Free BIN Cash and 1st Growth Bordeaux (giveaway!)

(Bordeaux grapes via prgrisleyco's photostream)

As new and foreign and uncharted as the Twitter universe still is, BIN 36 serves to stand as a beneficiary of its potential tonight. A couple days ago I was looking through our twitter account and came across a tweet from someone mentioning a tweetup tonight at the restaurant. You should recall the tweetup we held with Metromix and RedEye a few weeks back—which was something we helped coordinate and had a hand in from the get-go. In fact, it was our idea. Well, tonight's tweetup—I knew nothing about it!

So, being the savvy and cunning business owner, I tweeted back (I'm still not used to saying, "I tweeted"). Well, wouldn't you know it, a little something started happening and as of this morning our twitter stream was full of tweets and retweets and all sorts of accounts with names like @personalwine and @MrMixologist and @WinesCom buzzing along about wine. What in the world does all of this mean?

There's going to be a gathering of wine lovers tonight at BIN—and Twitter made it happen!

In fact, if I've been able to put all the pieces together correctly (I told you we had no hand in this), tonight's gathering is being held to ring in the launch of the new website at wines.com. So what does it cost you to come hang out? Nothing! Who do you have to know to come hang out? Nobody! And what should you do when you're here? Drink wine. Live well. Have fun!

But there's one more thing to consider if this sounds like a good time (the gathering begins at 6pm, which I mean come on—just shoot over after work), today is the last day of our matching gift card promotion.

So what in the world am I talking about yet again? Simple. All week we've matched the value of any gift card that's been purchased online or in any of our restaurants. People in Wicker Park and River North have been stopping by and buying $50 worth so that with our matching $50 gift, they have $100 to spend on wine from our retail store. Other people have bought $100 in credit to give as a gift for a night out, and kept the matching $100 for a night out themselves. Pretty cool, huh? And you can buy them here!

If you're coming by tonight, why not take advantage of it? Even if you buy a $25 card, we still match it and give you another $25 card. Whatever fits your budget, your taste. But again, this promo ends tonight. The only catch is that they're good to use only through the end of Summer, but you can use it on whatever you want. We're sick and tired of the horror stories we've heard from restaurants losing money on Groupon, so we took the idea into our own hands. And it's been fun.

So stop by the bar after 6pm tonight. Drink some wine. Make new friends. Check-in on Foursquare for $10 wine and cheese flights. And get hooked up with free BIN cash from us!

Oh, and one more thing. The tweetup organizers are giving away these absolutely insane bottles of wine tonight:

1st and 2nd growth Bordeaux right there! And all you have to do is come hang out to get all this!!

Cheers!

Nichols Farm at BIN!

(Greens! via greencitymarket's photostream)

We're excited at BIN 36 - finally, there is life in the Farmers' market.

Late spring is always a slow time for the market. While it's warm and sunny outside, we want new crop to be ready for harvest right away but need to remember to be patient. There's plenty of asparagus, spring greens and herbs but not too much more just yet. That said, we are trying to take advantage while we can - which we are tonight! Using delicious broccoli rabe from Nichols Farm in Northwestern Illinois, Chef Caputo has chopped it fine with extra virgin olive oil, spring garlic, some freshly shaved parmigiano reggiano from our cheese bar and orecchiette pasta. The staff are going nuts for this dish.

We've paired the dish with the new verdicchio from our wine by the glass list. The whole thing screams summertime, and it's perfect on a beautiful day like this.