Slurp your way through September wine tastings

Drink up, wine lovers! You can sip, slurp and sample your way through September with a wide variety of wines being poured at Chicago-area steakhouses.
From 5:30 to 7 p.m. every Thursday in September, Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse in River North and Lincolnshire will showcase its latest selection of 100 wines served by the glass. At [...]

Friday food porn: Seasons’ sexed-up hot dog

Through July 31, Seasons Lounge and Bar inside Streeterville’s Four Seasons Hotel Chicago serves this handmade version of a Chicago hot dog. (Part 4 of a series in honor of National Hot Dog Month.)

Hot Chicago hotel menu happenings

Chicago’s hotel restaurants are sizzling this summer. Here’s a sampling:

Stetson’s Chop House in the Loop’s Hyatt Regency Chicago has added a $38 three-course set menu to recently enhanced regular menu. Served daily before 6:30 p.m. and after 8 p.m., the prix fixe offers a choice of French onion soup or caesar salad to [...]

Cranking it out at the Hideout tonight

Head to the Hideout in Bucktown tonight at 9 p.m. for “The Wine Cycle,” an intimate evening with Theater Oobleck’s Dave Buchen and Chris Schoen, who’ll be cranking out music and images.

West Town Chicago restaurant hosts Italian Passover meal

Seder, Italian-style! Piccolo Sogno restaurant in West Town will host an Italian-style seder dinner on the second night of Passover, Tuesday, March 30, with two seatings at 5:30 and 8:30 p.m.
A seder is a Jewish religious ceremony and dinner that commemorates the biblical Exodus.
Chef Tony Priolo’s five-course menu will combine Italian and Ashkenazi culinary [...]

Five places to drink free wine in the Chicago area

These Chicagoland wine shops host weekly free wine tastings where you’re welcome to sip and sample highlighted vintages.

Just Grapes, West Loop, 2–4 p.m. Saturdays.

Red & White, Bucktown, 2–5 p.m. Saturdays.

Schaefer’s, Skokie, 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Saturdays.

Taste Food and Wine, Rogers Park, 6–7:30pm Mondays and Fridays.

Wine Discount Center, Clybourn Corridor, Barrington, Forest Park and Highland Park, noon–4 [...]

Sign up for free drinks in River North

Cheers! Cityscape Bar in River North hosts free drinks tastings:

Wine tasting, 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 21.
Varietals include Marchetti Verdicchio Classico (Italy), Fess Parker Chardonnay (Santa Barbara County, California), Celler el Masroig Sola Fred (Montsant, Spain), Fattoria Bibbiani Chianti (Tuscany), Elizabeth Spencer Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley, California), and Max Ferd. Richter Mulheimer Sonnenlay (Germany).

Scotch [...]

21 cheap dates for New Year’s Eve in Chicago

If you’ve been putting off making New Year’s Eve plans because funds are short, don’t worry. You don’t have to spend a fortune to celebrate the end of 2009. Although, sadly, big municipal celebrations have fallen victim to the economy this year, there are still plenty of low-cost options for Dec. 31. Here are 21 [...]

2009 Beaujolais Nouveau arrives in Chicago Thursday

Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé!
Well, nearly. On the third Thursday of each November, the new wine of Beaujolais is uncorked for the world. By French law, Beaujolais Nouveau may be released no earlier than 12:01 a.m. on that date.
More than 65 million bottles, nearly half of the region’s total annual wine production, are [...]

Wine weekend: Get 10 percent off on Pinot Days

Pinot noir is the queen of red wines.
More than 50 pinot noir producers will pour their wines Saturday, Nov. 14, at the third annual Pinot Days Grand Festival. This is your chance to taste the newly released 2007 vintage, which is being called the best in decades, along with more than 300 pinots, and meet [...]