It’s assumed that red velvet cake is some divine creation, and that the red color of it is some indicator of some deeply delicious secret. Answer is: red velvet cake is just another type of chocolate cake, albeit one that many flock to in moments of cravings and pure delight.

Red Velvet is claimed to be an American creation, popular in the south since at least the 1870s, and winning more than just a “Mama’s cookin’” reputation in the 1950’s thanks to New York hotels, particularly the Waldorf-Astoria. There’s evidence that the cake traveled across borders around that time (Eaton’s department store introduced the cake in the 60’s over in Canada), but otherwise the background of the cake is shrouded in a veil of scrumptious mystery. The red coloring of the cake was originally a simply scientific matter as opposed to a moment decorative ingenuity. Certain chemical reactions occurred between alkaline, found in baking soda and powder, and acid found in buttermilk and vinegar that browned the cocoa turning it reddish, and can even be seen in recipes with blueberries which then turn greenish. It also helped that chocolate has alkaline in it, furthering the red color that occurred in the cake.

Since then, bakers have enjoyed the color in the cake so much, they’ve sought to enhance it. The use of red food dye and beets is commonly found to redden recipes. This was an especially popular practice during World War II, because of food rationing. Bakers began boiling beets and using it in cakes, which of course reddened it and also helped to retain moisture in the cakes, thus making their cakes more appealing than perhaps the neighboring baker’s plain brown cakes.

Now, Red Velvet is popular at just about any social event, from birthday parties to weddings and even just casual strolls down the street. If you’re like me, you see them as comfort cake, and find the nice contrast between the deep red and bright white to be a little fancier than regular chocolate cakes. I definitely find myself more inclined to bake this particular chocolate cake over others in times when my affection takes the form of dessert-making, and needless to say, the moment when I revealed to my mom that it really is just chocolate I felt like a parent breaking the news that the Tooth Fairy isn’t real. (For all you Tooth Fairy believers, this is purely a hypothetical situation, of course!) Whatever the reason for their popularity though, the red velvet recipe has found a nice and cozy home in our bakery. It took several recipe tweaks and Natalie had quite a time making sure the cream cheese frosting wasn’t too starchy, melty, or sweet— but according to her she’s “made it perfect;,” I and our customers tend to agree. If you don’t see any in our bakery case, just ask one of our servers and happily scurry up to the bakery to grab some more.

We featured our brand new Preserved Lemons with recipes(pdf) to accompany this marvel of tart and tangy.

After a short think, we knew Skillet’s Pumpkin Sauce had to end up on the board – it’s a bit sweet, reminds us of the harvest, and infinitely tasty. Our Habanero and Red pepper Jellies were other items we fell in love with this month, it’s hard not to what with it’s spiciness and awesomeness. The 4 Fortnights placed themselves in a nice section of the board where it will serve as a in-person reminder of the mid-winter hot deals.

An finally, SPG’s catering is an always easy way to host a dinner, bring a dish to a gathering, or plan a super-special meal. Chat with our chefs to get it personalized, order a stack of boxed lunches for your presentation, or pick one of meticulously crafted item from the catering menu.

Southport Grocery will help ease your stress of your get together. Let us do the cooking for you! Don’t have any idea what your guests will like? We have a pretty stellar catering menu to help guide your way to the land of tasty treats. Having a picnic in Grant Park? Getting together for a luncheon? SPG will pack up lunches or breakfasts in our pretty pink boxes, see our Box Lunch Menu for inspiration. What happens if you already know the perfect dish – the ideal little hand treat – for your wonderful guests? Our chef will work closely with you to get it right. We can build a menu from the ground up, just for you.

Still not enough? What about the fact that we’ll put our stacks of handmade food stuffs on top of your own dishes. That’s right. Those massive pretty plates you have buried in the dark places of your cabinets, those multi-pocketed dishes with a ‘dip’ center – bring those in and put them to great use! Make your party complete with serve-wave that truly is personal.

Too busy to pick it up? We deliver in Chicago city limits, no problem. Where else but SPG can you get a chef to personally see to it that your ordered items are awesome, put on your own dishes, and will even drive it to your house?

Put that personal touch on your catered order, bring together your party style and make our catering your own.

