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Remembering Julius Russell, Caterer to the Stars and Mentor to Black Chicago Chefs
An expert on French and Creole cuisines, Russell served celebrities like LeBron James before he died at age 58 Julius Russell was an influential chef, caterer, and a much-needed mentor in Chicago’s community of Black chefs. A South Side native, Russell founded a private chef and catering brand, A Tale of Two Chefs, and frequently shared his French and Creole culinary expertise — using his familiar resonant baritone — on TV and other media. “For young Black chefs, he was the Green Book — he could
A Contemporary European Restaurant Looks South For Inspiration
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<figcaption>Cobblestone has a new menu courtesy for chef Andre Overton. | Cobblestone</figcaption>
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<p>Cobblestone keeps its cider focus but heads in a new direction with a new chef in North Center</p> <p id="jrJv04">The owner of <a href="https://chicago.eater.com/venue/67600/cobblestone">Cobblestone</a> in North Center hopes a new chef with a new menu will help turn things around after years of tumult and a revolving door of chefs.</p>
<p id="8Dsiul">“It has been hard,” Dr. Markus Chwajol says. “I always wanted to give it another chance and another chance. I just never gave up. I tried different chefs, different things. If it wasn’t working this year, I probably would have to close. But I think the perseverance paid off and I’m happy about where we are now.”</p>
<p id="k8sc6D">Chwajol has hired former <a href="https://chicago.eater.com/venue/64967/boqueria-chicago">Boqueria</a> sous chef Andre Overton as executive chef. His menu includes traditional fare like pork schnitzel and langos, a Czech flatbread served topped with a Bavarian cheese spread and pickled shallots, but the flavors also lean towards Southern comfort food with shrimp & grits with kielbasa gravy and grilled pork chops with green peas. It’s a blend reminiscent of <a href="https://chicago.eater.com/venue/49478/funkenhausen">Funkenhausen</a>, the German and Southern hybrid <a href="https://chicago.eater.com/2023/3/8/23631331/funkenhausen-west-town-german-southern-restaurant-closing">which closed last year</a>. When <a href="https://chicago.eater.com/venue/cobblestone">Cobblestone</a>’s backyard patio reopens in May, Overton wants to grill meat and vegetables outside and customers will be able to point to what’s cooking when deciding what to order.</p>
<p id="IJyJPK">“He walked around the kitchen and felt immediately at home,” Chwajol says. “He’s a very astute scholar of the art of cooking. He analyzes things and he’s very appreciative of constructive criticism, which is not that common. He just really shows that he loves what he does. It’s great to have somebody like him.”</p>
<p id="a9NJGm">Chwajol opened Cobblestone in February 2020 with executive chef <a href="https://chicago.eater.com/2018/7/13/17568152/gold-coast-lounge-walton-st-chicagos-largest-scotch-selection-ath-assoc-art-institute-popup-intel">Roman Hadrbolec</a>, who had helmed Chwajol’s <a href="https://chicago.eater.com/venue/19855/bohemian-house-2">Bohemian House</a> before it <a href="https://chicago.eater.com/2018/10/1/17923150/bohemian-house-river-north-czech-restaurant-shutter-closed">closed in 2018</a>. The goal was to combine <a href="https://chicago.eater.com/venue/bohemian-house-2">Bohemian House</a>’s elevated approach to Central European cuisine (as honed by BoHo’s opening chef Jimmy Papadopoulos, <a href="https://chicago.eater.com/2015/11/16/9729660/chicago-winners-2015-eater-awards">Eater Chicago’s 2015 Chef of The Year</a>) with the Northman’s focus on cider. But when the COVID-19 lockdowns hit 12 days later the restaurant closed and Hadrbolec returned to Czechia.</p>
<p id="yG54Qe">Operating in the former space of <a href="https://chicago.eater.com/venue/54811/the-northman">The Northman</a>, Chicago’s first cider bar, the focus on cider has remained. Overton adds a bit of it to many of his dishes, blending it into the Jacqueline sauce for his roasted rabbit and the batter of the fish & chips. The beer selection mixes imported Czech, Belgian, and German brews with a regularly changing selection from local craft breweries including <a href="https://chicago.eater.com/2022/11/7/23445544/hop-butcher-for-the-world-brewery-opening-half-acre-lincoln-northcenter">Hop Butcher</a> down the block.</p>
