Entries associated with the tag "Dining Out For Life":

Dining Out for Life, the national benefit for AIDSCARE, comes to Chicago on Thursday. Eat at any of the dozens of participating restaurants, and a portion of your tab goes to help people living with HIV/AIDS.

Thursday from 6:30 to 9 PM is the Jarvis Square Wine Affair with Alpana Singh. Forty wines from around the world and hors d'ouevres will be on offer at Taste Food & Wine. $35 (part of the proceeds go to Dining Out for Life).

Cob Connection, which seeks to foster community by promoting sustainability, hosts a fund-raiser with food, music, and activities Saturday from 4 to 7 PM at the McCormick Tribune YMCA. It'll benefit their latest project, creating a community farm and building an outdoor classroom using alternative materials like corncobs and straw bales in partnership with the YMCA. $10.

Saturday at 10 AM at Kendall College (900 N. North Branch), the Chicago Foodways Roundtable presents a screening of One in a Million: the Cock Robin and Prince Castle Story [click on "Foodways"], a documentary by Naperville Community Television about the now defunct suburban fast-food institution variously called Cock Robin and Prince Castle. Afterward the son of the founder, Walter Fredenhager Jr., will give a talk that covers, among other things, why the stores used square scoops for ice cream, how they influenced McDonald’s, why the company changed its name, and what remains of it today. $3.

Gabriel Magliaro, founder of the eight-month-old local Half Acre Beer Company, is celebrating his lager’s availability at the Heartland Cafe by doing a walk for charity—with beer. For the Half Acre Hike Saturday starting at 4 PM at Monroe Harbor, he’ll tote a case nine miles up the lakefront to the Heartland; sponsors’ donations benefit First Slice, a nonprofit that provides restaurant-quality meals to the needy. Supporters are welcome to join the walk and hit the afterparty at the Heartland starting around 8 PM.

Mary Lou and Robert Heiss discuss and sign their book, The Story of Tea: A Cultural History and Drinking Guide, Sunday from 2 to 5 PM at Palette & Chisel. The ChicaGourmets program [PDF] also features Ceylon tea from Liif Tea, munchies like smoked salmon profiteroles and roasted pork tenderloin, and wine. $59. 

The Lakeview location of Pastoral hosts Artisan Breadmaking 101 with Jory Downer of Bennison’s Bakery, a certified master baker who won a gold medal in the 2005 World Cup of Baking in Paris, Tuesday at 7:30 PM. The fee for the class benefits Our Daily Bread, a joint initiative by Pastoral and Bennison’s to support the Lincoln Park Community Shelter. $40.

Dr. Abraham Kocheril of UIC will be at South Loop Wine Cellar Tuesday from 6:30 to 9 PM to explain the health benefits of drinking wine. There will, of course, be a wine tasting as well. $10.

Also tonight (Friday) there's a Unibroue beer tasting at Cooking Fools, 1916 W. North, hosted by a rep from the Quebecois brewery. It starts at 6; call 773-276-5565. 

Friday night at 7:30 Ghetto Gourmet hosts another secret dinner "in a very very special place near Southside." The menu includes "Forbidden Empanadas: ground pork, granny smith apples, and dried cherries w/ truffled onion jelly," "roasted chicken, rice, and cassava w/ chipotle peanut marinade, wrapped in banana leaf," and more. Guests are advised to bring a bottle and a floor cushion. $45 tickets can be purchased here.

Also Friday, Fig Catering throws an anniversary party in its new kitchen space, 1850 S. Blue Island; the menu star is bacon in one form or another. Call 773-793-1035.   

Saturday at 11:30 AM the Chicago Brauhaus throws a traditional Fruh Schoppen or "special brunch" featuring the 10-piece Bavarian brass band Die Blaskapelle Seefeld and Bavarian specialties. Call 773-484-4444.

Blue Sky Inn, a support organization for at-risk teens, holds an open house Sunday at Kitchen Chicago, 4664 N. Manor to benefit its new transitional jobs program. Coffee and pastries are free. Its from 9 AM to 3 PM; call 773-710-7346.

Also on Sunday Custom House launches a series of monthly "Jazz Sessions" featuring live music and seasonal food and drink pairings. This month the Chris Greene Quartet accompanies a selection of bubblies from Moet Hennessey, paired with antipasti (3 for $16). Call 312-523-0200.

The organic agriculture job training program Growing Home holds its fifth annual benefit Tuesday, 5/1, at the Garfield Park Conservatory, 300 N. Central Park, featuring the labors of chefs such as Michael Altenberg, Shawn McClain, Jason Hammel and Amalea Tshilds, and others. It's $80 and starts at 6 PM. Call 312-435-8601.

On Wednesday evening Chicagoland Baskin Robbins locations will be selling 2.5 ounce scoops of all 31 flavors, for 31 cents. Proceeds benefit the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation.

Also on Wednesday Fox & Obel hosts a faceoff between farmstead and artisinal cheeses featuring Deborah Dickerson of London's Neal’s Yard Dairy. It starts at 6 PM, and costs $25. Thursday at the grocery there's a free organic blood orange and tangerine juice tasting from fruit grown on the slopes of Mt. Etna in Sicily. It starts at 4 PM; call 312-379-0139.