Beer. Local Food Fans. Sounds Good to Me.
A while back I posted a poll to see if subscribers would be interested in occasionally meeting up in person. Gathering for some of our area’s wonderful craft beer was at the top of my mind, as I was a very early adopter of craft beer and have written a bit about it over the years.
There was some interest but my schedule bounced off and on the rails, and in fact I only got to visit a small handful of craft breweries myself. But now I’m back on the beer trail, prompted by a craft beer story on which I’m working for Natural Awakenings Chicago magazine, and I’m running the meetup idea back up the flagpole.
If you are interested in joining me and some fellow local food fans to drink some excellent beer, please reach out and let me know, either by emailing me at bob@localfoodforum.com or replying to this newsletter. Just say “Yes, I’m interested.” I’ll then reach out to those who responded to see if we can come up with a when and where that satisfies most folks.
To kick things off, I am going to suggest a visit to Cultivate by Forbidden Root. Launched a decade ago by Robert Finkel, Forbidden Root separated itself from the growing pack of craft brewers by creating a lineup of unique and delicious botanical beers, with flowers, herbs, spices, fruit and other plants added to the typical mash of hops, water and grain.
Following the success of its first restaurant/brewery in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood (1746 W. Chicago Ave.), Forbidden Root opened Cultivate in a larger space with a much larger kitchen, located at 4710 N. Ravenswood Ave. in the Ravenswood neighborhood (veteran foodies may recognize this as the former site of Band of Bohemia, which won a Michelin star for its food but had a short life span). Forbidden Root has a third location in Columbus, Ohio.
The beer flight in the photo above underscores Forbidden Root’s extraordinary range. From left there is Very Cranberry, a fruited Belgian-style Blonde Ale; Peach Wit, a Belgian-style Witbier; Strawberry Basil, a Hefeweizen with a pronounced strawberry nose that has been a flagship variety since the brewery’s early days; Radio Swan, a Rye New England IPA with lactose; and Sparkling Rosé, a brut bier in the style of a Belgian tripel made with Niagara grapes and hibiscus (this innocent-looking quaff is by far the strongest beer on Cultivate’s current menu at 10 percent alcohol by volume).
I could have bought a pack of any of these beers at the carryout near the front door, but instead I got a 4-pack of Panda Party, a black lager (which not surprisingly turns out to be delicious). Why? Because Forbidden Root is currently donating $1 for each Panda Party sale to Chicago’s The Anti-Cruelty Society — which happens to be where we adopted our cat Hobbes last month. How could I not?
Anyway, up for a beer adventure? Email or reply and let me know.
Big Year for Co-ops Gets Better
Illinois has not been particularly fertile ground for food co-ops over a long period of time. So 2023, already looming as a red-letter year for new co-ops, has gotten another boost: Prairie Food Co-op, a community grocer to be located in the west Chicago suburb of Lombard, has announced that it has concluded its long search for a store site.
Prairie Food Co-op (seen in the artist depiction above) will be located in the Eastgate Shopping Center at 837 S. Westmore-Meyers Rd. According to the co-op website, “Construction has already begun on our new store but we need a little more time to finalize our timeline. Stay tuned for more info on this in the near future!”
While it’s not clear whether the store will open this year, it joins the queue of Chicago region co-ops that, if all goes well, will open their doors sometime in 2023. These include Wild Onion Market in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood; Chicago Market in the Uptown neighborhood; and Food Shed Co-op in exurban Woodstock.
I’ve also learned of an important co-op project, Rise Community Market, which is on the verge of opening in Cairo, located at the southern tip of Illinois.
Located at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, Cairo was once a bustling town where population peaked at more than 15,000 in the 1920 census. But the steep decline in river trade devastated the local economy. The 2020 census counted only 1,733 residents, 69 percent of whom are Black, and it has been a food desert since the city’s only grocery store closed seven years ago.
Rise Community Market will fill that void, and way up here in Chicago, we’re rooting for its success.
Tweak to the New Uptown Farmers Market Map
The folks at Chicago Market, founders of the Uptown Farmers Market, sent a slightly tweaked map of the farmers market’s new location at the Sunnyside (pedestrian) mall. The new, fully outdoors market is scheduled to open on Wednesday, May 3.