<p id="fbEVvR">Overton embraced the challenge by talking with Chwajol, who visits Central Europe at least twice a year to find inspiration for his restaurants, and Cobblestone’s general manager Barbora Zamboni, who shared stories of growing up in the Czech Republic and gifted Overton with Ivana Veruzabova’s <em>Czech and Slovak Food and Cooking</em>. Overton started at Cobblestone in January and spent months experimenting before rolling out the new menu in March.</p>
<p id="EWX51W">“I wanted to know who the patrons were and what flavors people gravitated to while still being true to myself,” he says. “I’m not afraid to go out of the box but if something didn’t work, I had a backup. I cook for people to indulge and be almost gluttonous, but I wanted to be true to the background and culture of Markus and Barbora and find that balance.”</p>
<p id="tC5h0w">Though Cobblestone’s bartenders and service staff have remained largely the same, three more executive chefs came and went before Overton, departures Chwajol says were all amicable. While Overton didn’t have any experience cooking the Czech, German, Hungarian, and Austrian cuisine that Cobblestone had focused on, Chwajol was still quickly convinced he was the right person for the job.</p>
<p id="pWG0HJ">Overton scaled back his initial idea for the menu which would have had 35 to 38 items, not including brunch, but he still has ambitions for expanding his offerings to add more vegan, vegetarian, and seafood dishes.</p>
<p id="cKIQGz">“I wanted to hit every aspect of every potential patron that came in, but I’m trying to not overwhelm people,” he says. “This is safe to introduce people to and see what goes and what doesn’t go and move things around from there. I want criticism more than praise because it can make me a better chef. I know it’s unrealistic to try to please everybody, but I want to make their experience memorable.”</p>
<p id="zxbsfE">Brunch offerings include schnitzel & waffles and blueberry crumpets served with sour cream alongside build-your-own mimosas. While the main menu will stay largely the same until fall, Overton is changing out the dessert offerings every two to three weeks, serving a mix of cake, a fruit-focused dessert like cobbler, and housemade ice cream with flavors that include red velvet cake and cocoa nib cheesecake.</p>
<p id="KQkD8Y">“I’m a pastry guy at heart,” Overton says. “When I’m at home, I find myself baking more than anything. Pastries excite me so much and soothe me when everything else is stressful, so I’m always trying to give you the best version of me in a dessert form.”</p>
<p id="Kiz8lY">While Cobblestone has been through many changes over the four years, Chwajol said that just surviving that long has earned it loyalty in the neighborhood.</p>
<p id="nnx5Dt">“We have many, many returning customers and that’s what local restaurants are about,” he says. “I didn’t want to give up on that idea and I think it is finally coming to fruition now.”</p>
<p id="JOFOLd"><em>Cobblestone, 4337 N. Lincoln Ave., Open 5-10 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday; 5-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 5-9 p.m. Sunday; open for brunch 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.</em></p>
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‘Hot Ones’ Picks Chicago for First Live Event
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<figcaption>“Hot Ones” host Sean Evans is bringing the show to his hometown. Here he appears with Jimmy Fallon and JJ Watt — the husband of former Chicago Star soccer player Kealia Ohai. | Photo by: Andrew Lipovsky/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>Plus, Cafe Selmarie closes this week</p> <p id="UgAyiE"><a href="https://www.eater.com/23045066/hot-ones-celebrity-seasons-show"><em>Hot Ones</em>, the talk show centered</a> around daring celebrities to eat hot chicken wings while being interviewed, is coming to Chicago later this summer. The brass isn’t saying exactly when or where either. <a href="https://www.anheuser-busch.com/newsroom/stella-artois-and-first-we-feasts-hot-ones%E2%84%A2-are-turning-up-the-heat-this-summer?builder.space=0e651898bba9404faf7390e31f349b0b&builder.cachebust=true&builder.preview=news&builder.noCache=true&builder.allowTextEdit=true&__builder_editing__=true&builder.overrides.news=746307037435457f859d036a07c711d6&builder.overrides.746307037435457f859d036a07c711d6=746307037435457f859d036a07c711d6">A press release</a> teases it as a unique live event — not an event taping. It will take place at an iconic Chicago location.</p>
