Chefs' ovens burn much hotter than conventional ovens, allowing them to quickly roast meats and melt glacier chunks into gourmet ice water. Let this Groupon melt in your mouth.
$10 for $20 Worth of Latin American Cuisine
Diners browse the menu for starters such as vegan tempeh tots served with spicy sriracha ketchup ($6.50). Entrees include the sweet chile and soy tempeh with black beans ($11), and the smoked pulled pork platter with house-made hungarian sausage, mac 'n' cheese, and braised red cabbage ($14.50).
Explorers Club
Explorers Club's cozy, 100-year-old brick exterior lends a deceptively comfortable face to the restaurant's constantly experimenting kitchen. Owner Tracy Studer and Chef Dan Varga—both veterans of the late Harold Smith's Gloria Café—root their eatery's fare in playfully updated Latin American food such as chorizo sliders and plantain-topped burgers. Yet, Varga constantly flexes his culinary muscles with unusual menu additions such as his chili-citrus-flavored vegetable lo mein. Monthly menus jet around the globe—614 Magazine notes that after deciding on "a country or cuisine, [Varga] spends months researching the ingredients, history, and flavor profiles, and then experimenting in the kitchen," turning out tributes to Germany, Spain, and his ancestral Hungary. An impressive range of vegan and vegetarian options makes use of soy-based tempeh and tofu, catering to animal-loving humans and self-hating venus flytraps.