Some of the rare bright moments in this slow terror are the random porch presents from masked bandits bearing treasures. Last month, prompted by a text, I leapt from my desk (couch) and found a bag of perfect morel mushrooms at the door, purchased by one friend, delivered by another, and foraged in central Illinois by someone I’d never met before but had been curious about for a long time.
Separately, in early March, Studnicka and Thomas were gearing up for a busy spring. But on March 10, the day Governor Pritzker declared a state of emergency, Studnicka had to postpone (and later cancel) an almost-sold-out April 1 “Soviet Soul Food” dinner, and was later furloughed from her job at Finom Coffee. On the same day, all four of Thomas’s upcoming catering gigs canceled, including a Friday the 13th dinner party at Helix Café. “I had a big sad day,” says Thomas. “Is my business even a business anymore?” But within a week the pair had joined forces and pivoted to a weekly midwestern-forward and wonderfully weird meal delivery system that’s sold out within a day for 12 straight weeks.
The pair had learned they had a lot of opposing but complimentary culinary traits. “Being around a lot of wild game and foraged ingredients, and bar food, and corn and cheese growing up, that was what I was familiar with and what I was most connected to, so it’s what I naturally gravitated toward in the cooking I do,” says Studnicka.
Studnicka and Thomas agree that the day they announced their first menu was “the worst day of our lives.”
“I wouldn’t be doing this without Eve,” says Thomas. “I know she wouldn’t be doing it without me. We would both be stuck at home.” v
