🥙 Wood-fired pita you'll never forget

Brandon Dumot's Middle Eastern menu at FMT. [View this email in your browser]( [READER Logo]( [Food & Drink]( | July 5, 2024 I think [I’ve demonstrated]( that I lose control of my emotions when I’m in the presence of Brandon Dumot’s wood-fired pita bread: “. . . soft, warm, five-inch saucers of astonishment, pillows of char-stippled bread that gently exhale steamy gusts when he pulls them from the fire. They taste like they’re alive.”  Dumot, of course, is the Schwa, Sepia, and Galit vet turned [pop-up pita boss]( behind Laimoon, and he gets around enough that you might have dredged these glories through his hummus, baba ghanoush, labneh, or smoked carrot and red pepper muhammara.  Or maybe you’ve used them to pinch off chunks of his grilled Moroccan lamb kebabs or chicken shawarma.  You might even have assembled a couple dozen of them to serve as warm headrests for the best nap of your life.  But I bet you haven’t had them packed to the gills with Aleppo-garlic-cilantro-beef sausage, crisped in the flames, and drizzled with roasted red pepper sauce.  You can end that indignity to your existence this July 8 when [Laimoon returns]( to [Monday Night Foodball]( the Reader’s weekly chef pop-up at [Frank and Mary’s Tavern](.  On his Foodball three-peat, Dumot is firing arayes—aka “brides” in Arabic—the original Lebanese stuffed pita pocket.   He’ll be firing unstuffed pita as well, which you can smear through hummus with herbed tahini, brown butter, and pine nuts. Or you can tear them apart with your teeth between bites of watermelon salad with roasted halloumi, pickled watermelon rind, and toasted coriander seed; or stuff your own with the elements of a chicken or cauliflower shawarma bowl with Afghan saffron rice, feta, tomato, cucumber, a pickled cuke-cabbage-turnip mix, and the green hell sauce known as zhoug. For dessert: a preserved lemon cake with black raspberries, urfa biber, and hyssop cream. Is this the last time you can enjoy the pleasures of Laimoon on the verdant Frank and Mary’s patio? Maybe. In addition to catering and weekly home delivery, Dumot and partner Jasmin Spilotro are actively looking for a permanent residency to house this Levantine juggernaut ([hit them up](. Until then, meet us Monday, June 8, 5 PM until sellout, at 2905 N. Elston in infernal Avondale. [Broken glass and sticky fingers]( Glassware at local bars is often carefully curated for a certain aesthetic and drinking experience, so think before you thieve. by [Andy Vasoyan]( | [Read more]( → [Laimoon lights up for another Monday Night Foodball]( Check out Brandon Dumot’s wood-fired, Middle Eastern menu at the Reader’s weekly chef pop-up at Frank and Mary’s Tavern. by [Mike Sula]( | [Read more]( → Reader Bites celebrates dishes, drinks, and atmospheres from the Chicagoland food scene. Have you had a recent food or drink experience that you can’t stop thinking about? Share it with us at [fooddrink@chicagoreader.com](mailto:fooddrink@chicagoreader.com?subject=Reader%20Bites&body=). [Muki hotate (Hokkaido scallop) at 312 Fish Market]( Enter 312 Fish Market, a smallish stall inside 88 Marketplace in east Pilsen. They have some of the freshest fish I’ve ever had—in Chicago or elsewhere—and a waitstaff who will happily talk you through the surprisingly robust and reasonably priced menu. We’re here to talk about the star of the menu: the muki hotate. It’s a raw scallop so fresh, delicious, and delicately prepared that it’d be a disservice to stuff it in a roll or add toppings other than a little lime zest, charcoal salt, and maybe a dab of soy sauce. — Courtney Sprewer [Chicago finally gets its first Kurdish restaurant]( February 2017 | The proprietors hail from a province on Turkey’s southern border with Syria, but the Gundis is no Turkish restaurant. by [Mike Sula]( | [Read more]( → [What’s New: Antico]( December 2009 | The neighborhood restaurant refined. by [Ted Cox]( | [Read more]( → [a group of bald eagles around a table with a cake]( Get the latest issue of the Chicago Reader Thursday, July 4, 2024 [READ ONLINE: VOL. 53, NO. 22]( [VIEW/DOWNLOAD ISSUE (PDF)]( [Donate to the Chicago Reader.]( [Facebook icon]( [Instagram icon]( [Twitter icon]( [LinkedIn icon]( [YouTube icon]( [Website icon]( [Logo] You received this email because you signed up for newsletters from the Chicago Reader. Want fewer emails from us? [Click here to choose what you want us to send you](. Or, [unsubscribe from all Reader emails](. We’ll miss you! [Sign up for emails from the Chicago Reader]( | [Forward this e-mail to a friend]( © 2024 Chicago Reader. All rights reserved. Chicago Reader, 2930 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 102, Chicago, IL 60616