clustered in the Riverbend will host the second edition of the Tapas Crawl, and participating chef Frank Brigtsen says it will now be an ongoing dining event for the neighborhood held on the last Wednesday of each month.

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For the past few months, folks in the Faubourg Marigny have been enjoying how well casual Vietnamese food works in the setting of a New Orleans bar. Soon, they’ll get to see how it works in a neighborhood bakery.

Not long after opening this spring, the Lost Love Lounge leased its kitchen space to local chef Chris Reel, who began serving the casual Vietnamese classics like pho, bun and banh mi (pictured above) to the bar crowd. Reel called the operation Marigny Pho and it seemed to be doing well.

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The Oxford American magazine is coming to town this weekend as part of a promotional tour for its Southern food issue, hosting a free symposium on food writing and a high-dollar fundraiser for the magazine itself.

John T. Edge, director of the Southern Foodways Alliance, edited this special edition of the Southern cultural magazine, which includes pieces by Times-Picayune restaurant critic Brett Anderson, former Times-Picayune columnist Lolis Eric Elie and former Gambit restaurant critic Sara Roahen, among many others.

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The food at French Quarter Festival seems to get better and more diverse each year as new vendors join the fray. But some of the restaurateurs and caterers setting up in the French Quarter and by the riverside beginning this afternoon have been part of the festival for quite some time, and their offerings have become touchstone tastes of the French Quarter Festival experience. Here are five I always seem to hit each year:

• Vaucresson Sausage Co.’s crawfish sausage po-boy, with crawfish embedded in pork, served in Jackson Square
• Praline crème brulee from Flour Power Confectionary has sugared crunch over buttery-smooth body, served at Woldenberg Park
• The crawfish and goat cheese crepes from Muriel’s Jackson Square disappear off the plate impossibly fast, served in Jackson square
• Praline Connection’s grilled chicken livers with pepper jelly and mustard greens are rich, smoky, sweet and spicy, served at Woldenberg Park
• Crawfish remoulade from Barreca’s (3100 Metairie Rd., 831-4546), the Metairie restaurant that since Katrina is open only for banquets, is a flavorful twist on the cool classic, served in Woldenberg Park

Here’s the full list of this year’s food vendors, and a festival map of the stages and food vendor areas.