We’re back in the studio! It was really so nice to sit across the table from Chris Herrington and producer Natalie Van Gundy in our new office and record our first in-person podcast since March 2020.

Right before we walked in to record, I finished the story about Kelly English opening Pantà in the space where Restaurant Iris is now, and Sabine Bachmann opening Tonica on Overton Park— two upcoming Spanish restaurants. Chris and I are both excited about those, as we love the concepts and are happy that such experienced and talented restaurateurs are behind them.

But sitting down together led us to gabbing, and we ended up talking about kids’ birthday cakes (we had a fabulous one this weekend at my granddaughter’s birthday, one that tasted as great as it looked). I love Chris’ story about his daughter thinking Super Pear was an actual superhero when she was 3 and that they gamely went along and baked a Super Pear cake for her birthday.

We dive into hot dogs vs. sausage. We’re all about the sausage, though for the record I do love a good Chicago dog and while it’s not in the podcast, I’m going to send you to our Table Talk Facebook page so you can read about some places readers go for good hot dogs.

Ice cream? You bet. Of course we talk about ice cream, because it’s July and Chris just wrote about Sugar Ghost, a new ice cream place that will soon open on Broad Avenue. You can hear Natalie whoop when the dip cone is mentioned. Listen, we talked. That’s what happens when you gather round the table; I’m glad we’re back in person.