Tis the Season for Strawberries!
Strawberries are in season, marking a ravenous melee of short cakes, ice creams, berried cocktails, and lots more. One of the most adored harbingers of summer dining and drinking, strawberries are rolling onto menus all over Chicago en masse. From appetizers and entrees to desserts and drinks, here’s where to get your strawberry fix in Chicago right now.
Strawberries are out in full force at Quartino, both in the glass and on the plate. Joining the restaurant’s lineup of housemade limoncellos is fragocello, a luscious strawberry cello that offers an intense, potent punch of berries in each sip. Drink it straight up or as part of a fizzy cocktail, the Cello Spritz, with Prosecco and club soda. Or you can spoon your way through a fragocello dessert featuring strawberry gelato, minted strawberries, fragocello, and housemade biscotti. Or you can do all of the above at the same time.
Alt Allium, strawberries partner with their BFF rhubarb for a vigorous salad. The strawberry-rhubarb combo comes with sweet onion and poppy seed dressing, brioche crouton, and black pepper crème fraîche, a zesty divergence from the typical strawberry-rhubarb dessert template.
Bistronomic keeps things savory with their scallop-strawberry appetizer, an uncommon combo that works wonders together. Head chef Jerome Bacle uses pickled strawberries for the preparation, along with fennel, green onions, and rhubarb puree.
There’s nothing more special than a strawberry menu special. In the spring and early summer, Vera showcases berries from Mick Klug Farms via strawberry short cake and strawberry crumbles. Plus, chef Mark Mendez likes to make strawberry jam to accompany cheese and charcuterie boards.
Start your day with the breakfast of champions at A10 in Hyde Park. Aka strawberry and sweet cream sticky buns for brunch. Or head to brunch at Bottlefork for their cast iron-baked French toast with strawberry-rhubarb compote, sweet cream, and bourbon barrel-aged maple syrup.
Strawberries are a huge deal at Floriole Cafe & Bakery. One look at the current pastry case and you’ll see. The lineup now includes strawberry pate de fruit and strawberry shortcake, with buttermilk panna cotta and fresh strawberries soon to come. The Friday night pizza menus will also feature a strawberry dessert containing vanilla poundcake, strawberry sherbet, and Angelica-macerated strawberries.
In the running for most inventive use of strawberries this season is Nana, which has been serving a dinner special of Copper River sockeye salmon with pastrami bacon, strawberries, and sugar snap peas in a chile-coconut sauce. The innovative medley is ideally followed by warm strawberry bread pudding with sorrel-rhubarb sauce.
Mon Ami Gabi’s chef Andrew Shedden offers his own unique take on strawberry desserts via a strawberry Briand. The dish features Grand Marnier-macerated strawberries with sour cream sorbet and brown sugar.
Little Goat utilizes strawberries for a fun riff on the classic PB&J. Served as a pie instead of lunchbox fodder, the sandwich-inspired dessert features a white bread crust, strawberry jam, and peanut butter meringue.
There are few better ways to celebrate strawberry season than with a classic, homey, and humble crisp. Wildfire is currently utilizing strawberries for their seasonal berry crisp, bedecked with an oatmeal cookie crumble, berry sauce, and vanilla ice cream.
Riffing on the standard strawberry shortcake formula, Gemini Bistro deconstructs the rubric with its strawberries and cream dessert. This silken confection contains panna cotta, angel food cake croutons, and a strawberry salad.
Strawberries are the dessert darling du jour at The Gage, where the summery fruits are currently starring in a slew of new sweets. Case in point: the strawberry-rhubarb doughnut with graham cracker streusel and vanilla ice cream; caramelized pound cake with vanilla-almond yogurt sauce, strawberries, and roasted almonds; and The Gage sundae with cocoa nib banana bread, caramel, hot fudge, and strawberry ice cream.
Take a piece of berry glory home with you from Southport Grocery & Cafe, where strawberry goods are lining the shelves in various provisions. There’s strawberry preserves, strawberry-rhubarb preserves, strawberry drink starter, and strawberry-lemon drink starter. The cafe will also be featuring strawberry soda on tap.
Here’s a few more unique ways to enjoy your strawberry desserts. Head to Arami and partake in strawberry-Thai basil ice cream with graham miso crumble. Or to Toni Patisserie & Cafe for some chocolate-strawberry Romanoff cake. Or to Nico Osteria for the olive oil cake with compressed strawberries, hibiscus, and goat cheese sherbet.
Get your sip on with the strawberry-basil margarita at Joe Fish or Osteria Via Stato. The former is a sweet, herbaceous libation containing Cruz Blanco, Cointreau, lime, strawberries, basil, and a Strega float, while the latter incorporates balsamic into the mix.
Strawberry desserts are out in strides at Magnolia Bakery this month, from strawberry cupcakes swirled with fresh strawberry puree and strawberry meringue buttercream, to strawberry icebox cake striated with handmade chocolate wafers, strawberry puree, and whipped sweet cream.
Quartino
626 N. State Street, Chicago
(312) 698-5000
Website
Allium
120 E. Delaware Place, Chicago
(312) 799-4900
Website
Bistronomic
840 N. Wabash Avenue, Chicago
(312) 944-8400
Website
Vera
1023 W. Lake Street, Chicago
(312) 243-9770
Website
A10
1462 E. 53rd Street, Chicago
(773) 288-1010
Website
Bottlefork
441 N. Clark Street, Chicago
(312) 955-1900
Website
Floriole Cafe & Bakery
1220 W. Webster Avenue, Chicago
(773) 883-1313
Website
Nana
3267 S. Halsted Street, Chicago
(312) 929-2486
Website
Mon Ami Gabi
2300 N. Lincoln Park West, Chicago
(773) 348-8886
Website
Little Goat
820 W Randolph Street, Chicago
(312) 888-3455
Website
Wildfire
159 W. Erie Street, Chicago
(312) 787-9000
Website
Gemini Bistro
2075 N Lincoln Avenue, Chicago
(773) 525-2522
Website
The Gage
24 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago
(312) 372-4243
Website
Southport Grocery & Cafe
3552 N. Southport Avenue, Chicago
(773) 665-0100
Website
Arami
1829 W. Chicago Avenue, Chicago
(312) 243-1535
Website
Toni Patisserie & Cafe
65 E. Washington Street, Chicago
(312) 726-2020
Website
Nico Osteria
1015 N. Rush Street, Chicago
(312) 994-7100
Website
Joe Fish
445 N. Dearborn Street, Chicago
(312) 832-7700
Website
Osteria Via Stato
620 N. State Street, Chicago
(312) 642-8450
Website
Magnolia Bakery
108 N. State Street, Chicago
(312) 346-7777
Website
