Devon Avenue on Chicago's far north side holds one of the densest runs of Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi restaurants in the country — biryani houses next to chaat counters next to sweet shops. There's no good map of it. We're walking the avenue block by block and writing one: a plain-text index, organized by cuisine, with the details that actually matter when you're choosing where to eat.
The index
The first edition is being researched now. Below is the structure of the finished index, with one example entry per section so you can see the format. The examples are illustrative, not real businesses — real entries are added only after we've eaten there.
The backbone of the avenue: karahi, nihari, tandoor breads, and the long-simmered pots that built Devon's reputation. This will be the largest section of the index.
Two or three sentences on what the kitchen does best, written from a visit — which pot to order, what comes with it, when the tandoor line is shortest.
Dosa and idli houses, filter coffee, thali lunches. Fewer in number on Devon than the northern kitchens, which makes knowing the good ones matter more.
What the griddle turns out, how the sambar runs, whether the thali changes daily. Same format as every section: described, not scored.
The counters: pani puri and samosa chaat, falooda, jalebi by weight, mithai boxes for every occasion. The section most likely to make you leave the house.
Which counter item travels and which doesn't, what's fried to order, what sells out by evening.
Bangladeshi kitchens, kabab grills, buffets, and the avenue's handful of outliers that fit no section but belong in the index anyway.
How we list
No entry is compiled from menus or other websites. If we haven't sat down and ordered, the restaurant isn't in the edition yet.
No stars, no rankings, no "best of." Each entry says what a kitchen does well and who it suits, and lets you choose.
Restaurants can't pay to appear, to rank, or to edit their entry. Corrections of fact are always welcome; rewrites are not for sale.
Guide waitlist
We're working the avenue roughly west to east, a few kitchens a week. When the first edition publishes, waitlist readers get it first — the full index, plus notes on what didn't make it in and why.
If you run a restaurant on Devon, there's nothing to do: being open is the only requirement, and we'll find you.