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The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) issued a notice on December 29 to state medical-licensed marijuana dispensaries that stated curbside pickup for medical patients would stop at the start of 2023. But just five days later, the department extended the variance through January 31.

In the December notice to dispensaries, the IDFPR wrote “there will be no further extensions of this variance.” 

Dina Rollman, senior vice president of government affairs at Green Thumb Industries, was unsure about why the variance needed to end in the first place.

“We have taken steps to try to understand what the purported reason was for ending curbside and we have been unable to discern any basis for it whatsoever,” she said.

Green Thumb Industries operates 77 dispensaries across the country under the brand name Rise, ten of which are in Illinois, the maximum allowed by state law. Five of the Illinois dispensaries are dual-purpose facilities, meaning they sell cannabis for recreational and medical patients.

The variance instituted by the IDFPR, the regulatory arm of Illinois’s cannabis market, is centered around the security and recordkeeping subsection of the medical marijuana program law. The IDFPR did not respond to requests for comment.

“We’re not aware of any negative occurrences that would remotely justify taking away curbside,” Rollman said when asked if any security issues have arisen.

GTI is the only multi-state operator in Illinois that offers curbside or roll-thru at all of their Illinois dual-purpose dispensaries in Canton, Effingham, Joliet, Mundelein and Naperville.

“It’s really great for those who are immunocompromised or who have physical limitations,” Rollman said. “Especially during a midwest winter when you can also add weather conditions. It’s really a nice offering to be able to let patients stay in their car and transact their business.

“Not only has COVID been an ongoing concern for our patients but there are other respiratory ailments that are making their rounds,” Rollman said. According to the Illinois Wastewater Surveillance System, which monitors levels of disease-causing pathogens in sewer systems, COVID-19 cases have been on the rise since late December.

Other major multi-state operators in Illinois such as Cresco Labs and PharmaCann, which operate Sunnyside and Verilife respectively, do not offer curbside pickup at any of their dual-purpose dispensaries.

While the pause on canceling curbside pickup was welcomed by medical marijuana patients, many the Reader spoke to say it should be extended indefinitely.

“I feel like they don’t understand the effect of how that’s going to compromise some patients’ ability to get their medication and care that they need,” said Emily Mosher, a medical patient since June 2020 and former employee at dual-purpose dispensary Hatch in Addison.

“It just didn’t make any sense to me,” said Michael Viles, 67, who has been a medical card holder since October 2019. “I’ve got a wife at home; she’s got [respiratory] complications. I can’t afford to drag any germs home with me, and I try to do every precaution I can.”

Since Governor J.B. Pritzker lifted the statewide mask mandate on February 28, 2022, masking has dropped off inside businesses all over the city, dispensaries included.

“I guarantee you when you go in the dispensaries, nobody’s wearing masks anymore, and some of them I go into are small dispensaries and it’s pretty crowded, so I didn’t like it,” Viles said.

There is a real need for options, especially for people living with disabilities as some medical patients are, said Laura Saltzman, transportation policy analyst at Access Living, a civil rights group dedicated to helping people living with disability.

“Transportation is already difficult and complicated for people with disabilities, making things as easy as possible is good. Limiting the complications is so necessary,” Saltzman said. “COVID is permanent, this variance built around COVID should be permanent.”

Ryan Sykes, a medical consultation advisor at dual-purpose dispensary NuEra in East Peoria, said that curbside is one of the positive changes that were instituted when COVID forced the state to reconsider procedures. The application process for a medical cannabis card was digitized, and the state switched to digital proof instead of printed cards. Also, medical patients were no longer required to shop at a single dispensary.

Curbside pickup is “beneficial for all parties involved. Just along the lines of the same with the other COVID improvements,” Sykes said. “It really is just a quality-of-life improvement for people that are already marginalized and disadvantaged in ways that most other people don’t have to deal with.”In early December, while touring the first social equity dispensary in Illinois, Governor J.B. Pritzker said he was open to the idea of allowing dispensaries to deliver cannabis to people who make online orders. The governor’s office did not respond to requests for comment about curbside pickup.

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On January 5, workers at Howard Brown Health Center ended a three-day strike that was spurred by the sudden layoffs of more than five dozen employees at the organization’s clinics. The workers are vowing to continue to fight to reinstate their jobs and have lingering concerns about the organization’s finances and leadership.

The crisis began in November 2021, when workers learned of impending layoffs that were initially scheduled to happen on January 3rd. But several workers who spoke to the Reader say Howard Brown’s management enacted the layoffs without warning four early, on December 30th.

D’Eva Longoria didn’t know that her last day working at Howard Brown would end so abruptly. She was aware she was among the 60 people Howard Brown Health Clinic planned to lay off, but was surprised when her computer screen went blank while she was in the middle of assisting a patient during her last shift. Without warning, Longoria says, everyone being laid off lost access to their work emails, work phones, and the platform the organization uses to speak with patients. Longoria was letting a patient know when they’re next PrEP appointment was, who she isn’t sure will be able to make it now. “I have no way of reaching out to that person. I don’t know their number,” she said. 

Longoria has been a PrEP Community Engagement Specialist at Howard Brown since March 2019. She technically worked out of the Sheridan clinic, but her real office hours were spent out in the community, passing out condoms at 71st and Pulaski, doing outreach at La Cueva in Little Village, and talking to queer and trans immigrants newly arrived about how to get queer and trans affirming health care. 

Longoria says that management had told those being laid off nothing about what to expect or what to tell their patients. She and the others only just learned they were getting laid off less than a month before. She hopes that people who rely on her for the outreach and programming she does see the video she posted in Spanish on her social media. 

Protesters delivered a list of demands to CEO David Munar’s home in December. Jennifer Bamberg

Rumors of mass layoffs began circulating among staff members in early November, according to workers who spoke with the Reader, and on the first day of bargaining between the newly formed union and management, management dropped a bomb after listening to the union side list go over standard union proposals for over an hour. They would start offering buyouts for voluntary separation for 83 positions, offering severance pay based on how long people have been there. No one in the union took it, but an unspecified number of people in middle management did. 

The union, representing 440 employees, filed charges against Howard Brown Health over 21 violations of the National Labor Relations Act. Eighty percent of the union submitted ballots and 92 percent voted yes to go on a three-day strike in response. 

The organization says it’s facing losses at $1 million per month for the next year due to changes in a federal program called 340B, and the layoffs are necessary to correct course, but workers say they believe the layoffs are part of a union-busting strategy and indicate a deeper crisis of trust with leadership. 

“We do not see how we can sustain the level of workforce that we have today without putting the organization and our mission in jeopardy,” said CEO David Munar in an interview with the Reader. 

In regards to the question of whether or not the organization is targeting union members, a representative from Howard Brown Health said in a written statement to the Reader that said,“The workforce reduction impacted a significant number of union-represented employees because the large majority of our administrative employees are represented by the union, not because we in any way intend to discourage union participation,” and that they “respect the right of our valued workforce to union representation and have been committed to recognizing their bargaining unit and negotiating a fair contract.”

The union that represents the workers being laid off, however, thinks otherwise. “It’s an opportunistic time,” said the Illinois Nurses Association staff attorney Matt Bartmes. “Essentially, they’ve known about the changes in the 340B pharmacy program, which they attribute as the cause of their budget issues. But they chose to use that as a justification to reduce forces, right as a newly formed union was starting to bargain their first contract.”

The wall-to-wall union was officially recognized by the National Labor Relations Board in August of 2022, and represents a variety of non-nursing roles from case managers to chiropractors, many of whom cited under-staffing and overwork as reasons for getting organized. Materials the union shared with its members in December state that the union had filed Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charges with the NLRB alleging ten violations of labor laws, including targeting employees active in the union and refusing to bargain in good faith. Unfair Labor Practice charges are among the most serious ones a union can level at an employer, and are investigated by the NLRB’s general counsel. 

Howard Brown is the largest nonprofit health clinic in the Midwest dedicated to serving low income LGBTQ patients. It made over $​​213 million in total revenue during their 2020-2021 fiscal year, and kept $30 million of that after expenses, according to the clinic’s latest financial data.  Just eight years ago, the clinic made a fraction of that–keeping only $4 million after expenses. 

