Meet 77 Flavors of Chicago’s Dario Durham and Sara Faddah

Held from May 30 – June 1, eATLAS’ 4 th annual ScavHunt is a collaboration with Dario Durham and Sara Faddah of the 77 Flavors of Chicago podcast, an invaluable resource for those fascinated by Chicago’s history and food. We spoke with the couple about their show, success, and the Adventure they’ve created.

By Dave Lifton (@daveeatschicago)

Chicago’s massive urban sprawl means that many people never get the opportunity to explore the whole city. Fortunately, there is the 77 Flavors of Chicago podcast, hosted by Dario Durham and Sara Faddah.

The concept, hatched in about 15 minutes, is simple and effective. They visited all 77 of Chicago’s Community Designated Areas (CDA), talking about its history and sampling the food. By exploring all 234 square miles of Chicago, the couple have been able to spotlight the rich culture of the South and West Sides – communities that are often negatively portrayed in the media and pop culture – not just downtown and the North Side.

It combined both their passions. Dario is a photographer and comedian who’s loved history since his childhood days in the South Side neighborhood of Chicago Lawn. Faddah moved to the city from Jordan for school and is a chef who had a cooking show on YouTube.

Launched in the summer of 2021, their chemistry, humor, and charm were evident from the start. For each episode, they used a bingo machine to randomly select a number that would tell them which CDA they would visit. This way, the podcast wouldn’t be frontloaded with their favorites or the trendiest spots. Then, they researched the neighborhood to determine what they would spotlight, and went out and reported their findings. New episodes are launched every Monday.

Their decision to choose CDAs at random has led to a few surprises, namely their April 2022 visit to Hegewisch, an isolated community on the Far Southeast Side near the Indiana border. They saw the city’s only sawmill and had some of the best pizza in the city at Pudgy’s.

“I’d never even heard of this place,” Dario tells us. “We go down there and you realize, this is Chicago but it’s not Chicago. It’s a whole different land.”

Before long, they were spotlighted on local television, and other media appearances have followed. Their fame has increased due to their Instagram feed, which, as of this writing, has nearly 59,000 followers. The videos typically feature Dario in front of a landmark, narrating what makes it special. He concludes by leaning close into the camera, giving one last fun fact, and running away, a hook he came up with on the spur of the moment and has kept.

77 Flavors Instagram

They frequently get noticed in public. Sara tells us that, before the Instagram videos, a listener had recognized Dario by his distinctive, boisterous laugh that comes out on every episode. On the day that we spoke, they spent the morning downtown filming content for the ScavHunt when a police car pulled up alongside them.

“I’m a Black guy in America,” he says, “so right away I’m like, ‘What is going on here.’ He’s like, ‘Hey! Are you on Instagram? I follow you! It always looks like you’re running from someone at the end of the videos.’ And I just laughed.”

From the start, they were aware they would eventually cover all 77 CDAs, which happened in November 2022. Fortunately, they had a plan to go deeper into other areas of Chicago history, such as the CTA, Union Stock Yards, and the Battle of Fort Dearborn, as well as return to some of the neighborhoods.

For Sara, a high point was being invited to a tour of the Lyric Opera, followed by a performance of Verdi’s Aida, the first time they had been to the opera. Dario’s highlights include going up to the clock tower in Pullman, which isn’t open to the public, and recording an episode in Jane Addams’ bedroom. But the biggest was meeting Geoffrey Baer, who hosts specials about Chicago history for local public television station WTTW. Dario has long been a fan of Baer – an early date with Sara during the pandemic involved watching Baer’s videos for eight hours – and he’s since been on 77 Flavors four times. Dario was shocked “to realize that he actually liked us, because you’re not supposed to meet your heroes.”

That fascination with Chicago’s history informs the ScavHunt they’ve created, which is built around the videos that they’ve already made. “We wanted it to be something that gives you the flavor of the city,” Sara says, “those hidden gems that you probably walk by all the time and never noticed or aren’t as obvious. It’s been really fun coming up with those stops.”

They played in last year’s ScavHunt and that experience informed how they built this Adventure. Having to decipher clues, Sara adds, allowed them to see which gave away too much, or not enough, of the answer.

They plan on creating more Adventures for eATLAS, as well as working with the Latin School of Chicago to bring the podcast to life, so that people can have the same experience they’ve had rather than listening to them.

“Our message is that Chicago is great, and we’re gonna tell you why,” Dario concludes. “We want to honor people the best way we can. That’s all we can ask for.”