Results tagged “gooseisland”

The wheels of justice are still turning at Republic Windows and Doors, it seems. According to the Chicago Tribune, an official from the company was arrested yesterday in connection with looting the business last year.

      

We dined last night at Carnivale for its Slow Food and Goose Island Brewery dinner. The meal featured produce from local farmers prepared by Chef Mendez and paired with a Goose Island brew. Once seated at communal tables, the evening began with a warm welcome from Chef Mendez and a beer graciously poured by his wife, making us feel like they'd welcomed us into their home for a dinner party with friends.

Went to Goose Island Clybourn last night for the Swan Creek Farm Auction-ending celebration; the online auction brought in over $14,000. All of the monies raised from the various benefits wil go a long way toward helping Swan Creek's George Rasmussen get a new truck for deliveries.

       

The best beer and wine dinners are collaborative efforts where chef and winemaker/brewmaster get to know each other and their creations intimately. Even so, the number of these dinners we've attended where every pairing worked perfectly can be counted on one hand.

For Memorial Day, The Chopping Block is hosting a BBQ Bash at their Lincoln Square location. The bash is an "open-house-style cooking class and party" on their patio with all the proceedes going to veterans via the Disabled Patriot Fund, a not-for-profit that helps Illinois veterans wounded in Iraq or Afganistan. Cook and dine on slow-smoked BBQ pork, balsamic-glazed skirt steak, beer can chicken, three bean salad, blueberry pie a la mode and sip on (free) lemonade and Goose Island Beer. The classparty is from 12-3pm, sponsored by Goose Island, Paulina Market and Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet and is $75 per person. Yes, more than your typical back yard party but it's for a good, local cause. So do it. With a smile and hungry stomach.

With the Blackhawks and Canucks getting ready to square off in the NHL Western Conference Semifinals, it's time for His Elective Majesty to put the donated products of local businesses where his mouth is. Mayor Daley and Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson have placed the stereotypical wager of foodstuffs on the outcome of the series. The one thing more annoying than these types of bets are sports fans who say "we" when referring to their favorite teams. There is no "we;" there's "them" (the athletes on the field/court/rink) and "you" (the boorish louts who take the games too seriously while beer goggling women in the stands).

One of the boldest moves made by a local chef in the past year was Bill Kim's move from the white tablecloths of Le Lan to the more comfortable and low-key atmosphere of Urban Belly. Kim's kim chi, pork belly and rice cake stew that he made for Hot Chocolate's fourth anniversary dinner is one of the best dishes i've eaten so far in this short year.

Goose Island brewmaster Greg Hall has been telling anyone who will listen that "sour is the new hoppy." It's unsurprising to find Goose Island at the vanguard of what's becoming a shift in American craft brewing. Breweries like Goose Island, Dogfish Head and Jolly Pumpkin are shifting from boldly hopped ales to experimental fermentation, brewing with fruit, and aging for long periods of time in whisky or wine casks. The template now is not how thick a beer can be, but how tart can you make it. India Pale ales and Extra Strong Bitters are taking a back seat to lambics, saisons, krieks and brett yeasts.

With the Chicago Beer Society's "Night of the Living Ales" event Saturday long sold the f**k out, the next big beer tasting guaranteed to sell out will be Goose Island Stout Fest. From 1-5 p.m. March 22, local craft brewers will be pouring over 20 different stouts, from Irish-dry to Imperial, oatmeal to rye, and all kinds of barrel-aged craziness. Held in Goose Island Clybourn's Siebel Hall, they'll also be pouring six-ounce tastings throughout the event. Cost is $30; call 312-915-0071 to RSVP.

              

Last night Mindy Segal brought together some of the best chefs in the city to celebrate Hot Chocolate's fourth anniversary with a $100 per person dinner to benefit Share Our Strength, a non-profit that works with local food banks, restaurants and community groups to combat hunger at home. Segal is the chair of Share Our Strength's "Taste of the Nation" event, scheduled for August 13 at Ravenswood Billboard Factory (Full disclosure: this Chicagoist staffer is also on the event committee).

