Delilah’s celebrates its 15th anniversary and a year that saw its 5,000th straight day of being open (in case you were wondering, that’s 13.7 years) with a party Thursday from 11 AM to 2 AM. They’ll be opening the first bottle of Delilah’s Chicago 15-Year-Old Single Cask Rye Whiskey, the third installment in the “Delilah’s Whiskies of the World Collection.”
Thursday at 7 PM, Mark Bires, chef and co-owner of Jerry’s Wicker Park (1938 W. Division), prepares a six-course meal with beer pairings from Cleveland’s Great Lakes Brewing Co.; Patrick Conway, co-owner of Great Lakes, will be on hand to discuss the brews. The menu includes roasted tomato soup paired with Eliot Ness Vienna Lager, fried green tomatoes and shrimp remoulade over a buttermilk biscuit paired with Burning River American Pale Ale and Commodore Perry India Pale Ale, and collapsed chocolate souffle cake with creme anglaise paired with Edmund Fitzgerald Porter. $48, reservations required.
Also Thursday at 7 PM, Mrs. Murphy and Sons Irish Bistro hosts a “Drink Local Beer” tasting pairing cheeses with local beers. $20, $15 in advance.
Through next Friday, In Fine Spirits is offering a special gin menu featuring martinis, negronis, and other gin-based cocktails, including a gin-and-tonic tasting flight (Zuidam Genever, Hendrick’s, and Martin Miller’s Westbourne Strength Dry Gin, all with Fever-Tree tonic). A tasting flight of North Shore gins (No. 6, No. 11, and Alphonso Mango No. 11) can be paired with creations by chef Marianne Sundquist, including cold pea soup with lavender honey and pea shoots, cucumber salad with whipped goat cheese and sage-lemon vinaigrette, and coconut panna cotta.
Friday from 6 to 7:30 PM, Taste Food and Wine‘s weekly free wine tasting features Red Dirt Red, Terra Rosa Malbec, Adegas Ladairo Godello, and Verdicchio Luzano. And from 6 to 9 PM, Lush Wine and Spirits on Halsted (1257 S. Halsted) hosts a free tasting of North Shore Distillery spirits, including their new absinthe.