From prison pizza to salmon tartine

Don't miss Morgan Street Snacks, last in the MNF summer series. [View this email in your browser]( [READER Logo]( [Food & Drink]( | September 13, 2024 Ryan Cofrancesco was finishing a six-month bid for possession at the Vienna Correctional Facility when he started making pizza. He’d never been in trouble before, but the longtime restaurant worker had a drug problem and got busted with two dime bags of heroin. After two “terrible” months at Stateville, he was sent to a 120-bed dorm unit at the minimum security Vienna.  What Cofrancesco did have was enough cooking chops to transform the limited prison commissary selection into the edible—and edifying. “I tried to show people how to take crackers and sort of make a dough. We just had a little bit of cheese; maybe we knew some people in the kitchen, and they'd bring us back some ketchup. We’d fancy that up a little bit for our tomato sauce and then use summer sausage on it. They had these radiators there, and we’d use that as our oven.”  “Even though I was in the most horrible situation, I noticed how food and cooking bridged the gap through race and any other thing that would otherwise divide a group of people. When I would make food, I would include other people to help source the ingredients, or help clean and prep, and when it was time to eat, it didn’t matter what group different people belonged to. We could just forget about all that for a moment and free our minds through our taste buds together. That’s what I remember most about that part of my life.”  After his release, Cofrancesco turned himself around. He found direction training up Whole Foods workers to run its prepared foods kitchens, went to culinary school, and flipped a dishwashing gig at Kimski to managing [Marz’s Community Kitchen]( during the pandemic.  Today he’s a sous chef at Kimski, and his Morgan Street Snacks was the first pop-up in residence there when [jefe Won Kim]( took a sabbatical.   On September 16, he’ll be the jefe in the kitchen at [Frank and Mary’s Tavern]( when Morgan Street Snacks comes to [Monday Night Foodball]( the Reader’s weekly chef pop-up.  This will be an early glimpse at a big flex for Cofrancesco in 2025. Starting in January, Kim is taking another break to paint and to run programming at neighboring Maria’s, and [Morgan Street Snacks]( will settle in for a three-month residency.  What’s on the menu? It’s a few steps up from radiator pizza. For starters: a Tempesta Wagyu pastrami melt, with giardiniera relish, gochujang aioli, and arugula on a brioche bun.  How about a beet-cured salmon tartine with pickled fennel, fried garlic, black truffle chive cream cheese, and smoked trout roe on an everything bagel?  There’s a pair of tostadas—chicken, or oyster mushroom for the plant eaters—with jicama-papaya slaw, avocado crema, cilantro, pickled kumquats, and the caviar of the citrus world, finger limes.  Finally, you can hold up the virtue of his cucumber salad—with chili crisp, cilantro, and fried shallots—against the depravity of his black truffle bourbon chocolate chunk cookie.  Let Cofrancesco bridge the gaps between your worlds this Monday, September 16, from 6 PM until sellout, at 2905 N. Elston in emancipated Avondale.  Meantime, look alive: A brand-new Foodball lineup drops any day now. . . [The Chicago Urban Ag Crawl promotes south-side food solidarity]( The third annual community festival is rooted in Englewood and aims to support Black and Brown farmers across the city. by [Michelle Kanaar]( | [Read more]( → [Free your mind (and your buds will follow) when Morgan Street Snacks comes to Monday Night Foodball]( Check out this preview of Ryan Cofrancesco’s three-month Kimski takeover at the Reader’s weekly chef pop-up at Frank and Mary’s Tavern. by [Mike Sula]( | [Read more]( → [Reader Bites]( celebrates dishes, drinks, and atmospheres from the Chicagoland food scene. Have you had a recent food or drink experience that you can’t stop thinking about? Share it with us at [fooddrink@chicagoreader.com](mailto:fooddrink@chicagoreader.com?subject=Reader%20Bites&body=). [Köfte and potato tostini at Tostini]( My friend had the honor of the first bite, and the minute he took it, he looked up at me wide-eyed, then silently walked up to the counter to order a second tostini. And I immediately understood why: it’s rich and satisfying in a way I didn’t know a sandwich could be. The juicy, herb-speckled beef köfte, thinly sliced roasted potato, and tons of melty cheese are all balanced by the crunchy red onion and cabbage salad. — Savannah Hugueley [There’s Khmer food right under your nose at Googoo’s Table]( November 2019 | This Chinese restaurant in Hermosa hides a few Cambodian dishes on its broad menu. by [Mike Sula]( | [Read more]( → [Best of the Blackout Diaries: Rub-a-dub-dub, a surprise in the tub]( March 2016 | A day of heavy drinking turns into a morning-after whodunit. by [Chicago Reader]( | [Read more]( → Get the latest issue of the Chicago Reader Thursday, September 12, 2024 [READ ONLINE: VOL. 53, NO. 32]( [VIEW/DOWNLOAD ISSUE (PDF)]( [Facebook icon]( [Instagram icon]( [Twitter icon]( [LinkedIn icon]( [YouTube icon]( [Website icon]( [Logo] You received this email because you signed up for newsletters from the Chicago Reader. Want fewer emails from us? [Click here to choose what you want us to send you](. Or, [unsubscribe from all Reader emails](. 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