In 2020, restaurant pros got creative to overcome COVID-19 restrictions
“We’re an industry that’s just been decimated, and through no fault of our own,” said Matt Peota, executive chef and partner, Passero and Chuck’s Dockside in Arlington Heights.
Food pros everywhere throughout the Chicago suburbs have pivoted on dimes, transforming business plans, producing Emmy-worthy virtual cooking demonstrations, designing meal kits and specially packaged takeout meals with tailored themes and more.
At the same time, many have demonstrated hearts as big as food halls — laboriously preparing and delivering meal after meal to front line medical workers and to people in need in these uncertain months. From small surprises of freshly baked cookies in to-go bags to hotlines for home cooks, here’s how some of the most inspiring food pros in the Chicago suburbs are countering COVID-19 obstacles.
Noticing more and more people cooking at home, many for the first time, James Beard Award winning Executive Chef Sarah Stegner set up a hotline in April to personally respond to cooking questions.
“Our goal is to help you plan a nutritious, balanced meal with what you have at home and make it possible for you to be comfortable cooking for you and your family,” Stegner said. The hotline number is 847-920-8437.
Early on, she and staff introduced a hospital grade air filtration system by Steril-Aire in the restaurant’s heating and air conditioning units.
That is important in a busy place like the kitchen at Prairie Grass Café, where from March to August staff prepared about 100 meals each week for front line staff at several hospitals. They continue to provide heartwarming meals to front line staff at Swedish Covenant Hospital in Chicago. All along, working with local food producers remains a top priority.
“It makes me feel good to know that we are working with local foods through this,” Stegner said. “Keeping the attention on the farmers has been an ongoing approach since March.”
Prairie Grass Café provides curbside pickup for menu items and also for new specially themed meal kits. Whole families participate in virtual classes with Sarah as she guides them through how to put together pizzas and more at home.
Stegner and Prairie Grass Café co-founder George Bumbaris are kicking off a 2021 Wellness Initiative in partnership with Elizabeth Kennedy of Life Coaching and Tania Hughes Wellness. Prairie Grass Café will begin a two-week program in a virtual Zoom experience featuring Elizabeth, Tania and Sarah at 6 p.m. Jan. 3, 2021, and Jan. 10, 2021.
“The pandemic has clearly highlighted the importance of eating healthfully,” Stegner said. “People are seeking out restaurants that offer menu items that are not only delicious, but also sustaining and nutritious. Next year and beyond, consumers are more likely to see menu items centered around such ingredients as beans, whole grains, green leafy vegetables, sweet potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, locally raised meats and sustainable seafood.”
Ready-to-eat Wellness Initiative meals will feature inventive items like a Roasted Sweet Potato Entree, Cauliflower-Quinoa-Black Bean Patty, Citrus Salads and more. Wellness meals will be available for pickup between 4 and 7 p.m. Jan. 4-8. The menu for the second week will be posted on the website on Jan. 3.
Stegner has been teaming up with other chefs on projects. In November, Stegner and Carrie Nahabedian of Brindille in Chicago hosted a collaboration Zoom dinner. Participants picked up meals curbside from Prairie Grass Café and participated in a virtual dinner together with Stegner and Nahabedian and others.
Stegner is working with Beverly Kim,cq owner of Michelin-starred Parachute restaurant in Chicago, in The Abundance Setting to help support working moms in the culinary industry. With Chef Gale Gand,cq Stegner is collaborating on desserts for Prairie Grass Café and on a holiday cookie collaboration. Selections include Stegner’s Swedish Ginger Cookies and Snowball Cookies; and Gand’s Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies and Candied Fruit Shortbread Cookies.
To register for the 2021 Wellness Initiative or for meals or holiday cookies, call 847-205-4433.cq
Along with her work with Prairie Grass Café. James Beard award-winning chef Gale Gand is teaching virtual Elawa Farm cooking and Kitchen Sisters Cooking School classes (
“Cooking for others has helped me stay sane,” Gand said. “Altruism promotes mental health. So, I get on my bike, and drop packaged up food at my neighbors’. I also text them when I’m going to the grocery store and offer to pick up for them. If I can keep one more person home, that’s helping.”
In the early months of COVID-19, she introduced a flock of backyard chickens that are helping with the growing demand for eggs for her cooking classes. There is Sammie the Partridge Rock; daughter Ella’s Australorp Pluto; daughter Ruby’s Wyandotte Mrs. Weasley, and more.