The secret to its success, and now its financial and existential crisis, is a federal program called 340B. The program allows clinics and hospitals to buy prescription drugs at steep discounts from pharmaceutical companies, but still charge insurers the regular price. Clinics get to keep the change, which can range from a few extra dollars to over $20,000 for just one dose (in the case of some cancer treatments), depending on the drug and the patient’s insurance. 

Clinics that serve the LGBTQ+ community made huge profits via 340B over the past several years thanks mostly to PrEp, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, a world-changing class of HIV-preventing drugs that work better than condoms at protecting people at high risk of acquiring HIV. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) credits the drugs with helping drive the modest but not insubstantial eight percent decrease in estimated annual HIV transmissions in the US between 2015 and 2019.

Gilead Sciences, the maker of the original name-brand versions of PrEP, Descovy and Truvada, had provided huge cash reimbursements to clinics for uninsured patients that take the brand-name PrEP through a charity program called Advancing Access. But on January 1, 2022, Gilead drastically lowered the amount of those reimbursements. 

Not only that, but Truvada went generic with nine different drugs in that class in October 2020, which made the drug more accessible to more people, but struck a blow to Federally Qualified Health Centers’ (FQHCs)’ pocket books. Generics fetch next to nothing compared to brand-name drugs under 340B. 

Clinics used to be able to make upwards of $1,600 for just one 30-day supply for a single patient. And according to Munar, Howard Brown prescribes PrEP to around 4,000 patients across the city, many of them uninsured. The profit is considered “unrestricted funding”, so clinics are allowed to use the money for anything, as long as it benefits all patients, from clinical costs and lab tests, advertising, gender affirming care counselors, outreach workers, and other services.  

Workers at Howard Brown say that the organization knew about this loss of revenue years in advance but did little to prepare. Munar told the Reader that leadership thought they “had more time to study our operating teams, but the 340B situation has expedited the need to do that.” 

According to the workers, leadership chose to invest nearly $50 million into a new clinic on the north side at the expense of improving care for mostly poor, mostly Black patients who depend on the organization’s crumbling clinics on the south side, all while using the crisis as a cover for union busting. 

The successes of PrEP have been uneven, and transmission rates for Black and Latinx populations nationwide, and especially on Chicago’s south side, are failing to plunge at the same rate as gay white men and white men who have sex with men.

New HIV diagnoses in Chicago rose by 2 percent in 2021 after years of decline. And while the highest rates of people living with HIV who engage in care live on the city’s north side, the neighborhoods with the highest incident rates of individuals newly diagnosed with HIV overwhelmingly live on the south side. 

Although Howard Brown’s four clinics on the south side are smaller and have fewer staff than those on the north side, a third of the positions cut by leadership worked at the south side clinics. Cynthia McDonald, a case manager for people below the age of 26  living with HIV, worries what will happen to her clients now that she’s been laid off. 

“I’m really afraid patients will fall out of care because I’m not there to help them navigate things,” she said.

McDonald’s position was funded in part by the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, a federal program that supports public institutions and non-profits with grant funding to provide HIV care and treatment. In a statement emailed to the Reader, a representative from Howard Brown said, “Howard Brown’s Ryan White HIV case management program has historically not been covered 100 percent by federal grant funds. By moving to 100 percent grant funding for Ryan White positions, the organization was able to reduce the group by 1 full-time position.”

McDonald thinks she was laid off for reasons other than financial. “I had up a sign that said, ‘Proud Union Home,’ and I have been outspoken in the past,” She said, adding that she’s attended every bargaining session between the union and management when they’re held on her days off. “Any person that has been honest about the malfeasance of management, specifically of the [Executive Leadership Team], have been placed on [the layoff] list,” she said. 

Shakia Flowers feels the same way. Her position as a behavioral health consultant at the 63rd Street clinic in Englewood was also cut. She’s also on the union’s bargaining committee. Four members of the union’s 20-person bargaining committee were among those laid off, which she says is no coincidence.

“There are several members who have been laid off, myself included, who were elected by our peers to represent [them]. It’s our job to speak up for the 63rd Street Clinic. And [management’s] response is to lay me off,” Flowers said. “I was a very vocal person in terms of speaking out against the issues that people are facing at Howard Brown.” 

Howard Brown’s profits have shot through the roof since becoming an Federally Qualified Health Center in 2016, which allowed the clinic to participate in the 340B program. According to their most recent tax data, a whopping 86 percent of their profits came from the program alone. Those massive windfalls allowed the organization to expand services to the city’s south and west sides by opening five new clinics and building a permanent new home for their youth center on the north side. 

In a written statement to the Reader, a representative from Howard Brown said that they have used these profits to “invest in supporting programs that run at deficit, charity care for patients, infrastructure and technology improvements, site acquisition, clinic improvements, and capital planning,” meaning, the construction of a $50 million clinic on the north side. 

Traditional dating isn’t for everyone. Some people want serious relationships while others want something more casual, like a hookup. The taboo around casual dating has subsided in recent years. Casual daters have plenty of options, but most opt to try hookup sites to find what (and who) they want.

Different sites cater to different tastes. A site’s speciality is not always immediately apparent. So it can be a challenge to find the right site for you. That’s where we come in. We’ve signed up for and tried the best hookup sites and apps for casual encounters to get some action.

Let’s dive into the reviews and ratings.

Click ↓ next to the name of the site to jump straight to the review.

Best Hookup Sites and Apps for Casual Dating in 2023

RankSiteBest For1.Adult FriendFinder ↓Best overall hookup site2. BuddyBang ↓Runner-up3.BeNaughty ↓Best for flirtiest singles4.Ashley Madison ↓Best for affairs5.Seeking ↓Best for sugar baby/sugar daddy/mommy6.ALT ↓Best for alternative and BDSM sex7.OKCupid ↓Top choice for millennials8.Hinge ↓Somewhat serious, but mostly FWB9.Zoosk ↓Best for short-term dating10.Bumble ↓Best for women11.Plenty of Fish ↓Best for lots of options12.Tinder ↓Most popular app13.Pure App ↓Best for fantasy based14.Feeld ↓Most open-minded singles15.Sex Messenger ↓Best for anonymous hookups16.Reddit R4R ↓Best completely free option

1.  Adult FriendFinder – Best overall hookup site

SpecificationRatingUser experience★★★★★Real profiles★★★★★Success rate★★★★★Customer service★★★★

Adult FriendFinder is one of the oldest hookup sites and remains one of the most popular. oldest and most popular hookup site. Although its name sound relatively innocent, you can think of it as being short for “Adult Friends with Benefit Finder.”

Adult FriendFinder caters primarily to people looking for FWB, swinging, non-monogamous relationships, threesomes, and other more experimental arrangements. Whether you’re looking for something with NSA (no strings attached), a one-night stand to spice up your marriage, or a quick fling, you likely won’t have to go too far to find someone who’s interested.

Once you create a profile on Adult FriendFinder, you can customize your search quite a bit to make your search more efficient and find these like-minded people more quickly.

Adult FriendFinder also has bonus content such as webcam shows and erotic stories. So, if you need a little warming up before connecting with someone, you’re covered. In some senses, you can think of Adult FriendFinder as a kind of interactive PornHub, as it really is home to a large community of kinky and sex-positive people.

Membership LengthPriceOne month$39.95 totalThree months$26.95/month ($80.85 total)One year$19.95/month ($239.40 total)

What Users Think About Adult FriendFinder

“I was on another site. Met a guy who told me about Adult FriendFinder (AFF). I signed up. Have been on AFF for a little over a year and a half. Have nothing but praise. When AFF works, it WORKS! For the most part, I have met some truly wonderful men. Local men, business men coming through my area, couples. Overwhelmingly positive experience and exactly what I was looking for: no strings, no drama, casual sex.”

Need a little more info before taking the plunge? Check out our in-depth Adult FriendFinder review.

2.  BuddyBang – Runner-up

SpecificationRatingUser experience★★★★Real profiles★★★★★Success rate★★★★★Customer service★★★★★

As you might expect, BuddyBang is all about linking up people interested in no-strings-attached hookups or being friends with benefits. This no-judgment site operates like an express train to sex. Its goal is to be as simple as browse, chat, bang.

