Foodie heaven!

Well, happy holidays to everyone! Since so many of you will be out and about for the season this month, there's a few new faces in the neighborhood I'd like to introduce to you over the course of the next few weeks leading up to Christmas!

For all you "foodies," I'd like to welcome chef Dan Franklin and his new casual restaurant the Upstairs Lounge to the area. The Upstairs Lounge is located at 2302-1/2 Stanton Alley SW, right on the edge of Armitage Heights. Veteran neighborhood diners will probably recognize that address as the former location of Derek's, the Red Room, the Armitage Grill, Lucy's, the 2302, Charlotte's, the Khyber Pass, Capone's Chicago Steakhouse, the Heights Cafe, the Dinner Bell, Vic's Frozen Custard, the Berliner, the Hillside Sub Shop, the East End Bistro, Dionysus, Mischa's Old World Bakery, the Downtowner, the Mason-Dixon Soul Food Shack, the Stanton Avenue Deli, and several other fine establishments over the last decade.

My assistant Marisha has just reminded me, of course, that the Over Easy was there, too. Do you remember that place? They made an amazing Eggs Benedict. I think that was after Lucy's, sometime in the late '90s.

Oh, and the Wonder Bar! That was a nice little place, too. Really cheap well drinks. I wonder what happened to them?

I think there was a dance studio there, too, for a few months.

At any rate, the Upstairs Lounge boasts an intimate, very "urban" feeling in their upstairs dining room, easily accessible from the rear of the old Jacobson Insurance Building near 22rd Street off of Stanton (not the new Jacobson building, the old brick one just north of it). Just follow 22nd, veer right into Stanton Alley Southwest (not into Stanton Alley Southeast, which is also right there), and the entrance is clearly marked at the second door to the left under the fire escape, up two flights on the exterior stairway. Ample parking is available at the meters three blocks over, off of Arthur Street, after 9 PM on weekends. Call for reservations and more detailed directions at (436) 339-7111, or find a map online at http://www.upstairslounge-armitage.com/. Tell Chef Dan that I sent you!

Our next monthly Coffee With Your Councilman will also be held tomorrow night at 7:00 PM at the Mysterious Brews Coffee Shop at 3900 West Carlyle Street in Armitage Heights, right in heart of the Garden District. I will be answering your questions on the city's exciting new plan to transform the old St. Aloysius Greek Orthodox Veterans Hospital & Sanitarium in Kendall Park into the new Gruyere Flats Luxury Condominiums and Artisanal Cheese Depository. Be sure to stop by and say hello!

Best,

Sherman