The Business of Food with Steve Alexander

There’s a company in Chicago’s Medical District that has figured out how to replace petroleum in the manufacture of many everyday items, from house paint to bandages to diapers. In the audio clip above, Justin Brown, the CEO of Låkril Technologies, tells how its proprietary technology converts low-cost lactic acid (from renewable sugars like corn, cane, beets, etc.) into a substance that is molecule-for-molecule the same as petroleum-based chemicals, and can be dropped in by manufacturers worldwide. Lakril currently operates four labs, the most recent of which is producing larger quantities of the bio-acrylic acids to be shipped to manufacturers for testing. If all goes as expected, there will be another round of fundraising to build a much larger scale plant, and then the technology would be licensed to end users globally.

Once again, corn is proving it can replace petroleum-based plastics in a commonly-used product: filters for HVAC systems in home and commercial systems. Aerterra (a combination of the Latin words for air and earth), a Chicago-area company, spins fiber for the filters from a by-product of corn. In the audio clip above, Mike Malloy, co-founder of Aerterra, tells WGN’s Steve Alexander about the process of using polylactic acid derived from corn, the same field corn grown by the millions of acres across the Midwest, to create fibers that are then made into air filters.

Like most great ideas, Aerterra started with a problem. Or problems. Malloy says In the wake of COVID and the wildfire smoke that settled on Chicago, he and co-founder Curtis Firestone were looking for sustainable ways to make indoor air healthier.

Unlike traditional filters made from fiberglass and petroleum products, the Aerterra filters made from corn are compostable. They are available direct to your home on the Aerterra website in an assortment of sizes and MERV filtration performance levels.

Aerterra won the National Corn Growers Association’s “Consider Corn Challenge 2025” for its new use of field corn.

The City of Chicago has 27 locations where you can take your Christmas tree to be recycled, and where you can later pick up mulch for your garden. The full list and a link to a map are shown below. There are eco-friendly alternatives, though, as noted in the audio clip above with WGN’s Steve Alexander and USDA Extension forester Charlie Barton.

The Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation, in partnership with the Chicago Park District, is hosting its annual Holiday Tree Recycling Program at 27 locations throughout the city. Of course, these are for natural trees only, and can be dropped off inside the designated tree recycling corral at each location.

Please remove all tinsel, lights, ornaments, tree stands, and plastic bags from your tree before placing it in the corral.

The holiday trees will be chipped to create mulch, which will be available to residents for FREE pick up at six of the locations starting Monday, January 5. Thousands of trees are diverted from landfills each year and turned into tree mulch for residents and local parks. Over 22,000 trees were recycled in 2025.

Locations are listed in alphabetical order:

BESSEMER PARK – 8930 S. Muskegon Ave. 

CLARK PARK – 3400 N. Rockwell St. 

* FORESTRY SITE – 900 E. 103rd St. – free mulch available 

GARFIELD PARK – 100 N. Central Park Ave. 

GRANT PARK – 900 S. Columbus Dr. 

HIAWATHA PARK – 8029 W. Forest Preserve Dr. 

HUMBOLDT PARK BOATHOUSE – 1369 N. Sacramento Ave. 

JACKSON PARK – 6300 S. Cornell Ave. 

KELVYN PARK – 4438 W. Wrightwood Ave. 

KENNEDY PARK – 2427 W. 113th St. 

LAKE MEADOWS PARK – 3117 S. Rhodes Ave. 

*LINCOLN PARK – East side of Cannon Dr., north of Fullerton Ave. – free mulch available 

MAHALIA JACKSON PARK – 8385 S. Birkhoff Ave. 

*MARGATE PARK – 4921 N. Marine Dr. – free mulch available 

MARQUETTE PARK – 6700 S. Kedzie Ave. 

MCKINLEY PARK – 2210 W. Pershing Rd. 

*MT. GREENWOOD PARK – 3721 W. 111th St. – free mulch available 

*NORTH PARK VILLAGE – 5801 N. Pulaski Rd. – free mulch available 

NORWOOD PARK (Service Yard) – 5800 N. Avondale Ave. 