While you are not likely to find romance here, you will find plenty of passion. Horny adults flock to BuddyBang to chat and make new erotic connections. Ultimately, the goal is to arrange a meetup with a saucy stranger in your area. If you’re lucky, that one-night stand might turn into a longer-term arrangement.

With a relatively affordable monthly subscription and advanced search filters, getting laid on BuddyBang is fairly straightforward. In any case, it’s likely to be more efficient—and more bang for your buck (see what we did there)—than shelling out tons of cash for dinner dates that may lead nowhere.

Membership LengthPriceOne month$39.95 totalThree months$26.95/month ($80.85 total)One year$19.95/month ($239.40 total)

What Users Think About BuddyBang

“A lotta hookup sites out there, which means a lot of scams. Gotta be honest, at first I was skeptical of BuddyBang. Seemed like another fake site that just wanted your cash. But I was pleasantly surprised. More than that, I was very happy with my experience. I met a couple real girls here who, let’s just say, were down to get down. And that’s all I wanted. I wasn’t a creep. I kept it cool, wasn’t aggressive with messaging and it all worked. I recommend it!”

3.  BeNaughty – Best for flirty singles

SpecificationRatingUser experience★★★★★Real profiles★★★★★Success rate★★★★Customer service★★★★★

BeNaughty unsurprisingly attracts people who are kinky and after a good time. I mean, it’s right there in the name. Fortunately, breaking the ice is easy as BeNaughty gives users many different ways to connect. You can browse the gallery or enter a naughty chat room for potential dates. When you find someone you like, you can send a wink, a message, or start a live one-on-one chat.

BeNaughty works well because it gets right to the point. Users are looking for fast fun, leaving little time for hot and cold games. They want a hookup and they usually want it ASAP. BeNaughty uses a Tinder-type function that’s geography based, which helps keep your searches relevant. After all, who’s trying to drive (or fly) hundreds or thousands of miles for a one-night-stand?

Open-minded and discreet, BeNaughty provides many filtering options that help streamline your search, whether that’s for singles or couples to join. By adjusting your searches and filters, you can find your ideal scenario and dispense with people who aren’t a good fit for you.

Membership LengthPriceThree day trial$1.05/dayOne month$27.01 totalThree months$15.15/month ($45.45 total)Six months$12.24/month ($73.44 total)

What Users Think About BeNaughty

“Here you can be selective. The choice of profiles is quite large. The girls are active, many of them are constantly online. There are those who only like online communication and do not want to go on dates. However, it is their choice. If you are interested in online flirting, it will be a lot of fun with this site. Some people want more, so I’m still looking for someone to go on a real date with me.”

4.  Ashley Madison – Best for affairs

SpecificationRatingUser experience★★★★★Real profiles★★★★★Success rate★★★★★Customer service★★★★★

Ashley Madison has the reputation of being a site for affairs and discreet married dating. Its slogan is literally “Life is short. Have an affair.” The brand has become notoriously in recent years for being a site for married people to flirt and hook up.

Since the site caters to people in relationships or looking to have sex with married people, Ashley Madison is generally a place where you don’t need to fear negative judgment. It’s a great site for anyone looking to add some excitement to their life and explore the world of extramarital affairs.

Ashley Madison is the first website dedicated to helping married people have affairs, and its highly committed to discretion. Despite the backlash and its somewhat negative reputation, this site remains popular and boasts a massive database that crisscrosses the globe.

Membership TierPriceBasic100 credits at $0.59/creditClassic500 credits at $0.34/creditElite1,000 credits at $0.29/credit

You message and live chat with users in exchange for credits. It’s about 5 credits to sent a message or 50 credits/hour to live chat. For more information about credits and other aspects of the site, see our full Ashley Madison review.

What Users Think About Ashley Madison

“As a woman, I can tell you that this site works. I’ve met and hooked up with a lot of great guys. However, I will say that since there are considerably more men than women on the site you have to make yourself stand out from the crowd. Women like to be wined and dined and brought on business trips, to a nice hotel, etc… Be patient, it works. I found a great guy who I have been hooking up with on a regular basis for over 2 years now and we are very happy with the arrangement.”

5.  Seeking – Best for sugar relationships

SpecificationRatingUser experience★★★★★Real profiles★★★★★Success rate★★★★Customer service★★★★

Seeking may have undergone a brand transformation (fka Seeking Arrangement), but it still attracts a straightforward target audience: wealthy and experienced individuals seeking the young and attractive. This sugar daddy site is all about helping daddies and mommas find sugar babies or cubs for hookups.

There are many more women than men because the “sugar baby” focus attracts many young women to the site. In fact, Seeking claims to have four times the number of women than men in their database. The only real prerequisite for would-be sugar daddies is that they have money to throw around. They give priority to verified “elite members” who join with the sole intention of lavishing money and attention on would-be sugar babies.

While Seeking is a great site for beautiful young women looking for fun, attention, and a “daddy” to spoil them, it can be quite competitive for sugar babies. And the hopeless romantics out there are probably best avoiding sites such as Seeking in general. It’s much more geared toward hookups that may have a rather transaction-like feel.Women who’d like to meet a well-off older man also aren’t risking much with Seeking because it’s free for women seeking men.

Membership LengthPriceOne month$89.95/monthThree month$79.95/month ($239.85 total)Diamond (more premium features)$249.95/month

What Users Think About Seeking

“Came across them on Facebook and decided to spend a few bucks to find some men. Although not all the men were true to their description and some being scammers, it was pretty easy to find the genuinely interested ones from the fakes. It is a dating site for the wealthier crowd as we spend a lot of money but you can find a suitable candidate here.”

Still not sure or need more information? Check out our full Seeking review.

6.  ALT – Best for alternative relationships

SpecificationRatingUser experience★★★★Real profiles★★★Success rate★★★★★Customer service★★★★

ALT is a full-on casual sex website. It’s not for anyone who is on the hunt for a serious relationship. This site is all about casual sex in every form to gratify any sex-seeker! The website’s community is made up of those who are into alternative bondage, who enjoy hooking up online, live, and in-person for sex dates.

It’s a dating site that caters to people who want to find alternative, BDSM, bondage, and fetish partners who can connect online and meet in person. ALT speaks to swingers, dominatrixes, and mistresses looking for power exchange.

ALT is the leading BDSM site, with almost 2 million members. You can easily customize your fetish and find someone who is into the same kinks as you! Remember that this site is all about kink, such as orgies, being humiliated, or being tortured, and not about vanilla sex. So, if you’re looking for just plain sex, opt for another option on this list.

Membership TierPriceSilver$19.95/monthGold$29.95/month

What Users Think About ALT

“Don’t listen to all the haters!!!! Alt.com is one of the best sites. Been using it in the past and it worked quite good. Nowadays I’d also try Casuasexonly.com and Fetlife.com. And there are also a few smaller sites that work but they are more ‘special niche sites’.”

7. OKCupid – Best for millennials and young people

SpecificationRatingUser experience★★★★★Real profiles★★★★★Success rate★★★Customer service★★★★★

OKCupid is a mainstream dating app that caters to many different kinds of relationships. It provides a multitude of choices for millennials looking not just for long-term relationships but options for short-term relationships, casual dating, and hookups. All you have to do is set that as what you are looking for, and they match you to like-minded people!

This site gears toward a generally younger audience—the age group between 18-29. This site is also one of the most inclusive mainstream dating websites that includes many gender and orientation options, helping you zero in on the particular pool of choices you want!

OKCupid may be a mainstream dating app that includes finding long-term relationships, but given its wide range of options, filters, and preferences, it’s a great app for hookups and casual sex as well. Just be up-front and be prepared to meet a great bunch of locals looking for the same things as you.

Membership LengthPriceOne month$19.95 totalSix months$9.95/month ($59.70 total)

What Users Think About OKCupid

“OkCupid is a dating app worth checking out. For the most part I have been disappointed with my dating app experiences. I have been pleasantly surprised with the results from OkCupid. There seems to be an endless supply of genuine women interested in a relationship. After several weeks of using the app for free, I decided to become a subscriber. I have been satisfied with my decision.”

