We continue to grow and evolve as a buisness and we try hard to serve the needs of our customers. 

One thing we noticed from the beginning was that some diners would love to have a martini or a Scotch or a gin and tonic with their dinner, but we only had a license that allowed for beer and wine.  Last week we were thrilled to have received our spirits license from the Village of Oak Park.  In the coming weeks we will be introducing a cocktail menu to go along with our dinner service.  (and a new dinner menu is coming an a couple weeks)

Until then, we are starting slow and simple, offering things like gin and tonic or a neat whiskey.  Today you can try one of our special birthday drinks – our housemade herbal lemonade made with 7000′ Vodka from High West Distillery of Park City, Utah.   This is a perfect way to enjoy a very hot July evening!

Our philosphy with spirits will be the same as our philosophy regarding beer and wine.  We will feature small-batch  artisan spirits, primarily from  independent and domestic distillers.  We will be featuring spirits from Koval and North Shore Distillery, both hometown favorites here in Chicago.  Our menu won’t be extensive but we can promise it will be exciting and uniquely Marion Street Cheese Market.

High West Distillery makes an amazing vodka from oats, using unfiltered local mineral water from 7000′ in the mountains (hence the name 7000′ Vodka).  It is made in small batches and has a silky, creamy quality that will blend wonderfully with our delicious housemade herbal lemonade.

We are also offering High West’s Rendevous Rye and their super-premium 16 year old Rocky Mountain Rye.

Check out more about them at www.highwest.com 

And next time you are thinking cocktails, you can now think Marion Street Cheese Market!

05 July 2010

Hello, fellow wine fans,

You know, you flatter me. I hear so often, “I want your job” or “It must be great to be you” or “How cool is what you do for a living!” Thank you. And while you can’t have my job (because I love it so much and need it :>), and while it is great to be me and while being a wine buyer is pretty cool, my line of work is – like everything else – more glamorous from the outside than the inside. I love it, live it, breathe eat, eat it and sleep it but it is a lot of work and a lot of misunderstood work.

A trusted friend of mine who is also one of my vendors recently shared some profound insight with me that is very relevant to my current life. He said something like this: to someone not in our business, our lifestyle looks very bizarre and much like a giant wine-infused party. Unless you’re in it or totally understanding of it, the wine biz and consequently living with someone in it can seem like a lot of things it is not.

Case in point: we taste a lot of wine. A LOT of wine. During heavy tasting days, I’ll taste 80-100 wines a week. To you, that me seem like a lot. To me, it is nowhere near enough. Robert Parker tastes about 125 each day to draw a comparison. While I love and don’t like him all at the same time, I would not mind having his job nor his influence and respect within wine circles. Another case in point: we spit out a lot of this wine. Most of it, truth be told. We are not here to do shots. We are here trying to figure out the right words to describe the liquid that we are going to sell to you with every confidence that the savory thyme notes and balanced acidity will work miracles alongside your perfectly roasted lamb. I guess there are some people who write wine descriptors without either tasting the wine or caring much about the words they chose. I’m not one of them and I hate that consumers might be subjected to their “reviews”. I care and because I don’t have a freakishly great palate, tasting and subsequently writing a few, select, hopefully accurate words about each bottle is brain-challenging, sensory-involved work. Fun work that I love but work in every sense of the word.

Today I haven’t tasted anything yet, but I have a bunch of wine at home that needs to be evaluated. To be brutally honest with you, I just want a friend to show up and take me out for a beer and a whiskey tonight. I don’t feel like drinking wine. However, all of the aforementioned bottles awaiting my evaluation are things that you have asked me for and things that will fill holes on shelves which I of course can’t abide. So, I won’t go have a beer and a Bushmill’s. I’ll go grocery shopping, open my mail, call my mom and then get my corckscrew, notebook and sit down to work with my spit bucket (a pint glass) and pen. I will not be suffering my any means. After all, I love wine; I wouldn’t be in this business otherwise. But, I will be working by anybody’s definition.

Come see me and chase away the heat with a refreshing glass of my new Serbian Pinot Blanc!

Cheers, everyone,  Winemonger Candy

comte dinner @ marion street cheese market

 RESERVATIONS STILL AVAILABLE!

wednesday, june 23rd

cocktails @ 6:30 pm ◊ dinner @ 7:00 pm

 ◊ special guests ◊  

daphne zepos of essex st. cheese + philippe goux, affineur of marcel petite

 ◊ spectacular chefs◊  

chef john caputo of bin 36 + chef leonard hollander of marion street cheese market

 ◊ five course dinner ◊  

closing act = comte cheese course

 $55.00/person includes dinner + 1 glass of craft beer or 1 glass of fine wine

+ $18.00/person for fine wine pairing

+ $15.00/person for craft beer pairing

gratuity + beverages are not included

comte dinner @ marion street cheese market

wednesday, june 23rd

cocktails @ 6:30 pm ◊ dinner @ 7:00 pm

◊ special guests ◊

daphne zepos of essex st. cheese + philippe goux, affineur of marcel petite

◊ spectacular chefs◊

chef john caputo of bin 36 + chef leonard hollander of marion street cheese market

◊ five course dinner ◊

closing act = comte cheese course

$55.00/person includes dinner + 1 glass of craft beer or 1 glass of fine wine

+ $18.00/person for fine wine pairing

+ $15.00/person for craft beer pairing

gratuity + beverages are not included

Enjoy a beer dinner featuring Symposium Ale, the collaborative beer brewed by Illinois Craft Brewers Guild member brewers for the Chicago Craft Brewers Conference (April 7-10). Four delicious courses, served with one of the four base beers (Strong Scotch Ale, Imperial IPA, Imperial Stout, Barley Wine) and finally the Symposium Ale (barrel-aged and blended base beers) with dessert.

