How about in Rocco’s Little Chicago Pizzeria in Tuscon, Arizona!

There are so many great traditions for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Chicago. The Queen’s Contest featuring Eli’s Bailey’s and Irish Mint Cheesecake with Eli’s Maureen Schulman as a  judge, Mayor’s Daley for the Parade Committee featuring a selection of Eli’s Cheesecake’s, the visit by the Queen and her Court to Eli’s and the New Horizon Center for the Developmentally Disabled on the Day before the Parade and the River being dyed green on the day of the Parade.

The Chicago Sun Times shared some great fact about the Chicago River be dyed Green in its Saturday Edition.

COOL FACTS ABOUT DYEING THE CHICAGO RIVER GREEN

• The Chicago River was first dyed green in 1962 to coincide with the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. That year, 100 pounds of dye — stirred up by motorboats — turned the water green for a week.

• The guy who came up with the idea, the late Steve Bailey, a former plumbers union business agent, told reporters at the time that he expected, “The Chicago River will dye the Illinois, which will dye the Mississippi, which will dye the Gulf of Mexico, which will send      green dye up the Gulf Stream across the North Atlantic into the Irish Sea, a sea of green surrounding the land will appear as a greeting to all Irishmen of the Emerald Isle from the men of Erin in Chicago.”

• The dye is a fine orange powder that turns bright green when mixed with water.

• The recipe of the vegetable-based dye is a secret.

• Each year on parade day, a crew led by Mike Butler uses about 40 pounds of dye which — depending on river currents — turns the river green for about five hours.

• The river is dyed on the Saturday of the Parade at 10:45 a.m. The best place to watch the process is on the upper bridges on Michigan and Columbus.
Eli’s Maureen and Elana Schulman went out on the cool Saturday to cheer on St. Patrick’s Day Queen, Kerry Ann Brennan, and to see the Chicago River turn Green. Thanks to Elana and Maureen for the great photos.

2010 marks the 5th Anniversary of the FamilyFarmed Expo, a three day celebration of local and organic founded by Jim Slama,  It was an for Eli’s Cheesecake to be part of the first Financing Farm to Fork Conference which was an outgrowth of the Conference held at the University of Chicago Business School last year.

The Financing Farm to Fork Conference included a panel on “Taking Food & Beverage Businesses to Scale.” Moderated by Daphne Mazarakis of Tula Foods,  Eli’s Marc Schulman was joined by top Chicago Food Entrepreneurs, Matt Weinstein of Homemade Pizza Company and John Hall of Goose Island Beer.

Daphne Mazarkis asked each of three  entrepreneurs to present a graph on the Life Cycle of the Business and its Products. In Eli’s case, the history and brand equity dates back to 1940 when our founder, Eli Schulman, opened his first restaurant on Chicago’s West Side.  Eli’s Marc Schulman discussed the important dates of Eli’s Growth in the restaurant and then Cheesecake & Dessert Business.

The Financing Farm to Fork Conference was an outgrowth of the Farm to Fork: Innovations in Chicago’s Food Business that was held by the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship at the Chicago Booth Business School for the University of Chicago. Our thanks to Linda Darragh, Professor at Chicago Booth, who was the driving force of both Conferences. Attendance was very high as more entrepreneurs want to enter and grow in the food business.

The Financing Farm to Fork Conference brought together leaders and visionaries in the agriculture and food industry. The Conference finished with a presentation by Kathleen Merrigan, Deputy Secretary of the US Department of Agriculture who shared the USDA’s “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Initiative.” Earlier in the day, Merrigan toured and spoke at the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences.

One of our favorite evenings of the year at Eli’s Cheesecake is the “Taste of Chicago’s Culinary Schools” that we host in cooperation with the Chicago Foodservice Marketing Club. Now in its 7th Year, this Culinary Event held on Friday, March 5, 2010 brought over 250 industry and community leaders to Eli’s Cheesecake World for an evening of great food, Illinois Wines and Eli’s Cheesecake to honor top culinary students from the College of DuPage, The French Pastry School, Joliet Junior College, Kendall College, Le Cordon Bleu (CHIC), Lexington College, Robert Morris University and Washburne Culinary Institute. Our thank to Eli’s Event Chairperson and Founder of this event, Erin Arceo, our Director of Foodservice Sales, and NBC”s Wayne Johnson who returned as our celebrity master of ceremonies.

