(sirens blare) (upbeat music)
- Mayor Lightfoot, thank you so much for joining us today.
We are beyond honored to have you on our show.
- It's my pleasure.
- We wanted to invite you to be the Grand Marshal
of our very own Pride special.
- What an honor.
(upbeat music and cheering)
Happy Pride!
Well, I'm happy to be here with you
and Pride obviously means a lot to me and my family.
- And do you and your family have any Pride traditions
that you usually do?
- There's a brunch that we go to
and then we just have fun marching in the parade.
- How significant is it for you to be Chicago's first
openly gay mayor during Pride month?
- It's such a great honor,
the fact that people are embracing of who I am,
the diversity that I represent,
I think really is a testament to what a great city we are.
- And moving into what our show, as a whole, is about,
how have you been supporting Chicago restaurants
during these unprecedented times?
- Well, if you could see my whole physique,
you would know how I've been supporting them.
(laughs) I've been eating a lot.
I have definitely gained, hopefully not the whole 19,
but look, our restaurant community is an incredibly
important part of the cultural life of our city.
That's why I've been fighting so hard to get them reopened
and our neighborhood restaurants,
they are owned by people who live in the neighborhoods,
who hire from the neighborhoods,
and they're critically important,
and I know this has been a very difficult time for them,
so I'm just urging everyone,
your favorite joint, whatever it is, whatever the food,
go there, support them, tell 'em you've missed them,
and eat there regularly because they are so important
to our neighborhoods.
(upbeat music)
- Do you have a particular favorite restaurant in Chicago
that you go to that your family loves?
- We really like Mexican food, so there's a little taqueria
called Moran's, I call, they know it's me,
when I go and pick it up, the order's ready.
I love those folks, they're family owned restaurant.
We also love a place called Cafe Con Leche,
also in the neighborhood on Milwaukee Avenue,
the owner owns a bunch of restaurants.
Across the street is a great Italian place,
called Saba and then, of course,
because I live in Logan Square,
I gotta give a shout out to Lula's and to Longman & Eagle.
- They're all great places.
Many of those places are Chicago's Best alums.
- As I said, I like to eat.
(upbeat music)
- Is there a favorite meal that you gravitate towards
when you need some comfort?
- If I'm going out for a really authentic Mexican,
I love enchilada suizas.
And Italian, I'm a big meatball fan,
so I love veal meatballs with a little bit of cheese
and breadcrumbs and throw in a little bit of spinach,
that's good eating.
- And since we're talking food,
I wanna move into the lightning round.
Or what we're today, going to call, the Lightfoot round.
(laughs)
(upbeat fanfare)
(bell rings three times)
- Does ketchup belong on a hot dog?
- Oh no, no, no, that's a total violation.
I gotta throw the flag on that one.
- Is it a sandwich or is it its own creation?
- Oh, it's its own creation, it's not a sandwich.
- No wonder you're so popular.
Deep dish or thin crust?
- You know, I like a little of both.
I'm thinking right now, as soon as you said it,
with a Lou Malnati's, with sausage, a little mushroom,
that's the ticket.
- And how do you order an Italian beef?
- Oh, hot, dip, with extra cheese.
- Malort, yay or nay.
- No, no, no, no, no, no, sorry.
There's a lotta things I'll do,
I will not cross that line.
- We've all seen the Lightfoot memes,
and I gotta ask you, do you have a particular favorite?
- I like the one where I'm in the refrigerator
and somebody opens it up and I say, "You just ate."
(bell dings)
(laughs)
I guess my favorite though, is there's one that is like
the old Batman distress signal,
and the light is shining up and it's my face.
I like to think of myself as the guardian of the city.
- We know that you have plenty of things to do today,
so I wanna bring it back to the reason why we're here today.
Can you tell us what does Pride mean to you?
(upbeat music)
- Well, really what it means for me is
being in a place in your own mind, in your own journey,
that you feel comfortable in your own skin.
And that manifests itself
in different ways for different people.
But it's just being happy and loved and loving
who you are and how you wanna move through the world
in a way that respects who you are.
- We can't thank you enough for coming on Chicago's Best
and Happy Pride.
- Ah, Happy Pride to you and happy eating.