![]() ![]() ![]() The hero of the series is Carmen (Carmy) Berzatto, a driven hot shot who until recently had been running the kitchen at the (unnamed) best restaurant in the world, somewhere in New York City. It’s the aroma that would be pumped into a Smell-O-Vision showing of “The Bear,” which is about a decorated fine-dining chef who returns to Chicago to take over his family’s Italian-beef shop, and to try to save it from disaster. (I get mine “sweet and hot, dipped”-both kinds of peppers, plus a full-sandwich dunk in the beefy broth in which the meat has braised for hours.) There’s a smell these restaurants share that’s found in no other place on earth: a layered, rough, masculine perfume of meat and garlic and fryer oil and Formica laminate and sweet, yeasty bread. I can summon in an instant the sense memory of stepping inside the doors of Johnnie’s Beef or Al’s on Taylor, and the newborn-like heft of a warm, paper-wrapped beef sandwich. The color scheme is brown and beige the diverse, largely blue-collar clientele who line up for lunch every day are a glad-handing politician’s dream the menus rarely stray from short-order classics and local specialties. Not quite a diner, not quite a deli, not quite a fast-food joint, it is a storefront establishment with big plate-glass windows, grubby in a reassuring way, with illuminated signs that advertise Italian beef or gyros. The excellent new FX show “The Bear” takes place in a type of restaurant that only exists in Chicago. ![]()
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