If it was good enough for the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen, it’s surely good enough for the movies. Kill off a parent (too many stories to count), threaten a flapper with sexual assault (early 1930s Boop), quash a young protagonist’s confidence before restoring it (every animated everything, ever): It’s nerve-wracking just thinking about the real-life doubts, fears, crises, all resolved — we hope — just in time.

Pixar’s “Inside Out” (2015) leaned into old, turbulent emotions in a new way, all the way. The story dealt with 11-year-old Riley, a Minnesota girl into hockey, who relocated, uneasily, with her parents to San Francisco. A big move means big challenges for any kid — and any parent. Director Pete Docter and the “Inside Out” screenplay acknowledged Riley’s depression while underscoring her ability to manage it, and flourish. The emotions depicted in the control room of her mind — Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, Disgust — navigated their increasingly tricky human charge, as well as their own clashing personalities. And people went; it was a hit.

I hope the same for “Inside Out 2,” the engaging sequel that pits the now 13-year-old Riley against new challenges and a tangle of new insecurities. It’s chaotic, sometimes very funny, occasionally wrenching, and at 96 minutes, exactly one minute longer than “Inside Out.”

The human storyline is simple and sure-footed. Riley hits puberty, which hits back as puberty does. She and her besties at school are invited to a summer hockey camp, which bodes well for their self-esteem and their social futures together.

But there are new kids in town, in her mind. Emotion management center honcho Joy (Amy Poehler providing the can-do, no-problem vocal inflections once again) must accommodate these new emotions led, anxiously, by Anxiety (Maya Hawke), along with Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser) and the très French and consistently witty embodiment of Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos, plumbing heretofore unplumbed depths of disaffected disengagement). Nostalgia pops in for a couple of appearances; June Squibb voices her, unerringly.

Riley piles up a stack of rapidly accumulated wince-worthy memories along with many good ones as she ingratiates herself with the cool older girls at the camp. She feels as if she cannot win this phase of her life. How to reconcile one established friend group with a longed-for new and cooler and slightly older one? Gradually, Riley’s innate good-heartedness gets sidelined while new, edgier, arguably meaner personality traits muscle in on the action. Anxiety becomes a huge presence in her summer of emotional riddles, just as it dominates the screenplay by Meg LeFauve (who co-wrote the first “Inside Out”) and Dave Holstein.

Anxiety’s on-screen presence is a lot. Too much? Maybe. How to vary these escalating scenes focused on a character, a feeling, who’s not quite an antagonist, but not a hero? These challenges have been acknowledged by the film’s creatives.

They didn’t solve everything, to be sure. Like most sequels to Pixar’s very good or great films, this one’s sometimes busy to a fault, and little monomaniacal in its pacing. But we’re are a long way here from the mechanical likes of “Monsters University” or “Cars 2.” “Inside Out 2” still feels human-made, and genuinely concerned about how Riley deals with this chapter of her life. The wordplay remains tiptop, as when Joy and company face a dangerous river crossing (memory bubbles substituting for water) known as the Sar-Chasm, which renders everyone’s expressed thoughts, sincere or not, in a jaded, “as if!” tone of adolescent dismissal.

Crucially, Phyllis Smith returns as the measured, morose voice of Sadness, alongside some new voices for familiar characters (Tony Hale in for Bill Hader as Fear; Liza Lapira in for Mindy Kaling as Disgust; Kensington Tallman replacing Kaitlyn Dias as Riley). The new emotions come from the first film’s developmental long list of possibilities. I love how Pixar, at its corporately owned peak, invested millions of dollars in figuring out how to wrangle some peculiar, hard-to-market narratives into workable shape. Even if “Inside Out 2” sometimes favors speed over, well, everything else, it’s gratifying to see an ordinary and, yes, anxious 13-year-old’s life, like millions and millions of lives right now, treated as plenty for a good, solid sequel, and without the dubious dramatics of the first movie’s climax.

What’s happening on the inside can be enough.

“Inside Out 2” — 3 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: PG (for some thematic elements)

Running time: 1:36

How to watch: Premieres in theaters June 13

Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.

Riot Fest announced Wednesday that it is moving to SeatGeek Stadium in the southwest suburb. The music festival will run from Sept. 20-22 — conflicting with the Sept. 21 Red Stars-San Diego Wave match. The decision drew ire from Red Stars leadership, which is now scrambling to find a new home for a nationally broadcast match in a whiplash moment only days after drawing a league-record crowd for a match at Wrigley Field.

“It’s devastating,” team President Karen Leetzow told the Tribune. “It’s devastating to have to go from that kind of a high to this kind of a low, to tell your staff and players that this is the level of respect we’ve gotten immediately after delivering that event.”

Bridgeview mayor Steven Landek first informed the Red Stars in early May of a potential need to vacate the stadium for the Sept. 21 game. Following an initial conversation, the Red Stars never received a follow-up or logistical support from the mayor’s office, even after reaching out for clarification, sources told the Tribune. The Red Stars found out Bridgeview was moving forward with plans to use the stadium on that date when a lawyer with Riot Fest reached out to the club earlier this month in regards to signing a contract with the village. The Tribune left a message for Landek seeking comment on the situation.

The current lease allows for SeatGeek and the city to host ancillary events at the same time as Red Stars games. However, the lease specifies that the stadium must be available for the specified use, which includes parking and accessibility to the stadium. The scope of Riot Fest raises other concerns — for instance, how noise pollution from a multistage festival could interfere with the ability of a referee to officiate the game as well as the safety of players, staff and fans coming and going to the stadium — that led the Red Stars to feel it would be impossible to host the previously scheduled game.

As of Wednesday, the Red Stars had not received any information on the logistics of how the events would be able to coexist on match day or even how Riot Fest planned to use the space.

