“This is my body,” said Jesus, breaking the matzo and passing it around to the apostles before uncorking the Jerusalem red. “This is my blood.” And so was born the miracle of transubstantiation, the transformation of bread and wine into the flesh of Christ (and the indoctrination of centuries of confused Christian children in the practice of church-sanctioned cannibalism.)
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The name of the newcomer seems a little less presumptuous when you consider that all but the last are BYOBs, and the neighborhood, full of handsome single-family homes, really is thirsting for some decent wine and snacks and simple meals to go with it. It’s not like they’re claiming to be bigger than Jesus; just offering some essentials where they couldn’t be had before.
Nearly two dozen of these are available by the glass (most under $10), which makes it easy to work through a selection of chef Curtis Gamble’s house-made charcuterie: a nicely fatty, snappy pig-face pancetta, salty tasso, slices of ruby red duck breast prosciutto, or a generous jar of creamy chicken liver paté. All of these make attractive arrangements, with an adequate balance of sweet and pickled accents (say, date jam or fennel-orange marmalade, mustard, cornichons). But like the selection of mostly local cheeses, they don’t seem to be kept at the proper temperature before serving: a layer of cold, rock-hard schmaltz requires a chisel to break through to the paté, and I caught my pal warming up some manchego-style sheep’s milk cheese in his palms before eating it.
That the food prices are generally more attractive than the wines’ might make that a likelihood too—there’s nothing over $17, and much of it is under or around $10, reinforcing that the body of the operation is ancillary to its blood.
3732 W. Irving Park 773-866-5266breadandwinechicago.com
