![]() This was after building a commissary/warehouse, which also includes office space, a few months earlier. With the space next door to their shop becoming vacant, the couple expanded their location to create Bar Pastoral in November of that year. In 2012, O’Neill and Miller realized more and more original Lakeview customers were looking for a place where they could sit down to enjoy their cheese, charcuterie and wine, along with bistro food. This location also is optimal, as it is in the Ogilvy Transportation Center building, which is a big hub that houses a number of suburban train lines. Its third site opened in 2009 at the Chicago French Market, where Pastoral Artisan Cheese, Bread & Wine became the first tenant at the year-round food hall, which celebrates its 10th anniversary later this year. Being a block from the famous Millennium Park, a popular resident and tourist attraction, didn’t hurt either. This success led to a second location opening in Chicago’s downtown Loop area on Lake Street between Michigan Avenue and Wabash in 2007. He attributes the recognition to solving an unmet need, being knowledgeable about the products and also carefully caring for and curating its cheeses. “We were by far the smallest shop to win it and had the shortest duration in business, opening just three years prior.” “Due to our success, we became the youngest and smallest retailer to be named Outstanding Retailer of the Year in 2007 by the Specialty Food Association at its New York Fancy Food Show,” O’Neill says. An unexpected accolade helped increase the visibility, viability and prestige of Pastoral in its early years. Yet, despite the odds, the shop prevailed. And in the early 2000s, the idea of opening a neighborhood cheese shop was somewhat novel to the upscale Lakeview neighborhood’s generation, which now includes Gen X families, along with Millennials. In this town, independents and even big chains tend to come and go. The partners were up for the challenge, despite the Windy City’s checkered past of reliable gourmet retailers. Both had the idea of someday opening an upscale cheese shop, but at that point O’Neill says, “the dream was still germinating in our heads.” ![]() “So we’d sit on the patio with our neighbors, and cheese, charcuterie and a glass of wine became our dinner.”īack in the States, Miller went to culinary school in New York City at what is now the Institute of Culinary Education, training under notable chefs, including Chanterelle’s David Waltuck. and didn’t feel like cooking,” says O’Neill. ![]() ![]() “We both worked long days, we’d sometimes get home as late as 10 p.m. Navy.Īfter the couple, together now for 27 years, lived in Europe, New York City and Boston in the 90s and early 2000s, they became accustomed to frequenting the local cheese and wine shops. Miller, a William & Mary graduate, is a former nuclear software systems developer for the U.S. O’Neill, who graduated with an MBA from Duke, worked in international marketing for a Fortune 500 company. Cheese Connoisseur Bar Pastoral expanded its retail conce pt to include a bistro highlighting its offerings. ![]()
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