Jessica Herman

"This guy, a little old man who wears a bow tie and carries his milk in a pail, makes four wheels of cheese each day. That means we have a quarter of this guy's day's work," says Greg O'Neill, co-owner of Lakeview's new wine and cheese shop Pastoral (2945 North Broadway), as he handles a quarter wheel of cheese.

Since he became accustomed to a lifestyle of lounging with wine and cheese nightly on the terrace while living in Hamburg for two years, the formerly "corporate nomad" decided to savor the taste of European life in Chicago. He and his partner, Ken Miller, recruited a cast of experts--a gourmet manager, a wine director and an artisan breadmaker, whose kneading techniques at Evanston's Bennison's Bakery have earned him a spot to compete in Paris' "Olympics of breadmaking" this fall.

The shop mantra is TLC, which stands for Tasting, Learning and Converting. "The whole concept is to make great food approachable," O'Neill says.

Here are a few things O'Neill presents in the glass case: caponata, artichoke tapenade, three types of pates and various kinds of sausages from salametti to cacciatorini. "This prosciutto comes from Northern Italy. These are some pretty pampered pigs," he says of the animals fed on delicacies like hazelnuts to enrich the flavor of their meat. Containers of olives color the wood shelf shades of green and brown; customers favor the lemon olives.

O'Neill picks up three examples of small farm cheese products on display--a goat's milk brie from Illinois, pecan-rubbed cheese from Georgia and cream cheese from Ann Arbor's deli extraordinaire, Zingerman's. He explains that there has been an emergence of American artisan cheeses in the past five years; he just returned from an artisan cheese convention where 700 kinds of domestic cheeses were entered in competition.

Pastoral will soon offer classes, events and wine experts for party entertainment. "Cheese is the new wine," O'Neill adds. Fortunately, Pastoral carries both.

(2004-08-25)

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