“They provide eggs and companionship and they get me outside,” Gand said. “They are super low-maintenance, eat some of our food scraps, and race to me when I go out to their run. Who doesn’t love a flock of chickens running toward them chirping?”
In her own personal time Gand is also active with
“During quarantine you don’t have to be or do everything, you just have to be and do enough. Staying home doesn’t seem like ‘doing something’ but it is … it’s saving lives. Set small goals, practice self-care, connect virtually with at least one person a day, read a book; and clean out your drawers! This time at home can be a gift, so unwrap it and enjoy!” Gand said.
Gand is also working on a forthcoming book, which is another healthy activity.
“In times like these,” she says, “it heals, comforts, connects, gives purpose, keeps your mind active.”
Early on, Passero Executive Chef and Partner Matt Peotacq set up a GoFundMe account for members of his staff who were displaced by the pandemic and also to contribute meals to front line staff at nearby Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights. Staff delivered ready-to-eat meals of foods like pizza and salad and fried chicken and mashed potatoes with freshly baked cookies or Passero’s popular Peanut Butter Pie or other desserts.
Peota and staff also developed a whole line of to-go craft cocktail kits. A mix of blackberry tequila and ginger beer and a Maple Old Fashioned are the most frequently ordered kits, which are packaged and ready to easily pickup to make at home.
Peota introduced Seafood Nights on Friday nights, and the theme became so popular that Seafood Night has morphed into a whole new “ghost kitchen”-style restaurant: Chuck’s Dockside. It’s named for Peota’s daughter, Charlie. Chuck’s Dockside will offer pickup lobster rolls, fish fries, coconut shrimp and more seafood items every day from Passero.
Peota encourages everyone to keep doing what they can and stay positive. “Do your part. Stick to the guidance that we are receiving,” Peota said. “We have to believe that this will end. We’re almost there.”
Last month in his Chicago Tribune column, Phil Vettel put the Sweet Thai Chili and the Buffalo wings at Palmer Place Restaurant & Biergarten in La Grange at the top of his shortlist of best wings in the Chicago area.
“Any time Phil mentions you, you can’t go wrong,” said co-owner Steve Palmer. In a year of wrongs, it was nice for them to experience something so right.
There are also positive outcomes in their approaches since the COVID-19 pandemic began. They have been partnering with local businesses to help provide food for those in need through the Beds Plus program. The nonprofit coordinates distribution of food to emergency shelters that have set up in two motels. Palmer Place staff hand-delivers 65 meals every Saturday. Palmer said the $650 every week that is spent on the meals is money well spent.
“We are continuing in this mission to give back to the community. We weren’t sure if we were going to be able to stay open, but people were helping us at our lowest time. This is a great way for the community to be involved.”
In November, Fornaro Law in La Grange matched up to $500 for every dollar donated by customers. Palmer Place will partner with Smothers Realty Group in December and Ferguson Hill Wealth Management in Hinsdale in January 2021.
A heated tent and curbside food pickup has been helpful. There are also new to-go cocktails, Palmer said. Manhattans and margaritas have been among the most popular.
Palmer said he and staff greatly appreciate everyone’s patience and positivity, and he encourages everyone to stay positive. He said that recently a customer made the staff’s day by saying something nice and putting it online.
“Positive vibes matter,” Palmer said. “Stay positive. Be positive. Say positive things about people. Being negative and saying negative things helps no one. It just takes one kind person to make someone’s day.”
It’s a good thing that jambalaya and gumbo travel well. With COVID-19, suddenly a beloved 16-year-old restaurant went from about 15% in takeout orders to 100% overnight. There were days when the parking lot was full of cars waiting, with hatchbacks up and ready to load. Manager and owner Jim Lederer delights in surprising people with a homemade chocolate chip or oatmeal cookie in the to-go bag.
“There’s nothing like a freshly baked warm cookie,” he said.
Cookies come with a smiley face on a note that says “thanks for thinking about Bluegrass.”
It’s just one of many ways Lederer has weathered through COVID-19.
“Nothing is the same as it was at the beginning of March 2020,” Lederer said. “Aspirations, perceptions, executions and expectations are at a point today that nobody could have expected. January and February were record-setting highs for Bluegrass. We were just coming off of Mardi Gras, rolling into Lake County Restaurant week, getting ready for St. Patrick’s Day and then, POOF.”
