photo: Blue Door café
On a stretch that once was home to Charlie Trotter’s (but lately has gone the way of Glazed and Infused and Butcher & the Burger), here comes a new café and market called Blue Door Farm Stand (843 W. Armitage Ave., 773-935-2583). Scheduled to open near the Armitage Brown Line stop, in October, it should arrive just in time to catch the tail end of the harvest.
It's named after one of its suppliers, Blue Door Farm in Indiana (which was at one time Oprah’s property). The café will serve panini, wraps, sandwiches on ciabatta and focaccia, a charcuterie board, a cheese board, and salads. Cold-pressed juice and Intelligentsia coffee are available for early sippers, and wines—focusing on sustainable vineyards—and Midwestern craft beers are on tap for the later crowd.
The market will sell local, artisanal items such as granolas, pickles, and preserves, as well as gifts such as cookbooks, linens, and ceramics.
Customers order food at the counter and servers deliver it to tables. We’d call that fast-casual, but the general manager, Olivia Zaski, says they call it elevated counter service. Careful not to use a hyphen in “elevated counter.” The counter is regular height.