Being a completionist, it was tough to ignore the call to watch the final season of The Bear as FX released the show’s curtain call on June 25 on Hulu. After finally surrendering, I’m in a daze trying to recount five years of the general public co-opting restaurant lingo like “yes, chef!” and “corner!”
Writing from ground zero in Chicago, I witnessed several phases, including Italian beef mania sweeping the nation, the Carmy lookalike contest, and industry fatigue with the show. Even Rick Bayless chimed in.
Even with an army of consultants, the show often felt out of step. Before Christopher Nolan made The Odyssey, he was busy transforming Chicago into Gotham City for Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Gotham functioned as a highly fictionalized Chicago; there was no mistaking landmarks like Lower Wacker Drive and Billy Goat Tavern. There’s plenty of space for Chicago to play dress up — the curated storm footage from Season 5 was ominous and may as well have been taken from Gotham — but The Bear just never stuck the landing even as all involved were given fairy tale endings.
Amy McCarthy
In preparation for watching Season 5, I began jotting down the biggest Chicago restaurant industry stories from 2022 through 2026, coinciding with The Bear’s release. This was my way of attempting to measure the show’s impact on the city’s restaurants. There were the usual business stories — grocery store mergers and closures; who could forget about the Foxtrot fall and rebirth in 2024? In 2022, Virtue’s Erick Williams became the first Black chef to win the James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef: Great Lakes award, representing the region that includes Chicago. In 2025, the Violet Hour — a respected pioneering Chicago cocktail bar closed after 18 years. That same year, Pope Leo became the first American-born pope and brought a love for all things Chicago, including giardiniera, to the Vatican. One point to note is that no restaurants that appeared in the show have closed, though their survivals are impossible to tie to their cameos.
Zooming out, 2022 saw an industry fresh off pandemic-era restrictions that led to job losses and shutters. At the same time, progressives would make strides in their campaigns to rid cities, like Chicago, of the tipped minimum wage. The Bear did not tackle these dense issues, preferring to entertain under the cover of comedy. There was some self-awareness in Season 5, Episode 8 of shouty, toxic chefs by Emmy winner Liza Colón-Zayas with her portrayal of Tina Marrero. We’re constantly reminded how challenging it’s to run a restaurant, but also in the end we’re told that the grind, the hustle — the capitalism of it all — is worth it. An edgy special dessert course included cocaine, if you knew whom to ask. At least Jeremy Allen White’s Carmy doesn’t spend the finale working on his real estate license, a pastime of the many workers who departed the industry during COVID. Maybe he could become a food influencer.
Season 5 showed bigger cracks in the foundation as Will Poulter’s Luca adds the cherry to the top of the brioche sundae, saying that he’s worked at “the best places” with “the best chefs” (including René Redzepi’s Noma). But Syd, Richie, and the rest of the crew offered “something that none of those other places have.” They offered… “family.” I guess you didn’t really need the Malört to initiate the gag reflex in the midst of all that schlock.
There are fun moments, but this last season feels too much like a bunch of restaurant keywords thrown into a blender and set to puree. But it was funny to hear the heir to the real-world Mr. Beef, Christopher Zucchero, say “EBIDTA” with a thick Chicago accent. Zucchero is a childhood friend of show creator Christopher Storer. The Faks, who successfully channeled the anarchy of the area surrounding the real-world restaurant throughout the series, were the season’s unsung MVPs, with Ricky Staffieri’s performance especially strong.
We’re constantly reminded how challenging it’s to run a restaurant, but also in the end we’re told that the grind, the hustle — the capitalism of it all — is worth it.
Another revelation was how much power meteorologists wield power over Chicago’s restaurant industry. A sunny weekend forecast means a lively patio and a full book of reservations. Rain and slippery highways and sidewalks can frighten diners away if they’re commuting from exotic far-flung locales like suburban Schaumburg.
During a bitter and cold spate of days two years ago in Chicago, I chatted with Donnie Madia, co-founder of Chicago’s One Off Hospitality Group, about how weather impacts a restaurant’s business. In particular, Madia was fed up with tabloid-style winter weather alerts with over-the-top graphics run by local TV newscasts. Madia felt anchors would disguise these scare tactics as safety warnings, appealing to the common sense of keeping cars off slick and hazardous roads. The problem was these forecasts weren’t very accurate. An occasional gaffe was OK, but calling for a blizzard when there’s barely a flurry really ground Madia’s gears.
Many Chicagoans, like other cold-weather city denizens, don’t always seek shelter during frigid temps and are happy to sit down for a restaurant meal or find a barstool at a tavern. Madia recalls several downright pleasant winter Chicago days free of ice and mayhem where he and his staff were ready to serve customers. Evil weather wizards had other plans and instead conjured canceled reservations and no-shows. Madia routinely saw TV anchors follow the same patterns over and over again every winter. For him, these “predictions” were unethical reports designed to grab viewers on typically slow news days.
With that in mind, it was a blast seeing retired Chicago meteorologist Tom Skilling take a prominent role in Episode 7 of the final season of The Bear. And it was a bit awkward watching Skilling, Chicago television legend, enjoy a dessert made with “Donnie’s berries” — raspberries named for Madia, who makes his own cameo in Season 5. One of Madia’s restaurants, Publican Quality Meats, actually features a sandwich named after Skilling. What sweet, sweet synergy.
Skilling’s improv skills and a torrential storm do much of the heavy lifting in Season 5 in convincing viewers that the show’s finale actually takes place in Chicago. Sure, there are opaque references to Frango Mints and Marshall Fields, but the cameo well has run dry. There’s not even a mention of Malört as the show attempted to tie up all those various and disparate plot threads. I fear I’ll never get that vital update on the fate of Chomp Chicago or if they’ll ever develop an app. It was quite amusing how The Bear danced around mentioning brands like Frango. Another example is the Michelin Guide. There was no sign of Bibendum even though his presence was heavily implied with the introduction of an inspector only referred to as “Starman.” The bulk of Chicago scene-setting happened in Season 3 when Madia and others began popping up on screen.
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Joe Zucchero, who opened Mr. Beef in 1979, passed away in March 2023. His son, Chris, was reluctant to capitalize on the spotlight the show shined on his family’s beef stand. Tonight Show host Jay Leno visited in the ‘90s, and Mr. Beef saw a surge in customers. The Bear was just history repeating itself as Mr. Beef was already a civic icon. Last year was a record-setting year for Chicago tourism as visitors brought in more than $2.9 billion in local and state tax revenues. Culinary tourism will continue to be a focus for Choose Chicago. In other words, those lines at Kasama aren’t going to get shorter.
As I finished the final episode, I reflected over the last five years. The Chicago Bears, the football franchise, is currently relevant and competitive, something that was not true in 2022. Like the TV show, the football team has shown recent moments of greatness. I’m just hoping Caleb Williams’s crew doesn’t stall out in subsequent seasons and gives this city a Super Bowl for future generations. The Starman cometh, the Starman taketh.