<p id="ktlnXJ">The show, which debuted in 2015, is produced by First We Feast and features Chicago-area native Sean Evans using extensive research from AMAs, online articles — you name it — for remarkably in-depth interviews. Stars sit through 10 questions and 10 wings, with each piece of chicken doused in increasingly spicy sauces flavored with exotic peppers, the kind spice bros record YouTube videos about with milk nearby to further dull their insides.</p>
<p id="EwAHQo">First We Feast is touting the Chicago event as Hot Ones’s first live show in front of an audience with Stella Artois as its sponsor (Stella’s parent, the multi-national company behind Anheuser-Busch, is also in charge of Chicago’s Goose Island Beer Co.). Stella has kicked <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op11XDG2DgM">off its advertising campaig</a>n with a video featuring rapper Ludacris.</p>
<p id="Fi7wBN">Stella declined a request to interview Evans. Perhaps the suburban Evanston native feared he’d be accountable <a href="https://www.southsidesox.com/2021/8/11/22618712/white-sox-north-side-sox-podcast-20-getting-spicy-with-sean-evans">as a fan for the White Sox’s lurid season</a>. Instead, a Stella rep pointed toward a contest giving 10 winners a free trip <a href="https://www.stellaartois.com/HotOnesLive">to Chicago to see the event</a>.</p>
<h3 id="h6d2N8">Cafe Selmarie closes this week</h3>
<p id="SvJtOE">Cafe Selmarie, the Lincoln Square icon that announced its closure last year, is announced when it will shutter. Breakfast and lunch will be served on Thursday, April 25; and Friday, April 26. Dinner on those two days will be reserved for mostly friends and family, with limited seating available to the public, according to a news release. The owner is retiring and has sold the business, which had been open for four decades. <a href="https://chicago.eater.com/2024/4/1/24117881/cafe-selmarie-replacement-willow-cafe-and-bistro-lincoln-square-andrew-pillman-chicago">The owner of Lincoln Square Taproom</a> is taking over the space. Andrew Pillman is replacing Selmarie with Willow Café and Bistro.</p>
<h3 id="yDbHLP">The possibility of a free lunch</h3>
<p id="gL8AKm">In other contest news, Farmer’s Fridge — <a href="https://chicago.eater.com/2023/7/17/23797622/farmers-fridge-vending-machine-salads-wraps-bowls-technology-food-agriculture-chicago">the company that uses</a> vending machines to find a niche at convention centers, airports, and other locations where it’s hard to find healthy meals — is giving out $10 credits for new customers <a href="https://www.farmersfridge.com/">who download its app</a>. The interesting bit is the company could be positioning itself as a less-expensive alternative to buying lunch from a restaurant. The lunch market has boomed in neighborhoods since 2020 and the pandemic’s start, while downtown restaurants have seen mixed results and often rolling back hours to deal with rising labor costs and more employees working from home.</p>
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A Guide to Chicago Farmers Market Etiquette
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<figcaption>Got any of those ramps? | Ashok Selvam/Eater Chicago</figcaption>
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<p>Some of Chicago’s top chefs provide advise on how to get the most out of a weekend visit</p> <p class="p--has-dropcap" id="KzLksp">When I was a teen, attempting to sleep in on Saturdays, I’d wake up and see that my father had already made his weekly visit to the farmers market, coming back with a bouquet of flowers for mom and a bounty of vegetables.</p>
<p id="btcOHZ">Why would anyone want to waste their precious weekend time outside in the sun, walking around to buy veggies? You can make a run to the Jewels without sacrificing sleep. The stuff at markets isn’t even cooked.</p>
<p id="U5I5w3">But as I grew older, I found myself morphing into the old man. I celebrate the start of the market season and mourn the end as a precursor to winter. Perhaps it’s compensating for my general lack of enthusiasm for the lowly Chicago sports season. It’s nice to look forward to something; farmers won’t let you down like team owners looking for tax incentives.</p>
