Greetings!
This month we're really excited as we have something BIG to share with our fireflies, our news about Chicago Gourmet. We're busy preparing already...every week in the march towards Chicago brings something new to us, it's truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience!
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Firefly to debut in Chicago!
We have some really huge news! If you've seen Kristie with a really big smile recently, it's because she's so excited over the firefly's upcoming appearance at the 2010 Chicago Gourmet event. Chef Niall has been invited as a celebrity chef to speak, cook and demonstrate at Chicago Gourmet in September.  It's a weekend event celebrating food and spirits - fabulous food, wine and chefs descend upon Millennium Park, bringing with them their talent and expertise. The event showcases over 100 of Chicago's finest restaurants and chefs, as well as hundreds of renowned vintners, spirit makers and premium breweries from around the world.
Held in Millennium Park on Saturday, September 25 and Sunday, September 26, the event will bring over 8,000 food lovers to sample some of the best tastes of Chicago.
Last years guests sampled tastings from over 300 wineries, 65  spirit brands, attended seminars and watched live cooking demonstrations. The event was a tremendous success and received rave reviews locally and internationally. It's a gastronomic delight, sure to please the inner foodie in anyone. You can graze until your heart's content, sampling the best Chicago has to offer - without ever leaving Millennium Park.
As a celebrity chef, Niall will share the stage with such notable names as Rick Bayless, Frontera Grill; Graham Elliot Bowles, Graham Elliot; Gale Grand, Tru; and a host of other well-known culinary experts. Emmy award-winning, "Food Detective" and "Chopped" host Ted Allen ; first female Iron Chef and newly appointed Bon Appetit Executive Chef Cat Cora; and Master Sommeleir Frederick Dame, one of America's top wine experts, will be just a few of the notables participating this year.
In addition to Niall taking center stage, the firefly itself is going to participate in the exhibition part of the event. The firefly crew will have a tent in the park where they'll introduce attendees to the taste of the firefly grill. The Effingham Convention and Visitors Bureau will be sponsoring firefly and John Boos by having mini cutting boards made with the firefly and Boos brands on them. Niall will serve his samples on them and folks will be able to take them home as a gift.
This is a huge honor for Niall, a huge event for firefly, and a huge event for the city of Chicago. The planning has begun! For the past two months, Niall and Kristie have trekked northward on a regular basis to attend meetings. Organizational meetings, planning meetings, public relations meetings - you name it. And with almost  three months to go before Chicago Gourmet, it's going to get even busier as they prepare for this event. It's a great opportunity for the firefly, a great opportunity to showcase Effingham, and we're hoping that many of our fireflies will plan a weekend in the Windy City and join us to show their support. We think it will be awesome enlist everyone to help us create some buzz, so we'd like to offer anyone who is attending a firefly T-shirt. It's our way of saying thank you for supporting us! Plus, we'd like to gather everyone together to take a picture to mark the occasion. This is an incredible opportunity and we're tickled to be a part of it!
Firefly has several discounted tickets that can be purchased by calling Kristie. Tickets are also available pre-event through the Chicago Gourmet website, although they are full price. But there's a better way...firefly will be participating in a dine-around. Simply dine five times at participating restaurants between now and Chicago Gourmet, saving your receipt. Then when you get to Chicago Gourmet, exchange all five receipts for a passport.
Here how it works: The Bon Appétit Chicago Gourmet Dine Around extends the event beyond Millennium Park into some of the city's best restaurants. Special prix-fixe menus will be available at participating restaurants offering guests not only a unique dining experience but a chance to earn a free ticket to Chicago Gourmet. Guests who purchase five meals during the Dine Around period, Monday, August 30th through Sunday, September 26th, at any participating restaurant must attach a copy of their receipt to their passport in order to redeem a complimentary ticket to Chicago Gourmet. Passports including receipts must be presented at registration the day of the event in order to redeem your one-day pass.
To purchase Chicago Gourmet tickets,
click here.
