Soup and Bread Serving Up the Goods for Garfield Park Conservatory

By Kim Bellware in Arts & Entertainment on Jul 6, 2011 6:40PM

The Hideout's excellent seasonal Soup and Bread benefit is returning for a special, all summer soup (read: cold) edition tonight to benefit the Garfield Park Conservatory. The Chicago landmark sustained heavy damage after last week's hail storm, with roughly half of its glass-paned roof shattered, and damage to some of the rare plants housed below.

Director of Conservatories Mary Eysenbach told CBS 2 that "The Garfield Park Conservatory is two acres under glass — that’s just the display houses."

Patrick Deady, a board member for the Garfield Conservatory Alliance, placed the repair estimates to CBS 2 at $4 million to $5 million, saying they could even go higher (WBEZ also has a good video that shows the extent of the damage).

Since, like most of us, the Garfield Park Conservatory doesn't have a couple million burning a hole in their pocket, a few well-loved eateries from around the city--Milk & Honey, Big Star, Swim Cafe and Inspiration Kitchens to name a few--are stepping up with their best soup recipes.

If you haven't been to Soup and Bread before, here's how it works: friends of the Hideout bring the bowls, the volunteer cooks donate the soup (and their efforts), La Farine is providing the bread for this week's event and the hungry do-gooders make a donation, 100% of which will benefit the conservatory's repair efforts. Since it wouldn't be a Hideout event without some good music, Chicagoist favorite, Numero Group, will be DJing the evening.

To avoid an empty bowl, get there as close to the 5:30 p.m. start time as you can--the soup goes quickly.

If you can't make it to Soup and Bread tonight, you can also donate online to the conservatory's repair efforts.

The Hideout is located at 1354 W Wabansia. Soup and Bread runs from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., free, but donations accepted