When you lose the will to leave your home for groceries, your life starts feeling like one big, dot-com boom-fueled bubble.
Whither the community? The farmers? The butchers?
You’ll find ‘em all at Local Foods, your new source for the best of Chicago’s artisan food movement — locally grown, organic and delicious — open now in Bucktown.
Why you should care: local foodie evangelists like Beverly Kim (Parachute) and Jason Hammel (Lula Cafe) pass through on the regular.
And if you wanna cook like a chef, you gotta shop like one.
How to do just that, in three parts:
Butcher & Larder
Chicago’s first 100% local butcher. In a bigger space. With more cuts. And a smoker. This is the new Butcher & Larder, and you should pay a visit, pronto. Rob Levitt and his knife-slingers take shipments mid-week. You know the deal: whole animals, broken down on-site. So, for the freshest hog: Wednesday be the day. Ask about the beef jerky. Butchery classes coming soon.
The Market
Small. Manageable. What a grocer should be. The offer: a tight roster of regional farms. Think everything you’d find at your regular grocery store, but better. Plus: all sorts of local dry goods. Baker Miller’s old-fashioned oats? God’s work, and you’ll find ‘em here.
Stock Cafe
At the back of the store, stop by this open-kitchen lunch counter plating up everything from Butcher & Larder sausages to strawberry pretzel pie (menu’s right here). Like if your favorite farmers’ market had a kitchen. It’ll keep you coming back.
If you’ve got the will.
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