If you love food grown and cooked in the Midwest but maybe not the whole making-or-baking-it part, this café inside Local Foods, Bucktown’s sprawling public market, is for you.
You’ll find just a few staples on Stock’s constantly changing menu, many featuring the responsibly sourced meats of fellow Local Foods tenant Butcher & Larder. Colossal crescent-shaped pasties ($9) teem with hearty fillers, such as fall-apart short ribs and tangy, funky kimchi or carrots, ricotta, and chard. A snappy hot dog ($5) comes with mustard, pickle, house celery salt, and—yes—ketchup, which seems a little less illicit when you learn it’s made from local (duh) beets. And thankfully, golden beef-fat fries ($4) never go out of season.
But don’t get attached to much else—whether it’s the short-lived ribbons of rainbow chard tossed with olive-oil-fried breadcrumbs ($5) or the smoked brisket with tomatillo salsa and polenta ($12). Even desserts, such as a chewy snickerdoodle cookie ($3) or a slice of tangy buttermilk pie ($5), don’t stay in the mix very long. So do as a farmer would: Eat up, be grateful, and move on to the next harvest. 1427 W. Willow St., 312-432-6575