The Red Stars have not located a new venue for the match and aren’t certain they will have an appropriate replacement on the same date. The Cubs play host to the Nationals on Sept. 21 at Wrigley Field while the White Sox will be on a six-game swing in California, leaving Guaranteed Rate Field unoccupied. Neither the Bears nor Fire plays at Soldier Field on that date, but sources told the Tribune that the Red Stars have been informed the stadium will not be available. Even if the Red Stars find an appropriate replacement venue, the cost could be prohibitively steep.

If the Red Stars are able to find a new location for the game, the club would want fees and costs to relocate and broadcast the match nationally to come from the involved parties forcing their game out of the stadium. But the club has not received any assurances that either party would contribute to mitigate these costs, sources told the Tribune.

The game holds heightened stakes for the Red Stars and the NWSL as it is slated for a national broadcast on Ion. This complicates the logistics for use of the parking lot amid the festival. Only five of the remaining Red Stars regular-season games are scheduled for a national broadcast.

“It is unfair and unfortunate to have our club put in this situation, shining a light on the vast discrepancies in the treatment of women’s professional sports versus men’s professional sports,” Leetzow said in a statement. “We are committed to ensuring our players and fans have a first-rate experience on and off the pitch, and we are working diligently to find a solution that will ensure our September 21st game is a success.”

The conflict comes at a turning point for the Red Stars, who on Saturday drew a league-record 35,038 fans at Wrigley Field for a match against Bay FC.

Photos: Chicago Red Stars set NWSL attendance record at Wrigley Field

The Red Stars have played at SeatGeek since 2016. The stadium’s distance from the city center and lack of transit access have been key points of criticism for the franchise as the team continues to slip behind competitors in attendance. The Chicago Fire in 2019 paid more than $60 million to leave SeatGeek for Soldier Field.

The Red Stars’ SeatGeek lease will expire at the end of 2025. New ownership helmed by Cubs co-owner Laura Ricketts has made it clear that relocating the franchise to a stadium inside the city limits is a driving goal for the organization.

Riot Fest — which will be headlined by Beck, Public Enemy, the Marley Brothers and Fall Out Boy — had been a source of contention for residents in North Lawndale since its relocation to Douglass Park in 2015, and before that with locals in Humboldt Park since 2012.

The crisp edges, soft, tender center, and wholesome, subtly sweet flavor make them not just good, but go back for seconds and wake up 15 minutes early to make these on a weekday good. Enjoy them with a drizzle of maple syrup, switch it up with a dollop of fruit jam, or go for another boost of protein with some Greek yogurt and fresh fruit. There’s a lot to love about this wholesome, family-friendly breakfast that’s as quick and easy to pull off as it is satisfying.

A nonstick pan is the secret to success

You’ll notice the pancakes are slightly thinner and a bit more delicate than traditional pancakes (although not as thin as our 2-ingredient banana pancakes). For this reason, they cook best in a nonstick pan, and I also recommend a thin, flat spatula for easy flipping.

Why you’ll love it

• The batter comes together in under two minutes, with nothing more than a couple of eggs and equal parts whole oats and cottage cheese.
• It all goes in your blender and blitzed just long enough to break down the oats (some chunky pieces are OK) and mix everything together.

Key ingredients in cottage cheese pancakes

• Old-fashioned oats: Also called rolled oats, old-fashioned oats cook faster than steel-cut oats, absorb more liquid, and hold their shape relatively well during cooking.
• Cottage cheese: Cottage cheese has a mild, creamy flavor profile that works well here.
• Eggs: You’ll need 2 large eggs.

What to serve with cottage cheese pancakes

• Oven-Cooked Bacon
• Honey Butter
• Blueberry Compote
• Apple Cider Syrup
• Strawberry Honey Butter
• Red Fruit Salad with Lemon-Vanilla Bean Syrup

3-Ingredient Cottage Cheese Pancakes

Serves 2; makes 8 (3-inch) pancakes

1/2 cup old-fashioned oats

1/2 cup cottage cheese

2 large eggs

1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

Maple syrup, jam or sliced berries, for serving

1. Place 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats, 1/2 cup cottage cheese, 2 large eggs, and 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt in a blender and process on high speed until well-combined, about 30 seconds.

2. Heat a large nonstick frying pan over medium heat. Working in batches, add the batter in 2-tablespoon portions, spacing them evenly apart. Cook until the pancakes are set around the edges and deep golden-brown on the bottom, 2 to 3 minutes (this batter won’t bubble up like traditional pancake batter). Gently flip the pancakes with a thin spatula and cook until the second side is golden-brown, 1 to 2 minutes more. Transfer to a plate.

3. Repeat cooking the remaining batter. These pancakes are best when eaten fresh off the griddle and still warm. Serve with maple syrup, honey or jam.

Recipe note: Leftovers can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to five days.

(Kelli Foster is the senior contributing food editor for TheKitchn.com, a nationally known blog for people who love food and home cooking. Submit any comments or questions to editorial@thekitchn.com.)

©2024 Apartment Therapy. Distributed by Tribune Content AGency, LLC.

The three-day music festival is moving to Bridgeview, running Sept. 20-22 at SeatGeek Stadium, 7000 S. Harlem Ave. Tickets (2-DAY and 3-DAY) are on sale at 11 a.m. Wednesday at riotfest.org.

Other bands and performers include Michael C. Hall with his band Princess Goes, Spoon, Manchester Orchestra (performing their 2014 album “Cope”), Oliver Tree, Sum 41, Cypress Hill, Waxahatchee, New Found Glory, Something Corporate, Tierra Whack, Taking Back Sunday, Lamb of God, Mastodon (performing “Leviathan”), Hot Mulligan, Beach Bunny, The Hives, Suicidal Tendencies, L.S. Dunes, Basement, State Champs, Poison the Well, Gwar, Clutch, Rival Sons, Health, Descendents, Circle Jerks, Pennywise, The Lawrence Arms, Face to Face, Buzzcocks, Laura Jane Grace with Catbite, Dillinger Four, Lagwagon, The Vandals, All Strung Out, Dead Milkmen, D.O.A., The Dickies, Codefendants, Cobra Skulls, Swingin’ Utters, The Defiant, The Exploited, Urethane, Get Dead and Doomscroll. The full lineup includes some 90 bands.