PORTAGE PARK – 4100 N. Long Ave. 

RIIS PARK – 6201 W. Wrightwood Ave. 

ROWAN PARK – 11546 S. Avenue L 

SHERIDAN PARK – 910 S. Aberdeen St. 

WALSH PARK – 1722 N. Ashland Ave. 

*WARREN PARK – 6601 N. Western Ave. – free mulch available 

WENTWORTH PARK – 5701 S. Narragansett Ave. 

WEST CHATHAM PARK – 8223 S. Princeton Ave. 

For more information, please email [email protected] or call 312-744-2413. 

Here’s a link to a map to find a Holiday Tree Recycling location near you: https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/sites/chicago-recycles/home/holiday-tree-recycling.html

To understand why Revolution Brewing named its Christmas beer “Fistmas,” look no further than the company’s logo: a raised fist. “Craft beer is nothing short of a revolution,” says the founder, CEO, and self-described Chairman of the Party, Josh Deth. In the audio clip above, he tells WGN’s Steve Alexander, “When we came along, we thought we were going to really change the world of beer in this town and I really believe, in my heart, that we have.”

It took a while. In the mid-’90s, Deth (pronounced Deeth) was brewing beer in his Chicago home when he landed a job in the burgeoning craft brew industry. The now-defunct Golden Prairie Brewing is where he began at the bottom: cleaning kegs and scrubbing tanks. He went on to work for the iconic Goose Island brewery as a cellar man and brewpub brewer. That’s where he got the itch to open his own brewery. After a few false starts, he and his wife, Krista, and some friends opened Handlebar in 2003.

It wasn’t until 2010 that his plans, and fundraising, came together and he began building Revolution Brewing in a cool old building with a nice tin ceiling on Milwaukee Avenue near Logan Square. The brewery and tap room opened in spring 2012, but the big event in Revolution’s young history was the purchase of a production brewery on Kedzie just north of Belmont in 2022. That is where Revolution’s production capacity multiplied, and in 2017, Revolution Brewing became the 40th largest craft brewery and 50th largest overall brewery in the country according to the Brewers Association Top 50 Brewing Companies by Sales Volume, and is the largest independent brewery in Illinois. It currently distributes in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nashville, New Jersey, New York City, and Wisconsin. 

What Deth is proud of the many varieties of beer he produces, he seems just as proud of what’s on Revolution’s roof: solar panels. Lots of them. “We’ve got a big roof. When you have a big building and a big roof, you can have a lot of solar panels. It’s an investment in the long haul, and we plan to be here in Chicago making beer for a long time.” Each spring and summer, when the solar panels are performing at their peak, and demand for beer is at its highest, Revolution brews Sun Crusher. (If you’re into Star Wars, you’ll get the reference. If you aren’t, it doesn’t matter if you enjoy the beer.)

The solar panels, and Revolution has just installed its second set, don’t provide all of the electricity needs for the big brewery, 15 to 20 percent, but “it’s really contributing to save us some money and do the right thing; cut down on carbon emissions and generate a little power here locally. It actually reduces stress on the power grid.” Does it pay for itself? “It does,” says Deth. “It takes about six, seven years.” He adds that various state and federal incentives can help at different stages of operation. “We’ve actually paid off our first system already, and now we’re moving on to the second system.”

Deth says Revolution produces dozens of different beer styles every year. “We bring a lot of interesting flavors and styles,” he says. The list includes IPAs –“Anti-Hero IPA is our number one flagship beer, the best selling IPA in Illinois”– porters, pilsners, Belgian-style ales, pale ales, and barrel-aged beers—including Barley Wine, which he says sits in a bourbon barrel for up to two years and develops “wonderful caramel and toffee flavors that are just exquisite.” And Barley Wine has a kick. He says the ABV runs 14 to 15 percent. “It’ll warm you in these cold days of winter.”

“It’s just great to be making beer here in the heart of the city, using Lake Michigan water, the greatest source of fresh water in the world, the Great Lakes.”

Remember those kids birthday parties where you had to be sooooo careful about serving your child’s friends anything containing peanuts?  The allergies were real. The scientific advice to deal with allergens by total avoidance, it turns out, was wrong.  

