Quick lesson on Butterkäse: if its over ‘buttery’ or too rich – it will be obvious. This cheese should strike a balance between it’s buttery flavor forwardness and it’s lean to actually being cheese. We’ve done extensive cheese research in finding the ‘right’ cheeses to use in our cafe and Prairie Pure Cheese makes one of the best Butterkäse cheeses around, hands down. It could just be the super happy Illinois cows that graze and strut about in Belvidere – where the two family farms are located. For a dairy cow, what could be better than being under the great midwest sun? The milk is collected and moved to a state-of-the-art facility in Monticello, Wisconsin. But, of course, they didn’t choose a place to make the cheese just because of their fancy gadgets, the facility is also deeply rooted in making artisan cheeses, and we think it shows. It shows in their rich cheddar cheese, which is not overly sharp but still bursting with flavor. It shows in their brand new tasty feta, crumbly but not dry - extremely fresh, fantastic with even just a thick slice of french bread. Their feta is unlike a lot of ‘store-bought’ feta in that it isn’t packed crushingly-tight into oversized buckets. It’s soft and mellow flavor is great with some spring jams, sprinkle some crumbles on top of roasted asparagus, layer it in a sandwich for that rich flavor that a good feta can provide.

Pick up a slab of their cheese in our cooler, a tub of the feta, or order the burger with their spectacular Butterkäse – anyway you slice it, you surely will not be disappointed.

Working her way through recipes and techniques, pouring herself into books and other literature; Monique learned her way through  with the help of teachers, and eventually finding her greatest mentor – an Italian cuisine master, Marcella Hazan. From her, Monique learned that rolling the dough creates the homemade taste she had been looking for, a thicker pasta that she found lacking inthe grocery store. Most other pastas are made by force extruding through a die and dried from there. Al dente pasta found that using the more labor and time intensive method of rolling provided the taste and mouth-feel they were going for. We’re happy that she did. Before Al dente, there wasn’t nearly anything like it on the shelves. As an added bonus, all of her pasta takes almost no time to cook, going from package to plate in just a few minutes. This pasta is also so flavorful that it doesn’t require sauce, we love it with a touch of good extra virgin olive oil, and maybe a grind of salt and pepper – thats all it needs; making it great for pasta salads.

Another part of Monique’s passion, that we love, is her work with the growers and millers, connecting the bridges of farming, manufacturing and artistry. Their not just pasta makers, but manufacturers of great tasting, handmade pastas. Al dente also brings fantastic pastas like the pappardelle and even inventing mixed theme bags like their Land and Sea. We may be skipping one of the greatest aspects of al dente pasta, it’s locally made. In the great state of Michigan, a little factory of hard working artisans make this super-fine pasta. We think we’re pretty lucky to have such an excellent manufacturer of such tasty pasta right near us.

We thank Monique on all of hard work. You can pick up a bag or three on our shelf, if we haven’t ate it all already.

Chilaquiles: in-house-made salsa verde, melina’s tortilla chips, chorizo, queso fresco, sour cream & fried egg

We loved the 09 Cab Franc and have it waiting for you on our shelf to take home or to enjoy with a meal in the cafe.

Sangre de Toro – A red bean that can sing and dance along with any ‘red bean’ dish, but can also steal the show in a salad, chili, or go solo in a heap of red tastiness. These beans are meaty, a dense bite that must have waited at the cross-roads of flavor and substance. These “blood” red guys love to live along side rice or in soups but are as versatile as any red bean should be.

Good Mother Stallard – The folks over at Rancho Gordo say this could just be their favorite bean of theirs. They say the Good Mother Stallard, onion, garlic and olive oil is only needed to make a fantastic meal. We tend to agree; these are super flavorful and dense and allow them to really shine as a stand-alone dish. These are a must try.

Midnight Black – Another new bean is this super fresh and tasty black bean. These are true black beans and they mean serious[ly delicious] business. We’ve been using these as our ‘go-to’ beans and have yet to let us down. Great overall bean.

Our newest artist, Alise Barrett, is a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a trained and experienced fashion designer. Even though she loves sequins and chiffon and the frivolity of fashion, she must let her inner science nerd out every once in a while. Her current series of bird drawings take inspiration in part from many hours of bird study at the Field Museum and in nature. A jackie-of-all-trades when seeing the catalog of work she’s accomplished it’s easy to find work both in fashion and art to be quite something. Her simple yet beautiful series ‘a solitary bird’ show her attention to detail; birds seem in motion or caught by a snap of a camera. Textured fill brings layered complexity that complements nicely to stark black and white. Great little frozen moments in time featuring perfectly drawn fowl.

Stop by for brunch and take a gander at this great local artist’s work (and buy one/a few) – stay tuned for the next Drink Up Art and featured artist.

It’s hard to talk about fancy food, and even harder to speak about jams and jellies, with out mentioning Stonewall Kitchen. We, of course, have been long time admirers of their work – even before SPG came into being. We’ve been known to carry a couple of their jams, jellies and  a couple of the cake mixes.

