Maria Alejandra Rivera has become best known for her pastel de nata. The Portuguese egg tart with a distinctive caramelized top over a silky center all held in a shattering shell is one of the great iconic pastries found around the world. But it’s often hard to get just right.
“It’s a delicious, flaky, crunchy puff pastry base with an egg custard filling spiced with cinnamon and citrus,” Rivera said.
The baker just opened the Portuguese-inspired Cadinho Bakery & Café in the McKinley Park neighborhood on the Southwest Side of Chicago on July 19.
She co-owns the debut mom-and-pop shop with husband and CFO Eric Carlson. They’re making as many pastéis de nata as they can, but neither is Portuguese. Rivera is originally from Tegucigalpa, capital of Honduras. She met Carlson in her home country, where they were both teachers. He had taught elsewhere abroad so they decided to teach in China together, where they lived for four years. In Beijing, their school served Chinese-style Portuguese egg tarts every morning.
You’ll find Chinese-style Portuguese egg tarts, by way of Macao and China, in Chinese bakeries across the city and suburbs. The pastry is more like pie crust, with the filling a touch firmer, and not spiced.
“Then we moved to Portugal,” Rivera said. “We had the Portuguese version, and we did the full circle of this pastry.”
Eventually, they moved back to the States, where Carlson was previously a Chicago Public Schools teacher, but now works as a CPS curriculum designer.
“I didn’t study to be a teacher,” Rivera said. “So when I came here that’s why I ended up baking.”
“This whole venture started with me offering in the neighborhood community page of Logan Square a Portuguese cake, bolo de laranja,” she said. “And everybody just started asking, ‘But you do make pastel de nata?’”
At Cadinho on opening weekend they made about 1,000 pastéis de nata and still sold out.
Another former CPS teacher, Mayor Brandon Johnson, ate not one, but two of the pastries.
“He called them the Johnson favorite,” Rivera said.
The bakery and cafe currently offers a limited menu, including a pastel de nata with chocolate and what the baker calls the cousins of the pastel de nata. There’s a pastel de amêndoa, an almond cake, and a pastel de coco, a coconut cake, both in puff pastry.
Carlson is in charge of coffee, Rivera said, and they’re using Metric Coffee beans for their espresso.
“They focus on paying above minimum wage,” she said about the Chicago-based coffee company. “That was really important to us. They also happened to have a relationship with Honduran farmers.”
Rivera makes all their syrups in-house. The Coconut Heaven iced coffee and pastel de nata latte, served warm, have become fan favorite drinks.
“Savory items are coming,” she said. People have been asking, and she hopes to add a pop-up favorite to the menu soon. “Rissóis are like a Portuguese empanada, filled with shrimp and béchamel sauce.”
Traditionally they’re fried, but hers are baked and served with a spicy house-made sauce.
“I’m just so grateful with people’s patience,” Rivera said. “They have been very sweet and understanding of me running out of items, but we’re working on it.”
She does have help from a surprising number of employees.
“I’m working with One Summer Chicago,” Rivera said. “We employ young people through the program. With our teaching background, I just loved the idea of offering someone their first job. On top of my permanent staff, I have six One Summer Chicago kids, so I have 16 people.”
“Alderwoman Julia Ramirez has been super supportive of our business,” said the baker who lives in the neighborhood with her family. “Because one thing that we’ve been trying to do in the community is to revitalize 35th Street along with our neighbor Chile Toreado.”
“We really want this street to become more vibrant, with more businesses.”
Cadinho Bakery & Café is currently open Wednesday to Sunday, from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.
3483 S. Archer Ave., 773-802-0508, instagram.com/cadinhobakery
More notable new restaurant openings, in alphabetical order:
Bar Parisette
Table, Donkey and Stick owner Matthew Sussman has transformed the former Dos Urban Cantina space into a new French-inspired Midwestern neighborhood wine bar and bistro. Bar Parisette said salut in Logan Square on June 27. Chef and partner Madalyn Durrant, previously at Webster’s Wine Bar, has created a menu with classics including steak frites and poulet rôti, plus a trademarked happy hour shake-frites with house-made soft serve and fries, as a nod to The Freeze (RIP).
