Chicago is known more for its deep-dish pizza than for its cheese, but then again, Pastoral Artisan Cheese, Bread & Wine has only been around for five years. Founded in 2004 by Greg O'Neill and Ken Miller, the purveyor of artisan cheese, bread and wine has carved a European-style niche in the Windy City. Pastoral is also a nominee for a Luxist Award for Best Cheese Shop.

Through its two brick-and-mortar locations in Chicago and across the country via mail order, Pastoral aims to make haute cuisine accessible to both discerning connoisseurs and eager masses. The outfit offers over 150 kinds of cheese -- made in small batches and cut to order -- in addition to ten types of freshly baked artisan bread, gourmet olives and cured meats.

O'Neill and Miller are well equipped to run Pastoral. The former boasts a two-decade career in marketing, working around the world for firms including Motorola, Verizon and Colgate-Palmolive; the latter trained as a chef at Peter Kump's New York Cooking School and studied under chef David Waltuck at Chanterelle, a renowned Big Apple eatery, and later went on to do programming work for the Navy's nuclear submarines before finding his true calling in cheese.

Pastoral's wares can be seen, browsed and ordered -- but, unfortunately, not sniffed -- at www.pastoralartisan.com. The company ships nationwide.

Vote now for what you believe is the best of breed in Gourmet Foods. Readers' Choice Awards for Food will be announced on November 30th.

Usually when we are looking at raw space for a tremendous price it's a New York City apartment but in Chicago a massive penthouse just went on sale for $14 million making it the most expensive home on the market in the area. It is being sold by Bill Wrigley, Jr., the current chairman and former CEO of the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company.

The space is over 11,000 square feet with two terraces (1,500 spare feet each) and six garage spaces. The penthouse is three units combined into one on the eighth floor of a limestone building at 65 E. Goethe St. It opens to all four exposures and has lake views. It comes with the architectural plans which Wrigley had commissioned. It is listed with Baird & Warner.


The Chicago Tribune's Elite Street column also reports that Wrigley's beautiful home in Lake Forest, Illinois is also on the market. It was on the market for $16 million in a pocket listing previously but is now listed for $14.5 million with Ned Skae of Coldwell Banker. The seven-bedroom home was built in 1912 and designed by architect Howard Van Doren Shaw. Wrigley Jr. bought the home in 2003 for $9.9 million and it has been renovated and restored for gracious family living. The 3.1 acre property with lake views includes a pool and a terrace.

Where is Bill Wrigley Jr. headed? Crack real estate sleuth Bob Goldsborough found that Wrigley paid $11 million in April for a home in North Palm Beach, Florida and paid $11.53 million in May for property in Aspen, Colorado. Just last year Mars bought the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company in a transaction valued at $23 billion.

Given that both homes are of similar cost which would you choose if you had the money, the promise of a raw Chicago penthouse or the finished elegance of the Lake Forest mansion?

Chicago's 82-story Aqua Tower received an interesting award recently. Jeanne Gang, principle and founder of Studio Gang Architects earned a PETA Proggy award for using bird-deflecting elements in the residential building and hotel. The undulating exterior and etched glass help prevent birds from flying directly into windows. It's a pretty neat building for people too, those curves make for some distinctive balconies. The building contains 55,000 square feet of retail and office space as well as hotel rooms, condo units and apartments.

Right now there are about a dozen units available for sale in the building as well as nine luxury Parkhomes available for purchase starting November 1,2009. The Parkhomes are two and three bedroom homes located near the base of Aqua in Lakeshore East, facing the Lakeshore East park. They are 3000 square feet and start at $1.6 to $1.8 million. The most expensive unit in Aqua is the Aqua penthouse, a four-bedroom single-floor residence with views of the city and Lake Michigan. It is priced at $1,988,832. In the building two bedroom units start in the $700,000s and the three bedrooms start at $1 million. Units are also available for rent.

This is not a church, but the owner tried to claim it was to avoid paying real estate taxes. The Chicago Tribune's Elite Street column brings in the story of a home in Lake Bluff, Illinois owned by a banker who tried to duck out of around $80,000 in property taxes because he said that parishioners had congregated in his home so that his disabled wife could worship without leaving the house. Neighbors debunked that claim, telling the Tribune they never saw services held at the mansion. Over the summer an independent state administrative law judge for the Illinois Department of Revenue reversed the ruling leaving the banker liable for the tax bill. Now the property has hit the market. The Armenian Church of Lake Bluff is now for sale for $12.5 million, a hefty rise over the $3 million paid for the property in 2004.

