Results tagged “pastoral”

The MetraMarket, which broke ground last year, is finally taking shape in the 100,000 sq. ft. space on the street level of the Ogilvie Transportation Center (bordered by Lake, Canal, Washington and Clinton streets). The developer recently announced at least half of the tenants who will occupy the Chicago French Market, a part of the MetraMarket retail development that promises to be reminiscent of European open-air markets. Among the tenants signed on for the French Market's late October opening are local favorites Pastoral, Flip Crepes, and Vanille Pastisserie, as well as Chicago Organics who will offer an array of locally grown and certified organic produce, meats, and dairy. Other purveyors on the list are Albano's Deli, Canady Le Choclatier, Completely Nuts, Espression by Lavazza, Fraternite Notre Dame, Sweet Miss Giving's, and Wisconsin Cheese Mart.

Pastoral Artisan Cheese, Bread & Wine will be hosting a free wine and cheese tasting at their Loop location next Wednesday, the 24th, from 5:30-7:30. You can watch Italian cheesemaker Giorgio Cravero use traditional cheese-cutting tools to crack into a wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano. Then sample the cheese and some Italian wines. This is a great opportunity to learn more about cheesemaking, tasting, and pairing as artisinal cheese expert Daphne Zepos will be in attendance.

Tomorrow night from 6:30-8:30pm enjoy a free wine tasting at one of our favorite wine and cheese shops, Pastoral. The theme will be "Wines From Emerging Regions" and we're told the wines will be from "traditional wine countries (France, Spain, etc.) but will be from lesser known and upcoming regions." Pastoral also has a lot of upcoming events with a nominal fee for the month of April including an introductory "Cheese 101" class, an exploration of Italian cheeses and wines, and a course dedicated to pairing cheese with champagne and sparkling wines..

        

Expecting more of the same of what we saw Saturday, it was decided that any coverage of Chicago Gourmet for Sunday would be optional. With an overcast sky and the first tinges of autumn finally in the air, it turned out to be a prudent decision.

We'll go out on a limb and declare that the best sound system in Chicago is on the lawn at the Pritzker Pavillion in Millennium Park. You can be all the way in back and it still sounds as if you're sitting in the middle of the Grant Park Orchestra. So what's even better than that? Pairing it with a movie. Next Wednesday the Orchestra will perform special guest Nitin Sawhney's original score alongside the 1929 silent film A Throw of the Dice. As Ignatius Vishnevetsky of CINE-FILE Chicago points out, "The silent film score is one the most abstract forms of film criticism. In its finest incarnations, the composer becomes a tour guide, using the music to point out what he or she sees within the images. Accompaniment is commentary. Composer Nitin Sawhney wants us to see the opulence of Franz Osten's A Throw of the Dice, which he's compared to the films of Cecil B. DeMille and Charlie Chaplin." Adapted from an episode in the Mahabharata, this opulent fantasy about two gamblers vying for the love of a peasant girl was shot in India by a German director and an Indian producer. It's going to look and sound gorgeous.

While a sizable portion of the greater Chicago area were making a beeline to the Feist/Juana Molina show at Ravinia Friday night, we were at a loft in Humboldt Park taking part in another one of Efrain Cuevas' Clandestino dinners. The five-course menu Cuevas had planned was teeming with a lot of bright flavors, spices and acidity, so we were looking for a wine that could pair well with all the courses. From our kitchen rack we decided upon a rosé we bought during a tasting at Pastoral's downtown location (53 E. Lake St.) last month for around $16.

We've got a Taste of Chicago preview for you later. In the meantime, here are some things around town to check out in the coming days.