Entries associated with the tag "Sheffield's":

thursday6

Chef Daniel Tucker shows how to make fresh mozzarella at home as part of Room 21’s cooking demo series, which runs the first Thursday of each month (next month features eggnog). Mozzarella samples will be served with prosciutto and a wine pairing. Reservations recommended. 6-7 PM, 2110 S. Wabash, 312-328-1198, $10 (which you’ll get back as a discount on your tab if you order dinner at the restaurant).

Taste products from Vermont Butter & Cheese with company founder Allison Hooper at Pastoral's Loop store. 5-7 PM, 53 E. Lake, 312-658-1250, free. 

friday7

Lush Wine and Spirits on Halsted hosts a tasting of winter brews from Bell's. 6-9 PM, 1257 S. Halsted, 312-738-1900, free. 

saturday8

The sixth annual Festival of Wood and Barrel Aged Beer, presented by the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild, features area breweries including Mickey Finn’s, Goose Island, Three Floyds, Flossmoor Station, and Rock Bottom as well as farther-flung brewers. The competition covers eight style categories, ranging from classic porter/stout to barleywine to experimental; attendees can sample the entries at one of two sessions. 1-5 PM or 6-10 PM, Chicago Journeyman Plumbers’ Local Union 130, Stephen M. Bailey Auditorium, 1340 W. Washington, illinoisbeer.com, $35 in advance, $45 at the door.

Executive chef Jeff Mauro of Powerhouse shares tips for cooking Thanksgiving dinner, including how to roast the perfect turkey, prepare spoonbread, braised red cabbage, dried fruit couscous, and desserts. There'll be samples of the recipes and wine. 11 AM, 215 N. Clinton, 312-928-0800, $40.

tuesday11

Sheffield's offers a class on the flavors and styles of beer with Brett VanderKamp, John Haggerty, and Fred Bueltmann of New Holland Brewing Company; attendees will taste five New Holland beers paired with appetizers. 7-8 PM, 3258 N. Sheffield, 773-281-4989, $25.

wednesday12

The Freedom Museum’s Table of Nations, a series that “expands minds and palates through stimulating conversations on freedom issues in select countries,” meets at Ethiopian Diamond for dinner and a discussion of famine, genocide, and the current crises in Sudan, Somalia, and other parts of the Horn of Africa. 6-8 PM, 6120 N. Broadway, 312-222-7871, $35, $25 museum members.

Between Boutique Cafe and Lounge offers a fixed-price tasting menu by executive chef Radhika Desai, a contestant on Top Chef: New York, at a viewing party for the premiere of the show's fifth season. Among the offerings: curried lobster bisque, braised duck samosas, and ginger-chocolate mousse in chocolate tarts. 9 PM, 1324 N. Milwaukee, 773-292-0585, $50.

Lots of local bars and restaurants are offering drink specials and free or reduced price food to entice election watchers. Some good bets:

Sheffield's will be roasting a pig (no mention of whether it'll sport lipstick). It's free if you buy a cocktail--options include Obama Bombs and Take the Pain Away McCain shots. 5 PM, 3258 N. Sheffield, 773-281-4989.

Sushisamba Rio has a selection of sushi, chicken wings, calamari, taquitos, and other small bites for $2-$4 (available at the bar only), and Obamarama and Maverick cocktails ($11). 504 N. Wells, 312-329-1268.

Whiskey Blue is offering $4 drink specials including the Ciroc Obama, Democra-Sea Breeze, and Absinthee Voter. 6 PM-midnight, 172 W. Adams, 312-782-4933.

Moonshine's drink specials include $3 McCains ("mystery booze--random crap left over from the last four years") and $3 Palins ("Wild Turkey American Honey--starts out sweet with a ruthless finish"); they're also offering a free hot dog bar. 1824 W. Division, 773-862-8686.

Old Town Pub has $3 domestic beers, $2 Jagermeister shots, and a free pizza buffet. 4 PM, 1339 N. Wells, 312-266-6789.

