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Read It & Eat Offers Holiday Cooking Class On Small Business Saturday

By Ted Cox | November 25, 2016 5:38am
 Esther Dairiam, owner of Read it & Eat, is offering a 20 percent discount on Small Business Saturday as
Esther Dairiam, owner of Read it & Eat, is offering a 20 percent discount on Small Business Saturday as "a small thank-you to folks for supporting us."
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DNAinfo/Paul Biasco

LINCOLN PARK — A class in holiday cooking just might wind up paying for itself if it turns your kitchen into an elf's workshop, and that's just the idea as the cookbook store Read It & Eat marks Small Business Saturday.

Hot on the heels of so-called Black Friday, said to be the biggest shopping day of the year, Small Business Saturday shifts the focus from big-box stores to smaller neighborhood merchants with an emphasis on individual customer service.

Read It & Eat, 2142 N. Halsted St., opened last year with just the sort of niche approach small businesses are known for. It set out to become the location for all things written and foodie, from cookbooks and works on food science and food history to sumptuous travelogues and food-oriented novels.

"I would say it was the right time to do it," owner Esther Dairiam said. She estimated it had been 20 years since Chicago had a specialty food-oriented bookstore, adding that the rise of all things foodie in recent years had set the stage for Read It & Eat.

"I think the timing was right for us," Dairiam said. "Combining the store with a kitchen has allowed us to get creative."

The test kitchen will take center stage at 11 a.m. Saturday, when it will be turned over to Madelaine Bullwinkel for a three-hour course on making your own edible holiday gifts, such as cranberry jam, holiday granola and braided brioche.

The course is $80, but it just might end up paying for itself depending on how many people on your gift list can be checked off with a jar of handmade jam or a home-baked loaf of bread.

The store will also be celebrating Small Business Saturday by offering a 20 percent discount.

"It's a small thank-you to folks for supporting us," Dairiam said.

And that support has been growing, she added. The store has local customers and others who've made it a destination, from tourists who've read about it to chefs stopping in to look for a little inspiration.

 Roy's Furniture survived a fire and remains a neighborhood staple in Lincoln Park.
Roy's Furniture survived a fire and remains a neighborhood staple in Lincoln Park.
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DNAinfo/Paul Biasco

On Saturday, the store also will be cooking a cake recipe from the potato cookbook "Mashed, Smashed, Boiled, and Baked — And Fried, Too!" "We're going to make that cake, and we'll have samples for people to try as they shop," Dairiam said.

Which is the essence of Small Business Saturday.

The Old Town Merchants and Residents Association and the Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce are both touting local merchants worthy of note as the holiday shopping season kicks into high gear this weekend.

Continuing on the food course, Old Town has kitchen niche stores the Spice House, 1512 N. Wells St., Old Town Oil, 1520 N. Wells, and the Fudge Pot, 1532 N. Wells.

Old Town is also known for its small, niche clothing stores, such as Adelaide, 1704 N. Wells, Handle With Care, 1706 N. Wells, and Sara Jane, 1343 N. Wells.

Lincoln Park, meanwhile, has independent jewelers that will never squander money on big-budget holiday TV ad campaigns, such as Holtzmann's, 2304 N. Clark St., Steve Quick Jeweler, 2471 N. Clark St., and Jan Dee Jewelry, 1425 W. Diversey Parkway.

There are longtime neighborhood staples that have never outgrown their clientele, such as Roy's Furniture, 2455 N. Sheffield Ave., and Lori's Shoes, 824 W. Armitage Ave. And, of course, for kids there's always the Rotofugi Designer Toy Store, 2780 N. Lincoln Ave.

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