Dig into four courses of locally sourced goodies, including seared Key West yellowtail snapper and house smoked local kingfish croquetters.

Sustainable seafood gets top billing at Area 31’s Fish & Wine Dinner Thursday.$90 per person, call 30 for reservations and info. Hosted by winemakers Tim Perr, Brian Loring & Andrew Vingiello and hef Sean O’Connell, the four-course feast features the likes of blue fin tuna tartar, butter poached foie gras ravioli and,warn green cardamom spiced pumpkin cheesecake. Pinot Noir takes center stage at Blade’s Wine Paring Dinner Thursday night.Nosh on cheese & light bites at Gotham while sipping Melka’s Nappy Valley Metisse, Knights Valley Metisse and Melka CJ. The Fontainebleau’s Wine Wednesdays beckon this week three featured Melka Wines.It was a blast meeting new bloggers and seeing familiar faces as well, and I always love checking out a new area of the city.Eat, drink & hop on the SBWFF bandwagon at one of these satellite events… We were even lucky enough to enjoy live bluegrass music during our dinner as well. Overall, the collaboration dinner was a heck of a time. Sweet Biscuit with Grilled Peaches & Bourbon Whipped Cream Barleywine = high alcohol and this one came in at a respectable 12.4% ABV. This course was paired with the Borrowed Horses English Barleywine aged in Catacocin Creek Whiskey Barrels. You could DEFINITELY taste the whiskey in that whip! The peaches were phenomenal with it. Lastly, we had a sweet biscuit topped with grilled New Haven peaches, and Koval Bourbon whipped cream. Fruit and pork is always a great pairing. Obviously the cherry cocktail paired nicely with the cherry sauce drizzled on the pork. This course was paired with a Koval Rye Whiskey cocktail with housemade ginger ale and Monmorency cherry. The pork sat atop beer-braised fennel and smoked potato puree. Next up was a roasted pork tenderloin wit a sour cherry dijon sauce. He explained how they are already having to expand their production and are about to install larger tanks. Once we arrived at the brewery, we kicked things off with a private brewery tour from owner Neil. The brewery played host for our three course dinner which featured a variety of dishes paired with Horse Thief beers and spirits from Andersonville's KOVAL Distillery. In the 1850s, Beverly was known as the 'Horse Thief Hollow' because horses stolen from Missouri brought for selling in Chicago were hidden in the dense forest of the area. The name for the far South brewery comes from the history of the area. Why were we headed to Beverly? It's the site of Horse Thief Hollow Brewing. I can't say any of us have ever been to Beverly, so it was a good excuse to check out a new 'hood. I joined fellow Chicago bloggers, including my friends Tammy from Chicago Bites, and Christina from Chritiques, on a luxurious bus ride to the Beverly neighborhood of Chicago. The tasting dinner included roundtrip transportation on the ABRV, which just so happens to be the same bus the University of Kentucky men's basketball team uses. They even have a luxury 'ABRV,' a coach bus that travels around the country to major racing events including the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes.

ABR is a platform designed to increase awareness of North America's best thoroughbred racing events. Last week I went to an exclusive tasting dinner organized by America's Best Racing (ABR).

Horse thief hollow