Most likely its a staggeringly soggy clot of small cuts of muted cabbage drowned out by saltiness and/or “vinegaryness”. Here lies the problem. True, see: good, sauerkraut is something of a wonder. Real sauerkraut doesn’t contain any vinegar, it’s sourness comes from the wild fermentation of it’s sweet slices. At SPG we place halved, sliced, and chopped cabbage into our secret & tasty brine, and let it go. The sugars in the cabbage are released into the brine via osmosis and wild yeasts nibble on the sweet cabbage brine, more movement of liquids between the brine and cabbage later we end up with our heavenly sauerkraut.

It isn’t “going bad,” the lactic acid produced from it’s ‘turning’ (the wild yeast) creates that tasty ‘sharp’ flavor, which also happens to be thing that preserves it. There is a whole host great things in sauerkraut too, like a heap of vitamin C, and a host of lactobacilli – which aids in digestion. It also contains various cancer-fighting compounds including isothiocyanate and sulphoraphane. So it’s not only good but good for you!

Our local wild yeasts us a great favor and we reciprocate by keeping them fed with lots of food. The trick is to keep them alive for a constant and more full flavor, just like a sourdough starter. We have to feed them so our kraut will be tasty enough to have the SPG stamp on them.

Don’t usually like sauerkraut, love it the stuff from the can, or never tried it? Our kraut will add the perfect zesty sourness to any piece of encased meat, dress up a sandwich, stack nicely on top of pork – just be an all around awesome topping. Give it a go, available today in our grocery.

The Hangover Helper [right] is simply basil-infused Tito’s vodka with San Pellegrino Limonata. We infuse the vodka in-house and it adds a rich herbaceous to the drink. The herby-ness, along with the slightly tart lemony citrus flavor and the bubbly-ness of the limonata is perfect for soothing your stomach after a rough night out or a great way to get an early start on a rough day out.

The Southern Screwdriver [left] is Bulleit Bourbon, peach puree and San Pellegrino Aranciata. It’s citrusy up front, with richly sweet bourbon flavor on the back end and just a hint of the peach’s sweetness to counteract the acidity of the aranciata. It’s a breakfast drink that’s just breakfasty enough that your friends won’t call you an alcoholic.

Sure, there is cheese with any number of crazy things inside – bacon, olives, a whole garden of veggies, but how about something so pure, so simple, that your tongue will give you a heavy handshake and the two of you will be best buds for eternity? Yeah – Zingerman’s cream cheese is kinda like that. It’s a soft and fluffy, it coats the palate with a cool blanket of rich flavor, it’s sweet but not overly sweetened – it’s our go-to cream cheese. This isn’t cream cheese in a pressed block or filled with additives – it’s real cream cheese. These masterpieces of milk are created at Zingerman’s using traditional techniques – hand ladled and not having any gums, preservatives, or sweeteners – this is unadulterated cream cheese.

At the store we use their cream cheese on bagels, as a spread, or just to make things just a big more creamy – a fantastic cheese to make our cafe items really shine. At home, use Zingerman’s Cream Cheese  on anything – from a topping to your pasta to the filler in your desert this cheese is the real deal. Pick up some Zingerman’s today, available in our grocery.

Strange name, awesome rewards. It’s an easy to use rewards program that a whole mess of businesses on Southport are using. The cards work at getting you great rewards from all sorts of local business. It’s amazingly simple to use and we’ve cooked up some pretty awesome rewards: from a youtube video playlist put together by our in-house comedian, all the way up to us delivering you breakfast for two! Pick up a card, sign up, and get flopping!

Events
- Shop Lakeview 11/1-12/31
- Holiday Stroll [flyer PDF]– Friday 12/1

Holiday Hours
- Closed Thanksgiving
- Christmas Eve 8am-1pm
- Closed Christmas day
- New year’s eve – 8am-5pm
- New year’s day – tbd

Idaho potatoes, duck confit, caramelized onions, eggs ~ sunny side up..

On the menu for a limited time.

The company does everything in it’s power to find ranchers that they are raised humane and natural. That means no hormones, no antibiotics, no leeway. Meyer takes their beef seriously and it shows in the brisket and hanger steak that we get from them. Unadulterated food with a stamp of approval that can be trusted. They are also certified humane from the Humane Farm Animal Care program – which requires the beef to be raised correctly. Their diet includes pasture grass, hay, grains and legumes, and then finished on a corn-based diet – where a lot of other beef is raised solely on corn and even meat by-products.

How often do you get to see those who raised the meat you buy? Meyer is dedicated to the people who are involved too, even featuring on their website, the folks who bring up the cattle on.

We’re happy to be a part of a larger movement to brining healthily raised food to your table, be it here at the store or at home.