"Super delicately prepared radishes, turnips, cabbage with cream and juniper, really clean broths that taste like what went in them - and then all of a sudden we'll be serving miso and ramen when we're feeling it!" Food can really be at the service of this spiritual need that we all have."īezsylko, along with Ethan Pikas (Alinea, Binkley's in Arizona) and Justin Behlke (local underground pop-up Thurk) are all partners in the business and will all be involved in all menu and food creation.īut as far as what to actually expect, Cellar Door Provisions will serve traditional café fare (pastries, quiches, salads, tartines) but in updated versions. One thing we come back to is food worth gathering around. "(We) want to see how far we can push in that direction, in terms of finding the best in the region, getting folks to grow better ones, and opening up the Chicago palate to more. The food is being described as "ingredient driven" and the crew is very passionate about vegetables. "None of us could see ourselves working 16-hour days or managing the staff we'd need to start with (for more days)." They also plan on holding a limited number of single-seating, reservation-only dinners per month. To that end the restaurant will be open four days a week for breakfast (starting at 8 a.m.) and lunch service (working until 4 or 5 p.m.) to start. "Assumptions to do with capital, working conditions, waste, and perhaps even the very purpose of restaurants in our culture, especially to do with poverty, economic inequality, and class."Ĭellar Door Provisions, in the former Guatelinda Bakery space, will start out low-key, partly due to financial concerns ("Our startup budget is minuscule compared to many projects," Bezsylko says), but also to maintain a certain "quality of life." "We hope to question some of the standard assumptions of the restaurant industry," partner Tony Bezsylko says. And gathering in that way can really be something: organic, vital, truly warm and heartening – fulfilling.With an anticipated opening in mid-January, Logan Square's Cellar Door Provisions aspires to make an impact beyond the food they'll serve. Given time, food can really be something worth gathering around, with friends, family, neighbors, visitors, co-workers. When we give ingredients time, we as cooks, bakers, and farmers become more shepherd than engineer, and we as eaters regain the sense that food is fundamental, that it is what sustains life. But what makes that timing possible is really time, in the sense of duration. Given time, flour and water become yeast for bread, pastry – even for mushrooms apples become vinegar for dressings, pickles, and brightening dishes tomato seeds become fruit, a meal all their own. Chatting in the aisles of the Dill Pickle, the four started thinking: what if we made some bread together, did some dinners together, and what if we really did it together, collaboratively as a group, and took the time to make the food we serve up something worth gathering around.Ĭooking, as we all know, has much to do with timing, getting the elements of a dish to the plate at just the right moment. It’s a tiny store, but the produce is outstanding and the collective vibe is really something. There is a food cooperative in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago.
Cooking for us is all encompassing, engages all of the senses, starts from the very basics of making your own vinegar and leaven, and above all is first and foremost about people, their well-being, and their being in the good company of each other. Inspired as much by the Siberian Lavender plant in Tony’s garden as we are by the likes of Elizabeth David, Edward Harris Heth, Michel Bras, Tartine, Alice Waters, and Magnus Nilsson, our food is focused on simple and light preparations of vegetables sensibly supplemented with some of the best local meats. The spirit is collaborative as can be – that of a collective, really – as is the food, coming almost entirely from local farmers whom we know personally (one of our wheat farmers trades us flour for bread) or from our garden across the street. Diversey in Logan Square, Cellar Door Provisions seats 20, serves lunch four days a week and does occasional single seating, reservation-only dinners for 20.
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