tasting

Matt Isles, expert Australian wine enthusiast, will be pouring his Robert Parker 90+ rated Australian wines from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, March 4, at Good Earth Market, 555 S. York St., Elmhurst.

This month, the Good Earth Market travels "Down Under" each Thursday, focusing its seminar study on winemakers south of the equator: Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and South America. On Thursdays only, customers receive a 10 percent discount on purchases of six bottles throughout the store.

No registration is required for Thursday’s educational program on the culinary and wine arts. For details, call (630) 279-5550 or visit www.goodearthgreenhouse.com.

Fifty extraordinary men will demonstrate their culinary skills at “50 Men Who Cook,” a benefit for Suicide Prevention Services in Batavia.

Chug down varied flavors of beer at Nicksons Eatery's beer tasting event from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 20, at the La Grange restaurant.

Nicksons Eatery in partnership with Lincolnwood, Ill.-based distributor, Louis Glunz Beer, Inc., will host a tasting of seven microbrews from award-winning regional breweries: Breckenridge in Colorado, Belfast Bay in Maine, Capital in Wisconsin, Dogfish Head in Delaware, Great Lakes in Ohio and North Coast in California. 

The event will include appetizers, such as Nicksons mini cheeseburgers on Parker House rolls, wild boar meatballs with stout pomegranate glaze and Portobello Swiss brat with beer cabbage. 

The cost is $20 per person. Space is limited. Reservations are recommended. Call (708) 354-4995. 
 

To save you a trip to Milwaukee to explore a brewery, we share several suburban options.

Dozens gather for free tours offered at 1 and 2:30 p.m. Saturdays at Two Brothers Brewing Co. in Warrenville, one of the state’s largest craft breweries.

The popularity rests, in part, on the talents of General Manager Gabe Nanni, who conducts the 45-minute tours with expertise, humor and a lively knack for drawing participants into the discussion.

Cantigny Park welcomes beer connoisseurs on Tuesday, August 25, for “Toast of the Prairie.” The tasting event, beginning at 6:30 p.m., will feature the products of Two Brothers Brewing Company in Warrenville.

The evening will begin with brief remarks about the park's three-acre native prairie by the director of horticulture, Bob Waterman. Two Brothers will then discuss the art of beermaking and begin pouring samples of its five year-round offerings. Appropriately, one of the hand-crafted brews is Prairie Path Golden Ale.