Naperville resident Meg Pirela and her two children were among the first to arrive at Solemn Oath Friday, lured to the Naperville brewery by a chance to sample the fare of Chicago gourmet chef Stephanie Izard.
“What I like most about Steph’s food is the passion she has — it makes you want to try it,” Pirella said of Izard, who came to prominence as the 2008 “Top Chef” winner and is the recipient of other accolades, including an “Iron Chef” title and the James Beard Foundation Award for “Best Chef: Great Lakes.”
Izard, whose four Chicago restaurants include Girl and the Goat and Cabra Cevicheria, was in Naperville at the invitation of Solemn Oath owner John Barley.
She was there to sell her pre-packaged meal kits, which contain all the ingredients needed to make her recipes at home. But she and her team also made several items on kitchen equipment set up in Solemn Oath’s beer garden, including fish tacos, grilled Korean chicken wings and avocado dip and masa chips.
The menu was paired with two newly released Solemn Oath beers Barley made in partnership with Hopewell Brewing in Chicago and Pollyanna Brewing in Lemont. The former is named What We Will, a cherry Saison, and the latter is Full Moon Looks, a West Coast IPA.
Barley said his longstanding relationship with Izard and her Boka Restaurant Group partners helped make the appearance happen.
“We’ve been close to the Boka and Goat crew and have become friends and worked on various projects together,” Barley said. “This is a new world we’re in and our site has been used as a drop point for (Izard’s Goat-cery Store) pickup. The (meal) kits contain an amazing quality of food and instructions on how to prepare it.”
Izard, 43, a Chicago native who now lives near the city’s West Loop area, said finding ways to keep things going in these COVID-19 days “has required a lot of pivoting.” The meal kits and groceries, which can be picked up or delivered, grew out of the down period between March and June while restaurants were closed to inside dining, she said.
She’s also started offering more outdoor dining events and has pared back menus, she said, as they continue to experiment with what will work in the pandemic.
“We have been coming out here (to Naperville) with our Goat-ceries every couple of weeks, and when we were looking to expand into the suburbs, Naperville and Solemn Oath were a good fit,” she said. “We like the parking area here and know having an event like this outdoors makes people feel more comfortable.”
Izard’s love of cooking goes back to her youth, and in hindsight it’s not hard to see how she got to where she is today, she said.
“I cooked with my mom all the time when I was young and would garnish the snacks I made for school,” she said. “I would up going to culinary school in Arizona and sort of found my people there.”
Among her fans are Yoshie and Steve Whan, of Carol Stream, who said having a chance to pair two new beers with food from one of their favorite chefs was something they couldn’t pass up.
“I like this brewery and also the (Izard’s) Little Goat restaurant as it’s more casual,” Yoshie Whan said. “The chef makes food from a lot of different places and I love her Japanese pancakes.”
“If Steph (Izard) was a rock band, we’d be … food groupies,” Steve Whan said. “I’m a chef myself — I used to work at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare — and usually when I go out to eat, I know what I’m getting into. As a chef, I know what it’s like and I get to know people and their integrity. I’m far more serious about the service.”
Angela Cantrell, of Aurora, was accompanied by her 19-year-old daughter, Jessica. She’s dined at (Izard’s) Girl & the Goat and Little Goat restaurants, she said.
“I used to go to Chicago and the West Loop all the time before this (the pandemic happened) and when I found out about this event on Facebook, I wanted to come,” Cantrell said.
“I think the pre-packaging of meals and coming out to do events like this is something innovative and a way for people to keep their name out there. You want to continue to support your favorite businesses,” she said.
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