8.  Hinge – Best for hybrid serious and FWB relationships

SpecificationRatingUser experience★★★★★Real profiles★★★★★Success rate★★★★Customer service★★★★★

Hinge is a mainstream dating app that focuses on finding real romance—but it is also used to find casual sex and friends with benefits. The truth about Hinge is that it’s “designed to be deleted.”

But fear not! This app is incredibly popular with the younger crowd (18 to 29 years of age) and has filters to state the nature of the relationship you’re interested in. This setup is the best for friends with benefits because you have to answer questions about yourself and your preferences, which will bring you closer to meeting someone you share similar interests with and are attracted to!

Hinge is a great hookup app for those who want to find a casual relationship where you hook up with the same person a few times instead of just a one-night stand. Just be straight up with what you’re looking for—and you might just meet a new FWB with absolutely no strings attached.

Membership LengthPriceOne month$19.95 totalThree months$20.99 totalSix months$29.99 total

What Users Think About Hinge

“Hinge is amazing! I think the thing that I like about it is that if you don’t pay it limits you to 10 likes a day and so it’s more likely that people will pay attention to you rather than getting distracted by yet another profile. And everyone is more careful about who they pick so if you match you’re more likely to talk I think. It also does a great job of conversation prompts that go with photos or without. Definitely check it out.”

9.  Zoosk – Best for short term dating

SpecificationRatingUser experience★★★★Real profiles★★★★★Success rate★★★Customer service★★★★

Zoosk is a great short-term dating site that is internationally famous. It has a community of 35 million users in 80 different countries, and it is open to singles of all ages, races, religions, and sexual orientations—making it one of the most diverse casual dating apps.

This app may not be the best for casual hookups and one-night stands, but it is a good contender for short-term dating. If you’re in your early to mid-20s, you’ll find a great selection of singles who are interested in short-term or casual relationships.

Membership LengthPriceOne month$29.95 totalThree months$19.98/month ($59.94 total)Six months$12.49/month ($74.94 total)

What Users Think About Zoosk

“Satisfied with the outcome, pretty good dating site. I think the price is OK and I liked the option of pausing account, very useful when you’re trying to focus on one person. As we all know, it takes several attempts to meet someone you are really interested in.”

10.  Bumble – Safest for women

SpecificationRatingUser experience★★★★★Real profiles★★★★★Success rate★★★★Customer service★★★★★

Bumble has gained a reputation for being different from most other mainstream dating and hookup apps. If you haven’t heard of this app already, Bumble is one of the first and only sites where women make the first move and get to screen potential men immediately. Men simply cannot reach out to any women unless they’ve initiated contact and interest.

It is catered towards and attracts more women than men looking to mingle or find networking opportunities, friends, or hookups! Even though it has a relatively positive and clean rep, it’s a great site for educated, good-looking men who are searching for successful, bold women.

Membership TierPricePremium$8.99/month

What Users Think About Bumble

“The Bumble app has an easy format to navigate and I like that women have to make the first contact. That Helped me out of my comfort zone. I liked that you can adjust your distance from possible matches.”

11.  Plenty of Fish – Best for lots of options

SpecificationRatingUser experience★★★★★Real profiles★★★★★Success rate★★★★Customer service★★★★

Plenty of Fish has the largest user base. POF was launched in 2003, being one of the oldest dating sites. Since it’s free and easy to sign up, you’re going to be exposed to a lot of different types of people, looking for different things, so you’ll have to filter through them all.

Since it’s been around for a long time, it has gained a reputation as a matchmaker site that will ask questions about your family, career, and interests to match you with similar users. It’s catered for people who want to dip their toes into dating and hookup sites to explore options.

Plenty of Fish may or may not have people looking for casual sex, depending on your luck. It’s a matchmaker site that is geared more for a long-term commitment. So you have to be prepared to screen different kinds of people.

Membership LengthPriceOne month$19.99/monthThree months$9.80/month ($29.40/total)One year$5.95/month ($71.40 total)

What Users Think About Plenty of Fish

“Plenty of catfish and foreigners who can’t speak English. However, even if you’re not a paid subscriber you can opt in for only paid subscribers. The site also provides an option for voice calls through the app. I’m going to try the site out for a month or so, then may upgrade to being a paid subscriber. POF has really improved its website since I was on it a year ago. Have fun and meet someone!”

12.  Tinder – Most popular app

SpecificationRatingUser experience★★★★Real profiles★★★Success rate★★★★★Customer service★★★★

You didn’t think this list was going to end without this sex gem of an app, did you? Tinder is the most widely known hookup app of this generation. It has an infamous rep for finding casual sex ASAP.

Tinder caters to men and women looking to get laid based on appearance. It’s known for its classic swiping left to reject and swiping right to like someone’s profile. If you’re looking for sex, Tinder has a huge user base and a large number of locals, meaning you can probably secure a sex date tonight—but the catch is that your profile needs to stand out. If you’re not conventionally attractive, you’re going to struggle to find dates.

For men who can’t seem to find dates, Tinder has a large user base of escorts who will private message their rates. If you’re horny and want it—then maybe you can meet a potential escort on Tinder.

Membership Length/TierPriceLimited SwipesFreeOne month$9.99 total if you’re under 30One month$19.99 total if you’re over 30

What Users Think About Tinder

“I’ve been using tinder for quite some time and I really enjoy it! I travel a lot and t’s great way to meet new people. Tinder has a feature called Face To Face you can use to video chat within the app. Tinder has on-demand safety features via Noonlight, which offers a Timeline feature where users can share first date details on their Timelines, like who they’re meeting, when and where. Users can also discreetly contact emergency services via Noonlight.”

13.  Pure App – Best for fantasy based hookups

SpecificationRatingUser experience★★★★Real profiles★★★★Success rate★★★★★Customer service★★★★

Pure App was created for shameless and judgment-free fantasy and desire-based dating. This app is purely for NSA affairs and is completely secretive and anonymous. It encourages its users to be whoever they choose to be and still be themselves.

It caters to people who have wild fantasies or desires that aren’t celebrated on mainstream dating and hookup apps. It allows your individuality to shine through—choosing your gender and sexuality—and providing guaranteed privacy and safety to video chat and meet whoever shares the same fantasies as you.

Pure App uses your GPS location on your phone to find other Pure users looking for some NSA action. You just have to post a photo and an up-front headline and wait to see if anyone close is interested. When you’re done, your profile will vanish, along with all your messages and photos—no need to worry about deactivating or privacy issues.

Membership LengthPriceOne week$14.99 totalOne month$19.99 total

What Users Think About Pure App

“I am a 25 year old attractive woman, I have never been on a site before however After almost a year of dating and taking things slowly and 4 months of not being interested enough to take things further, I broke and downloaded pure. Downloaded Wednesday, Thursday (yesterday) spontaneously arranged to meet a really really attractive guy who spent a few great hours with me. We got along really well. I also had a video chat with a really attractive couple who I’ll be meeting soon. I’m speaking to other really attractive guys as well.”

14.  Feeld – Best for adventurous singles

SpecificationRatingUser experience★★★★★Real profiles★★★★Success rate★★★★★Customer service★★★★

Feeld is a hookup app for couples and singles to explore their kinks and desires in a no-judgement atmosphere.

It includes couples’ accounts where you and your partner can date a lover or meet someone for a threesome. It’s inclusive for all genders and sexual orientations. Overall, it’s a sex-positive space for anyone looking to explore beyond “the norm” in today’s society.

Feeld prides itself on being responsible and ethical. It connects people with like-minded folk and encourages curious monogamous couples to link with partners who are also interested. It is a safe space that allows couples to explore their desires in the most honest way possible.

Membership LengthPriceOne month$14.99 totalThree months$29.98 total

What Users Think About Feeld

“It’s called the ‘Tinder for threesomes’ for a reason. I’ll let you do the imagining.”

15.  Sex Messenger – Best for anonymous hookups

SpecificationRatingUser experience★★★★★Real profiles★★★★Success rate★★★★Customer service★★★★

Sex Messenger is an anonymous instant messaging app—like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. But you never share your name because it’s meant to be discreet and only for sexting and trading nudes.