Around the turn of the century, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended delaying exposing babies and toddlers to peanut products. That advice turned out to be a little… nutty. Instead of a reduction in allergies, we saw an explosion. Time, and further studies, led science to change its view. In 2015, a study found that giving peanut products to children under three could actually REDUCE their chances of developing a peanut allergy. Allergies are real, no doubt, but researchers found that how the body adapts to the allergens is the key.

That was around the time Erica Bethe Levin was starting a family, and her pediatrician advised her to introduce her babies to peanuts, and all the suspected food allergens so that their bodies immune systems could figure out how to deal with them. Just this fall, a study published in the journal Pediatrics, validated what her doctor’s advice, not just for peanuts, but other food allergens, too.

In the audio clip above, she tells WGN’s Steve Alexander that as she tried to implement her doctor’s directions, she found it impossible to buy baby food that embraced the science. So, in her Lincoln Park kitchen, she started her own company: GloBowl, which she describes as “internationally-inspired baby and toddler meals for future foodies.” She found a market, with hundreds of thousands of jars of Globowl baby food sold nationwide. “We started with Pad Thai for Tots, Veggie Tikka Masala, Baby Spices Bean Bowl, kind of like a chili, and Yaya’s Medi-Bowl. We’ve also added Mini-Strone, and Baby Bibimpbap.”

“It’s time to follow what the doctors are recommending, follow the science. Science is ever changing and that’s OK. It’s because we learn more and more as we go, and now that we know this, I think it’s our duty to do better for our children and Globowl is trying to lead the way in that regard.”

Globowl is sold on line: Amazon, Thrive Market, and Globowl.com, with a TikTok shop coming soon.

When you think of Denny’s, the breakfast served 24/7, the Grand Slam, or the cleverly named breakfast sandwich “Moons Over My Hammy” probably stand out. Any time, day or night, Denny’s is there to sate your appetite.

What you don’t think of when you think of Denny’s, and what I’m confident Harold Butler and Richard Jezak weren’t thinking of when they founded Denny’s (first as Danny’s Donuts in Lakewood, California) in 1953, was selling shoes.

But here we are, 72 years later, and Denny’s is celebrating National Maple Syrup Day on Wednesday, December 12th, by dropping its first drip. (I’m told “drip” is a compliment for streetwear.) In the audio clip above, Ellie Doty, the Chief Brand Officer of Denny’s tells WGN’s Steve Alexander that the diner chain is launching Sticky Kicks – the first-ever sneakers made with real Denny’s pancake syrup. They are a collaboration with famed footwear artist and designer Mache.

As you can see in the attached photo, the shoes have clear pockets where the syrup resides, and where it’s supposed to stay: “Do not puncture the shoes or eat the syrup from the shoes for any reason. These drips are for style only, so leave it that way,” cautions Doty. Even though the syrup is real, do you really want to taste it after it’s been in a shoe? Doty doesn’t think that will be a problem and she doesn’t think many people will actually walk around in the shoes because they are a collectible. Only a limited number are being made, sizes 8-13, and the cost is $195.

If you want a pair, you can order beginning at 11 a.m. Chicago time on 12/17 at DinerDrip.com. You’ll need to be in Denny’s rewards program and Doty suggests signing up before the drip drops so you’re ready to go at 11.

Until Sunday’s loss at Green Bay, the Bears had won eight in a row. Is it a coincidence that the Bears began their winning streak after the co-owners and operators of Kneads and Wants, a Skokie bakery, were featured as a Chicago Bears Small Business All-Pro? Perhaps, but Madeleine England, who runs the bakery with her wife, Maria, and son, Dylan, thinks her war cry, featured in the audio above, which she let loose as the Bears players ran onto the field to play Dallas on September 21st, may have been the spark.

“We were on the field, holding the flag and the players were running out of the tunnel, like, right at me,” remembers Madeleine. “I’m pretty sure my war cries were the thing that turned them around. I’m just sayin’.”

