New Farm Menu and TasteLive at BIN

Nichol's Farm beets

It's Thursday, and when Thursday rolls around it means one thing. Phil's working his Green City Market magic over at the cafe in Wicker Park. But this week, there's a bit more going on than that...

First off, here's Phil's prix-fixe menu for tonight:

nichol's farm baby beet salad

growing power farm arugula, iron creek watermelon

goat cheese marshmallow

pairing: 2008 sauvignon blanc, "silex," blanc preys tourain

day boat scallops

river valley ranch chanterelles, tapioca pearls, growing power farm baby swiss chard,

leaning shed farms tomato vinaigrette

pairing: 2007 gewurztraminer brandborg, umpqua valley

strawberry shortcake

orange scone, fresh strawberry compote

creme fraiche chantilly

pairing: 2007 brachetto d'aqui, "rosa regale,"

castello banfi, piedmont, italy

The scallops

It's been great to watch Phil evolve with this farm menu concept over the Summer—he's really hitting his stride now with these dishes. I mean, just look at those scallops. Truly beautiful. And I can't even begin to tell you proud we are of what he's done with this concept.

But like I said, there's a bit more going on tonight. Obviously, the Challenge is underway and if you've been paying attention online, you've seen that people are really embracing this idea. We had someone finish all eight cheese flights and all twelve wine flights in the first week alone! And if you haven't started yet, there's really nothing to worry about. There's still three more weeks before the deadline. Plenty of time, right?

And we make it easy to entice you into the restaurant. Every Wednesday we're still hosting our mini-bin school classes, which are just a half hour long and if paid in advance, only $10. Each class is themed, and held in the kind of way that you might talk about wine with your friends at home. It's casual and interactive and not only are you tasting some cool wines, but we're giving you 20% a store or dining purchase after the class. As you can see, we like the incentives. But mini-bins aside, tonight we've got a little something special going on at BIN 36. We're participating in TasteLive!

TasteLive is an online community of wine drinkers, producers, and retailers, built around the idea of sharing information and tasting notes via the internet—and more specifically, via twitter. Our tasting tonight is centered on Argentina wines, and to give you an idea of the capabilities of this thing, we're co-hosting the event with The Cheese Store in Beverly Hills and NY Vintners in New York. And I quote, 

"Wines of Argentina and TasteLive will host wine bloggers from around the United States and winemakers from Argentina for a virtual tasting of Trophy and Gold Medal winning wines selected from the prestigious Argentine Wine Awards, whose judges include Masters of Wine from countries around the world.

Simultaneously, The Cheese Store of Beverly Hills, NY Vintners of New York and Bin 36 in Chicago will host TasteLive Tweetups in-store with these stellar wines. Guests will follow the winemaker and blogger conversation on a TasteLive computer screen hosted by CellarPass, the online reservation tool for planning and booking wine country events, as well as post their own notes through their iPhones and Blackberries using the hash tag #winesofargentina."

We'll be tasting wines like the '09 Salentein Reserve Chardonnay and '09 Dominio del Plata Ciros de Susana Balbo Malbec Rosé 2009, plus a Torrentes or two, a Viognier and more. So yeah, between Wicker Park and TasteLive at BIN, we obviously won't be having any fun tonight.

If you think the Argentina tasting is up your alley, then don't be shy and hang out with us tonight by emailing your reservation here. And if tonight doesn't work out? Well don't sweat it, we're doing it all over again next month just before the Challenge comes to a close! But of course, not being at BIN tonight should only mean one thing—you're with Phil, chowing down on his 3-course prix-fixe in Wicker Park.

Right?