Even still, the staff has persisted. There was a lobster boil and other special events; they even smoked an alligator. The Bluegrass team’s passion for hospitality has helped.
“That hasn’t changed a bit,” Lederer said. “As our staff works as a team, we are now working better than ever as a team. We have maintained our business by monitoring our guests; thanking them when they pickup; calling them back later in the evening and thanking them for their support. We also check on the quality and accuracy of the food ordered. We have tightened our tolerances. The relationships are what will carry us into the next year.”
He’ll continue to drum up new ideas, too. He’s already planning into late winter.
“I’m trying to figure out how to put Mardi Gras in a bag,” he said.
This was the first year ever for carryout orders at Oceanique. A popular packaged meal is Duck Confit topped with a sunny-side-up egg and nestled in spaetzle, tender baby spinach, cremini mushrooms, carrots and more. Another favorite to-go meal now is Organic Scottish Salmon with Spinach, Butternut Squash, Elote and Lemongrass. Owner and executive chef Mark Grosz and staff members have found ways to put their glamorous menu items into boxes and now, and they are also planning meal kits that will be released soon. The kits will feature prime filet mignon, wild black bass, Scottish salmon and more that people can cook easily at home.
“Not being able to open inside now is tough, but we must be safe,” Grosz said. “We have been fortunate with a few loans and grants this year to help keep our bank balance and spirits afloat. We’re just taking it a day at a time and being patient.”
Joe Fontana has been providing Nashville hot chicken in Chicago and the suburbs with his popular Fry The Coop restaurants, and COVID-19 has not delayed his plans to expand. A new 3,200-square-foot store opened this month in Prospect Heights at 580 N. Milwaukee Ave. In January, Fontana will debut a 2,800-square-foot store in Tinley Park at 16703 S. Harlem Ave.
“Opening a new restaurant in 2020 is challenging because you are limited to carryout or to-go options only at this point,” Fontana said. “A huge part of opening a new place is meeting guests face-to-face; touching tables and explaining your purpose and vision. It’s unfortunate to miss an opportunity for genuine in-person interaction.”
But that hasn’t slowed down his business plan, and he took major steps to help people stay safe at all of his restaurants.
Fontana and his team also found time to help others. From March to June, they provided over 1,200 meals to hospitals, police and fire stations. Recently, they started an “Eat and Earn” initiative for the Oak Lawn Hometown School District 123. They wanted to support the school district’s Parent Teacher Association, which lost revenue due to COVID-19. They started out planning to donating 50% of orders to the program, but ended up providing 100% of proceeds.
Fontana encourages everyone to stay strong and move forward toward their dreams and goals as well.
“Keep pushing and keep growing,” he said. “Some of the biggest companies we know started in a recession or downturn. Attitude is everything.”
NaKorn co-founders Mina Sudsaard and Sam Rattanopas have been best friends since they were little girls. Now, they are facing some of the greatest challenges of their lives together.
“We have been hanging by a thin thread during these months,” Rattanopas said. She and Sudsaard set up a GoFund Me account in March so they could raise money to feed front-line staff, seniors, homeless people in the community and others in need. Donations “poured in,” Rattanopas said. They were able to keep their staff members employed. But after the first three or four months, donations slowed.
“We would love to be able to continue cooking for more people in need,” Rattanopas said. “The financial situation we are facing right now is catastrophic. I truly don’t know that we can generate enough revenue to be sustainable, but we are trying our best to stay afloat.”
They have prolonged outdoor service in the colder weather with heated enclosed outdoor spaces called “bubbles.” They have also increased takeout and delivery and meal kits that feature pre-portioned (and sometimes partially-prepared) food ingredients and easy-to-follow instruction cards.
On Dec. 4, they partnered with Downtown Evanston to screen “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” in a Drive-In Movie Night at the Autobarn in Evanston to benefit the Rotary Club of Evanston and the Rotary Club of Evanston Lighthouse. Participants could order dinner from NaKorn to enjoy during the movie in the safety of their individual vehicles.
This month, they released the new Holiday Tea Box and NaKorn Holiday Snack Box during the week of Dec. 14. “Preorders came in advance, so we are hopeful,” Rattanopas said.
Veronica Hinke is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
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