This app is an adult social network that is much more than an online sex chat. It caters to people who want to connect with other people who want to engage in sex and dirty talk, and fulfill each other’s sexual fantasies. Instant messaging on this app and posting blog entries will help you gain the attention you want from like-minded people.

All members must verify their accounts, so this weeds out fake profiles, scammers, and bots. Members can contribute to the website through Sex Messenger’s forums, chats, group sections, sex stories, and blogs. It’s all anonymous and fully discrete. This app is a great way to sext, increase sexual tension, and finally meet up to do the deed.

Membership LengthPriceOne month$14.95 total

What Users Think About Sex Messenger

“I’m recently single and wanted to have a little fun but was skeptical about trying something online. You hear about the horror stories. I found Sex Messenger and immediately thought SCAM. But I gave it a shot and found a couple fun guys within a couple weeks. I didn’t need to renew my membership.”

16.  Reddit R4R – Best completely free option

SpecificationRatingUser experience★★★★Real profiles★★★★Success rate★★★★Customer service★★★

Reddit R4R is one of the best options for browse casual sex options for free. If you’re looking for a hookup but don’t want to sign up, post photos of yourself, and write out a bio to describe who you are and what you want . . . you found the site for you!

This site works as a personals subreddit. It works like any other subreddit. Anyone can post—no photos, no personal information needed! All you have to do is list some things about yourself and the type of person you’re looking for. And then you wait to see if anyone responds to your post.

Reddit R4R is free, so all you have to do is download the Reddit app, and you don’t need to worry about spending money. If you want to be a trusted member and not get blocked, just follow the posting rules! Users love this site to get laid because it’s easy to use, free, and starts an instant conversation with like-minded people.

Membership TierPriceUnlimitedFree

What Users Think About Reddit R4R

“Look, it’s Reddit. You ‘get what you pay for,’ but it’s cool to scroll the profiles and chat for free. Too many guys but I definitely found and met up with a couple hotties.”

Hookup Site Guide

Still on the fence about whether or not you should start using hookup apps? Or maybe you’re already using them but want some more information? Check out this useful guide to answer any lingering questions you may have and walk away with some important safety tips about casual sex.

What Makes a Hookup Site Good?

It’s important to note that different sites cater to different kinds of people. So before creating a profile on any old hookup site, read the reviews to make sure it meets your needs.

Here are a few tips to find the best hookup site specific to you:

If you have a particular kink or preference, keep an eye out for it. (example: Looking for discreet affairs? Ashley Madison is the one for you!)
Make sure the size of the user base is relatively large. More options mean a better chance of finding someone to hook up with.
Find a site that allows users to be up-front about what they want. Usually, apps have preferences, and you can set yours to “casual relationship” or “hookup.”
Make sure the customer service contact information is front and center. You shouldn’t have to go on an expedition to contact the site.

FAQs About Hookup Sites

Q: Are hookup sites safe?

Like any online dating platform, reputable hookup sites have embedded safety features that still require user discretion. It can be dangerous if you don’t take proper safety measures. Generally, these sites and apps regulate safety by banning bots and scammers and have options to report any bad or suspicious behavior. So if you’re planning on joining, be aware and try your best not to be too gullible—you can never be sure who you will come across online!

Q: Are there any completely free hookup sites?

It sucks that most dating apps and casual sex apps require you to subscribe to get optimum results. But sites like Reddit R4R and Craigslist Activities offer a free platform to chat, flirt, and arrange sex dates. But the only downside is that there is no moderation and you won’t be talking to a verified profile and have to be extra cautious.

Q: What hookup sites are free for women?

The reality is that dating apps make it very easy for women to find sex. Most high-rated dating sites offer women free memberships (mostly to balance out the male/female ratio on their site). Sex sites that are free for women include Bumble, OkCupid, Tinder, Seeking, Hinge, Her, and Pure.

Q: What is the best LGBTQ+ option?

Though there are a few options, only two rise to the top. HER is the best for women seeking women and Grindr is best for men seeking for men. These two sites also cater to non-binary people.

Final Verdict

If you’re looking for some action tonight, welcome to the world of casual sex sites and apps.

The best hookup sites are on top for a reason—everyone on there is eager to find sex and casual flings just like you! More than mainstream dating apps that cater to a plethora of things such as long-term dating, friendships, and so on, hookup apps are catered only towards sex and NSA fun!

The best hookup site is Adult FriendFinder (AFF) followed closely by BuddyBang. AFF emphasizes anonymity, safety, a massive user base, and a brand name that is verified. Most people on this site are looking for a good time with so many different types of kinks and fantasies. So what are you waiting for?

Hopefully, this list gives you an idea of what sex app is the best for you to get started on today.

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Michael Shannon calls Brooklyn home these days, but the award-winning actor and founder of A Red Orchid Theatre still spends enough time in Chicago to remain one of the city’s most cherished nightlife figures—he’s right up there with Sharkula and the Tamale Guy. He played the main antagonist in The Shape of Water, and in 2018 he generated headlines when he chose to watch the film win its Oscars from a beloved Old Town dive bar. He’s also made a tradition of flexing his musical muscles in the city’s independent venues: he’s writhed around the Metro stage shirtless, wailing Iggy Pop’s “Lust for Life,” as part of the David Bowie tribute project Sons of the Silent Age, and he’s graced the Empty Bottle with his finest Ric Ocasek impression. 

To kick off 2023, Michael Shannon and longtime collaborator Jason Narducy (Split Single, Superchunk) have reunited for their annual cover show. The two of them have been assembling ad hoc bands for the occasion since 2015, when Shannon asked Narducy to put one together from among their friends in the city’s arts community to perform the Smiths’ The Queen Is Dead. The shows are always different, but a few constants persist: the duo alway choose a watershed album (Neil Young’s Zuma, Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited), Narducy takes care of the band, and Shannon embodies the year’s muse. 

This go-round, they’ll cover the Modern Lovers’ 1976 self-titled debut. Released two years after the group broke up, the album encapsulates the legacy of the greatest band protopunk barely had—an unlikely musical gift that continues to inspire new generations of musicians. As significant as the source material is, though, you don’t go to a Michael Shannon show to hear rote re-creations of beloved classics. Shannon’s joie de vivre seeps from his pores, whether he’s whipping across the stage, mean mugging behind a pair of tinted sunglasses, or waving on special guests such as Local H’s Scott Lucas. Narducy and Shannon’s annual covers shows are not only a testament to their talents as musicians and passions as fans but also a display of their enduring friendship.

Michael Shannon & Jason Narducy with friends Thu 1/19, 8 PM, SPACE, 1245 Chicago, Evanston, sold out, all ages

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The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) issued a notice on December 29 to state medical-licensed marijuana dispensaries that stated curbside pickup for medical patients would stop at the start of 2023. But just five days later, the department extended the variance through January 31.

In the December notice to dispensaries, the IDFPR wrote “there will be no further extensions of this variance.” 

Dina Rollman, senior vice president of government affairs at Green Thumb Industries, was unsure about why the variance needed to end in the first place.

“We have taken steps to try to understand what the purported reason was for ending curbside and we have been unable to discern any basis for it whatsoever,” she said.

Green Thumb Industries operates 77 dispensaries across the country under the brand name Rise, ten of which are in Illinois, the maximum allowed by state law. Five of the Illinois dispensaries are dual-purpose facilities, meaning they sell cannabis for recreational and medical patients.

The variance instituted by the IDFPR, the regulatory arm of Illinois’s cannabis market, is centered around the security and recordkeeping subsection of the medical marijuana program law. The IDFPR did not respond to requests for comment.

“We’re not aware of any negative occurrences that would remotely justify taking away curbside,” Rollman said when asked if any security issues have arisen.

GTI is the only multi-state operator in Illinois that offers curbside or roll-thru at all of their Illinois dual-purpose dispensaries in Canton, Effingham, Joliet, Mundelein and Naperville.

“It’s really great for those who are immunocompromised or who have physical limitations,” Rollman said. “Especially during a midwest winter when you can also add weather conditions. It’s really a nice offering to be able to let patients stay in their car and transact their business.

