Five places to drink free wine in the Chicago area

These Chicagoland wine shops host weekly free wine tastings where you’re welcome to sip and sample highlighted vintages.

Just Grapes, West Loop, 2–4 p.m. Saturdays.

Red & White, Bucktown, 2–5 p.m. Saturdays.

Schaefer’s, Skokie, 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Saturdays.

Taste Food and Wine, Rogers Park, 6–7:30pm Mondays and Fridays.

Wine Discount Center, Clybourn Corridor, Barrington, Forest Park and Highland Park, noon–4 [...]

This week on the foodie book tour beat

Two foodie book events are on the menu this week:

Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François will kick off the promotional tour for their new cookbook, “Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day,” with a signing at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 28, at Borders in LaGrange.

David Sax will give a talk and reading from his book, “Save [...]

How can we save the Jewish deli?

The Sun-Times recently wrote about the disappearing Jewish delicatessen, a phenomenon chronicled in David Sax’s new book, “Save the Deli: In Search of Perfect Pastrami, Crusty Rye, and the Heart of Jewish Delicatessen,” based on his similarly named blog.
Reporter Mike Thomas clearly isn’t too familiar with Jewish deli food (claiming much of it is “creamed [...]

Chefs celebrate festival of the $10 foie gras

It’s National Foie Gras Week! From June 11–16, Chicago Chefs for Choice fete the first anniversary of the return of the unctuous duck liver to Chicago menus with the 2009 Foie Gras Fest. Each restaurant offers a specially-created foie gras dish — or more — for just $10.
Chef Rick Gresh of David Burke’s Primehouse [...]

Ravinia Festival season returns

 
Ravinia season starts up Friday, June 5, with the Ravinia Festival Orchestra’s performance of “Camelot.”
A few more highlights of the coming season:

Friday, June 12: The world premiere of Ramsey Lewis’s “Proclamation of Hope.”

Saturday, June 20: Misha and Cipa Dichter perform the world premiere of an unpublished work by Felix Mendelssohn: “Seven Songs Without Words, [...]