Funeral Potatoes, a magical modern Midwestern comfort food restaurant, has found an idyllic home at Moonflower, an exemplary neighborhood cocktail bar in Portage Park, nestled among the bungalows on the Northwest Side of Chicago.
Thoughtful monthly and weekly food specials, and even a whimsical mystery grilled cheese sandwich, heighten the experience. Especially at Nightshade, a fantastical experimental speakeasy-style basement lounge.
The fates of the unusual restaurant and bar pairing seem intertwined in time.
Funeral Potatoes unofficially launched with delivery only during the pandemic lockdown in March 2020. I reviewed the virtual restaurant in April 2022.
Moonflower opened after a pandemic delay in December 2021. Nightshade followed that summer in June. The current alignment featuring all three businesses began last July.
Oh, but you might be wondering about the deathly name.
“Funeral potatoes are a cheesy potato casserole that you make for funerals, weddings and potlucks,” said chef and owner Alexis Rice. “It’s just like a comfy, cozy carb that is often present at times of family gatherings, whether good or bad.”
Rice began the business with friend and fellow chef Eve Studnička as an homage to the food they grew up with in tiny Midwestern towns where they learned the power of carbs, particularly in dark times.
Meanwhile, Moonflower had several chefs who came and went until only their prep cook and dishwasher was left with a menu of four food items he could make alone.
“He’s my primary team member,” said Rice about that cook, Freddy Ramirez.
Studnička helped get Funeral Potatoes at Moonflower off the ground, but decided to transition away from being an owner, after starting a second job she loved at the beloved Sugar Moon Bakery, where she bakes biscuits for her former business partner.
A beautiful New Moon burger has become the best-selling food item, so different from what was possible during the days of delivery meals.
“I almost didn’t put a burger on the menu,” said Rice. “Because I was not super confident cooking one.”
It begins with a toasted potato bun, then two beefy patties, luminous smoked Gouda cheese and crispy onions.
“The pickles are from Vargo Brother Ferments, which we love,” said Rice about the local maker.
The house-made chile sauce is not spicy, almost a homemade ketchup, “like a 1950s housewives’ chile sauce, what you put meatballs in,” Rice said. And the patties seem vintage homestyle too, not quite thick, and not quite smashed.
“I call them thin,” said Rice. “They cook all the way through with a little bit of a crispy edge.”
The burger and a few sandwiches come with your side of choice, but I say there’s one you should choose: the dill pickle pasta salad.
“People love our pasta salad, which we’ve been doing since the beginning of delivery,” Rice said. “It’s basically a ranch pasta salad with Vargo pickles, cheddar cheese and cheese curds.”
Creamy and crunchy and al dente, it’s a bold pop art statement in pasta salad.
The funeral potatoes dish changes among the monthly specials. An elote funeral potatoes will be available throughout April. The cheesy hot potato casserole takes 20 minutes to bake to order, studded with sweet corn and melted Monterey Jack, topped with a golden Tajín spiced panko and finished with a Valentina hot sauce crema.
You’ll probably burn your tongue too, impatient to spoon through the crisp crust into the soft filling. The potato needed a touch more salt in the casserole I had recently, since the tubers notoriously suck in so much seasoning. But I would order the namesake dish every time.
So how did Funeral Potatoes meet Moonflower?
Through Rice’s sister, who happened to be sitting next to Marvin Boeving at another bar. Boeving co-owns Moonflower and Nightshade with Christina Chae and Zach Rivera.
“She was very adamant about her sister and her sister’s business,” Boeving said. He was amazed by the business model of food delivery on that level, and what stood out was their GoFundMe fundraising campaign for a brick-and-mortar. He and his business partners were looking for the next direction for their small kitchen. “I just sent an email and told Alexis that her younger sister made us look them up.”
They shared views on the industry and hospitality, he said, and it just all aligned.
The big Caesar salad also aligns with the stars when loaded with warm crispy cubes of Spam under feathery shaved Parmesan. A Sloppy Joanne, another April monthly special, transforms crumbly ground beef with a complex house-made brown sugar barbecue sauce and ruffled jalapeño ranch potato chips tucked within. The not-too-hot honey crispy chicken sandwich stacks fat chicken tenders, encrusted and tossed in subtly spicy smoked chile honey sauce, dressed with a sesame scallion coleslaw.
At brunch on Saturday only, the stunning blueberry lavender poppy seed pancakes of the month come with a fragrant lavender lemon whipped cream cloud hovering above. A breathtaking pimento breakfast sandwich is really three sandwiches in one, with thick-cut bacon, lacy fried egg and house-made pimento cheese, plus snappy smoked kielbasa as well as a mortgage payment’s worth of precisely sliced avocado — all for $10.
“If eggs keep going like they are, it won’t be $10 for long,” Rice said laughing.
The Big Ol’ Biscuit & Gravy smothers a velvety smoked sausage and black pepper gravy over a hearty all-butter biscuit, baked by Studnička at Sugar Moon.
