Cellar Door Provisions
Kouign Amann
Ricotta Peach Muffin
Canele
Located in Logan Square, with a wall mounted menu that is rewritten daily, Cellar Door Provisions can best be described as a labor of love; a collaboration of three friends who’ve honed their skills in kitchens near and far focused on making great food “worth gathering around.” Locally sourced and open five-days a week for breakfast and lunch it was just after the small store’s 8:00am opening that our party of three arrived and with items still emerging slowly from the ovens our sampling was somewhat limited, the friendly servers quickly procuring a pair of each warm item and delivering them tableside as a light soundtrack played overhead. Clearly attuned to recent trends in regional French pastry with the oft-praised croissants still thirty minutes from ready it was instead in the creamy canele beneath a golden-brown shell that our tasting began and although a bit sweeter than I’ve come to expect the texture was spot-on, a similar bit of praise befitting a Kouign Amann whose still-molten core of butter ran down my wrist as laminated layers shattered and showered the table. Appropriately impressed though slightly short of ‘wowed’ to this point it was last-but-certainly-not-least that we turned to the cheesecake textured muffin and featuring a deft balance of juicy ripe peaches juxtaposing pockets of creamy ricotta each bite provided a beautiful balance of sweet and savory, a touch of streusel topping tilting the balance ever so slightly towards the former and placing it amongst the best muffins I’ve experienced in recent memory.
RECOMMENDED: Kouign Amann and Ricotta Peach Muffin
AVOID: Better Canale can be found at Bad Wolf Coffee, though those desiring something more sugary may appreciated what Cellar Door Provisions has to offer.
TIP: Items are baked throughout the day, but not all items are available when the restaurant opens its doors. Sometimes baking croissants first, other times preparing them only after other items are readied I was told by the clerk that 9:15-9:30am is generally the best arrival time to assure most selections are ready…and not yet sold out.
http://www.cellardoorprovisions.com/