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Off the Road with AAA
 If you're a traveler you may be among the thousands of Americans who find AAA's Midwest Traveler in your mailbox. It's a bi-monthly travel magazine published by AAA that features travel destinations, information and tips geared towards readers of Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Kansas. Last month, we were excited to have AAA pay a visit to the firefly, and we decided it would be fun to interview the reporter! Kelly Aiglon is a free-lance writer specializing in travel writing. Working for AAA for more than five years, she is always on the lookout for places of interest in Chicago and Illinois. With more than ten years experience in travel writing, Kelly is inundated with tips and story leads from people and PR professionals. She also takes it a bit further, reading blogs, following twitter, and keeping up with Facebook to search for story ideas that may be a bit more obscure. According to Kelly special events and new businesses and openings do get priority, but the publication tries to cover all corners of the state to provide a wide scope of stories. Although Kelly's specialty is lifestyle, a good portion of her AAA assignments have covered food and lately, family-friendly travel. This is especially fitting as she is the mom to young twin boys, trying to juggle working and motherhood like so many fireflies do. When writing a story, Kelly takes a casual approach to interviews, preferring to get to know her interviewees as individuals, not just businesspeople. She ferrets out how they landed in their field, how they're realizing their dreams, and looks for the minute details that give her story flavor and color. "I get every single microscopic detail on places so we can flesh stories out with vibrant descriptions. Like what exact ingredients go into their Bibb lettuce salad or what the chef likes to do when he leaves the kitchen," Kelly said. She enjoys meeting people and loves seeing businesses grow as a result of their stories. Of course we couldn't interview a reporter without asking her what she thought about the firefly. Kelly was impressed with our private dining room and the service of the firefly crew." The sheer vastness of the restaurant itself is striking and it's amazing how it's managed to set itself apart as a unique destination among chains and highway traffic." She didn't have much time to see Effingham, but she did hear rumors about great fishing at Lake Sara. We have a feeling that perhaps we'll see this reporter back in Effingham again! |
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Long hazy days make for great evenings on the firefly dock! Bring your friends, bring your guitar, relax and sit a while. It's a great place to hang out!
Sincerely,
Kristie & Niall Campbell
firefly grill
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See our pics at shutterfly!  Be a firefly fan on facebook! Follow us on Twitter! 
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What's Happening
Sunday, July 4 firefly is closed for the Independence Day holiday!
Saturday, July 17 firefly is closed for a private event!
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
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If you've been in recently...
perhaps you've noticed that the firefly seems a bit brighter. That's because of the 100-watt smile of Pete Beem, the firefly's newly installed Service Manager.
 For some time Kristie and Niall have been concentrating on raising the quality of service at firefly up to par with the incredible food that Niall and the crew prepare.
Recognizing that top-notch service requires an expert, they have been avidly searching for someone with the right credentials and philosophies to join the firefly.
Several years ago they met Pete at the Four Seasons in St. Louis. A friendship developed, and the more they learned about Pete, the more they realized that they had the perfect solution within reach. This spring, Pete relocated to Effingham and joined the firefly in the newly-created position of Service Manager.
Pete comes to us via the Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, where he spent six years with the company. Pete worked two years each at three different properties; Santa Barbara, CA, Jackson Hole, WY, and most recently St. Louis, MO. All three properties were awarded the AAA 5-diamond rating. Pete recently passed the level one sommelier course will be receiving his sommelier certification through The Guild of Master Sommeliers next month.
Pete grew up "off-the grid" in Fort Wayne, Indiana. His family had a huge garden where they grew most of their own vegetables. They purchased cows and pigs from a local farmer. The electricity in their farmhouse was provided by two windmills and supplemented by solar panels on the roof, their house was heated by two wood burning stoves - even their water heater was wood burning! Pete does a fair amount of gardening now and has a worm farm for composting kitchen scraps, creating the fertilizer for his garden. He strives to reduce his carbon footprint and live more sustain ably, and is thrilled to be associated with a restaurant that embraces the same ideals.
In his role as Service Manager, Pete will be implementing a new training program, adding new staff, and updating the wine program as he focuses more on certified organic or bio-dynamic wine producers. Pete believes this is an exciting opportunity for him to combine his years of 5 diamond service with the ideals and quality product that is the firefly grill - and we wholeheartedly agree!
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From the firefly...
the Tea Tini...
It just wouldn't be summer without iced tea. So if you're looking for some tea with a twist, look no further than the firefly! Mix together some sweet tea vodka, grand marnier,
a bit of lemon juice, pinch or two of sugar, top it with a lemon wedge and you've got a refreshing Tea-tini, the perfect drink for a summer day! Our drink of the month for July, stop by and try one today. |
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Coming to the menu...
July is a bountiful month for the garden. Salads, tomatoes, and other vegetables are making their way from garden to table. Fried green tomatoes and squash blossoms are appearing on our menu, and this month you'll see favorites such as ratatouille and caprese sandwiches! We just heard that Schottman's sweet corn is producing, so check our daily menu to see when it's on!
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