The Riot Fest 2024 Lineup is here.
2-DAY + 3-DAY Tickets on sale now. https://t.co/y6Es7qgAmd pic.twitter.com/ym2sTc0vC0

— Riot Fest (@RiotFest) June 12, 2024

The announcement of the move Wednesday dubbed the new location RiotLand, and came after a social media statement from Riot Fest founder Mike Petryshyn late Tuesday that the annual three-day music festival would no longer be held in Douglass Park in the North Lawndale neighborhood. Riot Fest had been held there since 2015, before that in Humboldt Park since 2012.

Before Riot Fest’s move, the annual Summer Smash music festival of hip hop relocated in 2023 from Douglass Park to SeatGeek Stadium, with this year’s Summer Smash taking place there this coming weekend.

Riot Fest to leave Douglass Park following years of community tension, founder says

Petryshyn said the Chicago Park District was “solely” responsible for the festival’s move, and thanked Ald. Monique Scott, 24th, for her support of the event. Though Scott said the local community supported Riot Fest, some had criticized it and some other big music events for taking over portions of city parks and fencing them off from the surrounding community.

The SeatGeek Stadium campus, which is owned by the local village of Bridgeview, has hosted other music festivals in the past. Along with the stadium, the location has a number of surrounding sports fields with artificial turf that have been used for stages.

Although it has a large parking lot, the location is some 15 miles southwest of downtown and is not easily accessible by public transportation, requiring a Pace bus transfer from the the Midway Orange Line CTA station. A Getting to RiotLand page on the festival’s website said that information about shuttles was coming soon.

Riot Fest will also include its usual array of food, drink and merchandise vendors, as well as the the Wedding Chapel, vintage arcade games and the Hellzapoppin’ Circus Sideshow Revue. A Q101 Radio Tower is described as “a nostalgic tribute to an iconic radio station.” The Cabaret Metro Stage is named after the Chicago music venue. Riot Fest also promised an NOFX World stage, a skate ramp and an operating casino.

Scott issued a further statement early Wednesday, saying that Park District permission for Riot Fest to remain in Douglass Park had been scheduled for a board meeting Wednesday but the decision had come too late.

She also called community opposition to the festival a “false narrative” and said inequities to the community were a wider problem.

“For the past eight years. Riot Fest has been a cornerstone of positive impact and opportunity in our community. The festival has worked closely with our office. community organizations. and numerous stakeholders to develop a plan that resulted in unprecedented benefits for the local community. Their significant investments in our youth, small businesses and residents have greatly contributed to the well-being and vibrancy of the 24th Ward,” the statement read in part. “My constituents have expressed their concerns about the vast financial inequities that exist in parks located in predominantly Black neighborhoods versus others. Despite the substantial payments made by Riot Fest over the years, local stakeholders believe the promised reinvestment into our community is insufficient.”

dgeorge@chicagotribune.com

All three restaurants were founded after 1965, when major immigration reforms expanded the rights of Asians to immigrate to the United States. This post-1965 wave of immigrants founded the historical South Asian neighborhood on Devon Avenue.

But the history of Indian food in Chicago is over 120 years old, if one looks closely. Indian restaurant workers, laborers and students have been in Chicago since earlier in the 1900s. There is evidence of Indian food being sold in Chicago at various points in the 1920s and 1960s; likely, there are many more stories that have been lost to time.

I asked this question about Chicago Indian food history after watching the fascinating new PBS America ReFramed documentary “In Search of Bengali Harlem,” directed by Vivek Bald and Alaudin Ullah. The documentary points us toward hidden histories of Indian restaurants run by Bengali Muslim men in Black and Latino neighborhoods. That group founded some of the first Indian restaurants in the Western Hemisphere, including New York.

“If you were to go to New York in 1955, the majority of Indian restaurants that you would find in Manhattan were run by Bengali Muslim men,” said Bald, a historian at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “Those restaurants, for many many years and even to the present day, call themselves Indian restaurants because that’s what the American clientele understood and expected. But actually they were run by Bengali Muslim, eventually Bangladeshi, men.”

One of the major revelations of Bald’s work is the existence of Bengali “ship-jumpers” who escaped labor akin to indentured servitude on British naval ships by staying in the U.S. when they came into port.

Though the documentary doesn’t cover Chicago, I asked Bald if that history reached the city. He explained that the networks of ship-jumpers extended from Eastern ports to the industrial Midwest — one group he studied traveled to work in steel mills in Gary, Indiana, and may have ended up in nearby Chicago.

Looking at the 1930 census, Bald told me he found “about 30 to 40 South Asian Muslim men — most likely Bengali — working in laboring jobs and living in Black neighborhoods” in Chicago. They’re listed as having been born in India and racially classified as Black or Hindu.

Bald’s work explores this group’s important contributions to restaurant history in the U.S.. Bald is also the author of an influential 2013 book of history, “Bengali Harlem and the Lost Histories of South Asian America.”

The impact on the restaurant industry is indisputable: Many credit Bengali cooks for inventing internationally famous dishes such as chicken tikka masala.

There is plenty of evidence that Indians have been present in Chicago for over 100 years — it seems likely that some may have started restaurants or hawked food. At the very least, the Chicago public was interested in Indian food as early as 1907, when several articles explaining the cuisine appeared in the Chicago Daily Tribune.

Saint Nihal Singh, who was a Punjabi immigrant, wrote two pieces of food writing for the Tribune. A piece from 1909 titled “Dainty Dishes of the Hindoo Pleasing to American Palates” taught readers how to cook dishes like “piaz chutnee,” “fried chicken a la hindoo” and “bhujia.” Singh argued that Indian food is not difficult to cook for Americans and suggested methods to prepare the food at home.