Being named a Chicago Bears Small Business All-Pro meant Kneads and Wants was given the marketing muscle that comes with being featured on the Bears website and newsletter, not to mention the pre-game on-field exposure which included being on the Jumbotron at Soldier Field. “We’re extremely thankful,” says England.

Kneads and Wants Artisan Bakery and Cafe opened six years ago in downtown Skokie, just across from the village hall. England says it is a family bakery that fresh-bakes every day and is known for the croissants and other laminated doughs the French call viennoiserie that Maria makes, including her specialty, Kouign Amann (pronounced “queen-a-mahn”), a croissant-like pastry that is a small luxury from the Brittany region of France. Kneads and Wants features a large menu of other baked items and cafe staples, including breakfast sandwiches and coffee. “Amazing coffee,” she adds.

‘Tis the season and there are a number of Christmas and holiday gift items available (such as Ted Lasso’s Biscuits With the Boss), holiday pies and cakes, and you can order your own Christmas Cake — Bûche de Noël, a yule log of a cake you can decorate at home — for pickup between December 18th and 24th.

And if you go into the bakery, which is open Monday thru Friday, 7 am to 3 pm, and Saturday and Sunday from 8 am to 3 pm, maybe Madeleine will do her now famous war cry for you.

Stan’s Donuts began in Los Angeles in 1963, after founder Stan Berman moved there in 1954 and opened the first location in Westwood. After forming a friendship and partnership, Rich Labriola of Labriola Baking Company opened the first Chicago location in 2014, and now owns and operates 17 Chicago area locations.

For a National Donut Day edition of the Business of Food, Steve Alexander learned more about Stan’s story and how Rich, “Chief Dough Boy” of Stan’s and Dough Boy Restaurant Group, is carrying on his legacy.

Sponsored by Chevy Drives Chicago.

See how WGN Radio celebrated National Donut Day with Stan’s Donuts here!

We hear a lot about omega-3 fatty acids and most of what we hear is that we don’t get enough of them in our diets. In the audio clip above, Dr. Daniel Robinson, an associate professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, and an attending physician in the Division of Neonatology at Lurie Children’s Hospital, tells WGN’s Steve Alexander about a city-wide study of Chicago adults.

Not surprisingly, the study found that parental intake of omega-3 fatty acids falls below recommended levels, with women consuming even lower amounts of omega-3 fatty acids than men. He says this deficiency, especially of two particular types of omega-3s — EPA, and DHA — may have direct negative effects on children’s health, with those impacts beginning during pregnancy.

The fix is relatively easy: eat more seafood. Dr. Robinson says oily fish such as salmon, tuna, sardines, mackerel and trout, provides the “biggest bang for your buck.” There are omega-3 supplements in capsule form, and while they can help increase someone’s levels of DHA, Dr. Robinson said the best way to consume it is in the whole food, where you’ll also get other nutrients, such as protein, vitamins and micronutrients.

You can read the complete study HERE.

As a child, Emilia D’Albero loved cheese. Most kids do, but few take it as far as she did, all the way to the “Olympics of Cheese” — the Mondial du Fromage, a biennial event held in Tours, France, that combines a trade show for dairy professionals with a juried cheese tasting and the World’s Best Cheesemonger competition. It’s a day-long series of challenges, ranging from written and oral tests to blind taste tests and cheese sculpting, giving mongers a chance to show off their skills while representing their country.

In the audio clip above, Emilia tells WGN’s Steve Alexander how she and her USA teammate, Courtney Johnson, made history. Emilia took the gold medal and Courtney the bronze, the first Americans to ever reach the awards podium.

Historic wins for Team U.S.A. 

Emilia, from Philadelphia’s Formaticum, and Courtney Johnson of Seattle’s Street Cheese, became the first all-female American team in the competition, which drew 18 candidates from 14 countries, including Algeria, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, China, France, Italy, Japan, Peru, Spain, and Switzerland. D’Albero also became the first American to win gold; France’s Matthieu Thuillier took silver.

In the cheese competition, Switzerland’s Le Gruyère AOP Vieux, crafted by Simon Miguet of Fromagerie La Côte-aux-Fées, earned Best in Show among more than 1,900 submissions.