The Fifty/50 offers people with a voting receipt one free beer; there'll also be trivia and prizes. 4 PM, 2047 W. Division, 773-489-5050.

Adobo Grill is offering $5 martinis (red or blue), plus 20.08% off carryout orders picked up before 8 PM. 2005 W. Division, 773-252-9990; 1610 N. Wells, 312-266-7999.

thursday23

Chefs Paul Kahan and Mike Sheerin cook for a Rubissow Wine Dinner at Blackbird celebrating the release of the critically acclaimed 2004 vintage from this sustainable, organic winery. Vintner and general manager Peter Rubissow will be on hand to discuss his company’s wines, which will be paired with a five-course meal. 6:30 PM, 619 W. Randolph, 312-715-0708, $135.

Fiddlehead Cafe offers a special menu of oysters prepared in a variety of ways--for example, poached in champagne and fried in buttermilk with spicy aioli. Reservations required; no set price per person. 5-10 PM, 4600 N. Lincoln, 773-751-1500. 

friday24

Prairie Moon celebrates the release of Goose Island’s 2008 Bourbon County Stout with a party where brewmaster P.J. Fischer will answer questions about the bourbon-barrel-aged beer, available on tap outside the brewpub—which is closing in December—for the first time in years. 7-9 PM, 1502 Sherman, Evanston, 847-864-8328, free.

Ristorante We launches Hip Sip, a monthly party that encourages attendees to browse through boutiques set up in the W Hotel City Center's ballroom and get advice and demos from makeup artists. This month's theme is "The Golden Era of the Sixties;" hors d'oeuvres will include fondue, crab-stuffed mushrooms, and mini deviled eggs, and cocktails will be martinis, sea breezes, and gimlets. 6-8:30 PM, 172 W. Adams, 312-332-1200, $25-35. 

saturday25

The Museum of Science and Industry's fall harvest festival, Home for All Seasons, features a farmers’ market and U. of I. gardeners offering advice on late-season plants, extending garden life, and winterizing. Designers will discuss ecofriendly furniture; kids can get their faces painted by Wicked cast members and trick-or-treat for organic candy around the “Smart Home,” a three-story modular house outfitted with the latest ecofriendly technologies. Costumes encouraged. 10 AM-3 PM, 5700 S. Lake Shore Dr., 773-684-1414, $13, $12 seniors, $9 kids 3-11.

Marilyn Pocius, author of A Cook’s Guide to Chicago, dissects the Argyle Street food markets, then leads a tour of a neighborhood grocery store to check out fresh octopus, rice noodles, durian, and “more kinds of soy sauce than you knew existed.” The group will also stop by Ba Le Sandwich Shop for banh mi and spring rolls. Registration required; you buy your own goodies at Ba Le. 1 PM, Bezazian branch library, 1226 W. Ainslie, 312-744-0019, free.

sunday26

Sheffield's hosts its first chili cook-off; $25 gets you access to six draft beers, a buffet, and of course tastes of the chili submissions. To participate, show up with a Crock-Pot of chili by 1 PM. 1-5 PM, 3258 N. Sheffield, 773-281-4989.

monday 27

Uncommon Ground on Devon hosts its own bash for Goose Island’s 2008 Bourbon County Stout, with free samples and an appearance by brewer Matt Lincoln. 6-8 PM, 1401 W. Devon, 773-465-9801, free.

Scoozi’s annual Tomato Fest starts Friday with a wine tasting ($20) and three-course “tomato-inspired dinner” from 6 to 8 PM ($50 for the wine tasting and dinner package). A market Saturday from 9 AM to 2 PM features locally grown heirloom tomatoes and green tomato apple pies as well as bread, fresh pasta, greens, and cheese; chefs John Chiakulas and Eric Young will give cooking demos using tomatoes. Sunday is for the kids (up to age 12), with a tomato stomp and pizza making from 4 to 6:30 PM.

