Gourmet & Healthy in Orland Park

The Olive Gallery is more than a boutique store. It is a tasting room set up in the style of a Tuscan kitchen, a place to immerse oneself in flavor and explore the unexpected possibilities of artisan olive oils and vinegars. The room is filled with stainless-steel kegs called fustis, each filled with traditional, first-cold-pressed olive oils from locales such as Italy, California, Greece, or Chile. Some are filled with flavored oils, great for marinating meats or daubing onto pulse points, whereas others carry aged, flavored, or white balsamic vinegars.

The helpful staff members dole out storage tips and recipe advice for making the most of their wares, which include specialty foods and kitchen tools. They also tout the health benefits of incorporating olive oil into your diet, citing lowered blood pressure, improved glycemic control, and possible anti-aging effects.

Eata Pita’s cooks stuff pillowy pitas and wraps with a wide variety of roasted meats, crisp veggies, and creamy sauces. Seated in a casual, cheerful dining room with yellow walls, diners can savor the traditional Mediterranean flavors of gyro pitas with tzatziki sauce or opt for fusion snacks such as the teriyaki-chicken pita with provolone cheese. The expansive build-your-own-pita ingredient list offers everything from black-bean patties to bacon, and a kids' menu includes cheese quesadillas, hot dogs, and other favorites sure to win favorable newspaper write-ups from pintsize food critics.

Pannenkoeken Cafe's specialty Dutch-style pancakes draw breakfast and brunch eaters to the teeny, brightly lit eatery lined with wooden tulips. Thinner than a buttermilk pancake but still slightly thicker than a standard crepe and abundantly thicker than an unwritten novel about crepes, the café's namesake cakes come in a mix of savory and sweet varieties, such as grilled salami and havarti cheese or apple and ginger marmalade. Freshly squeezed juice and espresso-fueled beverages pair with any of the dozen pannenkoeken options, omelets, and other breakfast fare on the menu.

Conn's Cafe & Catering Inc.'s professionally uniformed wait staff and executive chefs furnish festivities with a comprehensive menu of entrees, buffet packages, barbecue fare, and boxed lunches. The full-service company provides tables, chairs, linens, tableware, and invitations, offering customers reprieve from the stresses of party planning and additional time to perfect their chicken dance. A catering coordinator can counsel guests on décor, entertainment, and locations, and licensed and insured bartenders are available to distribute pours of champagne and spirits. In addition to the standard and seasonal menus, the caterers can also furnish Indian, Thai, Cajun, Middle Eastern and Mexican fare, as well as thematic decorations.

The story of Formella Gourmet begins more than 100 years ago, when Sicilian Enrico Formella immigrated to the U.S. from Sicily. While on the voyage across the Atlantic, he married his wife Rosina and unknowingly clinched his position as a global distributor of fine Italian food. It began with the couple’s giardiniera recipe, which ascended to stardom in the South Side of Chicago. That's where the couple put down roots. Since the fateful day in 1909 when Formella decided to make his family’s cooking his business, ownership of the empire has passed to three grandsons. Together since the first half of the 20th century, they’ve preserved the family’s recipes for pasta sauce, stuffed olives, bruschetta spreads, and escaping Chicago's intense Model-T traffic jams.

It's doubtful that anyone passing by the Chicago Theatre in 1998 would have guessed that the handful of food stands clustered in the adjacent alley would one day blossom into Chicago's largest local, sustainable farmers' market. But Green City Market founder Abby Mandel imagined it would, and today her vision and decade of leadership is evidenced every Saturday and warm-weather Wednesday morning, when farmers and artisans from all over the tri-state region gather to sell their sustainable and seasonal wares. Now in its 14th year, the Green City Market has earned favorable mention in RedEye, in Time Out Chicago, and on ABC. Through the market, Abby's legacy lives on as the five-person staff and numerous volunteers aim to cultivate a robust local food economy and foster a strong connection between Chicagoans and local producers such as Growing Home and Pasta Puttana. The Heirloom and Heritage Preservation Project spotlights heritage livestock and heirloom vegetables with prominent signage on vendor booths in an effort to educate and preserve the food supply’s biodiversity. Regular chef demonstrations from such notables as Brian Huston of the Publican and Justin Martin of Uncommon Ground spice up the atmosphere and give shoppers inspiration on how to use their bulging bags of local fare. The market operates year-round, bathing in sunlight in warmer months before hunkering in the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum for winter like a bear with a taste for heirloom tomatoes.