March 15, 2018

Sickies Garage is rewarding customers who miss work to watch college basketball games at the restaurant. Buy a drink and use the “official doctor’s note” on Sickies’ website or Facebook page to get a free order of fried pickles, tantalizing tots or onion rings tonight or Friday.

Almost every restaurant, bakery and bar in the area is offering specials and some sort of Irish-themed fare for St. Patrick’s Day. This contest from PAve has to be the oddest one!

If you love trying new cheeses, the owners of Cheese World are back from the World Championship Cheese Contest with 2,500 pounds of several varieties that are being sold in the store. “The trailer was packed coming home,” said Michael Czmowski, who manages the store at 69th Street and Western Avenue that he owns his parents.

The contest in Wisconsin draws more than 3,000 entries in 121 classes, and select retailers are able to buy everything but the best of class winners, which are auctioned off in April, Czmowski said.  “We’ve got some cheeses from Croatia that no one around here is selling.” There are other European cheeses, including a 200-pound wheel of Emmenthaler from Switzerland. He’s planning to start cutting that up and should have packages ready by the weekend.

Czmowski’s dad, Tim, is the vice president of Midwest operations for Agropur and helped with the judging in Wisconsin. A low-moisture, whole milk mozzarella from Agropur’s Lake Norden plant won best of class in its category, and a smoked mozzarella took second in another category. Czmowski plans to order both of those so customers can try the South Dakota winners.

Bread & Circus Sandwich Kitchen’s pop-up restaurant, Taqueria El Circo, is returning March 20. The first offering, which was in the evening last month, was so popular that this time the tacos will take over the menu all day from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Chef Jordan Taylor will offer five varieties: carne asada, carne arvada, chicken tinga, shrimp and asapargus — filled out with special toppings such as pickled jalapenos, roasted poblano peppers, queso fresco and cucumber pico de gallo.

Pomegranate Market’s free pop-up fitness studio classes start next week. The natural foods grocery at 57th and Louise works to provide opportunities for its customers to learn more about holistic health, said Kat Rykhus, marketing. Barre 3 Fitness will teach the first class from 8 to 8:45 a.m. March 20. “It’s a little slower time but it’s just gorgeous in our bistro with the sun coming in the windows,” Rykhus said. Participants can sample the market’s smoothies and other foods. To register, call 275-0200.  Future classes haven’t been scheduled yet.