<p id="7vtEbD">This new crop of farmers markets looks different from what my dad visited. Chefs and food entrepreneurs use the markets to help establish their brands. You’ll find long lines waiting for grilled cheese, gooey raclette sandwiches, and coffee. </p>
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<img alt="A close-up of a raclette sandwich." data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/CA4SbQzXX54GDO-ABImLMKsRDvU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25409132/IMG_5241.jpg">
<cite>Ashok Selvam/Eater Chicago</cite>
<figcaption>Who doesn’t love raclette?</figcaption>
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<p id="InncR3">Farmers markets are essential for urban areas, giving city dwellers better access to fresh produce, something that’s not consistent throughout the city. This has an impact on healthcare. Hospitals want healthier patients — they make money if patients have short stays, opening up beds for new customers. Long stays aren’t as lucrative. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3222449/">Many hospitals host farmers</a> in the hopes of establishing healthier habits for their patient base. The markets are also havens for folks with dogs and young children, and pumped-up athleisure-clad visitors who just finished their workouts will have to avoid leashes and bulky strollers for survival.</p>
<p id="1n9cZn">With all of this in mind, I’ve compiled a list of tips for farmers market visitors. Some of them are pet peeves. Some of them come from chatting with chefs and vendors. Please enjoy.</p>
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<img alt="A group of folks on a farmers market path." data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/j1og7VLXKO4DQOs2dDXl0XVrJSg=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25409126/IMG_4393.JPG">
<cite>Ashok Selvam/Eater Chicago</cite>
<figcaption>These folks didn’t get to the market early.</figcaption>
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<li id="eWijDA">Show up early — as early as 7 a.m. for specialty goods. Dad was on to something — markets are easier to navigate with fewer people. It’s a huge time saver. Waking up earlier than the ones who woke up early to work out not only makes you feel better than them, but it allows you to get to items before they sell out. As chef Sarah Stegner says: “If you see something don’t wait to buy it… it might not be there later — we sell out!”</li>
<li id="hhcrUV">Stegner, the chef behind <a href="https://chicago.eater.com/venue/prairie-grass-cafe">Prairie Grass Cafe</a> in suburban Northbrook, is the founding member of Green City. She was recently <a href="https://www.chicagobusiness.com/dining-table-david-manilow/meet-sarah-stegner-prairie-grass-cafe-green-city-market">profiled in <em>Crain’s</em></a>. Her advice? Try to have a conversation with the farmer — ask them what’s in season and when they harvested the items they’re selling. She mentions a recent conversation about multi-color eggs. She learned the colors denote a different breed, and that chickens with access to pasture produce darker yellow yolks (Stegner feels the darker yolks produce a better taste): “Building a relationship with the people that grow our food by consistently supporting them and opening up a conversation that informs the consumer,” Stegner says.</li>
<li id="vegz4X">On a lighter note: keep moving. Most farmers markets are held in parks. If you’re on your phone, with your dog, or clogging up the walkways with a stroller, move. Be considerate. There’s usually a grassy patch of ground where those impromptu confabs can take place without being in the way.</li>
<li id="ET4c1m">As a dad with a toddler, stroller etiquette fascinates me. There are entitled parents who feel they’re invulnerable and have the right to mow down anyone in their way. Then there are the parents in a rush and are literally on your heels trying to push through crowds. If you’re in a rush, then maybe get to the market early instead of acting like a toddler you’re pushing.</li>
<li id="i6eKiK">That being said, folks without kids should respect the stroller. An “excuse me” goes a long way instead of pretending you’re at a crowded dive bar putting your shoulder down to get to your table. This isn’t a kid-free zone. Kids have more of a right to be in the park than adults. That’s just how society works, pal.</li>