Symposium Ale Dinner – Make reservations by calling 708.725.7200 or click on the reservations link on our HOME page.

$60 including beer/ but not tax and gratuity.

First Course
Baby arugula + ruby grapefruit + cashews + hop honey vinaigrette
—Double IPA

Second Course
Sunchoke soup + crispy sunchoke + malt powder + Spanish olive oil
—Strong Scotch Ale

Third Course
Artisan cheese course + stout jam + candied nuts
—Imperial Stout

Fourth Course
Heirloom Pork Belly + Barleywine gastrique + Graue Mills grits
—Barleywine

Dessert
Deconstructed Symposium
A cacophony of delights created from the elements of the symposium ale
— Symposium Ale

Join MSCM for Mother’s Day Brunch, or perhaps a more relaxed dinner. The brunch menu and the dinner menu are both delicious.  Space is filling fast, call for your reservation today – 708.725.7200!

An Evening of GREED  with MSCM and Al Gini
and you thought LUST was provocative??

Executive Chef Leonard Hollander has crafted a gourmet greed-themed dinner menu and Loyola University Chicago’s Al Gini will be providing the food for thought with a discussion on another deadly sin: GREED.  Join us to celebrate and/or condemn Tax Day 2010!  So, if you hunger for dinner and a show, join us for an   evening of greed on Tuesday, April 13th @ 7:00pm. $40 per person.   Make your reservations by calling 708.725.7200

The Menu
asparagus bisque + smoked asparagus + black truffle crema
golden beets + honey glazed almonds + capriole chevre
roasted sableish + forbidden rice + charred scallions
coconut coffee tart + vanilla bean honey + cayenne crisp

George Washington was a devout beer lover. In particular, he was fond of the dark, English-style brew known as porter, and always demanded that an ample supply of it be kept on hand at Mount Vernon, his Virginia estate. However, it was not porter, but rather “small beer,” for which Washington once recorded an early recipe. Preserved in the manuscript collections of the New York Public Library is a notebook kept by Washington, which includes the following hand-written recipe.

“To Make Small Beer
Take a large Siffer [Sifter] full of Bran Hops to your Taste. — Boil these 3 hours then strain out 30 Gall[ons] into a cooler put in 3 Gall[ons] Molasses while the Beer is Scalding hot or rather draw the Melasses into the cooler & St[r]ain the Beer on it while boiling Hot. let this stand till it is little more than Blood warm then put in a quart of Yea[s]t if the Weather is very Cold cover it over with a Blank[et] & let it Work in the Cooler 24 hours then put it into the Cask — leave the bung open till it is almost don[e] Working — Bottle it that day Week it was Brewed.”

PS. In case you don’t have a cask or bran hops, you can stop in at MSCM and we’ll help you select the perfect beer – growler or bottles!  Toast the President’s today with a nice porter!

Title: LUST: Exploring the 7 Deadly Sins
Description: Decadent dinner and captivating conversation with Loyola University’s Al Gini, resident philosopher, Eight-Forty-Eight. Executive Chef Leonard Hollander has created a unique menu for this special evening. $40 per person / reservations required.
Start Time: 7:00pm
Date: 02-10-2010

We’ve decided that January needs something, a little bright spot if you will. So, Chef Leonard and the team have put together a new Winter 2010 Dinner Menu.  And, we’re now offerening gluten free items!

Here are some of the new second courses:
cured and pickled house cured meats + seasonal pickles + mostarda + olive oil toast
stuffed peppers piquillo pepper + whitefish brandade + marcona almond romesco
mac n’ choose three cheese mornay + spiral pasta + daily inspired additions – ask your server
sliders duck confit + carrot slaw + golden raisin marmalade
or heirloom beet + almond butter + melted chevre
crab “salad” lump crab salad + fennel panna cotta + frisee + riesling poached grapes **
MSCM beer cheese aged cheddar + metropolitan doppel bock + warm pretzel roll

What about the main events?
duck carbonara smoked duck breast + bucatini pasta + sarvecchio parmesan + crispy farm egg
fish & chips beer batter + lake superior whitefish + salt & vinegar fries + lemon tartar
mint creek farm lamb white bean stew + merguez sausage + braised shank + mint salsa verde
diver scallops toasted millet + wilted spinach + black truffle vinaigrette **
crispy skin barramundi celeriac risotto + spiced carrots + almond brown butter **
tj’s chicken breast lentils du puy + duroc lardons + caramelized cauliflower + grainy mustard **
eggplant schnitzel caraway spaetzle + sweet n’ sour cabbage + lemon caper yogurt
graue mills polenta roasted mushrooms + baby spinach + crispy tempeh + smoked cheddar **

**- gluten free

We are all very excited about this new menu, and hope you come by soon to enjoy it with us!