Chicago Gourmet 2019

Endless wine and delicious food? Don’t mind if I do!

What is Chicago Gourmet?

This weekend I attended one day of Chicago Gourmet at Millennium Park’s Pritzker Pavilion . Presented by Bon Appétit, this culinary event brings together Chicago’s best food, wine, and spirits paired with Instagramable photo opportunities and fun installations. Food tents were set up through out the Great Lawn for accessible walking along the perimeter. Popular and well-known brands such as Patron, Gibson’s Steakhouse, and JNSQ Wines were there, to name a few. All in all, it was great and I highly recommend going!

Chicago Gourmet Media Pass

I was able to go to Chicago Gourmet under a media press pass this year, which was pretty cool to say the least. Being media included a Lights, Camera, Napkin! tote bag full of vendor goodies, a Chicago Gourmet wine glass, and a plastic tray to attach to your wine glass you could carry your food samples easier (genius). It also meant I got to attend the event complimentary, however tickets to the main event at Millennium Park are usually $200 a piece (for both Saturday and Sunday). Your admission includes sample tastings from all tents included at the event!

My Favorite Food Tents

A little tip when attending Chicago Gourmet is to start with the food at the Pavilion tents. These tents offer about 3-4 different sample-size options from different restaurants and have the longest lines. For this reason I was glad we started with these before hitting up the alcohol or smaller tents. While I didn’t catch the name of each restaurant at each Pavilion tent, everything was delicious and worth a try. I even liked the seafood I tried!

Tasting Pavilion 3 – Supreme Lobster & Seafood Co.

We started the day with some really good seafood. I am usually not a seafood fan, but this was delicious. At this tent was a lobster medley, mussels, and an amazing chopped salmon/beets dish on top of a foam texture with an egg on top. The lobster and foam creation were my favorite out of what I tried at this station!

Tasting Pavilion 4 – Big Green Egg

Our second stop was AMAZING and my favorite Pavilion tent. Plantain chips, pulled pig with pickled onions and a mini arepa, grilled octopus, and a fig desert with hot honey was on the menu. Everything was DELICIOUS, but my favorite was the pulled pig from Longitud315. I even liked the octopus (my first time trying octopus by the way), which tasted kind of like bacon.

My Favorite Alcohol Tents

What would a food event be without delicious wine and spirits?! Along with food to taste, there were multiple wine, spirits, and beer tents to indulge in. Many also had fun photo opportunities to go along with their area. Really cute backdrops!

JNSQ Wines

JNSQ Wines had the cutest rose backdrop to take pictures with. It was my favorite backdrop of the day (see a picture of me in front of it here on Instagram)! Their rose wine was light and delicious. My type of drink, for sure!

Patron

The best marketing installation hands down goes to Patron! They had a stationary bike set up that blended margaritas as you peddled. Afterwards you got to try what you blended, which was a really good marg! I thought this was a really fun way to get people interested in tasting their brand.

Coppola Winery

Coppola Winery graced Chicago Gourmet with a variety of different types of wine. I chose the sparkling rose and it was amazing. Other offers included rose, reds, and whites!

Would I go next year?

HANDS DOWN. If anything, I recommend two days to be able to hit every tent and really experience the whole event for what it has to offer. If you can only go for one day, I recommend going the whole time. Trust me, you’ll need each and every hour offered to hit everything you want to! Until next time, Chicago Gourmet. 🙂