“Not only has COVID been an ongoing concern for our patients but there are other respiratory ailments that are making their rounds,” Rollman said. According to the Illinois Wastewater Surveillance System, which monitors levels of disease-causing pathogens in sewer systems, COVID-19 cases have been on the rise since late December.

Other major multi-state operators in Illinois such as Cresco Labs and PharmaCann, which operate Sunnyside and Verilife respectively, do not offer curbside pickup at any of their dual-purpose dispensaries.

While the pause on canceling curbside pickup was welcomed by medical marijuana patients, many the Reader spoke to say it should be extended indefinitely.

“I feel like they don’t understand the effect of how that’s going to compromise some patients’ ability to get their medication and care that they need,” said Emily Mosher, a medical patient since June 2020 and former employee at dual-purpose dispensary Hatch in Addison.

“It just didn’t make any sense to me,” said Michael Viles, 67, who has been a medical card holder since October 2019. “I’ve got a wife at home; she’s got [respiratory] complications. I can’t afford to drag any germs home with me, and I try to do every precaution I can.”

Since Governor J.B. Pritzker lifted the statewide mask mandate on February 28, 2022, masking has dropped off inside businesses all over the city, dispensaries included.

“I guarantee you when you go in the dispensaries, nobody’s wearing masks anymore, and some of them I go into are small dispensaries and it’s pretty crowded, so I didn’t like it,” Viles said.

There is a real need for options, especially for people living with disabilities as some medical patients are, said Laura Saltzman, transportation policy analyst at Access Living, a civil rights group dedicated to helping people living with disability.

“Transportation is already difficult and complicated for people with disabilities, making things as easy as possible is good. Limiting the complications is so necessary,” Saltzman said. “COVID is permanent, this variance built around COVID should be permanent.”

Ryan Sykes, a medical consultation advisor at dual-purpose dispensary NuEra in East Peoria, said that curbside is one of the positive changes that were instituted when COVID forced the state to reconsider procedures. The application process for a medical cannabis card was digitized, and the state switched to digital proof instead of printed cards. Also, medical patients were no longer required to shop at a single dispensary.

Curbside pickup is “beneficial for all parties involved. Just along the lines of the same with the other COVID improvements,” Sykes said. “It really is just a quality-of-life improvement for people that are already marginalized and disadvantaged in ways that most other people don’t have to deal with.”In early December, while touring the first social equity dispensary in Illinois, Governor J.B. Pritzker said he was open to the idea of allowing dispensaries to deliver cannabis to people who make online orders. The governor’s office did not respond to requests for comment about curbside pickup.

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On January 5, workers at Howard Brown Health Center ended a three-day strike that was spurred by the sudden layoffs of more than five dozen employees at the organization’s clinics. The workers are vowing to continue to fight to reinstate their jobs and have lingering concerns about the organization’s finances and leadership.

The crisis began in November 2021, when workers learned of impending layoffs that were initially scheduled to happen on January 3rd. But several workers who spoke to the Reader say Howard Brown’s management enacted the layoffs without warning four early, on December 30th.

D’Eva Longoria didn’t know that her last day working at Howard Brown would end so abruptly. She was aware she was among the 60 people Howard Brown Health Clinic planned to lay off, but was surprised when her computer screen went blank while she was in the middle of assisting a patient during her last shift. Without warning, Longoria says, everyone being laid off lost access to their work emails, work phones, and the platform the organization uses to speak with patients. Longoria was letting a patient know when they’re next PrEP appointment was, who she isn’t sure will be able to make it now. “I have no way of reaching out to that person. I don’t know their number,” she said. 

Longoria has been a PrEP Community Engagement Specialist at Howard Brown since March 2019. She technically worked out of the Sheridan clinic, but her real office hours were spent out in the community, passing out condoms at 71st and Pulaski, doing outreach at La Cueva in Little Village, and talking to queer and trans immigrants newly arrived about how to get queer and trans affirming health care. 

Longoria says that management had told those being laid off nothing about what to expect or what to tell their patients. She and the others only just learned they were getting laid off less than a month before. She hopes that people who rely on her for the outreach and programming she does see the video she posted in Spanish on her social media. 

Protesters delivered a list of demands to CEO David Munar’s home in December. Jennifer Bamberg

Munar says that the new clinic, located on Halsted and Cornelia, will help them generate more visits, which means more non-340B revenue, and keep them financially afloat. According to the union, Howard Brown Health said in an email to employees that nearly half of their patients are served by two out of the five clinics on the north side and the extra space is direly needed.

The union says that the heavy use on the north side is due to people being willing to travel across the city for better resources. 

According to Flowers, the clinics on the south side have had consistent issues with utilities, sanitation and safety. Throughout the four years she worked at the 63rd Street Clinic, there have been issues with “brown water coming out of the faucet, no air in the summer, no heat in the winter. Sometimes there’s rodent issues . . . . The doors don’t work half the time. Even our emergency buttons, if there’s an emergency in the clinic, they don’t work half the time.” 

She said that the maintenance team does the best they can, but “there’s only so much you can do.” She says the conditions are not safe for the workers or the patients. 

Because of the staff cuts, the south side clinics are now completely without any long-term councilors and the substance use group Recovering with Pride has been slashed, according to the union.

Munar says that several programs will be combined and case managers will receive additional training in order to continue to provide behavioral health services on the south  side.

Lindsay Martin, a therapist at the Halsted clinic and a bargaining committee member who was laid off, said that this will harm patients. “[Munar] doesn’t know that because he’s not a health care worker. He’s a businessman, and it’s about business for him. And that’s not how healthcare works.”

The clinic has promised to build a new health care center in Bronzeville by 2024, but a representative said in a written statement to the Reader that “Howard Brown will need to stabilize its finances before any further growth plans advance” and that “discussions are in preliminary stages” regarding the south side clinic.

When Gilead announced they were ending the era of lush reimbursements back in April of 2021, advocates worried that it would spell utter doom for HIV care and prevention programs and the patients who depend on them. 

“It’s a reminder . . . that our country needs more sustainable ways to support public health and our communities,” wrote a representative from CrescentCare, a LGBTQ+ centered health clinic in New Orleans. It was founded in 1983 in response to the HIV epidemic, and like Howard Brown, focuses on prevention and making PrEP accessible to those who need it the most.

But unlike Howard Brown, CrescentCare hasn’t had a significant dependence on Gilead’s Advancing Access patient assistance program, and only 28 percent of their budget comes from 340B, as opposed to the approximately 81 percent from Howard Brown from their last fiscal year ending in June 2022. 

“Howard Brown . . . has an outsized dependence on this funding source,” Munar said. 

Munar took the helm at Howard Brown in 2014, secured FQHC status for the clinic in 2015, and started making the clinic more money thereafter. His salary in 2020 was $308,435, part of which was a $20,000 bonus, according to the most recent tax filings. That bonus totaled more than the 6 percent pay cut he and others in executive leadership took to contribute to the clinic’s recent belt tightening. Several past and current staff members are calling for Munar’s resignation. 

“It’s very evident that this problem could have been prevented,” said Julia Bartmes, executive director of the Illinois Nurses Association. “And it’s also evident that these layoffs don’t need to happen . . . . Our members who were laid off are paying the price for [Munar’s] and the executive leadership team’s mismanagement. We’d like to see him gone.”

She said that the union doesn’t have a right to bargain over non-bargaining unit member’s employment, so it’s not something they can demand in the context of bargaining. 

“But I think that the organization would be better off with someone else at the helm,” Bartmes said.

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Back in days of yore, when Ludlow Liquors first swung its doors open in Avondale, the work of its kitchen and first chef was described as a “permanent food installation.” In the years since, there’s been nothing permanent about it, as it has been home to an ever-shifting but always interesting cast of weird and wonderful kitchen warriors: Nick Jirasek and his Beefy Boys and crab “dragoon”; Mickey Neely and his Sicilian pies and Wee B’s-style burgers; “Asian stoner food” power couple SuperHai—and a whole rogues’ gallery of pop-up chefs.

