Category > Restaurant & Bar ReviewsThirsty Around Town
For the third and final stop of the Champaign-Urbana wine bar plus retail tour, my compadre and I visited Wines at the Pines, a shop nestled among other stores in the The Pines at Stone Creek Commons development at Windsor and Philo Roads in Urbana. This wine bar also moonlights (or perhaps “sunlights” would be a better term) as a coffee shop during the day. I will freely admit that I thought this combination seemed odd and incompatible until …
The second randomly selected stop on the Champaign-Urbana wine bar tour was Buvons, located in downtown Urbana. My drinking companion and I dropped in during a recent Saturday afternoon wine tasting. When the wine bar expansion opened in the summer of 2010, adding to the retail side of Corkscrew that had been open for 12 years, the owners named the wine bar portion Buvons, after the plural present-tense conjugation of the French verb boire, which means “to drink.” So …
Three standalone wine store + wine bar combos strategically outline the Champaign-Urbana area: Sun Singer Wine & Spirits in southwest Champaign Wines at the Pines in southeast Urbana Buvons (attached to Corkscrew) near downtown Urbana. I wondered what, besides geography, makes each bar unique, and whether our twin cities really drink enough wine to support three wine bars. So I set out to answer my questions in this three-part series. It turns out that each bar fills a slightly …
When I wandered into The Esquire on a Friday afternoon and saw a table of four gruff, beer-drinking guys I recognized, all holding a light yellow, fruity-looking drink, I knew one of two things had happened: I'd either missed the headline news about the alien body-snatching invasion, or these guys were imbibing the Esquire's Pineapple Margarita or Contusion Shot. Since no alien news had splashed the headlines recently (not even in News of the World), I asked one of …
A cocktail can't get any more hip than one that's named after the largest, most bustling borough in the country: Manhattan. So that makes me wonder why some people think of the Manhattan as an old-man drink. Maybe too many of us saw our grandfathers nursing a plain, honey-amber Manhattan with a cherry in the bottom after an excruciating day at the office. But after a day like that, you'd need a savory but smooth drink with character like …
In the 21st century, the Dirty Chai Latte might be Dirty Harry or James Bond's politically correct daytime drink of choice. It's the non-alcoholic, caffeinated version of the drink made to keep the hardest-working cop, spy, or regular company stiff going all afternoon long. And this March, you can find a notable Dirty Chai Latte featured at the deli counter of Art Mart in Lincoln Square Mall.
Whiskey and pickle juice? At first, the combination sounds bizarre and maybe, literally, a little difficult to swallow. To a whiskey aficionado, possibly downright blasphemous. But try the Pickleback, and you may change your mind. One shot of whiskey with a spicy pickle juice chaser turns into an almost magical series of flavors--sweet, then a sour blast, followed by a spicy finish.
In the evening, after the lights dim at Seven Saints in Champaign, the occasional flare emanates from the behind the dark bar as one of the bartenders lights up. Not for a smoke, but to apply a burst of heat to an ingredient and release extra flavor into a drink. Sometimes they light an spray of absinthe in a cocktail glass, other times, a twist of citrus to liberate potent oils from the fruit, and occasionally, a cube of …
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B.L.: Thanks, haven’t experimented with blue cheeses as other household members are not fans. But since gorgonzola ends up in many four cheese sauce recipes for pasta, I would agree that members of the blue family would definitely be worth trying, especially Prairie Fruits Huckleberry Blue.
Good article. I personally like the crusty bits on top from the baking step, and eschew egg for more cheese. @T.McDade I think a cheddar blends well with a little blue cheese. Try Kraft’s Cracker Barrel Extra Sharp (it’s medium-sharp on my scale, and decent in spite…
I’ve been underwhelmed (at best) by the local brewing scene so far. It sounds like maybe this effort has the passion and commitment behind it to brew consistently good beer.
If the brews are half as good as the Piglet ( twice as good as Destihl ) they will be onto something good. “Nano"Brews rule!
