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At Provenance Food and Wine’s Beer and Bacon Bonanza Thursday at 6:30 PM, hosted by Vella Cafe, each of the four courses features pork and a beer pairing. The meal starts with minicrepes with Gruyere de Comte, lardons, cider syrup, and apple butter, paired with the 2005 Eric Bordelet Sydre Doux, and ends with a chocolate stout float with chocolate-almond ice cream and shortbread filled with brown sugar-bacon buttercream, paired with Hitachino Sweet Stout. In between there’s spinach salad with warm bacon dressing and candied pork belly, a bacon-stuffed pork loin roulade, and bacon-infused fingerling potatoes. $50.
Saturday from 11 AM to 1 PM, Provenance Food and Wine‘s Lincoln Square location has a free tasting of Treelala tea, the sister line to Ineeka teas. The Chicago-based company that distributes these whole-leaf organic teas from India strives to be socially and environmentally responsible, but while some admire Treelala’s unique packaging, treehugger.com has a bone to pick with it.