Singh was a prolific traveling freelance journalist. Another article for the Calcutta newspaper The Modern Review in 1908 told the story of Indian students in Chicago. Bald explained that Indian students were part of a longer run of exceptions throughout American immigration law.

Of particular interest is a wonderful photograph accompanying the article depicting a group of Indian students, all male, dressed in suits. One student named Ghosh is listed as a “cook” from Bengal. Was Ghosh working in another restaurant or selling his own food?

For a partial answer, Singh wrote of students taking jobs waiting tables, washing dishes or taking kitchen work to pay their university fees. It’s possible Ghosh became a cook to pay for college.

Anu Kumar, researcher and author of the novel “The Kidnapping of Mark Twain,” writes frequently about intersections between Indian and American history. She wrote about Singh for Scroll.in, showing that Singh’s roots in Chicago may have been deeper than is widely known. She described Singh’s marriage to Chicagoan Cathleyne Brookes, an American writer who accompanied him on trips throughout America.

“I like learning about people who the world has forgotten about,” Kumar said. When asked why Singh was writing about Indian cuisine when many were unfamiliar with the food, she mused “maybe he was just trying to bring out the exotic out of it all.”

So while Indian food was certainly being discussed in Chicago as early as the 1900s, Bald said he found tantalizing evidence of what appears to be the earliest known Indian restaurant in Chicago: Ranji Smile’s The Hindustan, described by the Chicago Defender as an “Indian restaurant and garden for the summer months” in 1920.

Colleen Taylor Sen, local author and historian of Indian food, has written about Smile and Chicago’s Indian restaurants, but even she was unaware Smile was operating an Indian restaurant in 1920.

“He’s the world’s first bad boy chef; he got drunk, he got into fights,” said Sen.

Smile was invited to cook at Sherry’s, a high-end New York restaurant, in 1899. His Indian cooking and flair for the theatrical quickly made him popular.

“After leaving Sherry’s in the 1910s and ’20s, he became kind of an itinerant curry chef who would go to high-end restaurants and have residencies for two months or three months,” explained Bald, who is writing a book about Smile.

He apparently did the same in Chicago. Smile’s restaurant, even if a temporary pop-up, may have been the first Indian restaurant documented in Chicago.

Smile was unable to permanently settle down, partly plagued by harassment from immigration officials and an inability to secure citizenship. He also was a bit of a mystery, according to Bald, and it was unclear what his background truly was. At times, he played up the theatrics of the exotic, calling himself a prince of Baluchistan.

Before this, Sen had believed the earliest Chicago Indian restaurant was House of India. First opened in 1963 at 2048 N. Lincoln , the restaurant was run by Colonel Syed Abdullah and his wife. The Tribune wrote frequently about Abdullah and his success, but the man’s life holds some mysteries like Smile. Abdullah claimed to be an Oxford-trained psychologist.

Sen has her doubts that Abdullah was even Indian. One of her sources, an employee of Abdullah’s, claimed he was actually an “African American from Tallahassee who served in the American army in Calcutta.” Many take issue with this interpretation, she said. When I brought this tidbit to Bald, he wondered if Abdullah could be the descendant of a Bengali ship worker and an African American wife. But Bald also wrote in his book about how, occasionally, Black Americans would “pass” as Indian by wearing turbans.

Alaudin Ullah, the subject of the “In Search of Bengali Harlem” documentary, feels that these histories need to be told because they have been purposefully erased. He is the son of a Bengali ship-jumper who owned Bengal Gardens, an early New York Indian restaurant.

“The culinary industry has definitely been influenced by Indian restaurants,” Ullah said. “South Asian cuisine has not gotten the recognition. There’s a revisionist history of cuisines, parallel to the erased history of South Asians.”

Some of the history may also have been lost. In a poignant scene from the documentary, Ullah and his half-sibling describe how the men of their father’s generation never gave up on their food, their religion or each other. It was more difficult to keep history alive for their American children, many of whom connected to the cultures of their Black and Puerto Rican mothers.

But Ullah is working to preserve the history of Bengali ship-jumpers; he wrote a one-man play about his father’s story working in restaurants called “Dishwasher Dreams,” which he starred in and performed at the Writer’s Theatre in Glencoe from December 2021 to January 2022.

In “In Search of Bengali Harlem,” Ullah visits a woman named Ruth Ali, the widow of Eshad Ali, another Bengali man who jumped ship and started a restaurant. Ruth, a Black American woman from South Carolina, married Eshad despite resistance from her family for marrying a foreigner. They ran a restaurant together, Eshad Ali’s Bombay India Restaurant in Harlem, for over 40 years.

According to Ali’s family, it was a popular fixture for some of the most famous icons of the Black civil rights era, including Malcolm X, Sydney Poitier and Miles Davis. It was a comfortable space for both Black and Indian people.

Despite that impressive pedigree, Eshad Ali’s restaurant is not frequently featured in histories of Indian food in America, beyond references from some Black authors. That may be because these Bengali Muslim men were undocumented and little-known to broader white America; instead, they settled in and intermarried within Black and Latino neighborhoods.

“These were migrants to whom the United States did not extend the promise of opportunity and inclusion,” Bald said. Instead, it was African American communities in Chicago, Puerto Rican communities in Harlem, and other marginalized communities that took them in.

“African Americans and Puerto Ricans were living up to the ideals of the U.S. nation when the U.S. nation was failing to live up to the ideals,” Bald said.

“In Search of Bengali Harlem” is available to stream for free on the PBS app and pbs.org.

Show creator David E. Kelley (who has a long track record with legal dramas, not that you’d know it here) has made a number of changes, none of which deepen the narrative. Instead of being a father to one, Rusty now has kids, plural. Instead of hiring a one-time courtroom foe as his attorney, now his former boss, the recently ousted state’s attorney, is mounting Rusty’s defense. Instead of crime scene photos of the victim fully clothed, the show takes us to the crime scene where the victim is trussed up naked. Even her fertility status (a key piece of evidence in the original) is changed. None of these details improve the story or create a sense of “maybe I don’t know where this is going” for anyone familiar with Turow’s novel or the film.