I agree with everything you say - real mac and cheese is worth the (small) effort. I have been experimenting with cheeses for a while, but haven’t gotten to Gouda yet. I’ll try it. Have you tried anything on the Blue spectrum? I try to mix something…
As a vegetarian, I actually enjoyed Meatheads! Got the only sammich w/o meat - the grilled cheese - with 3 kinds of cheese and avacado. Yum. And the cheese sauce for the fries is *really* delish. Not cheap, but even I enjoyed. it.
Whenever I go out of town, or a friend goes out of town, I make it a point to either bring back coffee, or have them bring me back coffee from their destination. And to be perfectly honest, 95% of it is better then CSR. I mill…
Pamela - Are the roasteries in Seattle as clean as CSR? It always disturbs me a little that it is so clean in there.
Love CSR. Apart from making my way through the regular roasts in 1/2 pound increments, I also like to pick up some of the little sample packets of the flavored stuff for when the lady and I feel like getting crazy. Sticky Bun is pretty nice.
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Fantastic, funny, and thought-provoking. -Thyme Magazine
#reductive
Further correction: the Republican majority in the House of Representatives was not caused by the 2008 election, but by the 2010 results. As you may recall, Democrats had some guy named Obama at the top of the ticket in 2008. They actually won 21 seats in 2008…
::shivers and pukes::
whining*
“Tim Johnson, our local four-term incumbent Republican congressman, who is again running, now in this new IL-13, is the only Republican candidate. “ There are a total of three candidates for the Republican nomination in the 13th District: https://www.champaigncountyclerk.com/elections/docs/2012/P2012RepFull.pdf Thanks.
I just wanted to clarify that I believe Mr. Denight had just planted the camera in our bathroom a couple days before he was caught. I don’t think that the hundreds of images of women using the bathroom were all from our store. I believe he had…
Some factual errors in this article: 1. Tim Johnson voted in favor of the Iraq War. 2. Gill has lost to Johnson 3 times, but not consequently. Steve Cox ran in 2008 and lost badly compared to Gill.
What is to love about politics is the shortness of memory when useful and the longness of memory when useful. In this case, it is the shortness, especially related to Durbin. He seems to have forgotten that he ran for the same office 3 X’s consecutively and…
Q-Tips is on top of his/her game.
I don’t know what anyone else will say, but I’d say the format change in 2004 was a bad thing because it sucked.
What a sweet conspiracy! And thanks for a link to the history and newspaper library - we have such a resource in our backyard.
I pick up a DI every once in a while. Very little substance in that publication. I rarely listen to WPGU because it’s mostly stuff WPGU played 20 years ago and I already *own* all that music and don’t listen to it anymore. Boring, stale, and uninteresting.…
“If Smile Politely can figure it out they should let [them]...know the secret.” ...Did you read the headline of the story?
“A student fee is not ideal, but what other choice do they have?” Charging per copy the way they used to? Publishing only online? Going out of business? All are preferable to the University subsidizing them. “Hopefully the fee money can be a bit of a bailout…
@Spoon River, I have not tuned into WPGU ever since the format change; I’ve been driven to 88.7 and Spotify. I want to support IMC, but when this 41-yr old weathers music from my college days 20+ yrs ago (some of which was played on top 40…
Took us 3 different visits to get parking to try Meatheads. I’ll definitely go back again. Someone had told me the burgers were S&S thin, but ours were for sure thick enough to have some juice. Went with the traditional toppings and really enjoyed my sandwich. Love…
Rob, if any of the examples that you provided in your post would give us a better product, then “yes” bring them back. This is the point of my post, the news coverage was much better when there was competition, as was the accuracy, completeness, and writing.…
Spoon River, can you explain how the format shift in 2004 was a bad thing?
Pattsi, it’s a shame about all the unemployed tanners and coachmen, too. The smithy was once the center of the community! But I feel worst about what’s happened to all the jobs in the ice industry. Just because we have refrigeration, should that stop us from pitching…
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Took us 3 different visits to get parking to try Meatheads. I’ll definitely go back again. Someone had told me the burgers were S&S thin, but ours were for sure thick enough to have some juice. Went with the traditional toppings and really enjoyed my sandwich. Love…