Cheesemongers Receive National Notoriety

By Andrew Jenkins in Food on Dec 7, 2006 9:37PM

Lakeview’s cheese and gourmet food spot, Pastoral, was recently mentioned as one of the country’s top six artisan cheese shops by foodspring magazine. We’d never actually heard of foodspring before, but it’s a nice nod to Chicago’s cheese street cred in any case. We’ve popped into Pastoral on a few occasions and dig the selection. Like our all-time favorite cheese shop, Pastoral is a cut-to-order seller (insert flatulence joke here). This means they don’t cut their larger wheels down to smaller portions and pre-package them — something Whole Foods catches criticism for and a practice that does tend to dry the cheese out.

On top of all the gourmet foodie stuff (bread, sandwiches, dips and such) they also cut out the liquor store middleman and provide a pretty decent variety of wine. Two birds with one stone! Pastoral’s pre-made picnic baskets or Cheese of the Month Club might make good holiday gifts for that fromage-loving friend of yours, too. Hint, hint.

Pastoral is located at 2945 N. Broadway. Phone: 773-472-4781. Hours: Closed Mondays; Tues.-Fri. 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.; Sat. 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.; Sun. 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Image via chicagofoodies.com.