Most recently, though, we’ve picked their garlic and smokey barbeque aiolis and two of the simmering sauces: buffalo and sloppy joe. We couldn’t help ourselves around the Sloppy Joe sauce, taking us back to the days of bustling school lunches and dinner with family; it’s great to finally have a Sloppy Joe sauce that doesn’t come in a can and still bursts with tasty ‘sloppy’ flavor. We even sent one of our staff on reconnaissance out to the Stonewall Kitchen in Maine – getting the ‘Joe’ from the source. This sauce isn’t an ‘all coating’ type, it’s a great compliment to the rich meaty flavor in the hamburger meat; great for picnics, family dinners, and a nice walk down memory lane.

Stonewall’s Buffalo sauce is rich with spiciness but not ‘burning.’ It’s, of course, got that traditional ‘buffalo’ flavor that your wings just love to soak in. Use the Buffalo simmering sauce easily for your next party – it can be boiled, seared in, baked, or fried making it the perfect coating on chicken strips, wings, or mixed in with burgers for a bit of a kick. Super tasty and able to go where you want it to – what is not to love?

Once we tasted the garlic aioli – it took us those great little restaurants with belgian-style fries. It’s smooth and creamy and not overly heavy; the garlic shines though but isn’t that ‘spicy’ garlic that can sometimes come out in these kind of dipping sauces. But it is in the velvety luxury of the smokey barbeque aioli, we find food solace. The light brush strokes of smoke and the classic BBQ-sauce flavors peak through with a spot on a burger, or spread inside a piled-high turkey sandwich – it’s a like a friendly reminder of reunions and summer birthday parties speckled throughout a meal. Both dipping sauces are perfect for flopping in fries, putting on pretzels, slathering on sandwiches and much more.

On our shelves now, two each of Stonewall Kitchen’s dipping sauces and simmering sauces – ready to take home and remind you days gone by or start fresh memories.

It’s packed full of ginger, it’s crisp gingerness makes you thirsty for more; not over-sweetened like a lot of ginger ales can be, it strikes the right balance. Fresh Ginger is the real deal, so much so you can actually see the ginger settling if a bottle had been sitting for a spell. The chunky ginger pieces rest in the bottom waiting to be brought back to life – to be suspended in the rich bubbly liquid. We tend to oblige: giving it a little rustle, then crack it – allowing the springy scent of ginger aroma to waft into our noses, and get a nice gulp in as quickly as possible. Many other ginger ales will use oils or extracts, but this soda is just that – yummy sliced up, unfiltered Fresh Ginger ale.

Grab a bottle of the original or a rotating selection of flavors from our cooler – they go perfect with lunch.

peach pork chops

2 parts Lucero Peach Balsamic Vinegar
1 part olive oil
garlic cloves – chopped
sprig(s) of thyme – chopped
pork Chops

combine the marinate ingredients. Place pork chops in a resealable bag, add marinate seal, removing as much air as possible from the bag. Marinate for 1-2 hours. When ready to grill remove from marinate, discard the excess marinade and grill; plate with fresh peaches for a finished look. Tip: keep the marinade and boil it to use it as a topper sauce after plating.

patte’s fruit vinaigrette

1 part fruit
1 part Lucero Peach Balsamic Vinegar
2 parts canola oil

Puree fruit until smooth in a blender or food processor.

Add the vinegar and pulse until blended.

With machine running, add the canola oil in the thinnest, slowest stream possible so the fruit and vinegar are forced to accept it. The mixture should be thick and translucent.

easy peach vinaigrette

1/4 cup Lucero Peach Balsamic Vinegar
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3/4 cup olive oil

Combine in blender, and store to allow for flavor melding. Serve and eat!

If you have or are a commuter biker or just a busy biker, you know the pain of trying to get a tune up before work – it’s nearly impossible. But when you elegantly combine something nearly all bikers love like coffee in with a bike shop, well - Heritage seems to have stumbled upon something that makes you wish you had thought of it. The shop crafts beautiful bicycles in the rear part of the shop, both stylish and comfortable – a reoccurring theme at Heritage. Not only do they build spectacular bicycles, but they sell really nice road swag too: from stylish t-shirts, helmets, bells, saddles (seats), and a lot more. Also, in the back, they work on bikes of all sizes and shapes, with flat-rate tune ups while you sip down some tasty beans. The magic all happens in their sun washed long space, where old meets new in design and style. Old reclaimed wood and brightly painted white counter spaces, old can lights dangle above the bar and exposed bulbs hang from a twisted yet chic mess of cords in a bike rim. Everything just works together, from the coffee to the bike stands.

We think the store is the perfect marriage of the two things we love, bikes and coffee. So when they came knocking to stock our goodies in their shop, we couldn’t refuse. Mike has a great eye for excellence and being a Chicago native helped shape his kind heart. There is no ‘big city’ snobbery, just down-to-earth people inside this burgeoning shop. But we don’t just love Heritage because they push our goods, they bring a new kind of enthusiasm that we love to our area; they brought back building bikes in a city that used to make gobs of them, bringing pours of great coffee, fixing our wobbly chain, and allowing us a nice space to get a few minutes of work done all the while.

There may be a bountiful amount of bike shops in Chicago, there may even be an larger and shocking amount of coffee shops, but there is only one Heritage.