Feb. 19--Cheesetopia 2016, a one-day festival celebrating artisan Midwest cheese and cheesemakers is coming to the Bridgeport Art Center on April 10.
Some 40 small-batch cheesemakers from Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin are expected to attend with samples of their cheeses for you to taste (and purchase, if you like).
"Everyone knows Wisconsin is cheddar but I don't think people know we have 30 to 40 artisan cheesemakers making small-batch cheese,'' said Jeanne Carpenter, executive director of Wisconsin Cheese Originals. The organization seeks to link consumers and cheesemakers through a variety of activities, classes and tours.
Carpenter used to host an annual two-day cheese festival in Madison, Wis., before deciding to launch Cheesetopia last year as a traveling one-day cheese event moving from city to city. Last year's inaugural Cheesetopia took place in Milwaukee and Carpenter says next year's will be in Minneapolis.
"After that, we'll go East or West," she says.
Why Chicago?
"I think Chicago is a big city with a lot of folks who are not exposed to small-batch cheeses," replies Carpenter, who is a specialty cheese buyer for Metcalfe's Market in Wisconsin and a self-described cheese geek.
Along with trying lots of different cheeses, Cheesetopia attendees get to meet the cheesemakers and artisan food makers, too.
"We require the cheesemakers to be there, not the summer intern. I think that makes a big difference," she says. Among the artisan cheese or food producers slated to appear are: Uplands Cheese, Dodgeville, Wis.; Jacobs Brichford Farmstead Cheese of Connersville, Ind.; 'Nduja Artisans Salumeria of Chicago; Prairie Fruits Farm Creamery of Champaign; and Redhead Creamery of Brooten, Minn. (Click here for a full list of purveyors and what they will be offering for tasting.)
Details: Noon to 4 p.m. April 10; Bridgeport Art Center, 1200 W. 35th St.; $75, includes wine, beer and soda. Tickets on-sale here. Free parking. Hosted by Wisconsin Cheese Originals and Roth Cheese.
wdaley@tribpub.com
