Cooking with soul - Family Vacations - Isaac Hayes Music Food Passion, Chicago - Review

Travel America, Nov-Dec, 2001

Chicago's newest theme/celebrity restaurant dishes up live entertainment and down-home cooking with a sophisticated Southern flare. Grammy Award-winning artist Isaac Hayes has teamed up with barbecue king Famous Dave's to create Isaac Hayes Music Food Passion.

Best known for composing "Theme from Shaft" and now the voice of Chef on the animated TV show South Park, Hayes helps line up musical acts (rhythm & blues, reggae, country) and performs several times a year himself. Hayes also has written Cooking With Heart and Soul (for sale, along with food items, at the restaurant's souvenir area) and another cookbook.

Built to resemble a Southern roadhouse, the brick-walled restaurant has a bare cement floor and is plastered with vintage license plates and advertising signs. Paintings of music greats adorn the balcony walls. The decor also features Isaac Hayes memorabilia from movies like Shaft and albums like "Hot Buttered Soul," plus autographed guitars, including a glass-encased "Lucille" guitar signed by blues legend B.B. King.

Menu favorites include Famous Dave's barbecue ribs and tender beef brisket. Southern specialties include fried pickles, catfish fingers, succotash soup, pecan pie, and blackberry cobbler. Steaks, burgers, chicken, and double-smoked ham round out the selections.

Contact: Isaac Hayes Music Food Passion (TravelAmerica Magazine), 739 N. Clark St., Chicago, IL 60610; (312) 266-2400. It's open daily for lunch and dinner, with live music at night.