Welcome back to the newsletter and to the restaurant! We have re-opened for 2007 and are offering a brand new winter menu full of seasonal goodness to keep you warm and fortified for the Midwest’s chilliest months. The big occasion this month is, naturally, Valentine's Day. Our special menu features a broad cross-section of this season’s noblest ingredients, combined in ways that’ll knock the socks off that special someone.

Join us on February 14th for this five-course $95 extravaganza. We’re pairing special wines with each course for an additional fee and have only limited availability left. Hurry, hurry.

What better way to stave off the bitterness of February’s most biting chill than with bacon! Braised, cured, smoked: Mmmmm. Nothing is quite as comforting as the sensuous rich taste of pork belly, and here at the restaurant, we’ve just begun to cure and hazelnut-smoke our own bellies – well, pork bellies, anyway - with a savory pungent mix of brown sugar and aromatic herbs and spices. Sometimes we braise it in red wine and stock to serve alongside just about anything, or other times we might slice it into small lardons or conventional (American) slices and brown them gently in a cast iron skillet. Cured and rolled it becomes Italian pancetta, and cooked in fat, French rillons. While one might not indulge in such porcine goodness every day, the occasional splurge is well worth it. And the true beauty of bacon is that it pairs miraculously with just about anything, including seafood, vegetables and grains -- see this month's tasty recipe! Enjoy.

For a great explanation of what bacon is, including differences between North American bacon and European bacon, check out:

Each year, we accumulate donations through our wine program for four deserving organizations. Their inclusion on our list is based on their work to help preserve diverse food choices, contribute to the local community, support local farmers, and help commit to a more sustainable future. Inspiration Cafe was one of our past charity recipients.

From their website: Each year, Inspiration Corporation assists more than 2,000 individuals who are chronically homeless, unemployed or underemployed, and struggling with mental illness, substance use disorders and social isolation. What began as a small red wagon filled with sandwiches and coffee has developed into an award- winning organization offering a comprehensive array of programs, including Inspiration Café, The Living Room Café, Café Too, The Employment Project, Community Voice Mail, the Weekend Engagement Center, and Housing Services.

A hallmark of Inspiration Corporation's work is respect for the people they serve. They invite volunteers and supporters to join them in maintaining a community in which individuals can find the resources they need to rebuild their lives with dignity.

Red Hen Bread started in 1997, intending to specialize in authentic French bakery foods. The business began in a small retail space on North Milwaukee Avenue, where the staff baked product in the back of the store and sold it out front. Today, the business operates a central bakery/commissary and two retail spots, but the focus remains on superb authentic, hand-made artisan breads, without use of any artificial preservatives, flavors or ingredients. Their breads are naturally fermented, giving the products exceptional flavor, crust, crumb and texture as they emerge from the steam-injected stone deck ovens.

For information on Red Hen Bread, click here:

I include here a nice summary piece on the past year in food, written by Marion Burros in a December issue of The New York Times:

THE headlines about food this year read like a remarkable replay of Woody Allen’s “Sleeper,” in which the things Americans think they should eat more of — lettuce and spinach — were suddenly the ones that could make them sick, or even kill them...

Yet critics of American agribusiness, like Marion Nestle, a professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health at New York University, and the author of “What to Eat,” see an upside to all the bad news.