laikom wrote:I'm mostly writing this as a service to offer some visual inspiration regarding what stuff they serve other than awesome pastries, which I'm surprised this thread is severely lacking! The daily meals really are as thoughtfully concocted as the pastries.

Any chance you could label the photos so we know what we're looking at?

After hearing about CDP, I've been wanting to go there, but every time it's convenient for me - like it would have been today - it's a Monday or a Tuesday, when they're closed.

I can label a few

laikom wrote:

Ricotta gnocchi with cilantro and parsley broth:

Lentils with beet salad:

Mushroom tart:



Onion confit quiche:

Bread and butter (naturally):

Pains aux raisins:

The quiche and the bread and butter are staples. The others are specials and can change. They post the day's (week's?) menu online ahead of time so you can see what they are serving.

The first without label is a gougeres. The second unlabeled is pork shoulder.

Also the gougeres was the best thing I've had there. It was freaking amazing and beautifully composed. I hope to see it back someday.

Staff Meal
greens, bread, butter, soft boiled egg

Sounds simple but, Dear Sweet Carol Channing's Ghost, it made for a perfect lunch today.

Cellar Door Provisions, count me a fan!

Plan ahead for bread orders. Called at 9AM today (Wednesday) to order bread for tomorrow. First available loaf is not until Sunday and only one loaf at that.

I think of the bread scarcity is likely due to the increased crowds for dining in (based on my visits over the last month, they seem to just be doing more business). They reserve bread to make sure they can feed everyone who comes in first and foremost and sell whole loaves as they can.

Hey, I'd love it if I could drop in and buy a loaf without pre-planning. For that matter, it would be great to stroll in and buy pastries at 2 PM on a weekend. Alas, they are a small shop with limited hours trying to put out a high quality product that takes time.

gastro gnome wrote: Alas, they are a small shop with limited hours trying to put out a high quality product that takes time.

Sure, but at some point, they need to decide what they want to be. They don't have to sell loaves of bread at all, but if they decide to, then they should figure out how to avoid only being able to offer "one loaf next Sunday." Otherwise, they become less of a "small shop with limited hours trying to put out a high quality product that takes time" and more of a "pain in the ass." I do love me some fine, artisan baked goods, but it can be a fine line.
--Rich

Fair point.

Cellar Door has discontinued sale of loaves of bread. Said the demand was too great.

Marija wrote:Cellar Door has discontinued sale of loaves of bread. Said the demand was too great.

LOL! Reminds me of the quote from Yogi Berra: "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."

nsxtasy wrote:After hearing about CDP, I've been wanting to go there, but every time it's convenient for me - like it would have been today - it's a Monday or a Tuesday, when they're closed.

I made a special trip to CDP one day last week, to try their pastries. I got there around 8:20 a.m. (they open at 8 ) and they only had two items, the caneles and some type of scone. Two is only about a third as many bakery/pastry items as Bad Wolf has, and I always warn people that the selection there (Bad Wolf) is small. Is such a small selection typical of CDP? Is it not quite as skimpy later in the day? I was really disappointed. Maybe it works better if you're going there for a sit-down meal, not so good if you're just looking for a variety of pastries...?

I have never been there during the week, so I do not know what is typical.

On the weekends, they usually have at least 4 or 5 pastry selections when I get there in the 9:30-10:30 range. Often they'll have more. I've never been there as early as you were.

I too have only been on weekends; been a few times - I think all late morning. There has been at least half a dozen different pastries to choose from. Have LOVED all the pastries I have tried there as well as the bread, the savories (had lunch one visit) and enjoyed the coffee as well. It definitely is a small operation and everything is made fresh and in limited supply, so depending when you arrive it is certainly possible there will be slim pickings on a given visit. Not sure if this is more likely on a weekday, but would hazard a guess that they make less items on weekdays as they likely have less visitors. Well worth a visit if in the area, but because it is unpredictable how much and what they will have at any give time perhaps not the best venue to make a special trip to from another neighborhood.

