Logan Square’s Provenance Food and Wine celebrates its one-year anniversary with a slew of in-store classes and tastings. Tonight at 7 PM naturopathic physician Stephanie Draus gives a talk on “Wine, Chocolate, and Your Heath” [insert murmur of approval/reference to those heart-healthy French here]. It’s $20 per person, but you get samples of the “health foods” and 10 percent off any purchase. Then on Sunday (2/11) and Monday (2/12) the store offers a one-two punch of Valentine’s Day pregame events: Monday there’s a make-your-own truffles class; Tuesday it’s a tutorial in aphrodisiac foods. See the Web site for specifics on these and other events this month, including a beer and chocolate tasting on the 23rd courtesy of Vosges and Unibroue.
Apparently Unibroue’s sales reps are keeping busy: This Wednesday (2/7) Fiddlehead Cafe hosts a five-course dinner paired with selections from the Quebec brewery. The menu includes house-cured coppa with a pomegranate, parsley, and shallot salad (paired with a sweet, tart Ephemere Cranberry white ale) and veal braised with bitter orange and coriander (paired with the wicked Maudite, which according to the PR is the company’s fastest moving brand in Chicago). It’s $50; go here for a pdf of the whole menu.
Also on Wednesday, from 6 to 8 PM, Juicy Wine Company and Grand Cru Wine Merchants offer a tasting of about ten wines from importer/tireless champion of Spanish wine Jorge Ordonez. Your $50 here also gets you samples of cheese, pates, and salumi. Reservations are recommended; contact Grand Cru at 847-392-9463.