This January 23 another concept settles in on the corner of California and Wellington when Monday Night Foodball launches a new 2023 season. Sure, I’m sad that the Reader’s weekly chef pop-up is leaving its ancestral home at the Kedzie Inn, but Ludlow already feels comfortable. And not much is changing except the coordinates: you can still read about each chef and their menus every week right here, and access the earliest menu drops by following each chef, @chicago_reader, and @mikesula on Instagram.

We’ve assembled a stellar lineup, if I may say so myself, with old and new faces alike, from separate but equally sorcerous Texas-style barbecue specialists like Mike Shaker of Shaker Barbecue and Joe Yim of Knox Ave BBQ to Michelin-grade smokers Tom Rogers and Adam McFarland of Better Boy.

We have Jamaican food from Tameisha Brown of Be Irie Restaurant, fresh off her pop-up debut at Honey Butter Fried Chicken; crunchwrap king Khaled Simon of Taco Sublime; and a cheese party from Reader People issue star Alisha Norris Jones of Immortal Milk.

Palita Sriratana of Pink Salt is coming back hot from her recent Thailand travels; Jessica Walks First of Ketapanen Kitchen headlines with Native, Tribal, and foraged foods; MNF veterans Thattu preview their up-and-coming Keralan street food brick-and-mortar; and Foodball OGsJoey Pham (fka Flavor Supreme) and Mike “Ramen Lord” Satinover are joining forces with Cat Pham (aka @scratchsniffpurr) for a post-Super Bowl/pre-Valentine’s wonton soup and egg roll night.

But first it’s all kicking off with Marko and Nemanja Milunovic, whose marvelous Balkan eats and drinks launched the 2022 season. More on that here.

That ain’t all. There are other big Foodball doings in store in 2023, so put your fat pants on and strap in.

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Back in days of yore, when Ludlow Liquors first swung its doors open in Avondale, the work of its kitchen and first chef was described as a “permanent food installation.” In the years since, there’s been nothing permanent about it, as it has been home to an ever-shifting but always interesting cast of weird and wonderful kitchen warriors: Nick Jirasek and his Beefy Boys and crab “dragoon”; Mickey Neely and his Sicilian pies and Wee B’s-style burgers; “Asian stoner food” power couple SuperHai—and a whole rogues’ gallery of pop-up chefs.

This January 23 another concept settles in on the corner of California and Wellington when Monday Night Foodball launches a new 2023 season. Sure, I’m sad that the Reader’s weekly chef pop-up is leaving its ancestral home at the Kedzie Inn, but Ludlow already feels comfortable. And not much is changing except the coordinates: you can still read about each chef and their menus every week right here, and access the earliest menu drops by following each chef, @chicago_reader, and @mikesula on Instagram.

We’ve assembled a stellar lineup, if I may say so myself, with old and new faces alike, from separate but equally sorcerous Texas-style barbecue specialists like Mike Shaker of Shaker Barbecue and Joe Yim of Knox Ave BBQ to Michelin-grade smokers Tom Rogers and Adam McFarland of Better Boy.

We have Jamaican food from Tameisha Brown of Be Irie Restaurant, fresh off her pop-up debut at Honey Butter Fried Chicken; crunchwrap king Khaled Simon of Taco Sublime; and a cheese party from Reader People issue star Alisha Norris Jones of Immortal Milk.

Palita Sriratana of Pink Salt is coming back hot from her recent Thailand travels; Jessica Walks First of Ketapanen Kitchen headlines with Native, Tribal, and foraged foods; MNF veterans Thattu preview their up-and-coming Keralan street food brick-and-mortar; and Foodball OGsJoey Pham (fka Flavor Supreme) and Mike “Ramen Lord” Satinover are joining forces with Cat Pham (aka @scratchsniffpurr) for a post-Super Bowl/pre-Valentine’s wonton soup and egg roll night.

But first it’s all kicking off with Marko and Nemanja Milunovic, whose marvelous Balkan eats and drinks launched the 2022 season. More on that here.

That ain’t all. There are other big Foodball doings in store in 2023, so put your fat pants on and strap in.

Read More

I don’t usually get ensnared by a book. But Ling Ma’s short story collection, Bliss Montage, was different. I started reading it Thanksgiving morning and literally could not stop. There was something urgent in Ma’s writing, something that demanded full attention. It might be her distinctive voice—wry, witty, relatable. Or her sentences—carefully crafted, but not too carefully. Or the fact that there is always something savage and dark behind her polished prose.

Ling Ma’s stories are about people who don’t fit in, who don’t feel at home, even in their own skin. They don’t know who they are or what they want. And when they dare to do something decisive, things inevitably go wrong. 

In one story, “Oranges,” the narrator, the survivor of an abusive relationship, becomes obsessed with trying to warn her ex’s current girlfriend about him. No surprise, things do not go well. In Ma’s world, no good deed goes unpunished. 

In a Kirkus interview, the author said she often works in the horror genre. As in the horror of Gregor Samsa, waking to find himself transformed into a gigantic beetle. In Ma’s story, “Tomorrow,” a pregnant woman finds that she must live with her unborn child’s forearm protruding penis-like from her vagina. Very Kafkaesque, this weird mix of horror and humor. Ma calls Kafka her ”bread and butter.”

Bliss Montage by Ling MaFarrar, Straus, and Giroux, hardcover, 240 pp., $26, us.macmillan.com

Similarly, in “Yeti Lovemaking,” the narrator recounts a fling with an abominable snowman, an experience that sounds increasingly horrific the more she reveals about it. She writes, “Making love to a Yeti is difficult and painful at first but easy once you’ve done it more than thirty times. . . . the skin toughens, capillaries become less prone to breakage. Contusions heal by morning—you don’t even see them. Certain fluids stop secreting altogether.” Horrifying. And funny.

“For the very dark topics, you have to be funny,” Ma tells me.

After reading Bliss Montage (which is a finalist for the Story Prize) twice, I had to read Severance. Severance put Ma on the map, winning her the 2018 Kirkus Prize for Fiction, and earning her a place on lots of best books lists. It is a fascinating, odd, hybrid novel; part comic office fiction, part post-apocalyptic portrait of America. Imagine the world-weary comedy of Parks and Recreation with scenes reminiscent of Octavia Butler’s Afrofuturist dystopias. In a Paris Review interview, Ma says she watched a lot of The Walking Dead while writing it, and also read Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day, Karl Ove Knausgård’s My Struggle, and Emil Ferris’s My Favorite Thing Is Monsters.

The tone of Severance is similar to Bliss Montage. And so are the issues the characters face. In Severance, the hero, a disaffected New Yorker named Candace Chen, first drifts through life in Manhattan, working at a publishing job she kind of hates, and then, after the country is paralyzed by a brain-destroying pandemic that zombifies its victims, joins a group of drifters tripping across the country looking for . . . what? They’re not sure. 

Ma was born in Sanming, Fujian, China; her parents took her to America when she was six. She grew up in Utah, Kansas, and Nebraska, attended the University of Chicago and Cornell, worked at various jobs in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and the Bay Area, and seems to have never felt entirely at home anywhere. China is not home either. “I’m not very fluent in Mandarin,” she tells me, “I can speak conversational Chinese.”

Ma spent her childhood reading. “My parents were both so busy and doing other things. I mostly had to entertain myself. Going to the library was really the highlight of my week.”

Ma also loved movies. Her stories abound in references to them: Torn Curtain, L’avventura, Ghost World. One story in Bliss Montage is about a woman who becomes a professor of cinema studies. The very title of the book is a term in film studies; coined by film scholar Jeanine Basinger, bliss montage refers to movie sequences where a series of pleasurable moments (a date, a birthday party, a trip) are edited together, usually with sound behind it.

“I worked at the library,” she explains. “I would just get loads of movies and watch them through the weekend. I got a hold of Ingmar Bergman. I watched a bunch of Hitchcock as a teenager. I’m a big fan of Hitchcock films. I really admire the way that he sets up many of his storytelling elements.”

“A lot of my cultural consumption as a kid and as a teen was about assimilation,” Ma admits, “trying to understand this culture that I had ended up in but had not personally chosen for myself. But I think I was also trying to demonstrate some kind of mastery of [American] culture.” This may explain why she packs her work with so many pop culture references (Liz Phair, Margaret Cho, red Solo cups, Judith Butler).