nsxtasy wrote:

nsxtasy wrote:After hearing about CDP, I've been wanting to go there, but every time it's convenient for me - like it would have been today - it's a Monday or a Tuesday, when they're closed. :cry:

I made a special trip to CDP one day last week, to try their pastries. I got there around 8:20 a.m. (they open at 8 ) and they only had two items, the caneles and some type of scone. Two is only about a third as many bakery/pastry items as Bad Wolf has, and I always warn people that the selection there (Bad Wolf) is small. Is such a small selection typical of CDP? Is it not quite as skimpy later in the day? I was really disappointed. Maybe it works better if you're going there for a sit-down meal, not so good if you're just looking for a variety of pastries...?

i always go during the week, between 11 and 1 and there are usually 4-5 pastries. i'm sure at 8:20 they still had some pastries in the oven...

That quiche.....wow. Ridiculously good.

They've been on quite a roll lately. The bread is as good as ever and the last couple times I've been in, the croissants and chocolate croissants have been divine. I'm not sure what to expect, but the Cellar Door gang is doing a farm dinner out at Mint Creek Farms in September.

Tambreet wrote:chocolate croissants have been divine

I can attest first hand to this. Maybe the most perfect chocolate croissant I;ve ever had

Getting every component of this dish in one bite this morning has and will continue to make my week.

White Bean Brioche
egg, pork jowl, heirloom tomato, romaine, chili oil

Cellar Door was offering up huitlacoche and creme fraiche dumplings with dashi, coriander, buttermilk and mache today. HOLY SH** . . . phenomenal. And I appreciated the delicate approach they took with all of these flavors where a heavy hand of any one of the bunch could have ruined the dish.

Pastries were stellar as usual - a cinnamon sugar brioche, croissant, cannele (better than ever), chocolate babka and rugelach (can't remember the exact type, but very unique flavors) . . . there were a few more offered that I can't recall at the moment. And of course, their wonderful bread and butter. I'm glad CD is far enough from my home that I don't go there too often, but close enough that I can visit when I need to (and I often need too).

We had these two dishes today, and were blown away. As always, a perfect balance of flavors and textures with the highest quality ingredients. Their menu changes weekly, so get in there by Sunday.

"HEN OF THE WOODS STEW
green chili broth, celery leaf pistou, shelly beans, shaved root vegetables, soft boiled egg, cili oil"

"CURED WALLEYE
roasted beets, seared bread, marinated onions, kale, whipped creme fraiche"

I stopped in at this great place to carry out a few goodies on a Saturday morning. The north side of Diversey is all torn up for sewer repairs, which is not helpful to these folks.
But the service was friendly and the baked goods were stellar. I had a strawberry scone with some nice complexity, my kid (a sourdough connoisseur) gave the bread and butter a thumbs-up, and the wife enjoyed her canele. One of the staff was folding up some kouign amann dough for final proofing, and he looked as if he knew what he was doing. Only disappointment was that they do not sell loaves of bread anymore, just slices.
This place sets the bar quite high for artisan baking. I am increasingly envious of those who live in the Logan Square area for all the stellar establishments that are just blocks apart.

In the interest of full disclosure, my daughter works at Cellar Door Provisions.

Now that I've got that out of the way, I'm kind of surprised that no one has mentioned that Cellar Door is now open for dinner on Friday and Saturday and accepts reservations from 5:30 until 9:00. Here's a link to a recent article on the Zagat site about why this is a big deal.

https://www.zagat.com/b/chicago/6-reaso ... a-big-deal

I was lucky enough to be invited to a friends and family soft opening dinner. The menu consisted of the following courses:

Small snacks - fermented beets, fermented carrots, brined mushrooms, whipped farmers cheese and two types of bread.

Smoked trout roulade over smashed potato with woodear mushrooms, sprouted lentils and ponzu.

Turnip veloute with umeboshi plum, sweet and sour onion, turnip, whipped pork fat and pickled seaweed.

Dumpling (turkey heart) in broth with seven spice.

Green peppercorn ice cream sandwich in fig shortbread with chamomile, honeycomb and bay leaf sabayon.

