It was -1 last night, with a wind chill of -1,000 — but inside the Hideout all was warm. We had a really nice turnout for the first night of Soup & Bread 2015, with hearty, tasty soups from Carol Watson (Milk & Honey Cafe), Cyndi Fecher (Graze Magazine), Celeste Dolan (Celestial Kitchens), Jamie Proctor (Local Foods), plus Perry Kim and Anastasia Davies Hinchsliff. Many many thanks to them, to Publican Quality Meats for the bread, and to Bloodshot Records’ jefe Rob Miller for DJ’ing (get your tickets for the Bloodshot 20th Anniversary show here!). Despite the cold, we raised a cool $509 for Casa Catalina’s Basic Human Needs Center in Back of the Yards.
For the record, we’ve done away with the themes for this year. Too complicated! But we’ve added a different twist — one that may well benefit you, the prospective soup cook. Each week Local Foods, a food hub and wholesale distributor working with dozens of area farmers, restaurants and stores, had offered to provide ingredients for donation and for sale at a discount to Soup & Bread cooks. (In Spring 2015, Local Foods will open a new retail grocery store on Willow St., directly behind the Hideout, offering local meats, dairy, fruits, vegetables and pantry items and featuring an artisan butcher shop and cafe.)
Also, Green Grocer Chicago, on Grand Avenue at Noble Street, has offered to sponsor a soup each week, offering fresh, locally sourced ingredients free or at a discount to a Soup & Bread cook. Get on the soup schedule for more info about how to take advantage of these generous offers!
And now, on to next week: We’ve got soup from John McKevitt, Bonnie Tawse, Elise Martel, Won Kim, Mary Theiss, and Jill Barron of Mana Food Bar. Our DJ is the lovely Carrie Weston, and bread as ever is donated by Publican Quality Meats. Your pay what you can donations go to benefit the Community Dinners program at Logan Square’s St. Luke’s Lutheran Church.
Hope to see you soon,
Soup & Bread