“[I was] trying to learn how to pass as American, trying to figure out how, not through what I was wearing, but through, I guess, my mental state, my frame of mind.” Ma pauses, not finishing the thought, then says, “Like, what is the American frame of mind?”

In a 2019 interview in the Chicago Tribune, she admitted she felt pressured, while an MFA candidate, to write a “traditional immigration novel.” This issue comes up in her story, “Peking Duck,” where a woman is criticized in a writing class for perpetuating Asian stereotypes. “I think that’s a particularly painful moment,” Ma sighs. “Perhaps the story does shepherd in some stereotypes, unconsciously or otherwise. But that’s, I think, just the burden of representation. One story, one narrative has to represent all this entire group of people. And that’s what a lot of non-white writers have to go through, or be subjected to, that burden of representation. I think it’s also why, with Severance, I resisted writing a traditional immigrant narrative. I didn’t want my first book to be an immigrant narrative.”

Still, the issue of identity is central to Ma’s work.

After high school, Ma went to the University of Chicago with the idea of perhaps becoming an archaeologist. “Dig things up, put things together, was my idea of an interesting way of spending my time.” That didn’t work out, and Ma tried anthropology and then economics. “I think I just ended up majoring in English because the Chicago winters are very long.” Ma quips, “You get depressed and all you can do is stay in the apartment and read Henry James.”

After college she worked at various publishing jobs. For a while she lived in Berkeley, California, and wrote for the East Bay Express. She attended a summer journalism fellowship at Northwestern’s Medill School, and wrote for the Chicago Reader. But Ma’s foray into journalism was short-lived. She lacked, in her words, “a journalist’s killer instinct.”

Instead, Ma found her home in fiction.  

“I think fiction is the space where you can explore things you would never do yourself in your own life,” she says. “[Fiction] is not about replicating reality. It’s actually about expanding experience. That’s really what you want to do, to go beyond experience.”

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I don’t usually get ensnared by a book. But Ling Ma’s short story collection, Bliss Montage, was different. I started reading it Thanksgiving morning and literally could not stop. There was something urgent in Ma’s writing, something that demanded full attention. It might be her distinctive voice—wry, witty, relatable. Or her sentences—carefully crafted, but not too carefully. Or the fact that there is always something savage and dark behind her polished prose.

Ling Ma’s stories are about people who don’t fit in, who don’t feel at home, even in their own skin. They don’t know who they are or what they want. And when they dare to do something decisive, things inevitably go wrong. 

In one story, “Oranges,” the narrator, the survivor of an abusive relationship, becomes obsessed with trying to warn her ex’s current girlfriend about him. No surprise, things do not go well. In Ma’s world, no good deed goes unpunished. 

In a Kirkus interview, the author said she often works in the horror genre. As in the horror of Gregor Samsa, waking to find himself transformed into a gigantic beetle. In Ma’s story, “Tomorrow,” a pregnant woman finds that she must live with her unborn child’s forearm protruding penis-like from her vagina. Very Kafkaesque, this weird mix of horror and humor. Ma calls Kafka her ”bread and butter.”

Bliss Montage by Ling MaFarrar, Straus, and Giroux, hardcover, 240 pp., $26, us.macmillan.com

Similarly, in “Yeti Lovemaking,” the narrator recounts a fling with an abominable snowman, an experience that sounds increasingly horrific the more she reveals about it. She writes, “Making love to a Yeti is difficult and painful at first but easy once you’ve done it more than thirty times. . . . the skin toughens, capillaries become less prone to breakage. Contusions heal by morning—you don’t even see them. Certain fluids stop secreting altogether.” Horrifying. And funny.

“For the very dark topics, you have to be funny,” Ma tells me.

After reading Bliss Montage (which is a finalist for the Story Prize) twice, I had to read Severance. Severance put Ma on the map, winning her the 2018 Kirkus Prize for Fiction, and earning her a place on lots of best books lists. It is a fascinating, odd, hybrid novel; part comic office fiction, part post-apocalyptic portrait of America. Imagine the world-weary comedy of Parks and Recreation with scenes reminiscent of Octavia Butler’s Afrofuturist dystopias. In a Paris Review interview, Ma says she watched a lot of The Walking Dead while writing it, and also read Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day, Karl Ove Knausgård’s My Struggle, and Emil Ferris’s My Favorite Thing Is Monsters.

The tone of Severance is similar to Bliss Montage. And so are the issues the characters face. In Severance, the hero, a disaffected New Yorker named Candace Chen, first drifts through life in Manhattan, working at a publishing job she kind of hates, and then, after the country is paralyzed by a brain-destroying pandemic that zombifies its victims, joins a group of drifters tripping across the country looking for . . . what? They’re not sure. 

Ma was born in Sanming, Fujian, China; her parents took her to America when she was six. She grew up in Utah, Kansas, and Nebraska, attended the University of Chicago and Cornell, worked at various jobs in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and the Bay Area, and seems to have never felt entirely at home anywhere. China is not home either. “I’m not very fluent in Mandarin,” she tells me, “I can speak conversational Chinese.”

Ma spent her childhood reading. “My parents were both so busy and doing other things. I mostly had to entertain myself. Going to the library was really the highlight of my week.”

Ma also loved movies. Her stories abound in references to them: Torn Curtain, L’avventura, Ghost World. One story in Bliss Montage is about a woman who becomes a professor of cinema studies. The very title of the book is a term in film studies; coined by film scholar Jeanine Basinger, bliss montage refers to movie sequences where a series of pleasurable moments (a date, a birthday party, a trip) are edited together, usually with sound behind it.

“I worked at the library,” she explains. “I would just get loads of movies and watch them through the weekend. I got a hold of Ingmar Bergman. I watched a bunch of Hitchcock as a teenager. I’m a big fan of Hitchcock films. I really admire the way that he sets up many of his storytelling elements.”

“A lot of my cultural consumption as a kid and as a teen was about assimilation,” Ma admits, “trying to understand this culture that I had ended up in but had not personally chosen for myself. But I think I was also trying to demonstrate some kind of mastery of [American] culture.” This may explain why she packs her work with so many pop culture references (Liz Phair, Margaret Cho, red Solo cups, Judith Butler).

“[I was] trying to learn how to pass as American, trying to figure out how, not through what I was wearing, but through, I guess, my mental state, my frame of mind.” Ma pauses, not finishing the thought, then says, “Like, what is the American frame of mind?”

In a 2019 interview in the Chicago Tribune, she admitted she felt pressured, while an MFA candidate, to write a “traditional immigration novel.” This issue comes up in her story, “Peking Duck,” where a woman is criticized in a writing class for perpetuating Asian stereotypes. “I think that’s a particularly painful moment,” Ma sighs. “Perhaps the story does shepherd in some stereotypes, unconsciously or otherwise. But that’s, I think, just the burden of representation. One story, one narrative has to represent all this entire group of people. And that’s what a lot of non-white writers have to go through, or be subjected to, that burden of representation. I think it’s also why, with Severance, I resisted writing a traditional immigrant narrative. I didn’t want my first book to be an immigrant narrative.”

Still, the issue of identity is central to Ma’s work.

After high school, Ma went to the University of Chicago with the idea of perhaps becoming an archaeologist. “Dig things up, put things together, was my idea of an interesting way of spending my time.” That didn’t work out, and Ma tried anthropology and then economics. “I think I just ended up majoring in English because the Chicago winters are very long.” Ma quips, “You get depressed and all you can do is stay in the apartment and read Henry James.”

After college she worked at various publishing jobs. For a while she lived in Berkeley, California, and wrote for the East Bay Express. She attended a summer journalism fellowship at Northwestern’s Medill School, and wrote for the Chicago Reader. But Ma’s foray into journalism was short-lived. She lacked, in her words, “a journalist’s killer instinct.”

Instead, Ma found her home in fiction.  

“I think fiction is the space where you can explore things you would never do yourself in your own life,” she says. “[Fiction] is not about replicating reality. It’s actually about expanding experience. That’s really what you want to do, to go beyond experience.”

Read More