Spotlight on Uncommon Ground

Chef Brian Millman over at Uncommon Ground has taken it upon himself to create two BLT variations for the Bonanza-- both featuring crispy braised pork belly from Slagel Family Farm! The $13 Uncommon BLT is a delicious sounding sandwich available for lunch, using heirloom tomatoes from their very own rooftop gardens or Harvest Moon Organics, and put together with Green Acres arugula, herb aioli and sourdough bread! For dinner, a tasty $10 BLT appetizer is available, made with that crispy pork belly, heirloom tomatoes, herb salad, crostini and e.v. olive oil. Delicious and accessible. Sounds phenomenal to me.

Plan Your Meals Accordingly

A huge shout out to Heather Sperling, over at The Tasting Table Chicago, who put together a fabulous BLT Bonanza Map with her great article on the event! Check it out!

Spotlight on Cafe Spiaggia: Double the BLT Deliciousness

Chef Sarah Grueneberg has truly risen to the TomatoFest challenge, serving two wonderful variations on the BLT at Café Spiaggia. The first is a lunchtime BLT pizza-- or rather, a PLT, with the P standing for house-made pancetta. The pork is tastily organic, hailing from Becker Lane Organic Farm in Iowa. Those irresistible heirlooms (cherokee purples, sungold cherries, orange blossoms and black princes) come from Nichols Farm. For dinner, Grueneberg will bust out the PLT crostini, featuring Capriole goat cheese and arugula.
I, for one, cannot wait to try these treats out. Congratulations to Chef Grueneberg: creator of the BLT Bonanza double feature!

And our poster contest winner is...

"The Plant" Congratulations to Emily and Paul, over at PoppySeed Heroes. If you are looking for young artistic talent to design a logo, a tshirt, or perhaps paint a potrait of you for your mantle piece, we bet they can do something clever. Come to think of it, if you are interested in a portrait for your own mantle piece, you might want to head somewhere else. These folks are far too down to earth for you, but I digress.

Thanks to everyone who submitted posters!

Look for "The Plant" at restaurants participating in our Old School BLT Bonanza!

Eat Old School BLT's & Win Free Wine!

Ladies and gentlemen, start your stomachs and bring your camera phones...

Beginning today and going until September 20th, some of the best area restaurants are featuring Old School BLT's. Snap a picture of your favorite and you might win a free bottle of wine from Candid Wines and The Green Grocer Chicago! We are giving away 1 bottle to the first person who tweets a picture of an Old School BLT, and another chosen at random at the end of the week. Get moving!

Need a high class, but affordable business lunch? Head over to Blackbird for a sandwich at the bar from Executive Chef Mike Sheerin. It will be cheaper than you think, but just as good as you hope. Want to enjoy great views of the city? Take the elevator up to Sixteen in the Trump Tower for Chef Frank Brunacci's sandwich, or go all the way up to The Signature Room at the 95th in the Hancock Tower for Chef Patrick Sheerin's take. (Chef Pat and Chef Mike are brothers, our only fraternal pairing). Need a few sandwiches for an office party? Green Grocer Chicago is offering City Provisions' Old School BLT's to go, and the list goes on, including Cafe Spiaggia, Carnivale, Webster's Wine Bar, Osteria Via Stato, The Gage, Publican, Avec, Socca, Lockwood, and more coming soon.

We want to know what you are eating and where, and we'll give one luck winner a bottle of wine. Simply photograph your Old School BLT at one of the participating restaurants and Tweet, mentioning the farm that grew the tomatoes, the restaurant, and @tomatofest. One winner will be chosen at random on Friday afternoon, and you can select any bottle of Candid Wines currently in stock at the Green Grocer Chicago!

BLT TwitPic Contest!

Tomorrow is the big day-- the very first in a month of Old School BLTs!

To celebrate, Damien has cleverly offered a bottle of some excellent wine from Candid Wines to one lucky winner of the BLT TwitPic contest. Simply visit one of the participating restaurants, order that BLT, snap a photo of it from your trusty camera phone and tweet it with "@tomatofest" in your text. The winner will be chosen at random.

Looking forward to seeing you all enjoying those tasty sandwiches!

Old School BLT Poster Contest Finalists

Help us select the winner of our poster contest. Some creative and cool entries came into Chicago TomatoFest headquarters from art students around the city, and we have selected two finalists. Both posters might be tweaked, but we want your opinion as to which artist should be the winner of the First Annual Chicago TomatoFest Poster Contest Winner! Please leave comments below to help us decide.

Our first finalist is a collaboration between Chicago based artists Emily Szopa and Paul Slayton. There is something about the bright colors and folksy feel they have evoked that seems to scream "grow something!"

Finalist # 1 : The Plant


Our second finalist is from freelance artist Debi Nafis (http://www.debinafis.com/). Look carefully at this one. We found it creative and rich in texture, and we loved the subtle inclusion of the Chicago skyline. Well played!

Finalist # 2 : The Sandwich

So what do you think? Please tell us quickly as we are deciding by Sunday, August 14th at noon.