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BOCA RATON -- Toll Brothers, a leading builder of luxury homes, is attracting new homebuyers to its prestigious Azura community in Boca Raton with expansive estate homes defined by outstanding design features. Nestled in an intimate, gated community,...

Rodrick Markus reached for the top shelf of a metal cabinet at the back of his office. "I know, I know, I know," he said to himself. His fingers worked across a row of jars and stopped at a tall glass cylinder. I had asked him about rare ingredients. Rare...

If only it were so easy to pithily proclaim 2012 as the Year of the (fill-in-the-blank). But there's really no one thread that neatly ties together the Chicago restaurant scene these last 12 months. A restaurant that put Chicago on the culinary map 25...

I have this problem. I made more New Year's Eve reservations than I can use. More than 100 of them, actually. Which is why, for the 12th straight year (and the 17th time in the past 19 years), I'll be giving them away to nimble-fingered readers who ask....

OMAHA, Neb. — Whether they're driving through, stuck here for work or savvy enough to make a long weekend out of this under-the-radar city, travelers tend to want a darn fine hunk of meat when visiting Omaha. Steak from steak country. Omaha offers...

Here's something you may not know about Open Table, the predominant online restaurant reservations system: When you book a table through the Open Table website, the restaurant is charged $1 per seated guest — so if you show up as a foursome, that'...

Everyone knows Charlie Trotter as the chef of Charlie Trotter's. It's his name, his restaurant, and he's the boss. But that title “chef” has many meanings, and Trotter has embodied just about all of them during his 25 years at Charlie Trotter'...

Graham Elliot was an aspiring young cook in the late '90s carrying steaks to a party of 20 in the Charlie Trotter's Studio Kitchen when the restaurant's brilliant, mercurial owner stopped him in the hallway and grabbed one of the pieces of meat. "He...

Time once again for my annual exercise in humiliation, as I try to predict the star recipients in the 2013 Michelin Chicago Guide, which hits bookstores Wednesday. This is the third year that Michelin has published a Chicago guide, and if there's one...

Editor's Note: In the time since our review, Bonsoiree has closed. Review: Bonsoiree 2728 W. Armitage Ave. 773-486-7511 Rating: 2.5 stars (out of four) Take it or leave it Beverly Kim was perhaps the most controversial contestant on "Top Chef: Texas"...

The only thing everyone seems to agree on is this: Matt Gudgeon walked into Honky Tonk BBQ in Pilsen on Sept. 8 wearing a perfectly clean J. Crew shirt. He walked out wearing a mustard-stained mess. Almost every detail of how his shirt got stained is...

Charlie Trotter says he first thought of closing his namesake restaurant after his plane sat on the tarmac at LaGuardia Airport on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. “I realized really how fragile the world is,” he reflects. “I love what...