We've been remiss with filing the Buffet the past two weeks and, with Thanksgiving right around the corner, we thought we'd instead list this week local restaurants offering Thanksgiving dinners, either to dine in or to go. This one's for those of you who think you have no cooking skills or simply don't want to put forth the effort in the kitchen.
Wine dinners abound throughout the city. 312 Chicago is hosting a dinner tomorrow night at 7 p.m. featuring the latest release from Hewiston Wines' "Mad Hatter" shiraz. It's part of a national tour promoting the 2006 vintage just hitting restaurants and wine shops right now. Winemaker Dean Hewiston will be in attendance.
The Dow may have jumped over 10,000 points but budget-conscious Chicagoans are not buying into any talk of "recovery." Understanding our love for good local food and an affinity for the beauty of our city, the Bluebird has teamed-up with local artists Mary Livoni and John Coyle Steinbrunner to create Sunday dinners dedicated to painting a picture of our great city in good times and during this downturn.
You can always count on mado to go where few other restaurants will go in their quest to adhere to serving all things head-to-tail. Lately Rob Levitt's been on a mutton kick that will continue for the foreseeable future. Mutton — older, mature lamb &3151 is noted for its richness in flavor. Because it's a tough meat, however, mutton is best cooked long and slow.
Taxim, the Wicker Park restaurant that has received overwhelmingly positive reviews (in our opinion it's probably the best new restaurant to open this year) for its innovative take on Greek cuisine, is teaming up with one of Greece's best wineries to put together a dinner that, on paper, is going to blow diners away.
Oktoberfest formally ends tomorrow, but that isn't stopping Rick Gresh from celebrating a few days after. The Executive Chef at David Burke's Primehouse is also an avid homebrewer and he'll be featuring a few of his creations at a Sunday dinner kicking off Primehouse's "OktoBEERfest." The selections Gresh and the Primehouse staff will be pouring include I-PAC (an IPA infused with chamomile); a wheat ale brewed with Seedling Farm peaches called "Stoned Wheat" and one beer Gresh calls "Working Man's Champagne."
On Sunday, October 18, the chefs of Blackbird, avec and The Publican along with Pamela Fitzpatrick of Fox & Obel are hosting a five-course benefit dinner supporting James Beard Foundation. Chefs of the night will be Becky Broeske, Koren Grieveson, Brian Huston, Paul Kahan and Mike Sheerin. Pairings will feature Champagne Henriot, Napa Valley’s Blackbird Vineyards, Goose Island Beer Company and Three Floyds Brewing Co. If you must only choose one big dining event of the fall, this might be it. Hors d’oeuvres include: oysters, smoked black cod, and crispy pork rinds paired with champagne. The five course menu includes:
This weekend is jam-packed with events. Social butterflies plan accordingly.
It's Labor Day weekend, but that doesn't mean all of us are grilling for possibly the final time this season. Here are some events, tastings, dinners and special offers to keep you busy this weekend and beyond:
Last night's beer dinner at the Publican was the culmination of six months of planning and discussions between Paul Kahan and New Holland Brewing Company. After all the brewing, the emails and phone calls, getting to know each other and travel between Chicago and Holland, it came down to the beer and the food, as it should have been. The proof, as the adage goes, would be in the pudding.
Just received word from the Bluebird's Jason Baldacci that the beer and wine dinner they were collaborating on with with mado and Webster's Wine Bar has been postponed. Baldacci e-mailed, "It's been a new challenge for all of us to put together an event between three different bars/restaurants, and we want to make sure that we're as prepared as possible, and that the dinner is going to be as good as we can all collectively make it." We'll let readers know when a new date is set.
The term "gaucho" for some brings to mind naive, romanticized notions of South American cowboys. For us it means sinking our teeth into a tender, juicy steak, sipping on some malbec and popping on some Steely Dan. Lush Wine & Spirits University Village location (1257 S. Halsted, 312-738-1900) won't have the Dan tomorrow, but they will have everything else as part of a humpday "gaucho party" they're throwing in their fenced-in garden seating. The steaks are going to be wood-grilled, loads of malbec will be available and, if we know the Lushies, they'll also have some tunage ready to drown out the annoying Rat Pack staples their neighbors at Franconello's will undoubtedly be spinning.
Now here's a dinner that's a steal at $17. Every month Goose Island Clybourn's John Manion smokes and roasts a whole pig from Slagel Farms and serves it up with a single side dish he makes at the last minute, depending on what flight of whimsy overcomes him. This month's roast is Wednesday Thursday. The roast begins at 6;30 and lasts until that pig is gone.
One of the agenda items left on the table when Paul Kahan and his entourage returned to Chicago from New Holland Brewing was finding a name for the biere de garde they brewed for their August 23 beer dinner at the Publican. Kahan and New Holland's Fred Bueltmann were riffing on mutual jazz musicians they were fans of, before the New Holland Knickerbocker gin and Zeppelin whisky took the riffing to a very dark-but-funny place.
Stephanie Izard just twittered that tickets for her first of five Wandering Goat dinners will go on sale 11 a.m. tomorrow at her website. Izard also announced that she'll be joined by "Top Chef" season 1 semi-finalist Lee Anne Wong. And you thought tickets for Wilco's UIC Pavilion gig were gonna be in demand.
Green City Market will be packed this evening on a picture perfect night for grilling and BBQ as they host their annual chef's BBQ. The BBQ brings together a Justice League of chefs making dishes using food procured directly at the market. Food tends to go fast and furious here; they've actually run out of some dishes at previous incarnations. Get there early.
As promotions go, "National 40 Oz. Week" at Fifty/50 (2047 W. Division, 773-489-5050) walks the fine line between inspiration and cliched crassness. Thursday's "Old School Hip Hop Night" is right up our alley, with $5 St. Ides forties for sale and the DJs spinning NWA, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and (hopefully) Eric B. & Rakim, The D.O.C., Ice T and Arabian Prince on the clickwheels of steel.
(Today we wrap up our week-long series following chef Paul Kahan as he brewed beer at New Holland Brewing and planned a menu for an August 23 beer dinner at the Publican. If you haven't already, you can go back and read part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4)
Many local beer drinkers owe their first experience with New Holland Brewing to Larry Bell. It was in October 2006 when Bell decided to pull his beers out of Illinois as a protest of the Illinois Beer Industry Fair Dealing Act. October in Illinois is premium weather for hoppy ales such as Bell’s Two-Hearted ale and Bell’s decision (which was equal parts protest, fit of pique, and masterstroke of marketing) left bars, restaurants and liquor stores throughout the city scrambling for a replacement.
(This is Part 3 in our week-long series following the evolution of a beer dinner at the Publican, from conception to the actual dinner. IF you haven't already, read Part 1 and Part 2.)
(This is the second in a series following the evolution of a beer dinner at the Publican, from conception to reality. Read Part 1 here.)
“Cooking with beer is a little new for me.” To hear a chef say such a thing would be surprise enough. That the chef admitting this was Paul Kahan made me take even more notice.
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