When asked if Chicago has a certain style of barbecue, food writer Calvin Trillin (a Kansas City native) just shrugs.

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He wrote a memoir, put out a soul-food cookbook, and occasionally hit the stage at his Music Food Passion barbecue restaurants in Chicago and Memphis.

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The structure spans 15, 000 square feet, and sits 500 inside plus 250 more on an outdoor deck with sweeping views of the Sierras, and most of the time it functions as just another on-mountain ski lodge with restrooms and dining, albeit a very modern and environmentally friendly one with great food (and a full blown barbecue smokehouse outside).

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When finished it will offer five new chef-driven sit down restaurants, plus an expansive food hall with taqueria, gourmet burgers, upscale sandwich shop, Chinese barbecue, fresh seafood, fresh market, and pop-up retail stores.

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