The five-acre property is listed through Michael Realty & Associates and has 265 feet of private beach with elevator lifts to the beach. Listing pics are tiny but they show an exercise room, a barbershop with a mural, indoor pool, home theater, and a 12-car heated garage. The property was renovated with a 15,000 square foot addition in 2005. The master suite has a private wet bar, walk-in his and her closets and outdoor balconies overlooking Lake Michigan and an indoor private balcony overlooking indoor pool. The first floor great room has vaulted ceilings with four rain sensored skylights, a full formal dining room with attached butler pantry, with warming drawers and dishwasher, along with fireplace and wet bar. There does not appear to be a chapel.

No, not the latest bloated-budget Hollywood thriller, but something much closer to home: The Providence Effect, an award-winning documentary about Providence-St. Mel, a small school in Chicago's gritty East Garfield Park that has achieved an incredible 100% college acceptance rate against all odds.

Oprah deserves at least some of the credit; she gave the school $1 million to help fund the educational juggernaut that has been called the future of education. Obama meanwhile visited the school in 1998 and gave an incredible inspirational speech that showed he was destined for the highest office in the land.

The movie centers on the equally inspiring journey of the school's principal Paul J. Adams III, who has challenged the Chicago school system for 30 years with his revolutionary approaches to teaching, and also founded the Providence Englewood Charter School. Of course the Obamas and Oprah have been sent copies to view in their personal screening rooms, but the film opens in select theaters nationwide this Friday.

Chicago's new planned retail complex Block 37 has hit another snag. The development, which will contain offices, shops condos and hotel rooms has lost their anchor hotel. Chicago Business reports that Loews Hotels has walked away from the deal to build a four-star, 384-room hotel at the project even though they received the site for the low, low price of $1. The Loews move follows walkaways on the retail side that included Apple Computer, David Barton Gyms and Lululemon Athletica. So far only the office portion of the project is complete. The first phase of the retail side is supposed to open later this year and is more than 70 percent leased.

Loews cited a lack of construction financing and the general travel industry slowdown as reasons for not going forward with the $175-million project.Block 37 developer Joseph Freed & Associates LLC is searching for another hotel operator. This may be no easy task. As the Chicago Business article mentions, lenders now require that developers pony up nearly half of a project's cost, compared with as little as 10 percent a few years back. This requirement and the work of constructing has led many hotels to seek expand by seeking existing space rather than build new projects.

Another hotel developer has filed for Chapter 11. River Road Hotel Partners LLC, the developer of the InterContinental Chicago O'Hare is one of six development entities led by Harp Group Inc. involved in the filing.The 556-room hotel opened last fall. According to Crain's, River Road Hotel Partners LLC, has a $128.6-million construction loan from New York-based Amalgamated Bank that matures in February 2010 and another loan with San Diego National Bank. The developers have been trying to renegotiate the terms of the loans but the project has also been hit with liens from contractors.

This Chicago hotel may not be alone, the Crain's report says that the nearby Westin O'Hare may default on a $101-million loan. Another hotel related to these developers, the Radisson Hotel at Los Angeles International Airport is also part of another Chapter 11 filing in which two Harp-related entities listed assets of $50 million to $100 million against liabilities of $100 million to $500 million. Both hotels remain open and are doing business as usual.

Back in March, I mentioned the unfinished Waterview Tower and Shangri-La Hotel project in Chicago. Now CB Richard Ellis Inc.has an unenviable task, finding a potential buyer for the stalled project. The firm is seeking potential investors willing to take on the unfinished building which is, as Chicago Business calls it "a 26-story concrete monument symbolizing the excesses of the real estate boom."

Whoever takes on the project is facing a bit of a mess. The developer, an affiliate of Chicago-based Teng & Associates Inc., ran out of money last year and Bank of America has has filed to foreclose on the tower seeking to get back a $20-million loan. Construction firms have also said that they're owed a combined $85 million. Teng and the project's creditors have all signed off on the decision to sell the property hoping to get back whatever money they can. While CB Richard Ellis hasn't put an asking price on the project whatever it sells for probably won't allow anyone to break even. Some have gone as far as to say that it's worthless and that the city has more than enough condo and hotel space right now. Others point out that it does include space for a 492-car garage and zoning would allow for a 90-story building, the original plan.

How does JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon live? His $10.5 million home on Chicago's Gold Coast offers a hint. The eight-bedroom home was built in 1870 and measures approximately 15,000 square feet over four stories. It includes a 900-square-foot rooftop terrace.

Dimon has been the CEO and president of the company since 2005 and has been an integral part of overseeing the $25 billion in TARP funds that JPMorgan Chase received. He hasn't lived in the Gold Coast home since 2004.

He is asking $10.5 million for the home which puts it at the peak of homes currently listed for sale in Chicago. The home was listed for $13.5 million about two years ago. Back then Berg Properties reported that the home was purchased by Dimon and his wife in 2000 for $4.68 million so he could still make some money on the deal.

