OK, I picked up some info on the Localvore Challenge at the Green City Market this weekend, and there is a certain collective component to it. In addition to the message board, the organizers provide a guide to what’s in season the week of September 10-16, some sample menus, recipes, and a list of restaurants participating in the project by offering special locavore meals that week, which includes usual suspects like West Town Tavern and Vie, plus a few curveballs–Shaw’s? The Park Grill?
The parameters of the challenge itself are pretty broad: eat stuff sourced only from Illinois and the states it borders. And Michigan. Plus stuff you allow yourself an exemption for, such as coffee and olive oil. All in all it’s a wide net, though I’m sure some would be happy to discover that, say, Kentucky-born Maker’s Mark is still an option. (And, speaking of the devil’s tea, the distillery is sponsoring this festival of debauchery tonight.)
On the 16th (a Sunday) there’s a $20 celebratory brunch at Sarah Stegner’s Prairie Grass Cafe in . . . Northbrook. To which I’d imagine most people would have to drive.