To sum up the dinner, I would say that it represented all of the best of the care and thoughtful preparation that goes into everything made at CDP. Per the web site, the cost of dinner is $38-48, depending on the menu. The restaurant is currently BYOB.

Cellar Door Provisions dinners - count me a fan.

deesher wrote:. . . I'm kind of surprised that no one has mentioned that Cellar Door is now open for dinner on Friday and Saturday and accepts reservations from 5:30 until 9:00.

Thanks for the heads up. I knew this was imminent but didn't know it was live. Very cool!

=R=

Dinner this weekend at CDP was amazing. All 4 in our group were quite happy to see stellar house-baked breads showcased up front (accompanied by goat butter, whipped cheese, house pickles, etc.) but as the meal progressed, the bag of tricks did not run dry. The rest of the meal delivered delicious and thoughtful compositions that were immensely satisfying. Here's a recap of the menu (may not be entirely accurate) . . .

Snacks | fermented beets and carrots, brined mushrooms, whipped farmer's cheese, bread and butter
Brown Rice Onigiri | kale furikake, roasted carrot and sunflower tahini, cilantro broth
Steamed Black Lentil Dumplings | black garlic broth, pioppino mushrooms
Tempura Pork Jowl | confit black trumpet, pickled turnip, koji, sesame
Amazake Cake | shaved noyu sorbet, granola, chilled plum soup

Service was welcoming, friendly, helpful and professional. BYO is an added perk. In a word, this meal was special. I felt like it was the kind of a meal you'd typically have to get on a plane to experience. It was like being in Paris . . . but just blocks from home. As if breakfast and lunch at CDP aren't already excellent enough, I can't wait to have dinner there again, either.

=R=

I don't usually pay attention to things like this, but I think Cellar Door kills it when they say the following:

more labor + more flavor + less money = more love

Pretty much sums up the entire CDP experience start to finish.

I absolutely LOVE being just blocks from CDP. What a treat! Today, while working from home, we decided to walk over and grab breakfast/lunch. Here are a few highlights . . .


Toast | fennel & coriander, buttered


Ramp Polenta | pickled ramps, egg


Cured Trout | soft-boiled egg, radishes, greens, little flowers, etc.

One of my favorite parts about going to CDP is not knowing exactly what's going to be on the menu. You know there'll be a quiche (always great) and a daily bread (always great) but beyond that, it could be any one of a number of items. Today, they also had agnolotti (stinging nettle, iirc) and a flatbread. It's a super chill environment where everyone's really friendly and the food is consistently creative, inspired and delicious.

=R=

In addition to occasional lunches, I've continued to make a point of having dinner at CDP once a month. It remains a consistently great experience but this past Saturday's dinner really spoke to me. It's embraced the season's bounty nicely, in both flora and fauna . . .

Snacks | country bread, assortment of house-made accoutrements (pickled green strawberries, pickled beet stems, radishes in buttermilk ranch), compound butter and sambal
Cauliflower Salad | greens, sunflower seeds, garbanzo beans, fresh red chili rings
Salmon | sunchoke flower, squash, shiso leaf
Celery Root Agnolotti | black trumpets, chamomile
Quail & Rice ($20 supplement) | steamed quail, chicken fat rice
Frozen Yogurt | peaches, herb and amaretti

We were also bonused a very tasty panna cotta with ground cherries and roasted nuts (iirc, they were black walnuts) to share.

At $45/pp base-price and being byo, this is such a great value, especially considering the extraordinary quality of the food. We were a 4-top and added 2 of the stellar Quail supplements, which was just the right amount of food. The broth in which it was served was deeply flavorful, as was the Chicken Fat Rice that accompanied it. As full as I was, I kind of wish I'd ordered my own!

In any case, they've added a few tables and expanded the dinner hours slightly, so it's never been easier to have dinner at CDP. I think this is still somewhat of an unintentionally-kept secret but word is bound to get out eventually.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:Frozen Yogurt | peaches, herb and amaretti

Reunited!

nsxtasy wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:Frozen Yogurt | peaches, herb and amaretti

Reunited!

Hehe - should have seen that one coming!

=R=