10/28/2022 0 Comments Cellar door provisions![]() There’s people who are already familiar with this kind of food, who lived in California or live in France that are really happy to see this kind of food on the rise in Chicago. It’s a varied customer base that we have. CELLAR DOOR PROVISIONS HOW TOPeople who, whether they consciously intuit it or not, seem to intuit that you don’t get that kind of product with having a really good relationship with an individual who knows how to grow that kind of thing. And it seems to have created a community of people who are really, really excited about splendidly-grown vegetables, really quality produce. Ya know, people who might prefer like an interesting salad over a big meat-based dish, a richer dish. Tony: I think the style of food - the vegetable-focused, slightly lighter, ingredient-driven fare - has brought a lot of people into the restaurant who have been looking for that in Chicago but weren’t finding quite as much of it. This community of diners you’ve helped cultivate, who are they? You get to make the food and take it to the person. It’s a special space, you feel so connected. We all help bus, we all help run food, we don’t have a dishwasher, we all do dishes. It’s just one big space so everyone is up in each other’s business. Quality of life and contact with diners is a big part of why we set the whole place up the way we did. I just randomly ended up back here because of my wife. Tony: I’m mostly from California but I lived here for a big chunk of time, til I was like 13, actually very close to where the restaurant is. We thought we could bring some interesting food to breakfast and lunch service. More and more there are places in Logan Square that focus on breakfast and lunch, but there aren’t that many. ![]() So it seemed like a natural way to orient the restaurant. ![]() And it ended up being something that I love, and Justin and Tony both love. Tony had started learning how to bake bread, and I’d done some pastry work, but it was a new thing for us to tackle. When I moved back to Chicago, at that point I thought maybe I would give pastry a shot. all thought that opening up a bakery, while still really demanding hours-wise, would affords us evenings and maybe the occasional day off with our ladies, that type of thing. The way that affects your life, in terms of the hours that you’re has it’s appeal for a while, but ultimately if you want do anything outside of work it becomes kind of difficult. We sat down with co-owners/chefs/bakers Tony Bezsylko, Ethan Pikas and Justin Behlke to discuss their philosophies on food, their “shepherding” approach to cooking, a love of coffee, and more.Įthan: Myself and Justin, we’ve worked in restaurants for a really long time, but we’ve always done dinner service. An open kitchen and adjoining dining room (seating 20 guests at communal tables) reflect the collaborative spirit of their culinary process, and the result is an experience as alive with genuine human connection as it is with natural flavor. ![]() An assortment of freshly baked bread and pastry, as well as seasonal produce and meats sourced almost entirely from local farms, comprise its small, ever-changing menu. Right now that means a smoked beet salad, celery root soup with apples and brown butter, a couple of tartines, a quiche with roasted Vidalia onions, and house-made sausage with poached eggs and mustard.Cellar Door Provisions is a restaurant and bakery serving breakfast, lunch and pastry in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood. I was told it’s not going to be on the menu forever-just as long as it’s cold like this-but it’s a very good sign of what these fellows are capable of, working with all-local ingredients in this former Guatemalan bakery. It’ll thaw the ice-bound lump you once called a heart in no time. A few garnishes of refreshing baby fennel complete a bowl as simple and delicate as it is fortifying and life affirming. The warm corn mush is surprisingly light and buoyant, sweetened by garlic confit, and the tender braised meat is carefully extracted from the knobby vertebrae. It’s listed at the very bottom of the changing menu at this new, minimalist breakfast-and-lunch spot from some of the guys behind the underground dining posse Thurk. If you must have a reason to venture out into the rimy hellscape of never-ending winter, I’m going to suggest it should be to hunch over the oxtail polenta at Logan Square’s Cellar Door Provisions and thank Providence for good grain and meat. Oxtail, polenta, baby fennel at Cellar Door Provisions. ![]()
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