The Chicagoist will be launching later but in the meantime please enjoy our archives.

Wine Wednesday Buying Guide: Provenance Food & Wine

By Caitlin Klein in Food on Mar 2, 2011 7:00PM

As planned, we visited Logan Square's Provenance Food & Wine to do a little wine tasting and pick up a bottle or two. The Logan Square location has a free wine tasting every Saturday from 3-6, and the Lincoln Square location every Thursday from 6pm-8pm. Even better, the store brings in its vendors to have food tastings: during our visit, Brand BBQ passed out samples of its bourbon-smoked candied pecans, BBQ potato chips, bacon honey butter, and brown sugar bacon caramel ice cream, all of which are available for purchase at Provenance. Provenance has two shops: one in Lincoln Square and one in Logan Square. We visited the shop in Lincoln Square a few years ago, so for this wine tasting we had to go see what the Logan Square shop was all about.

The shop is deceiving. It seems small, but upon entering you are greeted with a wall of wines and a wide array of food products, many of them Chicago produced. Provenance does a good job of partnering with home-town vendors; we found local chips, local hot sauce, local barbeque sauce, local honey, and local ice cream.

Especially notable are the honey and ice cream selections. Provenance has their own honey label through Bron’s Bee Company, and sells some of Bron’s signature infused honeys. The ice cream selection is small but very interesting. In addition to Brand’s brown sugar bacon caramel ice cream, we found Nice Cream; Chicago’s own handcrafted, seasonal ice cream. This winter's flavors are Stout + Brownies, Vanilla Mint, Gingersnap Cookie, and Spicy Chocolate, and Provenance carried all of them. We left with the Stout + Brownies and loved it; the creamy, smooth stout flavor really comes out. The spring flavors will be revealed soon, and Provenance will hold a tasting of the new selections on Thursday, March 31st.

But what about the wine, you cry! This is Wine Wednesday, after all. Provenance's wine selection is smaller than you would find at a store that specializes solely in wine, but the selections were thoughtfully chosen and reasonably priced. Provenance has a table of 12 wines for under $12, which is a good option for someone looking to try a number of new varietals without hurting the wallet too much. Best of all, the shop's GM, Joe, is able to give good recommendations, and that is worth its weight in gold. We gave him a price range and described what we were having for dinner, and he promptly picked out two bottles for us. We took them both home, and they complimented our dinner just like he said they would. The vendors running the wine tasting, Rose Imports and Platinum Distributors brought three wines each and worked together to showcase their selections. This would be a great spot for someone who wants to build a relationship with their local wine shop; the shop is small enough that you get lots of attention if you want it, and questions are encouraged.

Provenance's Logan Square shop is located at 2528 N. California Ave.