The 1990 movie came out amid a spate of erotic thrillers premised on a lurid femme fatale archetype, of women who are too sexy for their own good and the men whose lives they destroy, from “Basic Instinct” to “Fatal Attraction” (also recently adapted into a inconsequential TV series for Paramount+). There’s a cringe-worthy moment in the film when the victim’s ex all but blames her for her own murder, recalling a look of disgust she once gave him: “At that moment, I remember I had the most desperate wish that she were dead. Maybe she made a man feel like that who actually acted on that fantasy.”

Then again, at least the movie had lines like this: “They’re so close, you can see (one guy’s) nose sticking out of (the other guy’s) belly button.” Even so, the movie is too long at two hours and there’s nowhere near enough story to fill out a multi-episode TV series. Tangents about corruption in the criminal justice system seem to have evaporated, despite the expanded running time.

Gyllenhaal plays Rusty as unsympathetically as possible, which isn’t a bad choice — he’s a man who made bad choices and now his back is against the wall — but Gyllenhaal’s talents are not suited to this suite of emotions and behaviors, which read mostly as “angry” and “desperate.” Rusty is off the rails, but there’s no ambiguity, and the victim is barely a character (true of the movie as well) but rather an idea upon whom everyone can project their issues.

The script does nobody here any favors, including Ruth Negga as Rusty’s wife, Bill Camp as his boss and protector, and Peter Sarsgaard as an office rival who is all too eager to nail him.

Sarsgaard is usually a terrific actor, but even he can’t make any of this work. “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury,” he says, “my name is Tommasino Molto. But I’m from Chicago, like you, so it’s Tommy.” Considering the adaptation has no interest in its Chicago setting, this sudden introduction of a character’s supposed Chicago bonafides is weird. Sweaty, even. “Presumed Sweaty” might have been a more accurate title for the series overall.

“Presumed Innocent” — 1.5 stars (out of 4)

Where to watch: Apple TV+

Nina Metz is a Tribune critic.

For many, the thing to grill is ribs, but most anything will do.

I am not a cook or a grill guy but consider myself something of a rib expert, having eaten plenty (those at Twin Anchors are on top of my current list) and for a few 1980s years served as a judge for the Mike Royko Ribfest, generally acknowledged, by no less an authority than “The Chicago Food Encyclopedia” (University of Illinois Press), to have been “one of the nation’s first large barbeque competitions.” I remember those days fondly, as I wrote a while ago, “the unity, the harmony and the togetherness of them all. There were, side by side, groups from Glencoe and West Pullman, Rosemont and Roseland, Austin and Streeterville — white, Black and brown. There was no anger or violence, no arrests or trouble. If there were arguments, they were about cooking methods or sauces ‘sweet or tangy.’ These were harmonious and hopeful gatherings.”

So, I was talking about grilling with Joe Carlucci, a man I have often consulted in matters of food and drink. His name may be familiar to you because he has had an acclaimed and influential presence on the local scene. He said to me, “You can’t cook, you know?

Carlucci was born and raised in New York. After graduating with a degree in psychology from Pittsburgh’s Duquesne University, he worked in the music business for a few years, saying, “My first day on the job I had to pick up Bette Midler at the airport.”

He came to Chicago in the early ‘80s, began operating eponymous restaurants in the city and suburbs and worked with a couple of Mike Ditka’s joints. He still operates a few places and consults with others, including recently with some of the most popular grill guys in the world. They are the BBQ Pit Boys and this is how he found them about four years ago: “I was watching TV one Saturday morning and on came this guy with a beard being interviewed about grilling,” Carlucci says. “With my background in music I think I have a good ability to judge star quality and the guy I was watching had it.”

He tracked down the man, whose “grill name” is “Bobby Fame” but his real name is actually Bob Ahlgren, the creator of the culinary phenomenon known as BBQ Pit Boys. They talked. They liked one another. They became partners and Carlucci helped facilitate the recent publication of “BBQ Pit Boys Book of Real Guuud Barbecue” (Firefly Books). It is a handsome 256-page, colorful, lively and entertaining book. It is packed with recipes and tips for grilling and smoking a variety of meats, as well as sides and desserts. All the usual suspects are here, such as pulled pork, ribs and chicken wings. There are also recipes for alligator, lamb and venison. There’s fish, soups and sides. There’s a lot.

It also gives you the BBQ Pit Boys origin story, which Ahlgren told me over the phone a few days ago. “Well, I ran a small publishing company and was a serious antique dealer,” he says. “When YouTube first started around 2007, I thought it might be a good thing to spread the word about my business. Then a friend of mine from California wanted to get a recipe for something I grilled for him when he was visiting. I thought it would be fun to do that as a video and I posted it for him on YouTube.”

YouTube called him, asked him to become a partner and shipped him thousands of dollars worth of cameras and other equipment. They also sent him a check for $32.

That was long ago and the checks have gotten larger. The BBQ Pit Boys is now an international fraternal order, with some 18,000 international chapters and 230,000 pitmasters, according to the book. Episodes are posted every week and they have been viewed more than 94 million times.

The nature of the show hasn’t really changed. It’s still a group of guys around a grill, drinking and making food. Ahlgren is the host, affable and amiable and, as he says, “making sure we don’t take ourselves too seriously.”

The enterprise is based not in Tennessee or Arkansas, as the boys’ outfits might suggest, but rather in Connecticut. In addition to YouTube, the Pit Boys are now spread across the other prominent social media platforms such as Facebook, X and Instgram. They have 2.2 million YouTube subscribers, are in the top 5% of all YouTube channels and are number one when it comes to BBQ.

