Last-Minute Plans: Indie Spirits Dinner At Fountainhead

By Melissa Wiley in Food on Sep 24, 2013 6:10PM

There’s no shortage of good spirits in Chicago this week with the Indie Spirits Expo in town, and Fountainhead is pairing some of Wednesday's highlights with a six-course dinner tonight. But if you like your whiskey neat and have already eaten at home, for $10 you can skip past the kitchen and sample spirits from distilleries including Clyde May, Oola, Redemption, Heavenly Spirits, Corsair, and Headframe on the roof deck beginning at 7 p.m. If you chat with the moonshiners long enough, you can smoke yourself some cigars, available for purchase beginning at 9 p.m.

But if you need some food with your liquor, a rustic autumn dinner courtesy of Chef Cleetus takes place from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. inside the Barrel Room, and two of the courses, we'd like to stress, are dessert. Tickets to this portion of the evening are $40, and the night’s spread breaks down as follows:

First course: mini bacon and butternut squash polenta cake paired with Clyde May

Second course: seared shrimp, orecchiette pasta, and toasted coriander cream sauce paired with Oola gin and Waitsburg bourbon

Third course: cochinitas pebil taco, toasted pecan mole, Cleetus Heatus salsa, and cilantro riverboat rye paired with Redemption high rye bourbon

Fourth course: cheese sampling paired with Heavenly Spirits Armorik and Marie Duffau Napoleon Armagnac

Fifth course: pumpkin donut holes and citrus crème anglais paired with Corsair gin and Pumpkin moonshine

Sixth course: root beer whiskey floats paired with Headframe Destroying Angel and Orphan Girl

As of post time, there are four spots left for this dinner. Fountainhead is located at 1970 W. Montrose.