photo: jim frost

Don't worry—these bottles are just for show. Frasca keeps the good stuff in temperature-controlled storage to preserve the every aspect of her hand-picked, single-vineyard wines.

Susan Frasca, the owner of Kinzie Chophouse, is ready to play by herself. “I’m opening a sandbox, and it’s mine,” she says. Her 900-square-foot sandbox, however, will be filled with wine bottles—single-vineyard wines not in mass distribution and other rare jewels.

The Wine Huntress (408 N. Wells St., 312-929-3601), which Frasca plans to open July 8, will feature a different wine-growing country every four months. After she explores a country on foot, Frasca will offer the wines of its various regions, beginning with the United States, then France, then Spain, then Italy.

Memberships will be sold, entitling members to free tastings, a class, and an event. Frasca also plans a line of private-label olive oils, vinegars, and truffles. That’s the chocolate kind of truffles, of course, but we did briefly envision digging for the mushroom kind of truffles in a sandbox.