Not surprisingly, Ahlgren has been approached “more than ten times by network producers about doing shows for them,” he says. “But I have rejected them all. They talk about how they can make me famous but I am already famous and I don’t want to be part of fake TV, become part of the reality show world.  And I never want to lose control of the content and the way we deliver it.”

This was never intended to be a star-making vehicle. The focus is on the food and that’s one reason why Ahlgren and his pals wear sunglasses and cowboy hats that cover most of their faces. That aversion to the seductions of the mainstream entertainment business appeals to Carlucci, and to another food person who is also a partner with the Pit Boys. Ed Rensi is a former president and CEO of McDonald’s and he and Carlucci are intent on exploring all manner of opportunities.

“Bob and his pit boys have such a broad platform and the ability to reach so many people,” says Carlucci. “But we are going to be true to the spirit of the show and of the people. They never had a business plan. This is just a great fun idea that has blossomed into a wonderful enterprise.”

He tells me that a Pit Boys line of sauces and rubs is currently available in 3,000 stores across Canada, and a Pit Boys beer can be had in Texas. The website offers all manner of official merchandise.

Then he asked me which of the book’s recipes I was thinking of tackling.

“You can’t cook, you know?” he said.

“Yes,” I told him. “That’s why I’m going to try the Cigar Ash BBQ Sauce (page 233) or Bacon Oreo BBQ Cookies (page 255).”

He shook his head and rolled his eyes.

All events take place on June 16 unless otherwise stated.

The Loop and Near North Side

Adalina
Come for brunch from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. for a waffle station, cigar rolling and giveaways or book a table for dinner, where $85 gets you a 22-ounce wet aged bone-in rib-eye, Parmesan fries, a smoked old fashioned and a slice of chocolate cake. 912 N. State St., 312-820-9000, adalinachicago.com

Bar Pendry
Treat dad to a wagyu burger served with a side of herb-seasoned fries and a beer for $28. 81 E. Wacker Place, 312- 777-9000, pendry.com

Chef Art Smith’s Reunion

A three-course Papa’s Menu ($45) includes a mimosa, deviled eggs, shrimp and grits, and beignets. 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. 700 E. Grand Ave., 312-224-1415, reunionrestaurants.com

Chicago Burger Company
Start celebrating early with a barbecue along the Chicago River featuring smoked chicken wings and barbecue burnt ends sliders served with housemade coleslaw and pickles (both $12), loaded bloody marys ($14) and margarita towers. 1-4 p.m. Saturday. 301 E. North Water St., 312-464-1000, marriott.com

Ema
Dine in to take advantage of a crispy lamb ribs special served with cherry barbecue sauce, smoked almond and mint Friday through Sunday. 74 W. Illinois St., 312-527-5586, emachicago.com

Hard Rock Cafe Chicago
A special menu features steak frites with bourbon coffee mushroom sauce and chives ($36) and a $15 smoked old fashioned. 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. 63 W. Ontario St., 312-943-2252, cafe.hardrock.com/chicago

Maple & Ash
The steakhouse offers brunch from 10 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. Sunday for $160 or $65 for kids. 8 W. Maple St., 312-944-8888, mapleandash.com

Michael Jordan’s Steak House
Treat dad to a $145 special 34-ounce tomahawk rib-eye served with bone marrow mashed potatoes ($145) and a tobacco old fashioned ($23). 505 N. Michigan Ave., 312-321-8823, michaeljordansteakhouse.com/chicago

RPM Steak
Get everything you need for a backyard barbecue by picking up a filet ($120), New York strip ($180) or grass-fed rib-eye grill kit ($200). All of the packages include two steaks, asparagus, beef butter, steak salt and grilling instructions. Noon to 8:45 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. 66 W. Kinzie St., 312-284-4990, rpmrestaurants.com

Schneider Deli

Pick up a hot dog grilling kit with Vienna dogs, poppy seed buns, sauerkraut and chopped corned beef ($42) or a corned beef burger package with onion rolls, pickled red onions, cheese and Russian dressing ($50). Both come with pickles, deli mustard and a choice of two sides. 600 N. LaSalle Drive, 773-590-1345, schneiderdeli.com

Venteux
The French brasserie offers $18 bottomless beer pours plus a $29 steak and eggs dish with roasted potatoes and braised tomatoes. 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. 224 N. Michigan Ave., 312-777-9003, venteuxchicago.com

Yardbird
A $67 Father’s Day family-style menu includes St. Louis short ribs, mac and cheese, and chicken and waffles. 530 N. Wabash Ave., 312-999-9760, runchickenrun.com/chicago

North Side and Northwest Side

Avenue Tap & Kitchen
The Lakeview bar offers an $18 combo featuring a cheeseburger and side, a pint of Modelo and a shot of Tullamore D.E.W. 3407 N. Paulina St., 773-858-7679, avenuetapchicago.com

Bar Roma
Share specials including wood-grilled bone-in rib-eye with garlic herb butter ($40), jumbo lump crab cake with sweet corn ($18) and ricotta cheesecake with strawberry rhubarb sauce ($11). 4-8:30 p.m. 5101 N. Clark St., 773-942-7572, barromachicago.com

Cody’s Public House
Watch the U.S. Open and enter a raffle to win a golf bag and a day of golf while sipping themed drinks including $7 John Dalys, $5 Goose Island pints and $8 Proper 12 mules. 1658 W. Barry Ave., 773-799-8217, codyschicago.com

Easy Street Pizza & Beer Garden
The Portage Park bar offers two hours of bottomless Modelo during brunch for $20. 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. 3750 N. Central Ave., 773-993-0464, easystreetpizzachicago.com

Lark
Pixel and Daddy Hunter perform during a Who’s Your Daddy drag brunch featuring $5 Bud Light and bottomless drink packages. 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. 3441 N. Halsted St., 773-799-8968, larkchicago.com

Le Sud
Dig into a cowboy-style rib-eye with Cajun compound butter, onion rings and a loaded potato ($68). 2301 W. Roscoe St., 773-857-1985, lesudchicago.com

