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Local is king
Nearly all ingredients, from the Great Lakes walleye to heirloom tomatoes, and even spirits like Judson & Moore Applewood Smoked Single Malt, come from within the Midwest. “We’re trying to show people that you can make really fantastic things with nearby ingredients, and you don’t have to sacrifice quality to do that,” O’Byrne says. “There’s a mentality that if you want to eat local, it takes more time and effort, and that’s true in a lot of ways, but I want to be a place that shows off and normalizes local products.”
On the food menu, ingredients like black walnuts, chive ash, dandelion greens, and Saskatoon berries take center stage. The plates celebrate peak-season ingredients: think corn riblets dusted with sumac and Calabrian chile ranch for a wildly addictive bar snack, or lake trout with perfectly crispy skin, sugar snap peas, and Saskatoon berry vinaigrette. Even desserts nimbly step outside the box, with foie gras frosting on fluffy ricotta doughnuts.
For raw ingredients like coffee and tea that aren’t grown locally, O’Byrne works closely with local importers like Rare Tea Cellar and local roasters (more on that in a minute).
There’s a new morning pastry and coffee program
While Nettare opened for dinner and cocktails in 2023, the morning cafe service started in March, and new pastry chef Elisabeth Peel is filling the pastry case with fruit financiers, cookies, scones and croissants on weekends.
“The rhubarb berry pop tart has been the winner so far,” O’Byrne says. “We expect that to be somewhat of a staple with a seasonally changing filling.” Peel is also amping up the pantry by making jams and preserves to use during winter months when fresh fruit isn’t available locally. On the savory side, don’t miss the mushroom tart, made with scrap croissant dough and mushrooms from Four Star Mushrooms just up the street.
And when it comes to coffee, it’s excellent. Nettare serves five different coffee roasts from Metric Coffee, Anticonquista Cafe, and Reprise Roasters. They make all of their own syrups from scratch for specialty lattes, including black walnut orgeat and toasted pecan brown butter caramel for a sticky bun latte. “We like regional sweeteners,” O’Byrne says. “We try to minimize cane sugar and rely on sorghum, maple, and honey from the Midwest instead.” If you’re feeling indecisive, try the latte flight, comprising three cortado-sized miniature lattes of your choice.
You won’t find drinks like these anywhere else
O’Byrne is personally most involved with the cocktail program, and you’ll find him behind the bar sometimes, but also floating around the dining room. “Our back bar doesn’t look like anyone else’s,” he says. “If you look at the bottles in most places, they all come from [multinational spirits companies] Diageo and Campari Group, which have a chokehold on the market. When people look at the bottles on our back bar, there’s more things they’ve never seen than ones they have,” he says. In lieu of Campari, for example, he uses Misoo aperitivo, a Northern Italian-style bitter with similar flavors of citrus and red fruit.
To help ease people in, O’Byrne features “something like” drinks, to anchor new products and ingredients with familiar flavors. For example, “something like a Negroni” features Malort, vermouth, and Old Tom gin. “We want to have a familiar drink, and one that will scratch an itch of something you’re used to, while making it feel like Chicago,” O’Byrne says. “I’m happy to break the monotony.” Dirty martini fans should try the giardiniera martini, inspired by a very dirty martini, with fat-washed giardiniera vodka and giardiniera brine.
On the wine front, the local ethos is again front and center. While Nettare does carry some wines from Niagara and the Finger Lakes, the bulk of the list is from Michigan, including sparkling Lambrusco from Mawby Wines and cabernet franc from Black Star Farms, both in Suttons Bay. The response so far has been positive: “We have seen people being very skeptical of Michigan wine, but we can usually convert them,” O’Byrne says.
Amber Gibson is a Chicago-based journalist specializing in travel, food, and wine. Her work has appeared in Departures, Food & Wine, Saveur, Bon Appétit, and Travel + Leisure. Follow her here; follow Resy, too.
