The Second City Food Wine + Social Club Inaugural Event

Last Monday I had the very fun opportunity to attend The Second City Food Wine + Social Club's very first event. SCFWSC is an underground supper club founded here in Chicago by a group of bloggers with a passion for food, wine, and fabulous social events. So, they got together with a sommelier and a chef (who shall remain anonymous) from high-end Chicago restaurants to pull the whole event together. And they did an amazing job.

We showed up at the mystery dinner location (we only found out where to go the night before) and were greeted with sparkling wine while we mingled with the other guests.

Me, Landis, Kit - photo via

The event space looked beautiful-- it was very rustic chic with wine bottles and candles adorning the center of each table. You can check out more details about how the tablescape came together on Katharine's blog Living's Easy as 312.

The SCFWSC really paid attention to all of the details for this event. How cute are these placecards? We each received a custom placecard with a tagline created for each of us. And I loved mine! "Curator of the good life in the Windy City." Amazing.

The sommelier walked us through the ins and outs of a proper wine tasting and it was really fascinating. We learned so much about how to smell and taste wine, identify the notes, interesting facts (the major takeaway of the night seemed to be that sulfites = hangovers), and of course, we sampled 3 really amazing wines. We tried a great Sauvignon Blanc, a Lebanese red, and my favorite: a 2010 Le Terrazze Rosso Conero, Marche (Montepulciano). I've been an Italian wine fan since I lived there years ago, so no surprise that I would end up favoring this one!

And what food and wine event would be complete without some amazing food? Chef created a delicious fall-themed menu and I can't say enough good things about it. That gnocchi was perfection and I'm obsessed with the shallot marmalade that he created to serve with the Camembert cheese. I'll definitely be trying to recreate that recipe in the very near future. If it's good, you'll be sure to hear about it!

Thanks so much to The Second City Food Wine + Social Club for a fantastic evening!


And speaking of fabulous food and wine, don't forget to enter my $25 Zagat Dining Card giveaway!