How the Chicago Chef Iliana Regan Cooked Fanfiction | Eater
"Chef Iliana Regan built a small Lincoln Square tasting-room that married obsessive fandom and regional foraging into theatrical, story-driven multi-course dinners: each course was introduced with its textual source or scene and translated into dishes that drew on Great Lakes ingredients and small-scale producers. The room’s whimsical decor and props reinforced the narrative framing, and menus ranged from Game of Thrones and Twin Peaks to fairy-tale and ’80s–Nintendo themes; pre-pandemic ticketing was often modestly priced via a mailing list. The work reframed fine dining as participatory storytelling—part culinary research, part fanfiction—and, after a pandemic-era exit, the project was handed to new operators who planned to retain some of the visual markers while evolving the food and service." - Rachel P. Kreiter
