Provenance food and wine store is a little shop just on the outskirts of the main pedestrian section of Lincoln Square, it is easy to find but also easy to miss as it just has a tiny sign hanging up above the door. If you come out of the Western El station it is right across the road sandwiched in between the Thai shop and the Art shop and school.

Provenance is filled with all those jars and bottles of sauces, pastes, spread, pickles, chutneys that you don’t know that you need unto you see them. It is hard not to walk out of there with some newly found treat to enhance some meal, sandwich or salad.

I first came in when I found out that they stocked the bacon from Jolly Spencers Foods, but more recently I have been going in as they stock the Royal Pies made by Pleasant House Bakery. They have three varieties hidden away in their freezers; the  Steak and Ale Pie (All-natural beef, ale, carrots, and herbs), the Chicken Balti Pie (All-natural chicken in fresh-ground curry spices with tomato and Nigella seeds), and the Mushroom and Kale Pie (Assorted mushrooms, kale, scallions, white wine, herbs, and Parmesan) each for $9.

The freezers are also full of many other goodies from local artisan food producers. Apart from that there is a small selection of cheeses and charcuterie items in the chilled cabinets.  They also do wine tastings on a reasonably regular basis and stock a pretty decent selection.

You can check them out on their website at http://www.provenancefoodandwine.com/ and if you want to know when those wine tastings are I suggest following them on Facebook or Twitter

Located at  2312 W. Leland Avenue adajacent to the Western CTA station car park on the Brown Line