The BBQ & Blues Summer Bash at Sheffield's, Saturday from noon to 6 PM, includes all-you-can-eat house-smoked ribs, pork, and chicken and unlimited craft beer, plus blues by Howard and the White Boys. $20. 

Mahoney's Pub and Grille (551 N. Ogden, 312-733-2121) hosts a "Beer Olympics" Sunday from noon to 10 PM with pub sports like Beer Pong, Flippy Cup, Cornhole, and Quarters, as well as Ping-Pong and pool. Scoring won't be based on alcohol consumption (which is optional) but on a point system; the first place team gets an all-expenses paid trip by limo to Chinatown for dinner at Won Kow restaurant. Teams of six can register until noon Sunday. $100 per team.

A Slow Food Chicago dinner at Le Lan Monday at 6 PM features bobwhite quail with spiced carrot puree and blueberry-balsamic reduction among the four courses, all with wine pairings. $75.

Goose Island's Lincoln Park location hosts a brewmaster dinner to benefit Green City Market Monday at 6:30 PM. Chefs including Paul Virant of Vie, Dean Zanella of 312 Chicago, and Paul Kahan of the Publican (which is apparently slated to open the same day) will prepare dishes like goat milk ricotta gnocchi with zucchini blossoms, yellow tomatoes, and pancetta. Each menu item will be paired with a Goose Island beer. $150.

Executive chef Michael Grieb and wine director Mark Wrobel of Fox & Obel and Brad Fuller of Paramount Merchants lead a BBQ and Beer Class Tuesday from 6 to 7 PM at Fox & Obel, pairing six craft brews with samples of “BBQ-inspired foods” from the store. Among the offerings: Napa cabbage and Granny Smith apple slaw with Blanche de Bruxelles, chicken and mango quesadillas with New Holland Zoomer Wheat Ale, and Gunthorp Farms pulled pork panini with Abita Amber Ale. $20.

Tim Laird, “Chief Entertaining Officer” of Brown-Forman Corporation, presents Mistology: The Science Behind the Cocktail, Wednesday from 7 to 9 PM at the Mid-America Club's Aon Center (200 E. Randolph, 80th fl.). He’ll address enigmas like how to keep carbonation in champagne and why bartenders always pour in alcohol before the mixer, as well as taking questions. After the presentation participants can practice mixing cocktails and nosh on appetizers. All proceeds go to the human rights organization Heartland Alliance. $15.

The Daley Plaza Farmers' Market hosts its second Country Chef Challenge Thursday from 11 AM to 1 PM. Mark Mendez of Carnivale, Jimmy Madla of Coobah, and Kaminsky Thomas of Anteprima will each have 30 minutes to choose ingredients from the market, and another 30 minutes to create a dish; a panel of judges will determine the winner. 

The Palm Chicago hosts a dinner Thursday at 7 PM devoted to the tequilas of Jalisco’s 130-year-old Casa Herradura. Each of four courses will be paired with a Herradura blue agave tequila—a lump crab and cantaloupe margarita starter with Herradura Silver, for instance, or an entree of oven-roasted cumin-crusted mahimahi with Herradura Añejo. Company rep Ruben Aceves will discuss Herradura history and describe the process behind each tequila. Guests get goody bags and will be entered into a raffle for a bottle of Selección Suprema, the company’s highest-end blue agave. (At retail it goes for about $300.) Reservations required. $95.

Friday at 5 PM, Chuck’s Southern Comforts Cafe starts its three-day-long Cajun Fest, a smorgasbord of southern, Mexican, and of course Cajun dishes, all between $2 and $5—including cochinita pibil tacos, beef kebabs with ancho-mushroom sauce, pulled pork, jerk chicken with mango sauce, jambalaya, muffulettas, and a shrimp boil. Abita Beer, from Abita Springs, Louisiana, will have its Turbodog, Purple Haze, and Amber brews on tap. Blues, zydeco, country, and rockabilly bands perform all three days. Friday 5-11 PM, Saturday noon-11 PM, Sunday 1-9 PM, Saint Albert’s Church parking lot, 5555 State, Burbank, 708-229-8700. No admission charge.

