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Town & Country
BIN 36

This noteworthy wine bar-restaurant is playing a significant role in turning Chicago from a beer town into a wine-and-beer town. Its location, next to the House of Blues Hotel, in the first block of the Chicago River, attracts young people, especially women, who work and live in the River North neighborhood. BIN 36, a vast but somehow cozy space with a thirty-five-foot ceiling, offers food and also many-ring circus of wine-related activities, including tastings, classes, and retail sales of wine and wine-related paraphernalia. The best dishes are country-style fare of French and Italian extraction. I’m partial to the wild Burgundian escargots, the steamed Manilla clams with chorizo, the pan-seared skate and the organic hanger steak. The number one attraction for wine and cheese lovers, though, is the beautiful ten seat cheese bar, where a full time specialist talks with customers and serves tables throughout the restaurant with a selection of more than fifty prime cheeses from near and far. Don’t miss Persian Fetta, from Australia’s Yarra Valley Dairy, and Maissa, from Wisconsin’s Carr Valley Cheese Company.

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