Image via Chicago Tribune

February is North Shore Restaurant Month. Over 50 restaurants will offer free appetizers, free desserts, special pricing, etc. So feign illness, take a sick day, borrow your dad’s ’61 Ferrari …

…and head up to the North Shore for some good food.

North Shore Restaurant Month Kick-Off Party

Chicago North Shore Restaurant Month
Feb 1-28, 2014

For the 5th year in a row, the Chicago North Shore Convention and Visitors Bureau (CNSCVB) will present North Shore Restaurant Month, for the full month of February. Over 50 restaurants will participate, offering sweet deals ranging from free appetizers, to free desserts, to special pricing, and more. To get in on it,

1. Go to cnscvb.com.
2. Find a list of all participating restaurants, and see what each of them is offering.
3. Print out the certificate that you’ll find on that page, and
4. Bring it with you to restaurant after restaurant after restaurant, all month long.

CNSVB

Kick-off Party

Farmhouse, 703 Church Street, Evanston

CNSCVB was gracious enough to invite Make It Like a Man’s star blogger, Jeff the Chef – Ladies’ Man, Man’s Man, Man About Town – to the Restaurant Month kick-off party last night at Farmhouse’s Evanston location. Even though leaving the house in Chicago these days means ditching that sleeping bag I’ve been wrapped up in, donning snowshoes, putting on all of my flannel shirts plus some long johns, and changing trains at Howard, I was determined to go and bring my entire entourage (Randy, miLam’s IT consultant) in tow. I was glad I did. I had a great time. I met a couple of girls! But seriously, enough with the chit-chat. Let’s get down to business.

I had two great glasses of beer: Root Down, and Gatecrasher, both from Evanston’s own Temperance brewer, and on-tap at Farmhouse. And let me tell you, those are a fantastic couple of manly^[1] beers! No kidding, I walked into the party clean-shaven, and by the time I left, I had a full beard, dude. And all of a sudden I was smoking a pipe!

Fantastic Beerd

My immediate thought was that I could probably survive the rest of this cold, hard winter on nothing but good beer, but it apparently lacks some nutrients and must be supplemented with Beer Battered Wisconsin Cheese Curds with House Made Catsup & Spicy Curd Sauce, and Tavern Cut Potato Chips. Thank god Farmhouse had them on-hand.

If all this cold weather has left you feeling like the furnace in your belly needs some stoking, I suggest you get all four of those things (the porter, the IPA, the curds, and the chips) in you as quickly as possible.

In between beers, I had a chance to talk briefly with TJ Callahan, one of Farmhouse’s owners, who told me that they’re planning to open a new Chicago location with a focus on hard cider, using apple species that are grown specifically for that purpose. I’ll definitely be keeping my eyes open for that. He also mentioned the upcoming Cider Summit Chicago.

While you’re checking out Restaurant Month…

Hang for a while at one of miLam’s favorite spots, Unicorn Cafe. I swear to you, as soon as you walk in the door, you’ll be like, “Woah, what’s that ambrosial aroma? Could it be the liberal arts?” If I were friends with Debussy or Satie, this is the only Chicago-area cafe to which I’d dare to take them.

Notes:

Next Up:

If you’re like me, you probably realize you should have more beef suet in your diet.