Marion Street Cheese Market

Daily Specials

Today's Specials

• PARENTS & TOTS STORY HOUR WEDNESDAY

  Miss Marissa's Story Hour every Wednesday morning for tots and parents alike! We turn our dining room into a perfect storytime experience for children while the parents can enjoy a latte and a croissant while relaxing and shopping. Every Wednesday morning, 9:30am. Call ahead to reserve your spot. 708-725-7200
  

• REDUCED FARES ON ALL FLIGHTS!

  30% off all cheese flights, all charcuterie flights, all wine flights, all craft beer flights, and all truffle flights! Mix & Match. Share with friends. The perfrect way to try so many of the delicious artisan foods and libations that we offer. Every Wednesday.
  

Thursday's Special

• WDCB-FM Jazz in the Bistro Thursdays

  Every Thursday a different local jazz duo is chosen by WDCB to perform on the stage in our bistro. The music has been absolutely amazing for the past year since we began this exciting jazz series. And to sweeten the deal, we offer our INCREDIBLE CHEESE PUFFS for only $3 per order.
  

Sunday's Special

• SUNDAY LIVE JAZZ BRUNCH

  Live jazz every Sunday during brunch from 11am to 2pm!
  

Monday's Special

• MONDAY NIGHT SPECIAL

  Seclected bottles of wine are only $15 every Monday evening in our bistro. Explore a world of fine wines at amazing prices! Seclections change each week, so come often. Great for book clubs!
  

Tuesday's Special

• BEER LOVERS' TUESDAYS!

  Tuesdays are for beer drinkers! All of our local craft brews on tap are on special every Tuesday for only $4 per draft. This is a great way to explore some amazing craft beer!
  

When Eric Larson moved his 740-square-foot cheese shop under the el tracks last summer, his four-year-old business blossomed into a 4,200-square-foot food and drink emporium.

Larson’s expansion into the Opera Club building made room at one end of the new, multifaceted space — laid out with shelves of uncommon kitchenware and an upscale grocery, with wine gallery and craft beer fridge — for a 50-seat café.

Dining here is sharing; small plates rule. Though if you arrive with an appetite and must have a dish all your own, you’ve got such large-plate options as lager-battered shrimp, sugar cane-braised pork, and lump crab cakes with pear and papaya salad.

Otherwise, you have more than a dozen choices in flights of artisan cheeses and sliced gourmet meats. Sit back and soak in details that well-trained servers engagingly offer.

Listen you must, because the most specialty-studded menu in town packs as much education as it does adventure. Beets here are yellow. Pâté goes beyond liver: Count on duck, pork and chicken. A cured ham from Spain comes from an heirloom breed of black-footed pigs that eat only wild acorns. And, of course, there’s that cheese to buzz about: One handmade ravello comes from water buffalos in Vermont.

For all such splashes of exotica, most dishes are made from farm-fresh ingredients in the Midwest. Locavore leanings extend to dessert and beverages. Gelato comes from Mancini’s in downtown Oak Park. Coffee, served in press pots, comes from Blue Max in Forest Park. Tea, served loose, comes from Todd & Holland, also in Forest Park.

Just as you’ll find elsewhere in this Disney World for foodies, presentations in the café at Marion Street Cheese Market are artfully out of the ordinary. A latte, the perfect finish to many a meal, is a masterpiece when served by Marisa the barista. Her feathery squiggles of chocolate syrup top each no-foam brew with symmettry at its sweetest. An option for hot chocolate, too. No doubt about it: Here, you’ll get spoiled.

On your birthday:

The candleholder is a red velvet cupcake, beside a flute of champagne. For birthday guests of drinking age, bubbly is part of the treat.