<li id="ZibITK">If you’re able, biking to the farmers market is optimal on nice days. And it’s easier to hunt for parking spaces. Investing in a bike pannier is a wise move. </li>
<li id="6N1V7u">For those who drive, finding parking isn’t easy. At Green City Market Lincoln Park, folks can buy two-hour parking at the <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/SP%2B+Parking/@41.9141621,-87.6326931,15z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x880fd30b31cd132f:0xbee57b69a46f8579!8m2!3d41.9141621!4d-87.6326931!16s%2Fg%2F1v27w2p8?entry=ttu">Chicago History Museum parking lot</a>. It’s $14 with a validation card available at all market entrances. The real hack? Buy admission to the museum for validation and spend the day indoors learning something new.</li>
<li id="jv5QE2">Chef Rick Bayless suggests looking at markets as art fairs. Try to ask personable questions — instead of asking “How do you cook this,” Bayless suggests asking “Do you have a favorite way to prepare this” or “Is there anything you’re really excited to prepare this week?” Building relationships over time pays off. Last summer, Bayless says he asked Patrick Mark from <a href="https://www.instagram.com/ironcreekorganicfarm/?hl=en">Iron Creek Farm </a>what he was excited about “He picked up one variety of tomato and said, ‘this: raw, salt and pepper.’ There’s so much learning in that! He was telling me that that one variety would never be better than that moment. Appreciate what nature has given us.”</li>
<li id="Hg8peQ">The demand for prepared foods increases each year. <a href="https://chicago.eater.com/venue/soul-smoke">Soul & Smoke</a>, an Eater Chicago 38 member, has parked its barbecue truck at Logan Square. The wife-and-husband team of Heather Bublick and D’Andre Carter repeated some of the previous tips (they suggest coming hungry). But they also suggest becoming regulars: “Go back often! Harvests change throughout the season. It’s so amazing to watch the progression from spring, to summer, late summer, and into fall.”</li>
<li id="fJcnWe">
<a href="https://chicago.eater.com/venue/eden">Eden</a>, which runs an Avondale restaurant off the Chicago River, is a new vendor at Green City in 2024. Chef Devon Quinn, who grows a garden outside the restaurant, is the operation’s chief culinary officer for Eden and Paramount Events. He suggests that folks should bring their own crates, reusable bags, and baskets. He also says to ask farmers about “seconds” — the ugly fruits and veggies. “They are perfectly suitable for salsas, fillings, or purées,” he says. In addition, he advises that customers shouldn’t insult farmers and try to barter: “If you want a discount on the produce, go to Aldi’s,” he says. “The growing methods and labor are expensive. You are paying for healthy ingredients and supporting our local economy.”</li>
<li id="zVFmOt">Bonus: Don’t <a href="https://twitter.com/Shokdiesel/status/1647277455823052811">be this guy</a>.</li>
</ol>
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At This Chicago Dive Bar, Matzo Ball Soup Is the Malort Chaser of Choice
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<figcaption>Yes, Chicagoans can find a good bowl of matzo ball soup at a dive bar. | <a class="ql-link" href="http://barrybrecheisen.com/" target="_blank">Barry Brecheisen</a>/Eater Chicago</figcaption>
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<p>Fluffy, floating matzo balls from the Jewish American staple soothe with each sip, in even the most unexpected venues</p> <p class="p--has-dropcap" id="XiM9Vt">Chris and Calvin Marty, the owners behind <a href="https://chicago.eater.com/venue/best-intentions">Best Intentions</a>, say they “don’t make a big deal” that they’re Jewish. The brothers, who opened their Logan Square bar in 2015, grew up in Cambridge, Wisconsin, a village about 60 miles west of Milwaukee and with a population of about 1,600. Less than 1 percent of Wisconsin’s population is Jewish, per a <a href="https://ajpp.brandeis.edu/login?dest=/map">2020 study</a> from Brandeis University.</p>
<p id="gVTwi3">”We probably experience a little private guilt that maybe we’re not the best Jews — we never went to temple, we never had bar mitzvahs,” says Chris Marty.</p>
<p id="TyJ1xS">The bar’s menu definitely contains some decidedly unkosher items like the Cuppa Shrimp with mild sauce, a gnarly cheeseburger, and red wine-braised short rib. The harissa chicken provides another nod to the Middle East. But tucked within the menu lies a surprise — matzo ball soup — and a great version at that, with a rich broth darkened by duck fat yet brightened by heavenly wafts of ginger and lemongrass.</p>