[via Cityfile, via Blockshopper]

I don't think I've seen a property quite like this in Chicago before. I haven't been able to dig up too much information but the listing says that this chateau-style home was built by Landry Design, the same group behind Lenny Dykstra's California home. The Chicago chateau was done on a lavish scale and has a huge rotunda, formal dining room, salon/spa, wine cellar, library and more all done on a grand scale and decorated in an elaborate style. Columns, chandeliers, ornate stone fireplaces and swaths of drapery all create a very fancy setting. And a very fancy price. This one has hit the market at $32 million.

UPDATE: This home is now at $28 million as of September 2009.
Experience more lush living in luxury homes and mansions or see the stars living large with celebrity homes galleries at AOL Real Estate.

One client is putting up a third of the take at the Christie's wine auction this weekend. A total of 613 lots are available, with one party accounting for than 200 of them. This seller is described only as a "wealthy New York family" (duh). For collectors, according to the auction house's spin, this is a great time to buy. Prices are falling, which means that there are plenty of bargains out there.

Apparently, there's some wisdom to this perspective. At the Sotheby's auction last weekend, bidders dropped more than $2.9 million on vino, thrashing a pre-auction estimate of only $1.8 million to $2.6 million. New buyers are coming into the market. At the Sotheby's auction, more than 20 percent of the bidders were new. Two weeks before that, Hart Davis Hart, of Chicago, moved nearly $2.7 million of liquid bliss, beating its presale mark of $2.4 million.

In a Reuters interview, wine consultant Judy Beardsall likens wine collecting and investing to gardening, "At a time like this, it's a chance to turn over the soil in the garden, put down some stock for the next generation."

But, if you aren't interested in waiting, all the wines put up for auction are fit for consumption ... for a price.

According to Gregory Mottola, of Cigar Aficionado, most of Chicago's cigar smoking takes place in local smoke shops. A smoking ban has whittled the field of options down, and there aren't any grandfathered establishments (as there, for example, in New York). Of course, lighting up on Michigan Avenue works for only part of the year, thanks to the city's brutal winters.

Mottola did find luck at Jack Schwartz Importer, a small shop on West Jackson Boulevard in the financial district. The store is small, but it does have a few chairs – for which there is considerable competition. Unfortunately, Jack Schwartz closes at 5 PM, leaving few options for an evening smoke.

When Mottola asks a store manager where people smoke after work, the reply was brutal and blunt: "They don't. This is pretty much it."

Iwan Ries, which also closes at 5 PM, has a 1,000 square-foot lounge on its second floor, with large windows that allow plenty of sunlight. Black leather chairs, televisions and wood floors adorn the lounge. Non-members have to pay a $10 fee (per day), and they, like members, are required to bring their own spirits. The store does not have lockers or personal humidors on site.

Chess sets come in all shapes and sizes, and this one designed by Steve Vigar makes a statement by pitting famous cities like New York, Chicago, and San Francisco against each other. Each piece is unique and handcrafted of exotic woods, with the back row pieces forming the chosen city's skyline and front row pawns representing significant architectural styles. The board is made of solid zebra wood and whangee, and the felt-lined storage drawer underneath is an optional addition. $2,100

Hm, now which two cities to choose?

Via acquire

Like many other couples, the President and First Lady went out to dinner on Valentine's Day. The pair dined at a Chicago restaurant which is owned by Oprah's former personal chef, Art Smith. Table Fifty-Two specializes in high-end versions of classic southern food like shrimp and grits, crab cakes, pan-seared catfish, jambalaya with sides of macaroni and cheese and collard greens. According to the Chicago Tribune, Smith, who was Oprah Winfrey's chef for ten years, greeted the couple and whisked them away to a private dining room. The dinner destination apparently surprised some local foodies who were guessing that the Obamas might end up at Spiaggia for Italian food or at Topolobampo for Rick Bayless's Mexican/Southwestern fare.Table Fifity-Two is known for its generous portions, is Mrs. Obama toting home the leftovers in the picture above?

Chicago's Fairmont Hotel just re-opened after a $50 million renovation that includes a new 1,850-sq.-ft. top floor Presidential Suite dedicated to the city's own Barack Obama. Overlooking Chicago's Grant Park, where Obama made his historic acceptance speech on the eve of his election as the 44th President of the United States, the plush suite features an "illustrative montage" of Obama's life along with a selection of memorabilia including campaign buttons, newspaper headlines and seals of the various offices he has held throughout his political career.

The Fairmont has created a special package to inaugurate the suite which includes an intimate, chauffeur-driven tour of Obama's favorite spots in Chicago in the hotel's private Bentley Continental Flying Spur (above). The package features roundtrip airport transportation, fresh floral arrangements upon arrival, a fully-stocked butler's pantry, a personal concierge to assist with reservations, museum passes and basketball or baseball tickets, and spa and restaurant credits. The two-night package is available for $8,244 plus tax.

[via JustLuxe]