Isn't that a thing of beauty? The only thing more beautiful than a growler is one full of beer.

Break out your party hats, on Monday, February 23, Hot Chocolate is celebrating its 4th birthday by hosting a ridiculous five course dinner complete with appropriately paired craft beers. Even better, ticket sales will benefit Share Our Strength, a national non-profit working to end childhood hunger.

Goose Island's been working a lot with rye malt recently. Their Juliet ale, brewed with rye, marionberries and aged for six months in Robert Kraig cabernet casks, has been a popular selection among those Chicagoist staffers who've tasted it (Jacy and myself). This week, we're featuring another rye-based Goose Island offering that's been flying off shelves.

As the sit-in at the Republic Windows and Doors plant reached its third day, Rev. Jesse Jackson paid a visit to factory workers. The factory was suddenly shut down this week after Bank of America canceled the company's line of credit due to the current economic crisis. Workers, however, are demanding severance packages they say are owed to them. A law signed by Gov. Blagojevich a few years ago backs this claim up. According to NBC 5:

The Illinois WARN Act, signed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich in 2004, requires employers to give 60 days notice to employees and their unions, the Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity’s Bureau of Workforce Development and the Illinois Department of Labor, of a plant closing or mass layoff.

 

The seminars at Chicago Gourmet were a lot like college— you either left feeling smarter after a lecture from a great professor or you sat through the whole thing drawing on your notebook, wondering what all your friends were drinking at the wine tents. I assume many ticket holders attended Chicago Gourmet hoping to expand their knowledge of food and wine. The seminars seemed like the best place to start if this was your ultimate goal. Unfortunately, as Chuck and Anthony mentioned, they proved to be hit or miss.

The awesome holidays are coming one after another this August. Today is the 100th anniversary of the Root Beer Float, one of our favorite summer treats. Originally called a “black cow” (or a “brown cow, depending on who you believe), it was created by Frank Wisner in Cripple Creek, Colorado. Try out this Root Beer Float inspired cocktail, perfect for tonight’s dessert.

Lots of festivals, tastings and food-related events this week, people.

There are a couple of really interesting beer dinners of note in the coming weeks that could wind up being hard reservations, if you're the type to wait until the last minute to get reservations.

Flossmoor Station Brewpub and Restaurant has this nice little luau-themed brewmaster dinner planned for next Tuesday at 6 p.m. The guest of honor for the event will be Wil Turner, the extraordinarily talented brewmaster for Goose Island's Clybourn brewpub. Andrew Mason, Flossmoor Station's head brewer, said in an e-mail that Turner will be bringing along Goose Island's 20th Anniversary Celebration ale and a Belgian black ale called "Noire."

We've got a Taste of Chicago preview for you later. In the meantime, here are some things around town to check out in the coming days.

All About Beer magazine (via) listed their "top 125 places to have a beer before you die" (a nice arbitrary number, by the way). Five local taverns made the cut: Hopleaf (#24), Clark Street Ale House (#43), Map Room (#47), Goose Island (#84) and John Barleycorn, which makes the cut ten spots from the bottom at #115.

The results from the biennial World Beer Cup (held this year in classy San Diego) are up. Goose Island represented yet again, earning silver medals for "#12" (English-style summer ale) and Matilda (Belgian- and French-style ale).

And it is true: both dailies are reporting that Goose Island will close down its flagship brewpub on Clybourn by the end of the year, after losing its lease.

Slow Food Chicago and Uncommon Ground are joining forces for what appears to be, on paper, to be one hell of a dinner.

 

Another year, another WhiskyFest down in the books. Malt Advocate magazine's annual festival celebrating all there is to celebrate about whiskies was, by all notes, a rousing success. Many exhibitor booths were four-to-five deep with patrons and customers paying $110 a pop to sample whisky. This having been our third WhiskyFest, we had to look long and hard for some new brands.

We've been known to harsh on YumSugar's more useless features from time to time. Like Name That Dish! or their silly polls like "Do You Like Sandwiches?" But we must admit we had a kind of YumSugar "What Would You Make?" moment the other day.