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. Root Beer Float Practically all the root beer float cocktail recipes we could......

Lots of festivals, tastings and food-related events this week, people. Tonight: If you want to learn about warm weather wines, the Chopping Block's Merchandise Mart location is hosting a Wine Goddess class on the subject this evening from 6-7:30 p.m. You'll also be able to sample some lighter reds, whites and blushes. Suite 107 in the Merchandise Mar, $60. Tonight-Sunday: Chuck's Southern Comfort Café in Burbank is throwing their annual Cajun Fest, sponsored by Abita......

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. Next Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. Brasserie JO (59 W. Hubbard, 312-595-0800) is hosting a special four-course beer dinner featuring selections from Van Steenberge beers (brewers of one-time "BotW" selection Piraat). Piraat is not on the menu for this tasting, but......

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." Having attended a couple of Goose Island......

Social networking, meet the restaurant industry. FohBoh (an anagram for "Front of the House, Back of the House") bills itself as "the first, leading social-business network for the global restaurant industry." Unlike Yelp or Chow, FohBoh is a business-to-business network geared towards the insiders: restaurant industry employees, PR/marketing reps and media. But ordinary foodies won't be shooed away. With folks involved like Erin Shea (my predecessor as food and drink editor in these parts)......

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. The Red Witch Pirate will set sail this evening for a 2-hour cruise and dinner with food catered by Bonsoiree. Cost is $45 and interested parties may RSVP here. The churrasco-meets-slow-food restaurant ZED451 (739 N. Clark St.), which has become one of the hottest destination restaurants in town largely......

The Day After: Don't expect to see foie gras back on menus immediately after the repeal of the ban yesterday. The earliest that's going to happen will be June 11th. What did leave a bad aftertaste was the end-around used to repeal the ban and how Mayor Daley put Alderman Joe Moore's dick in the dirt in the process. If you don't know after that why Daley is often referred to here as "His......

Those of you heading to Millennium Park this evening to see Don Giovanni might want to head to the Artisan Cellar at Merchandise Mart from 4-6 p.m. this afternoon for a free tasting of Andre Clouet Champagne, which the Artisan Cellar touts as their most popular sparkling selection in recent memory. a member of the Clouet family will be on hand to discuss the champagne. Saturday at Provenance Food and Wine's Logan Square location,......

The listed events were chosen by the editors of Chicagoist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla. Wine at the Field Wine Enthusiast's "Toast of the Town" event kicks off this evening at the Field Museum. If you're an oenophile, aspire to be, or are just looking to tie one on around dinosaur bones, then this is the event for you. Over 500 selections will be available for sampling (and don't make......

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. Our doppelganger in the Emerald City wholeheartedly agreed with the inclusion of Hopleaf and Map Room, although Map......

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). Other local winners included Emmett's Ale House in West Dundee, earning a silver medal for their Belgian-Style Dubbel, Rock Bottom Brewery's downtown location (a Gold medal for their Terminal Stout in the American stout category), and Three Floyds (a......

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. The brewpub, which founder John Hall opened in 1988, has survived demolition of the buildings surrounding it (and inspired one of Goose Island's signature brands); served as an anchor for the rapid retail development of the Clybourn corridor; attracted beer lovers from around the world; brewed......

Slow Food Chicago and Uncommon Ground are joining forces for what appears to be, on paper, to be one hell of a dinner. The event next Wednesday at Uncommon Ground's recently opened Devon location will feature a menu of seasonal, locally farmed produce from chef Brian Millman with beers from Goose Island, Two Brothers, Surly Brewing, and Dark Horse Brewing. Additionally, the brewmasters for the respective breweries (Greg Hall, Jason Ebel, Omar Ansari and Aaron......

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. One that stood out was Duncan Taylor & Co, Ltd., purveyors of some......

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. In our cupboards we had Chicago's own Goose Island Root Beer and Sweet Baby Ray's Honey Chipotle barbecue sauce. What would you make with these ingredients? We came across this......

when we made it a Unibroue weekend a couple weekends ago, we were floored by the quality of their 2002 Quelque Chose ale. Prior to either of the dinners we attended we thought we had tasted practically everything Unibroue had to offer. There's a movement among some craft breweries to blend and age their beers, like wines or spirits. Three Floyds and Goose Island both do this with their stouts and darker ales (see DarkLord,......

For some people, the ultimate gift is something techy, like a Wii, an iPhone, or a GPS device. For us, it's a growler of beer, which we received over the holidays. The beer inside, "312." was nothing special. the growler, however, was refillable. It's the gift that keeps on giving, like a communicable disease. A couple weekends back we made the trip to Goose Island's Clybourn brew pub to trade in our empty for......