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<img alt="A silver ladle pours broth into a bowl that holds a matzo ball." data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/YqH46EZJ7r1DQO7pVfVUppR7cFs=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25384078/53585646036_a6b708da38_o.jpg">
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<img alt="A person pours oil from a bottle atop a bowl of matzo ball soup." data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/NhWapCaqZpIY4DU4BuDVLRbjjcQ=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25384082/53585865053_63f9af4306_o.jpg">
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<p class="caption">Yes — a place like this uses duck fat for its matzo ball soup.</p>
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<p id="3BoDQM">In Chicago, it’s not especially hard to find a bowl of matzo ball soup, as a basic version appears on the menu of every self-respecting <a href="https://chicago.eater.com/maps/best-jewish-deli-food-restaurants-chicago">Jewish deli in town</a>. But in recent years, the dish has begun to spring up in some unexpected places, too, including while perched on a bar stool on a rainy Friday in Logan Square and double-fisting a dirty martini. <a href="https://www.bestintentionschicago.com/">Best Intentions</a> manages to channel the best of Wisconsin dives and serve fun, well-executed bar food. It was immediately clear that whoever created Best Intentions had spent some time in Wisconsin’s many unironic watering holes like <a href="https://www.facebook.com/p/Riversend-Bar-Grill-100041631440983/">River’s End</a> in rural Ontario. </p>
<p id="as44qE">“In Jewish American food, the two big things are matzo ball soup and bagels – what’s more ubiquitous than the two of those?” posits Zach Engel, chef and owner of Michelin-starred Israeli and Middle Eastern restaurant <a href="https://chicago.eater.com/venue/galit">Galit</a> in Lincoln Park. Even his mother, an unenthusiastic home cook, makes a “pretty killer” version for family holiday meals: “As far as representations of Jewish culture, [matzo ball soup] makes us look pretty good.”</p>
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<figcaption>Best Intentions reopened in 2023 after a three-year hiatus.</figcaption>
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<figcaption>This burrata with white bean anchoïade shows the ambition at this dive bar.</figcaption>
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<p id="khME5N">Matzo ball soup was once on the menu at Galit, but Engel hasn’t served it since the pandemic began as the restaurant has shifted to a four-course menu of shared dishes; soup is difficult to share. Nevertheless, Engel says he’s watched with interest as more restaurants work to attract diners with unexpected food while simultaneously tapping into a feeling of cozy familiarity. “Matzo ball soup is a super straightforward way to get people to feel a level of comfort in their heart, but it’s still interesting,” he says. </p>
<p id="w6rxKf">Though their exact origin is hazy, the proliferation of matzo balls — a simple mixture of matzo meal, beaten eggs, water, and schmaltz, or chicken fat — is generally attributed to German, Austrian, and Alsatian Jews who adapted regional Eastern European soup dumplings to suit Jewish dietary laws. No matter its history, the matzo ball’s simplicity also means that even unenthusiastic home cooks can deliver a version that will please a crowd.</p>
<p id="4AzMqH">The mixture is formed into balls (as usual, there’s debate over the supremacy of fluffy “floaters” or toothsome “sinkers”) and simmered in boiling water or even better, soup stock, until they swell into spongy spheres. Given the relatively small number of American Jews — about 7.6 million, or 2.4 percent of the total U.S. population, and a mere 319,600 in the Chicago area, according to the same Brandeis study — Ashkenazi-style Jewish deli cuisine has made an outsized impact on mainstream American culture in general, from <a href="https://www.foodandwine.com/news/complicated-irish-history-corned-beef">corned beef on St. Patrick’s Day</a> to Meg Ryan’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNEX0fbGePg">infamous faux-gasm</a> in rom-com icon <em>When Harry Met Sally</em>. </p>
