A portrait of Tankboy as a young man. I can't believe my parents would put this on YouTube! more ›

There's more to Lynfred Winery than being the state's largest and oldest continuous operating winery. Its expansion eight years ago involved expanding their tasting room and retail operations to include a bed and breakfast that makes for a beautiful daytrip. Marketing Director Christina Anderson-Heller took me for a tour of the operation while we waited for Winemaker/GM Andres Basso to show me the winemaking plant. more ›

"We had a booth at the Windy City Wine Festival last month and I told plenty of people who don't own a car how easy it is to reach the winery by train," said Lynfred Winery marketing director Christina Anderson-Heller as we met at the Roselle Metra stop. "Almost all of them asked, 'What train?'" And it is a fairly painless trek, although navigating Union Station during morning rush is something out of the Divine Comedy. When my train stopped at Roselle, Anderson-Heller was there waiting to drive the final mile to the winery. I've long had an open invitation to tour Lynfred's facilities, and last week they received a 30-ton shipment of petite syrah grapes. "Would you be interested in seeing the grapes being processed? Maybe help out in the winery and taste out some barrels?" Anderson-Heller asked. more ›

Last night's beer dinner at the Publican was the culmination of six months of planning and discussions between Paul Kahan and New Holland Brewing Company. After all the brewing, the emails and phone calls, getting to know each other and travel between Chicago and Holland, it came down to the beer and the food, as it should have been. The proof, as the adage goes, would be in the pudding. more ›

A few weeks ago, our Chuck Sudo went on a road trip to Holland, Michigan with Publican mastermind Paul Kahan to get a behind-the-scenes look at the pairing between Kahan and New Holland Brewing for their special beer dinner in August. It was an excellent series and we were worried about it getting lost in the shuffle so we've gathered up all the links here. If you haven't gotten a chance to read through it, we highly recommend you bookmark this post so you can come back and read each part at your leisure. Above are new pictures from Chuck that we didn't run the first time around on these posts, so enjoy those as well. more ›

Among the many reasons New Glarus beers are held in high regard is their attention to detail. From research to bottle, Dan Carey brews some amazing beers. One of our favorites is so good that if you poured it to some unsuspecting drinkers, they might mistake it for a sparkling rosé. more ›

Paul McCartney is celebrating his 66th birthday by taking a road trip on Route 66. Which is how he wound up in Springfield this weekend, posing for a picture with a group of Cardinals fans at a gas station. [WBBM, Mirror, Daily Mail] more ›