This week's listings kick off this evening at Merchandise Mart with "Chill: an International Wine & Culinary Event" sponsored by Luxehome and Wine Spectator. Proceeds from the event benefit the Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago. The event runs from 5 - 8 p.m. Chicago Professionals for Youth is committed to improving the lives of local underprivileged youth through literacy and mentoring programs, college preparation, job training and career skills assistance. Saturday they're hosting......

Skidoo sounds like something we made up at 3 AM while at some party: Groucho Marx (in his last movie) plays a gangster named God, Jackie Gleason trips on acid while in jail, Carol Channing plays the most sane character in the whole thing, there's a musical number known as the Garbage Can Ballet, and every credit to the movie is sung. It's an actual movie from 1968 and it was directed by Otto......

Some things to do this weekend, and into next, as an excuse to dress in costume. Rare and fine wine auction house Hart Davis Hart is holding an auction of private collections from both coasts today from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. at Tru. The auction is free to attend, but anyone taking the time to head to Tru and not eat is an idiot, quite frankly. Lunch today at Tru is fixed-priced at $75.......

This year's edition of the Great American Beer Festival is in the books, and Illinois breweries racked up an impressive 16 medals. Both Pabst (their corporate headquarters are in suburban Woodridge, so they qualified as an Illinois beer company) and Goose Island took home four medals each. Pabst earned respective gold and silver medals for Lone Star and Old Style (American-style cream ale or lager), and repeated the feat for Old Milwaukee Light and PBR......

One of our favorite seasonal beers at Chicagoist was Goose Island Oktoberfest lager. Our major issue with the beer was that the brewery always ran out of it by early September, right before Oktoberfest celebrations were just starting to kick into high gear. Besides, Goose Island's forte isn't lagers, anyway. With the exception of 312, they're all about brewing bold ales and bitters. We were caught slightly by surprise when Goose Island retired their Oktoberfest......

Rather than go out to participate in last Sunday's national toast to Michael Jackson, we decided to stay at home and raise a glass in honor of the "Beer Hunter." Earlier that afternoon we finished the remaining bottles of Goose Island Harvest Ale during that debacle of a Bears game and were left with a varied selection in the fridge — a couple brews from Three Floyds, a bottle of Unibroue 16, two cans of......

A dog named Miss Pickles was rescued from the Chicago River last night. Miss Pickles's owner Claude was walking her and his three other pooches—yes, on leashes, according to reports—near Chicago and Halsted when Miss Pickles, a bullmastiff, started chasing a rat. She wound up running right into the water, so Claude called 911. After falling in the water, Miss Pickles began to paddle eastbound underneath the bridge, before heading north around the Goose Island......

Cyrano's Bistrot is open again, after a week and four inspections to combat a roach infestation caused by condo renovations above the restaurant. Congratulations, Chef Didier. Just don't expect us to visit anytime soon. Gabriel Magliaro of Half Acre Beer Company has been busy. Half Acre and Bloodshot Records have a promotion where Bloodshot is offering a sampler album as a free download to Half Acre fans. Magliaro will also be at Whole Foods......

Now that summer is doing the quick fade, certain foods and beverages that we avoided during the warm months are creeping back into our diet. They tend to taste better during cooler weather. One of those beverages is a good stout. We mean a good stout, with the viscosity of motor oil and brewed with malt so heavily roasted you'd think they burned the brewery down making the beer. We bought a couple bottles of......

So it's been a little more than a week since Half Acre Beer Company started placing their lager at various bars and package stores around the city. By "around the city" we mean "Wicker Park and Bucktown, save for a couple locations." There's going to be a lot written in upcoming weeks about Half Acre owner Gabriel Magliaro's decision to have his beer brewed on contract in Wisconsin, and whether the knowledge that the beer......

Like the circle of life, this week we revisit Warrenville's Two Brothers Brewing Company nearly a year to the day that we featured their Prairie Path Ale in this column. This time around, they've got something special for us. A bragot (or "braggot"), by definition, is a mixture of beer and mead. In olden days, the mixing was done by the bartender. Today, craft breweries tend to do the honors by putting the honey directly......

"One Mint Julep" seems to be a fitting theme for this week, in both photo and song (Last.fm doesn't lie). Let's move on, shall we? Today is "Charlie Trotter Day" in Chicago, in honor of the 20th anniversary of the opening of his eponymous restaurant. The Sun-Times had a couple of nice pieces this week in conjunction. We linked to Janet Fuller's story of Trotter's first two employees, who are still with him today, in......

A couple months back as our Chicago winter blended into summer, we were doing some research on summer beers that turned out to be very beneficial. We were preparing for what we thought at the time would be a summer without Bell's Oberon. However that beer, while still legally unavailable in Illinois, turned out to be easier to acquire than we thought. And although we like Goose Island 312, we didn't see ourselves going through......