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<figcaption>Best Intentions chef Bryan McClaran had never tried matzo ball soup before making it.</figcaption>
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<p id="iEYz2R">As a child, Chris Marty was close to his great-grandmother, Hannah Westler, who fled antisemitism in Europe around the turn of the century and immigrated to Milwaukee, where she worked “14,000 jobs” to put her sons through law school. The brothers grew up eating her matzo ball soup, which she made from a recipe featuring a special twist: vodka. Years later, her boozy invention would inspire them to create a matzo ball cocktail for a local bartending challenge, an exercise that rekindled their connection to their family’s past. </p>
<p id="zyT6zm">Though he’d heard of it before, Best Intentions chef Bryan McClaran, who’s worked at the Cambodian restaurant <a href="https://hermosarestaurant.com/">Hermosa</a> and the Asian-influenced <a href="https://www.bixi.beer/">Bixi Beer</a>, hadn’t actually tried matzo ball soup when his bosses pitched the idea. Research involved YouTube videos, cookbooks, and some <em>New York Times</em> articles from the ’80s, and in the end, the first version he wound up tasting was his own. Together, the brothers and McClaran worked to hone a recipe that would be worthy of the history it represented.</p>
<p id="QuKJIJ">“The big thing for us, other than nailing the consistency of the matzo ball, was not to goy it up with dill,” Chris Marty chuckles. “Anywhere we go with my mom, if there’s matzo ball soup, we’ll order it. She’s always like, ‘Why do the goys have to load it up with so much fucking dill?’” </p>
<h3 id="BJG6WN">“Matzo balls aren’t going anywhere”</h3>
<p id="gY2A4B">It’s a Saturday in March at nearly 18-year-old deli <a href="https://chicago.eater.com/venue/eleven-city-diner">Eleven City Diner</a>, and owner Brad Rubin is holding court from a roomy booth inside his South Loop deli-diner hybrid. Founded in 2006 as an ode to casual midcentury hospitality, the restaurant, which at one point had a Lincoln Park location, has endured long enough to become a pillar of Chicago’s Jewish culinary scene while attracting non-Jews with a retro aesthetic and plentiful plates of food.</p>
<p id="eoMxX2">Rubin bursts with pride as he recounts his family’s Ashkenazi immigrant history and explains the meaning behind each photograph, vinyl record, and painting on its walls. His clear, resonant voice rings out as he bids farewell to customers (he learns all of their names) and jokes with employees. </p>
<p id="jG3wvL">It’s also impossible to ignore that at least a cup, if not a bowl, of matzo ball soup can be found on half the tables. The broth is light but not additive-yellow, with fluffy-yet-firm matzo balls noteworthy for both their ample size and distinctive green flecks of parsley, mostly for color. However one feels about parsley, the diner’s version serves well as a baseline matzo ball soup — uncomplicated, nostalgic, and reminiscent of a bubbe’s concoction with slightly more polish. There are no surprises in Eleven City’s bowl, and in this way, it’s a stark contrast to McClaran’s melange of elegant aromatics and ducky character at Best Intentions. </p>
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<p id="15a1hM">Rubin’s resonant tone, however, drops to a hush as he admits Eleven City hasn’t had kreplach since COVID began. The diners who used to order it have since moved out to the suburbs, he says. Kreplach are small and plump dumplings stuffed with fillings like meat and mashed potatoes — cousins to Polish pierogi, Russian pelmeni, Italian stuffed pasta, and Chinese jiaozi. The difference between matzo balls and kreplach is mostly negligible, but, according to Rubin’s numbers, the gap in sales was significant. “Matzo balls aren’t going anywhere,” Rubin affirms. </p>
<p id="MbsmM7">Indeed, in recent years they’ve also cropped up on the menu at seemingly random spots like Armitage Ale House, Lincoln Park’s British pub from <a href="https://chicago.eater.com/venue/au-cheval">Au Cheval</a> owner Hogsalt Hospitality. In West Town, chef Zoe Schor also served a pepper-laden matzo ball soup at <a href="https://chicago.eater.com/venue/split-rail-5">Split-Rail</a>, which <a href="https://chicago.eater.com/2023/9/26/23891154/chicago-restaurant-closings-fall-2023">she closed in late 2023</a>. Schor isn’t shy about her Jewish American identity but the restaurant, a neighborhood hit known for fried chicken, was never positioned as a particularly Jewish spot. But for Schor, the soup was about something bigger than Split-Rail – its presence marked a broader movement among chefs seeking to connect with their own background. </p>