2829 W. Armitage Ave., 312-955-0072, barparisette.com
Feld
Social media star Jake Potashnick (@notyetachef) has made his debut not only as chef, but also as owner of an ambitious new tasting menu restaurant. Feld opened reservations in Ukrainian Village on June 25. The “relationship-to-table” restaurant serves 30 or so seasonal market-driven courses, many changing daily.
2018 W. Chicago Ave., feldrestaurant.com
Istmo Oaxacan Cuisine
Chef Carlos Lopez Muñoz is bringing the cuisine of his home isthmus to our city by the lake. Istmo Oaxacan Cuisine bid buenos dias to Lakeview on July 24. Dinner is coming, but it’s just breakfast for now, with clasicos including chilaquiles rojos, but made with heirloom corn chips, plus desserts, featuring their nicuatole, an Oaxacan corn custard, but topped with a golden fried buñuelo de viento.
3231 N. Clark St., 872-315-2034, istmochicago.com
Lefty’s Righteous Bagels
Brad “Lefty” Nadborne grew up on the North Shore, but his bagels were inspired by a family trip to Montreal in the early ’90s. Lefty’s Righteous Bagels began rolling, boiling and wood firing in Evanston on July 19. They’re selling out of their starting lineup, from plain to everything, and schmears, from honey vanilla to jalapeño.
827 Chicago Ave., Evanston; lrbagels.com
Mensch’s Deli
Restaurateur Jack DeMar and business partners Kiki Eliopoulos and Eric Kogan are writing their “love letter to the Jewish deli” in the former Golden Olympic space. Mensch’s Deli dropped in Evanston on July 3. Look for their “soon-to-be famous pastrami,” house-made and piled high on rye, house-smoked fish platters and latkes fried to order.
1608 Chicago Ave., Evanston; 847-859-6153; menschs-deli.com
Perilla Steakhouse
Chef Andrew Lim and business partners Alvin Kang and Thomas Oh have opened their highly anticipated Korean American steakhouse in the new L7 Chicago by Lotte hotel, previously the Kimpton Hotel Monaco. Perilla Steakhouse started sizzling in the Loop on July 3. They’re offering a Korean breakfast with Lim’s stunning banchan; cacio e pepe rice cakes for lunch; and steakhouse sets, plus a kimchi fried rice with smoked blue cheese, for dinner.
225 N. Wabash Ave., 312-236-9300, perillachicago.com/steak
Santa Masa Tamaleria
Husband and wife owners Danny Espinoza and Jhoana Ruiz have transformed their pandemic pop-up to a bricks and mortar Mexican restaurant. Santa Masa Tamaleria debuted in Dunning on June 21. Unwrap delicious tamales, including a seasonal tamal del mes, their Santo Taco with a cheese crust and weekend-only pozole verde.
7544 W. Addison St., 312-982-9306, santamasa.com
New locations news, in chronological order:
Jennivee’s Bakery & Cafe, the second shop by Filipina trans chef and owner Jenni Vee, perhaps best known for her ube chiffon purple velvet cake, just opened in Lakeview on June 28.
2925 N. Halsted St., 773-941-7200, jenniveesbakery.com
Umamicue x Little Victories, another winning pairing with pitmaster Charles Wong and Footman Hospitality, started smoking in Wicker Park on June 28.
1725 W. Division St., happydrinkingplace.com
Cebu Chicago, the creative Filipino restaurant by four siblings from Cebu in the Philippines, moved to Lakeview and celebrated its grand opening on July 5.
3120 N. Lincoln Ave., 773-709-9153, cebuchicago.com
Bryn Mawr Breakfast Club Ravenswood, the third location of chef and owner Manny Mejia’s popular daytime restaurants, began cracking on July 10.
4747 N. Damen Ave., brynmawrbreakfastclub.com
Steingold’s Bagels & Nosh, the third destination in the Jewish deli-inspired family, started schmearing right across the street from Wrigley Field on July 10.
3626 N. Clark St., 773-967-8160, steingoldsdeli.com
Funeral Potatoes x Moonflower, is the new home of modern Midwestern comfort food, by chefs and owners Eve Studnicka and Alexis Thomas-Rice, at the creative cocktail bar in Portage Park as of July 17.
4359 N. Milwaukee Ave., 773-647-1942, moonflowerbar.com
Know of a Chicago-area restaurant or bar that’s new and notable? Email food critic Louisa Chu at lchu@chicagotribune.com.
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