Hello Friends,

Today, Monday, November 23, is the fifth birthday of Marion Street Cheese Market offering artisan cheese in Oak Park.  Our doors were opened on Wednesday, November 23, 2004 with great hopes and dreams in downtown Oak Park.  It has been such a wonderful experience serving the residents of Oak Park, River Forest, Forest Park, and so many customers from neighborhoods throughout Chicago.  Your support and patronage has made it possible for us to keep going for five years, and you are greatly appreciated by all of us at Marion Street Cheese Market.

As our way of saying thanks to all of our customers, we are throwing a party.  A birthday open house, of sorts.  And we hope you can join us. 

Here are the details……This Monday we will be offering the following specials in our cheese shop and bistro all day long:

$5.00 glasses of wine – our winemonger Candy is selecting a trio of terrific wines- a red, a white, and a sparkling – for you to enjoy

$5.00 for 2 Craft Drafts – our beerguy Charlie has ordered extra kegs, as we are offering two craft beers on tap for less then the price of 1, so drink up

$5.00 Cheese Flights – Norine, Julie and our cheesemongers are putting together a special cheese flight of cheeses that were on the opening day cheese list at Marion Street Cheese Market back on Nov. 23, 2004

$5.00 appetizer samplers – a sampling of starters created by Chef Leonard Hollander that represent our approach to fine dining – local, sustainable, seasonal and delicious

Free Birthday Cake – our pastry team will bake a special cake for our birthday, for our customers to enjoy all day long at no charge

$5.00 for Every $25.00 in Retail – our business began as a retail store, and Cristeana and her retail team are offering a $5.00 gift card to Marion Street Cheese Market for every $25.00 that you spend on retail products as a special birthday gift to our customers- that includes artisan cheese, fine wine, craft beer, and a tremendous selection of fun products for the kitchen and for entertaining.  This offer is good for Monday, November 23 only, and you must mention this email when checking out to receive this discount.  This is a great time to stock up with cheese and other snacks for pre-dinner munching, wine and beer for your dinner, and a selection of fine chocolates as a hostess gift.

We thank you for your support of our cheese market and bistro and we hope to see you this Monday to help us celebrate!

So I felt the need to retaste the 2007 Domaine de Figueirasses Rosé Vin de Sables again the other day. The Figueirasses is spicy and minerally – a crisp style of Rose with a gorgeous and subtle pinkishorangishsunsetish hue that pink wine freakazoids like me find utterly irresistible.

Thimble full of said wine in plastic souffle cup in hand, I happened to walk past our Rock Stars the CheeseMongers who handed me a small piece of a wheat batard on which was spread our Rouge Noir Brie. There was dollop of tart cherry preserves on top.  I ate the concoction and drank my sip of pink wine. OMG. Holy cow. Wow. In the deep south where I’m from, we’d say that was slap-your-mama-good. (I would never slap anyone much less my mother. In fact, I don’t know where that saying came from because any southern women I’ve ever met would slap you into next week if you as much as looked at her wrong.)

The four-way marriage between the bread, the Brie, the cherry and the wine was - for lack of a more creative word – sublime. I’m still going on about it, days later so much so that now when I want something, I’m gonna say “Pretty Bries with a cherry that’s tart. And a side of Figuierasse.”

That doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue but the cheese and the wine sure do.

I look forward to your combination of luscious things. Please share.

Cheers,

Candy the WineMonger