Almost exactly a year ago, 3 of these 4 friends (3/4 of the friends, if you’re a fraction person) were actually together in Chicago for a few days–and Mabel actually wrote up an itinerary that we stuck to, to make sure that we got everything out of this city that we possibly could. It’s a little different this time around because 1) we’ve been blessed with the addition of Maya and 2) our schedule is pretty full of interviews and dinner reservations, but we’re still packing in as much as we possibly can–and we’re going to drop some of our experiences, pictures included, here for you. It’s kind of like when old people in movies come back from a trip and make their grandkids sit through a projected slide show of pictures of grandpa’s thumb.
Maybe you saw on our Instagram @clearingthetable, but one of our first happened-upon places turned out to be unbelievably cool. Out in Bronzeville, part of a complex of buildings all falling under the organization Little Black Pearl, sits a spacious, art-filled cafe called Carver 47. It’s name, of course, comes from the “late great” Dr. George Washington Carver–and the space (as well as the whole of Little Black Pearl) is just as commendable as the humanitarian himself! The Founder/Executive Director of the organization, Monica Haslip, seeks to provide a safe environment for urban youth to grow & develop their skills–largely through art–and has been doing so for something like 20 years. Carver 47 itself is actually described as a “social lab experiment” because of its devotion to community-events like art showcases, open mics, pop-up shops, and more. I know my description kind of seems all over the place, but it’s hard to get across just how much Ms. Haslip, LBP, and Carver 47 are doing for the community and especially its youth. You should really read more on their website, linked above. I’ll stick to what I do best–describing what we put in our mouths. I got an oat milk chai latte, which I repeatedly told everyone else was probably the best warm drink I’d ever had in my life. Yes, on a basic level, it was a chai latte made with oat milk, but the chai tasted like real spices had been used to make it (rather than that premixed stuff), and the oat milk gave the whole drink this insanely creamy/tasty… taste. It was foamed to perfection, and I wanted a million more. Mabel and Maya both ordered a hot cider, and the evidence that IRL spices had been used was in the deep, rich flavor–and the star anise floating on top. I’ll admit that I had to look up what that star-shaped spice was called. Brynne got a tea, which is a little boring, but she liked it anyway.
Another feature of both our Instagram and our trip was Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream, a
cute lil place that actually started in Ohio at the (probably cold) hands of Jeni Britton Bauer in 2002. The ice cream flavors are very ~natural~ sounding and that much more delicious. I got pistachio & honey, and as a pistachio ice cream connoisseur, I can tell you that it was the most pistachio I’ve ever pistachioed (tasted). Mabel got a goat cheese & cherry flavor that somehow made goat cheese better by making it cold, and Maya and Brynne both got sweet potato with toasted marshmallows. When they were tasting it, the ice cream scooper told them that Jeni’s has sweet potatoes grown specifically for their ice cream. We’re not interviewing Jeni unfortunately, but from what I’ve read, they’re all about using local ingredients and knowing the people from whom they source.
We also took some advice from this kind of old episode of the podcast Another Round and went outside! I mean, kind of. We went to the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, which is indoors (it’s cold outside, come on) but has a lot to offer in terms of animals (stuffed) and insects (real, flying all around you, AHH!). We spent kind of a really long time in this exhibit about how exercise can be fun, and even though I was like “save it for middle school gym class, Peggy!” we all had such a good time. Highlights include this thing that swung a jump rope for you to jump in and a bee-game where you had to collect nectar by peddling.
Mabel, Maya, & Brynne felt like they needed even more nature, so while I sipped a green tea elsewhere in the city, the ladies visited the Garfield Park Conservatory. There are actually a lot of women on staff at the Conservatory, but unfortunately this is a project about food and not plants. Wait omg plants are food!! We’ll get back to you after our interview with the directors of staff. For now, I’ll give you Brynne’s impression in her own words–the Conservatory was “Very beautiful!! So many ferns!! Lots of hip people there to take Instagram pictures, and a good place to do it bc it was so beautiful.” Mabel also chimed in to say “Cacti! So many different kinds of plants! Truly wild and cool and interesting neighborhood that it’s in!”
We’ve also visited 2 women-owned bookstores because we luv 2 read–the first of which was Women & Children First, which you might know as the feminist bookstore spoofed in Portlandia (PS: if you’re a Toni and Candace fanatic or just interested in feminist discourse, make sure to read this blog post written by the bookstore that Portlandia filmed these sketches in–it talks about the sketch in terms of transphobia & gentrification). The store’s been around since ’79, and was co-founded by Ann Christophersen and Linda Bubon, who in 2014 sold the bookstore to two of their staffers, Lynn Mooney and Sarah Hollenbeck. It’s full of great reads and has a great LGBTQ+ section and also great pins/patches/mugs. The second bookstore we scampered into before dinner one night–it’s called Myopic, and it’s basically a tree house full of reads. We left with books by Toni Morrison, Phoebe Robinson, and the scent of old tree in our noses.
If it sounds like we’re up to a lot in addition to our structured fellowship time, then good,
we feel like that, too. And I haven’t even mentioned our Mabel-family-time! Mabel’s dad & stepmom are for some reason letting us stay in their home during this part of our trip, and they’re always here to ask about our full, full bellies when we get home at night. They also welcomed Brynne, Maya, and myself into the menorah-lighting-business during this Hanukkah season. Oh, and speaking of Hanukkah–we want to shout out Mabel’s mom for cooking us delicious latkes and making her own applesauce to go along with them! Truly a woman chef! In other familial woman chef news, Mabel’s step-grandparents took our tums for a wild ride last night with a Pasta alla Norma that was practically straight out of Italy. Mabel’s grandma really rocked it in the kitchen. Here we all are really excited to eat: 
So you know there are more restaurant/cafe/brewery posts to come, but this is all we have for you now. Just know, if you’re ever in Chi-Town looking to support women-owned businesses, we can help. We even know where to find candles that melt into body balm (Mojo Spa in Wicker Park!).
—Lynn
Clearing the Table 