The Foodservice Industry is most generous in its support of culinary education. Scholarships were given to each of the participating schools and additional funds were given to the Greater Chicago Food Depository.

NBC Wayne Johnson pictured with all of the participating student chefs and their instructors.

Making this event possible at Eli’s takes a great deal of support from all our Team Members. Above the Eli’s Team thanks  Wayne Johnson for his support in making this event such a great success.

Eli’s the Place for Steaks incomparable piano man Hal Roach provided entertainment for the evening.

Wayne Johnson is created by Eli’s Executive Pastry Chef Laurel Boger who created several spectacular mini-desserts for the event.

Eli’s Marc Schulman thanks Erin Arceo for her leadership in making this event such a success and recognized Lucille Shaw, Master Ag Teacher at the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences for her support of food education in Chicago.

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One of the longest standing traditions at Eli’s, started by our beloved Rita Tierney in 1986, is providing Eli’s Irish Mint and Eli’s Cheesecake made with Bailey’s for the Chicago St. Patrick’s Day Parade Queen’s Contest,

Eli’s Maureen Schulman serves each year as one of the judges for the Queen’s Contest. With so many talented and qualified contestants, it is very hard to pick a winner. Above are five finalists who will serve as the Queen and her Court.

The final two contestants—the Queen and the Runner-up.

The winner is announced—Kerry Anne Brennan.

The 2009 Queen, Julie Ann Popp. crowns Kerry Anne Brennan, the 2010 Chicago St. Patrick’s Day Parade Queen

Serving as the Queen of the St. Patrick’s Parade Parade and a Member of Her Court  results in a very busy month of public and media appearances leading up to the Parade on Saturday, March 13th, 2010. We are delighted that the Queen and Her Court will be visiting Eli’s Cheesecake World on Thursday, March 11th and then will bring greetings to the students at our neighbor, the New Horizon Center for the Developmentally Disabled.

Eli’s Maureen Schulman presents an Eli’s Cheesecake made with Bailey’s Irish Cream to the Queen and each member of her Court.

or five years, the Northwestern Law Small Business Opportunity Center at the Bluhm Legal Clinic has hosted a Saturday Conference that is open to entrepreneurs and other interested people as well as the Northwestern Law Community. Eli’s Cheesecake provided Dessert for the luncheon held in Lincoln Hall at which Eli’s Marc Schulman delivered the keynote address.

Eli’s Marc Schulman with NU Law grad, Howard Tullman, the CEO of Flashpoint Academy and a past winner of the Entrepreneur Award, and David Van Zandt, the Dean of Northwestern Law School.

Eli’s Marc and Maureen Schulman at Lincoln Hall

Eli’s Marc Schulman expresses his thanks to Esther Barron, the Director of the SBOC, Jennifer Ervin, a NU Law student and Co-Chair of the Conference  and Dean David Van Zandt.

Attending the Conference was Caroline Shoenberger, former Commissioner of Consumer Services for the City of Chicago and now a Professor at Harold Washington College, and John Chikow, the CEO of the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association. Both Caroline and John have been long time friends and supporters of Marc’s work in the community and at Eli’s.

With Eli’s the Place For Steak just down the block for Northwestern Law School, the restaurant hosted many NU Law Events. Here Eli comes to an event at the Law School with then Dean David Ruder

Northwestern’s  Chicago Campus has a rich history that ties in directly to the development of the Magnificent Mile and Streeterville. In his remarks, Marc shared the story of how Nathan MacChesney, an attorney and Northwestern Trustee had advocated back in 1915 to create a unified single campus on the current site. At that time, the land was a “dreary expanse of rubble and mud,” which had been developed and beautified by the mid 1920’s when the postcard above was published.