A fabulous launch party, benefiting Share our Strength, starts at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday night. more ›

Millennium Park was the meat lover's paradise Friday night - quite a distinction in a city that loves its beef. The kick-off event for Chicago Gourmet, the Hamburger Hop, saw chefs from all across the city competing to make the best burger. more ›

Much to our delight, cocktail menus and restaurant beverage programs have been transforming in a great way - the revival of classic cocktails, gin based drinks and most recently the tea trend. more ›

Back in January we attended an early front runner for the year's best dinner with NAHA's "Winter Doldrums" cocktail dinner, an exercise in excess pairing Carrie Nahabedian's cooking with cocktails from Wirtz Beverage's Peter Vestinos. For each of the seven courses, Vestinos fashioned punches using rare select vintage teas from Rodrick Markus's Rare Tea Cellar. Both the courses and cocktails intensified in richness until Markus tucked the attendees to bed with a tea blend, Emperor's Late Night Elixir, that had us sweating toxins out of our pores. more ›

• Tonight's the big night: our reader meetup at Sheffield's from 7-10 p.m. There really isn't anything bigger in town happening and it is totally worth braving hypothermia, frostbite and windburn to travel to our meetup. If you absolutely have to be somewhere else...
• There's a Bordeaux Matchmaking meetup this evening starting at Y Bar (224 W. Ontario St.) To RSVP visit bordeauxmatchmaking.com.
• Over at Jbar at the James Hotel (610 N. Rush St.) Time Out Chicago's Kevin Aeh is hosting an Ugly Holiday Sweater Party starting at 8 p.m. Watch the stylish don their worst Cosby and holiday-themed sweaters as complimentary appetizers from Primehouse chef Rick Gresh are passed around.

Oktoberfest formally ends tomorrow, but that isn't stopping Rick Gresh from celebrating a few days after. The Executive Chef at David Burke's Primehouse is also an avid homebrewer and he'll be featuring a few of his creations at a Sunday dinner kicking off Primehouse's "OktoBEERfest." The selections Gresh and the Primehouse staff will be pouring include I-PAC (an IPA infused with chamomile); a wheat ale brewed with Seedling Farm peaches called "Stoned Wheat" and one beer Gresh calls "Working Man's Champagne." more ›

Heirloom tomatoes are finally starting to roll into farmers markets throughout the city. With that comes some pretty outstanding cocktail recipes. First, there's the always busy Adam Seger of Nacional 27. Seger's monthly cocktail class was the subject of a cover story in the New York Times style section yesterday. The Paper of Record also published Seger's Heirloom Tomato Mojitonico recipe for Anthony and Rob to try at home. more ›