Friday’s the last day to make reservations for ChicaGourmets dinner [PDF] at Va Pensiero Wednesday, 8/13, 6:30 PM, with Count Niccolo Capponi of Villa Calcinaia, a wine- and olive-oil-making estate in Italy’s Chianti region overseen by his brother Count Sebastiano. Capponi, an archivist and professor of medieval and Renaissance history at Iowa State University, will discuss the history of the estate, which has been in his family since 1524, and demonstrate his recipe for orange risotto with taleggio and garlic, which will be served at dinner. The menu also includes a garlic-and-rosemary-marinated pork loin, a goat cheese-stuffed onion, and a chocolate-almond torte; each course will be paired with a Villa Calcinaia wine. Guests also get a bottle of Villa Calcinaia olive oil. $98.

Saturday from 10 AM to noon at the Chicago History Museum, Culinary Historians of Chicago presents The History of Greektown's Parthenon. Yanna Liakouras, a partner at the Parthenon and daughter of the restaurant's founder, and Camille Stagg, author of The Parthenon Cookbook, will discuss the history of Greektown and the Parthenon. They'll also serve samples of some Greek specialties and sign copies of the cookbook. $5. 

Harpoon Brewery holds a release party at Sheffield's Monday from 7 to 9 PM. The $15 admission price ($10 for "Friends of Harpoon") includes three drink tickets good for Harpoon's IPA draft or bottles of UFO, plus appetizers and samples from the 100 Barrel series.

(Contributing: Katie Buitrago)

Ingrid Hoffmann, host of the Food Network's Simply Delicioso, signs Simply Delicioso: A Collection of Everyday Recipes with a Latin Twist Monday at 7:30 PM at the Evanston Borders.

Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head Brewery is all around town next Tuesday and Wednesday. From 7-9 PM Tuesday, he'll lead a tasting of "funky beer and stinky cheese" at Sheffield's along with cheese expert Dave Phillips. The $25 fee includes a sampling of 12 Dogfish Head brews, 8 of them on tap, and ten cheeses from The Cheese Stands Alone. Wednesday he'll be at Delilah's from 9 PM to midnight leading a vertical tasting of more than 20 of his company's craft beers; there's no cover.

Wednesday at 7 PM, the Chicago Foodways Roundtable hosts a lecture, Vermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World, served along with a family-style dinner (ordered off the menu) at Lao Sze Chuan. Historian Timothy Brook, an apparent polymath who holds the Shaw Chair in Chinese Studies at Oxford, will discuss the significance of details in Vermeer's paintings—such as why the officer in Officer and Laughing Girl is wearing a hat—and how they illuminate the "history framed within the painter's works." The lecture's free; the food’s not. Reservations requested. 847-432-8255 or chicago.foodways.roundtable@gmail.com.

Joey Tensley of Tensley Wines in Santa Barbara, California, leads a tasting of six of his syrahs Wednesday from 6-7:30 PM at Custom House. The wines will be paired with hors d'oeuvres including braised lamb shoulder with winter root vegetables and dark chocolate, fennel salumi with buffalo mozzarella and pickled eggplant, and house-cured steelhead with shaved fennel and blood orange vinaigrette. $40.

Also Wednesday, Vinci hosts an Umani Ronchi wine dinner, featuring wines and food from Marché. Three of the four courses include wine pairings (dessert doesn't); it's $45.

Ever had a meal you were making go horribly wrong? The folks at Fiddlehead Cafe want to hear about it, in 200 words or less. They also want your favorite original, unpublished ethnic recipe (presumably not the one that figures in your disaster story). First prize for both contests is dinner for two at the restaurant; runners-up get a wine flight for two. Amateur cooks only. Entries should be sent to hamid@fiddleheadcafe.com by February 29.