Weekly specials recently featured The Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread, a signature fan favorite by Rice, that now presents the warmly spiced little loaf mini on a pretty floral plate.
A tender strawberry shortcake, with a floral vanilla orange blossom whipped cream, included a compote made with fruit from Moonflower.
The bar makes a strawberry oleo saccharum, or sugar oil mixture, for their No Brainer cocktail. The leftover softened strawberries are fine and flavorful for the compote cooked down with more sugar, lemon juice and a pinch of white pepper.
“I really enjoy the flexibility of being able to throw a thing on for just a couple days, and sell out of it when we sell out of it, and then maybe it never comes back again,” Rice said. “It really feeds my wandering mind not having to cook the same menu every single day.”
The lovely No Brainer is one of the best-selling drinks at Moonflower.
“It’s our version of a strawberry banana Daiquiri,” said Boeving. “The strawberry oleo goes in there, then Giffard Banane du Brésil, a banana liqueur, and a blend of aged El Dorado rums.
When people don’t really know what they like, he added, the No Brainer is simply a no-brainer.
The Son of a Gun, a signature cocktail downstairs at Nightshade, is more cerebral.
“It’s a chips and salsa martini,” said Boeving, and the idea came to Rivera in a dream. “A tortilla chip-infused Vesper basically.”
They mix Letherbee gin, made in Chicago, with Sobieski vodka and Carpano vermouth. And it’s not too salty or too tortilla-y, he added, because of their carefully timed infusion.
Delicious and delicate with hints of roasted corn poblano heat, it is unexpectedly delightful.
A beautiful bingsu, inspired by Moonflower and Nightshade co-owner Chae’s Korean childhood favorite shaved ice, with green tea and sweetened condensed milk was unfortunately just too icy and tart as the nonalcoholic version on the menu, missing the sweetness from red bean soju.
A weekly food special mint chocolate macadamia mousse cup held terrific chocolate peppermint chip cookie texture, but the whipped chocolate cream had set too firm. The deviled egg of the month needed a bit more smoky cajun remoulade with the yolks, and lots more fried wonton threads.
A crispy maple cashew Brussels sprouts main dish, which Rice and Boeving both declared as their favorite, with sweet and spicy serrano maple glaze, could have used an extra cut on some of the bigger sprouts that were not quite as crisp as expected.
The crispy Brussels hash at brunch, however, delivered on its promise with crackling leaves among fluffy potatoes, plus a judiciously truffled aioli and a pair of precious fried eggs.
An ominous nitro cold brew Malört shot was shockingly agreeable with a balanced bittersweetness. It’s just Malört and cold brew from Perkolator coffee, also in Portage Park, with dark sugar, said Boeving. He credits Rivera with trying to make the notoriously bitter liqueur taste better.
And then there’s the mystery grilled cheese, the staff favorite, with whatever the soup is on special, Rice said.
My sandwich looked slim, but hid an intensely satisfying filling of smoked Gouda, Vargo pickles and some of that vintage chile sauce. Amazing for five bucks.
They take requests of things you don’t want in the mystery grilled cheese, but only staff can request what they want in it.
And deservedly so, with their excellent service on my three visits for brunch and dinner upstairs in the classic Chicago bar room with exposed brick walls and hardwood floors, and drinks downstairs in the moodier lounge. Outdoor sidewalk seating will be available when weather permits.
As a lifelong Northwest Sider, I’ve seen that stretch of Milwaukee Avenue rise and fall, through good times and bad. And now we have a refuge with thoughtful and whimsical food and drink that comforts us when needed.
Funeral Potatoes at Moonflower and Nightshade
4359 N. Milwaukee Ave.
773-647-1942
Open: 21 and older. Funeral Potatoes, dinner from 4 p.m., Tuesday and Sunday until 8:45 p.m., Wednesday to Saturday until 9:45 p.m.; brunch Saturday only from 10 a.m. to 2:45 p.m.; closed Monday. Moonflower, from 4 p.m., Tuesday and Sunday until 11 p.m., Wednesday to Saturday until midnight; closed Monday. Nightshade, Friday and Saturday only from 8 p.m. until midnight.
Prices: $16 (New Moon burger, including dill pickle pasta salad side), $9 (elote funeral potatoes), $13 (big Caesar salad, with crispy Spam add $3), $6.50 (the chocolate chip zucchini bread), $10 (pimento breakfast sandwich), $15 (blueberry lavender poppy seed pancake of the month), $6 (nitro cold brew Malört shot), $10.80 (No Brainer cocktail), $13.40 (Son of a Gun cocktail)
Noise: OK (65 to 75 dB)
Accessibility: Funeral Potatoes at Moonflower, wheelchair accessible with staff assistance over front step, low top table and restrooms on ground level; Nightshade, not wheelchair accessible
Tribune rating: Excellent, 3 of 4 stars
Ratings key: Four stars, outstanding; three stars, excellent; two stars, very good; one star, good; no stars, unsatisfactory. Meals are paid for by the Tribune.
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