Bountiful New Menus Abound in Chicago
Leaves and tolerance for cold weather aren’t the only things rapidly changing in Chicago these days. Menus are evolving at a speedy pace as well, adapting to seasonal changes with an uptick in comfort food, from gnocchi carbonara to Italian beef-inspired pork heart sandwiches. Here are some of the latest must-eat new menu items in Chicago.
Start your day with a scone or two (or four) from Caffe Streets. The chic Wicker Park coffee shop just introduced a new pastry menu, complete with a variety of housemade scones. The hand-crafted pastries are the perfect complement to the shop’s carefully roasted coffee beans, prepared daily by owner Darko Arandjelovic’s wife Jelena. Flavors include pumpkin with candied pecan and ginger, dark chocolate with hazelnuts, bacon with Parmesan and chive, and a gluten-free blueberry with orange zest.
Consider this an appetizer to breakfast at 2 Sparrows, where a new fall menu just took flight. Chef Gregory Ellis’ locally sourced, seasonally driven restaurant now boasts breakfast with some autumnal spice in the form of pancakes with pear compote, pumpkin spice glazed doughnuts, couscous with Moroccan spiced butternut squash, and a breakfast chile relleno stuffed with cream cheese, cheddar, queso fresco, almonds, and cranberries with chipotle sauce and Southwestern scrambled eggs.
Come dinnertime, you’ll undoubtedly be hungry for more. Apparently fall is prime pork season because it’s out in droves at The Purple Pig. Pig out on chef Jimmy Bannos Jr.’s novel takes on meat cookery with dishes such as pork brisket (think corned beef, but porky); piadina sandwiches inspired by the popular Emilia-Romagna flatbread ’wiches; and a “hearty” Italian pork heart sandwich à la Italian beef, shaved razor thin, cooked on the plancha, and heaped on bread with spicy giardiniera and sweet peppers. The restaurant is also prepared to launch a new salumi program, elaborating on the newly installed curing room by releasing an all-Mangalitsa pig selection of lardo, capicola, bresaola, lomo, pancetta, guanciale, and more.
Another new dinner menu has made its seasonal debut at Fulton’s on the River. Here, executive chef Kevin Schulz innovates riverside dining by subbing unexpected ingredients in popular eclectic comfort food. Get hungry for gnocchi carbonara with poached egg, pork belly, and brown butter; swordfish au poivre with roasted mushrooms, veal reduction, and tellicherry peppercorn; and yellowfin tuna puttanesca with bacon, tomato-ginger coulis, capers, and olives.
Now it’s time for dessert. Sable Kitchen & Bar turns its attention to classic European pudding-type creations for its latest dessert inspirations. Chef Heather Terhune is the woman behind the whimsy, serving up warm sticky toffee pudding cake, butterscotch pot de creme, warm pumpkin-pecan bread pudding, Michigan apple cake, tiramisu trifle, and more.
Caffe Streets
1750 W. Division Street, Chicago
(773) 278-2739
Website
2 Sparrows
553 W. Diversey Parkway, Chicago
(773) 234-2320
Website
The Purple Pig
500 N. Michigan Avenue, Chicago
(312) 464-1744
Website
Fulton’s on the River
315 N. LaSalle Street, Chicago
(312) 822-0100
Website
Sable Kitchen & Bar
505 N. State Street, Chicago
(312) 755-9704
Website