The Patio at Café Brauer
Spice up your celebration with a $19 wing sampler with flavors including Thai chili and smoked chipotle honey. Fries are included and you can substitute loaded tots for $2. 2021 N. Stockton Drive, 312-507-9053, lpzoopatio.org

Pilot Project Chicago
Buy one of the brewery incubator’s draft beers and get a second one for $1. 2140 N. Milwaukee Ave., 773-270-5995, pilotprojectbrewing.com

West Side and Near West Side

Aba

Aba means father in Hebrew and Arabic, so the restaurant is a particularly appropriate spot to celebrate with specials offered Friday through Sunday including grilled angus hanger steak with black garlic and rosemary jus and a Drop Dad Gorgeous cocktail made with Uncle Nearest whiskey, bourbon barrel-smoked demerara, bitters and a beef chip. 302 N. Green St., Floor 3, 773-645-1400, abarestaurants.com

Carnivale
Stop in the Rumba Lounge for photos, complimentary whiskey tastings, giveaways and games. 1-5 p.m. 702 W. Fulton Market, 312-850-5005, carnivalechicago.com

Guinness Open Gate Brewery
Chef Taylor Bischof hosts a cookout with live music and 10-ounce filet ($80) dinners that include two sides, a roll and two beers. All dads who order a steak will receive an engraved 20-ounce pint glass. 3-8 p.m. 901 W. Kinzie St., 312-521-0900, guinnessbrewerychicago.com

Heritage Restaurant & Caviar Bar
Chef Guy Meikle roasts a whole lamb on the patio, serving $45 platters with lamb sausage, romesco and olive tapenade. Noon to 6 p.m. 2700 W. Chicago Ave., 773-661-9577, heritage-chicago.com

Nettare
Come for brunch starting at 10 a.m. and get steak and eggs plus a bloody mary for $29. 1953 W. Chicago Ave., barnettare.com

WineStyles
A pig roast includes two sides and a drink. $20-$25. 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. 6182 N. Northwest Highway, 847-518-9463, winestyles.com/norwoodpark

South Side & Near South Side

Pearl’s Place
Tuck in to an absolute feast from this Bronzeville mainstay. The Father’s Day buffet ($33) includes barbecue rib tips, fried jumbo shrimp, jerk chicken, smothered steak, collard greens and cornbread. Finish the meal off with desserts such as sweet potato pie or peach cobbler. Guests can dine in or grab a take-home meal package for a more intimate feast. 3901 S. Michigan Ave., 773-285-1700, pearlsplacerestaurant.com

The Quarry Event Center
Real Men Cook’s 35th annual Father’s Day celebration features home chefs serving sweet and savory dishes plus live music. $25; $15 for kids. 3-6 p.m. 2423 E. 75th St., 312-259-1143, thequarrychi.com

Suburban and multiple locations

Amerikas

Dads can get the restaurant’s signature smoked mezcal old fashioned for half price and dig into a Tomahawk steak special. 734 Lake St., Oak Park, 708-613‑4254, amerikasrestaurant.com

The Capital Grille
The steakhouse chain offers a special 22-ounce prime bone-in rib-eye with caramelized shallot jus and truffle butter paired with a glass of Caymus 50th anniversary cabernet sauvignon. Multiple locations, thecapitalgrille.com

The Hampton Social
Dads get a free pour of rosé when they dine in. Multiple locations, thehamptonsocial.com

Oaken Bistro + Bar
All attendees will have the chance to win a weekend with a Bentley during a brunch buffet featuring a whiskey tasting, smoked salmon with bagels, carved rib-eye, omelets and French toast. Cigars are available for purchase. $65; $35 for kids. 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. 200 N. Field Drive, Lake Forest, oakenbistro.com

Old Town Pour House
A $30 Brews and Bites taster offered this week through Father’s Day features pretzel bites, smoked chicken wings, a mini cheeseburger and a Snickers pie shooter paired with Midwestern beers. 8 Oak Brook Center, Oak Brook, 630-601-1440 and 1703 Freedom Drive, Naperville, 630-448-6020; oldtownpourhouse.com

Perry’s Steakhouse & Grill

The restaurant’s Oak Brook, Schaumburg and Vernon Hill locations open early to offer $13 bloody marys, mimosas and rosé sangria until 4 p.m. and a $69 22-ounce bone-in caramelized prime rib. 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Multiple locations, perryssteakhouse.com

Q-BBQ
The chain offers special Father’s Day platters for dine in and carryout June 14-16 featuring a choice of meat, two sides and hush puppies for $15 to $19. Add on a Hamm’s beer for $2. Multiple locations, q-bbq.com

Samantha Nelson is a freelance writer.

So when I had the opportunity this spring to visit Alabama’s shoreline instead of Florida’s, I jumped at the chance to see what life was like on the northern side of the Gulf of Mexico. Would the path slightly less beaten provide the same summery perks Florida is famous for? I packed my camera and favorite straw hat and went to find out.

‘Bama bound

Getting there was surprisingly easy.

My friend and I flew into Pensacola International Airport from O’Hare International Airport, which took just over two hours on a full flight. Pensacola is typically the airport of choice because it’s cheaper and offers plenty of flights.

We picked up our rental and began the leisurely hour journey, passing through small towns and crossing several bridges as we drove parallel to the water. We quickly waved goodbye to Florida, heading over Perdido Pass into Alabama’s Orange Beach.

Orange Beach and its neighbor, Gulf Shores, are two small beach towns on Perdido Key with combined populations of roughly 22,000 locals — which swells to millions with annual visitors. With a strictly tourism-driven economy, 85 percent of the area’s real estate is vacation rentals — or about 15,000 hotel and condo units, according to Kay Maghan, public relations manager for Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Tourism.

We stayed at Turquoise Place, a luxury resort along Orange Beach with spacious condos in two buildings. Our unit had a fully equipped kitchen, a full-size laundry room and an ocean-view balcony with a hot tub and gas grill. Elsewhere on the property were pools, a water slide and a lazy river.

