Marion Street Cheese Market

Cheese Flight - brie on left, gouda in middle, firm goat cheese on right

We went to dinner with some friends at Marion Street Cheese Market in Oak Park upon their recommendation.

BBQ Mac N Cheese

What we ordered:

Cheese Flight with 3 cheeses - l'amuse - 2 year aged gouda, nutty with hints of burnt caramel, Queso de mano - a firm and slightly sweet goat cheese, and a type of brie (we didn't catch the exact name because it wasn't on the printed menu).  The cheeses were served on a board with almonds, walnuts, apricot slices, and peach jam and served with bread and crackers.  All of the cheese were really good. We purposefully stayed away from blue cheeses because Nick doesn't like them as much when they are really strong.
We made our own cheese flight but you can also choose from pre-determined cheese flights. It was neat to try new and different types of cheeses.

BBQ Mac N Cheese - not a super strong bbq taste but very good, the noodles (spiral pasta) were a very interesting shape and held the cheese in well. A very filling dish. Nick was hoping for the tangy flavors of bbq to come through more, but it was a wonderful blend of cheeses. If Nick were to go back he might order one of the other Mac N Cheese's since that is what they do well really well - cheese.

Focaccia - kind of an open face sandwich with cauliflower, cheese, ham and a tomato sauce baked over the focaccia. This was great you could really taste the farm fresh veggies that they promote with there farm to fork concept. It had a great crispy crust on the bread but gooey on the inside.  The bread itself didn't over power the delicate flavors of the cauliflower and cheese.

Final thoughts on Marion Street Cheese Market:

Food - all of the food was very good and interesting

Service - took a little while for the cheese flight to come out, but we were enjoying good conservation with friens. They bring out a bottle of water where you can pour into your own glasses, but near the end of the meal they didn't bring out another replacement bottle

Cauliflower Focaccia

Atmosphere - a market area up front in the space (where all of the cheese is sold), There are more cheeses than we have seen in one place in a while. The restaurant/bistro area is nice. There are probably only so many communities that could sustain a place like this, and Oak Park is one of the them.  It would be neat to have this nearby and buy all of the different kinds of cheeses.  Guess we have to settle for the more limited selection of Trader Joe's and Whole Foods when we are in the mood for some different cheeses.