<p id="PqUs9o">“I feel like in terms of the zeitgeist of becoming classically trained and cooking the food you grew up eating, Ashkenazi Jewish culinary traditions were a little later to hit the trends,” she says. She’s been happy to see the ripple effects manifest in spots like Russ & Daughters, the 110-year-old New York appetizing store that launched a wildly successful cafe in 2014. “I think it’s very cool and important that we continue these traditions and the conversation.”</p>
<p id="CHDhWd">The early 2010s saw a matzo ball revolution of sorts, arguably ushered in by the 2013 <a href="https://ny.eater.com/2013/8/13/6387179/shalom-japan-a-japanese-jewish-american-restaurant">debut of Shalom Japan</a>, a Brooklyn restaurant where chefs Aaron Israel and Sawako Okochi have made a major splash with their <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/10/21/shalom-japan">matzo ball ramen</a>. In Chicago, some had the audacity to suggest <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/2015/04/07/passover-meals-with-a-modern-twist/">adding jalapeno</a>, and in 2020, the short-lived restaurant Rye in West Loop made matzo balls <a href="https://chicago.eater.com/2020/11/12/21562422/rye-jewish-deli-restaurant-crowne-plaza-hotel-west-loop-chicago">with blue corn masa</a>. The dish has come a long way in, at least in the canon of Jewish culinary history, a very short time. But by its very nature, matzo ball soup is relevant not due to its ingredients, but rather, the sensory and emotional experiences it evokes.</p>
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<p id="hASyfo">It’s difficult to pin down why exactly matzo ball soup has risen to such a cross-cultural level of notoriety. But a look back at the soup’s lore in the U.S. may shed some light. Take Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller — <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNqgA-mxF2Y">please</a>. It’s hard to imagine a worse pairing than the legendary Hollywood sex symbol and the Jewish Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who devoted much of his career to shedding light on the American everyman. </p>
<p id="ClEEY5">As the story goes, the couple frequently dined at the home of Miller’s mother, Isadore, who served a lot of matzo ball soup. They ate it so much that at one point, Monroe reportedly quipped, “Isn’t there any other part of the matzo you can eat?”</p>
<p id="qXrXWR">With that, a star was born and the humble, homely matzo ball was catapulted into American pop-culture history. </p>
<p id="DCvJfj">In the wake of the Holocaust, the mid-1950s (the couple married in 1956) was an unusually optimistic era for American Jews, who began to enter the middle class and seek higher education. For the first time, the American public was exposed to stories like Oscar-winning 1947 film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039416/"><em>Gentleman’s Agreement</em></a>, which starred cinematic icon Gregory Peck as a non-Jewish reporter who poses as a Jew to research an exposé on antisemitism. </p>
<p id="9u0Uvv">Despite ongoing institutionalized discrimination at universities and social hubs like country clubs, American Jews at the time saw broader social acceptance than perhaps in any other millennia of Jewish history. And suddenly, that cultural validation reached new heights. Monroe, the blonde bombshell herself, was eating matzo balls too, lending mainstream credibility to a tradition that’s endured in Chicago and across the country well beyond Miller and Monroe’s marriage, which lasted less than five years.</p>
<p class="c-end-para" id="eJoiPJ">Though reluctant to get “too high-minded” about what it means to serve Jewish food in a non-Jewish context, for Chris Marty, it points to a desire to push back on a national political shift toward exclusion. “I think society is pretty shitty right now,” he says. “People are highly intolerant and very insular… The beauty of the bar and restaurant industry — especially in Chicago — is that you have that willingness to just love it if it’s good.” </p>
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