After settling down, we had dinner at The Gulf, an outdoor restaurant and bar with walk-up service made of cobalt blue shipping containers. Its patio shares a sea wall with the gulf and showcases plush couches and string lights that pair perfectly with my spicy blackberry jalapeño margarita, mahi-mahi tacos and a half pound of chilled peel-and-eat shrimp.

We watched as the sun went down as a watercolor masterpiece and stopped for a nightcap at 8 Reale OBAL, a speakeasy bar that will cost you a small pirate’s booty. With drinks averaging $25, the swanky spot is concealed behind a storefront posing as a jewelry store. We entered a code — provided daily on its Facebook page — and walked through a heavy vault door. The copper ceilings and navy velvet chairs showed off a secretly bougie side of Orange Beach — one that allegedly lured in Morgan Freeman the day after we left.

Up-close adventures

We began the next day on the beach, which stays cool courtesy of fluffy sugar-white sand washed down from the Appalachian Mountains, known as crushed quartz crystal.

The shoreline glittered with shells, partial sand dollars and colorful umbrellas as gentle waves rolled in the distance. Across the gulf were various water activities, including fishing, boating and parasailing. We watched cunning pelicans soar past, holding massive, doomed fish.

The mood was calm and friendly; even at the day’s peak, it never felt overcrowded, rowdy or messy.

Next was our hourlong lesson with Sandcastle University. Using buckets, measuring spoons, a cup, a plastic knife, and a straw, our instructor, Catie, astonished us with her simple techniques for building a turreted tower. The basics were a door and windows; the frills were staircases and cobblestone etching. For a 34-year-old, this was exceptionally fun.

We stopped for a quick lunch at longtime mainstay DeSoto’s Seafood Kitchen, known for its authentic Royal Reds — a premier variety of Alabama shrimp. Be prepared to twist a few heads off, but the buttery reward is worth it.

After some golden coconut shrimp and peppery au gratin potatoes, we began the 40-minute drive west to Fort Morgan, a seaside military fort built in the early 1800s and used during the Spanish-American War and both World Wars. A National Historic Landmark, it features spacious grounds with networks of connected rooms, tunnels and budding stalactites. The up-close access to history is amazing. In the distance, ships and oil rigs lay beyond the sea birds resting on cement blocks as waves splash against them.

We sought shade in the nearby Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge and took a relaxing 1-mile loop walk through the Jeff Friend Trail, which put us in the thick of a serene jungle. Surrounded by towering long-leaf pines, ferns and saw palmettos, we glimpsed only a tiny lizard, but heard a symphony of bird songs, squirrel chatter and plenty of mysterious fluttering from the bushes. Dirt trails led to a waterfront boardwalk before it curved into a lily-pad-filled bog.

The last stop for the evening was the lovely Jesse’s On The Bay. Upstairs, a fine-dining restaurant serves dry-aged steaks and fresh seafood. Downstairs, a bar called The Cold Hole serves cocktails.

Just steps from the bay, we watched the sun go down in a fiery blaze while sipping colorful drinks — the best way to end the day.

Cruising the coast

Saturday began with a free, heart-pumping 5-mile bike ride through Gulf State Park. Our tour guide, Corey, led us past grassy marshes, through ridges and across creeks. The oak canopies dripping with Spanish moss evoked the Southern gothic aesthetic you’d expect from Tennesee Williams.

In the evening, we sailed into the gulf on a yellow catamaran with Sail Wild Hearts. We enjoyed complimentary snacks and yacht rock as we savored our last magnificent sunset. A family of dolphins jumped beside us.

Before we left, we ate at Big Fish Restaurant and Bar — an unassuming fine dining gem on the end of a single-story strip mall — and CoastAL, a beachy brunch spot with fresh seafood, pastries and massive cinnamon rolls. I had been looking forward to Big Fish for its beloved sushi, which did not disappoint. Straightforward and simple, the cucumber salad, pork gyoza and classic tuna roll were everything I’d hoped for. Get there early or be ready to wait.

With phenomenal food, views, access to nature and soft beaches, plus all the Southern hospitality you’d expect, Alabama’s Gulf Coast was a lovely antidote for Chicago’s fickle spring. It was a well-balanced mix of commercial and local, hometown and upscale. I could have spent longer exploring the area and would happily return.

For those who can’t make it for a summer vacation, a trip in mid-April is also a good bet. The weather is perfect and there are fewer crowds.

Linze Rice is a freelancer.

Riot Fest will move from Douglass Park in North Lawndale to a new location set to be revealed Wednesday, its founder shared on social media Tuesday night.

The multiday punk, rock and hip-hop festival has occurred in Douglass Park since 2015, but tensions among festival management and residents have mounted in recent years over issues including complaints of lack of access to the park and disruptions to the neighborhood by a music festival.

Founder Mike Petrynshyn promised to unveil a new concept he called “RiotLand” Wednesday morning in a statement posted to X, formerly known as Twitter.

In the statement, Petrynshyn thanked Ald. Monique Scott, 24th, for her support of the event and said that the Chicago Park District was “solely” responsible for the festival’s move.

“Their lack of care for the community, you and us ultimately left us no choice,” the statement said.

Scott, for her part, also pinned the move on “challenges” with the Park District as she expressed her support for the festival’s organizers in a statement Tuesday evening. The city department granted the festival approval months late, she said.

“This unnecessary and inappropriate delay in the process, among many other issues, has led to critical setbacks in areas that include, but are not limited to, operational, financial, and community initiatives,” Scott said.

The festival had earned widespread community support with “unprecedented benefits for the local community,” she added. She called the opposition to the festival a “false narrative” and said it came from “only a small group of people,” some of whom do not live in the neighborhood.

The 2024 lineup and ticket sales for the festival running Sept. 20 through 22, will be released Wednesday at 10 a.m, according to the festival announcement.