What are the secret ingredients in some of the signature dishes from local restaurants? Now you can know. Takeout 25 is celebrating its 5th anniversary by releasing a cookbook filled with recipes of neighborhood favorites.
In the first months of COVID-19 pandemic, Ravi Parakkat envisioned Takeout 25 as a lifeline for local restauranteurs. His thinking was: if every household in the area ordered out $25 worth of food per week that would pump more than $1 million into the local economy.
It worked. Restaurants were saved.
Now the Takeout 25 Facebook page has more than 17,000 members and monthly visits in the hundreds of thousands. Members share restaurant openings, good deals, favorite bites, all in a positive-only format.
Parakkat thought to celebrate the successes in cookbook form.
“The idea developed from this five years of community building,” Parakkat said. “How do we put a bow around it?”
Twenty-five restaurants joined the menu roadmap with delights such as
- fig-honey-brie crostini from Little Gem
- fried pickles with spicy ranch dip from Rhythm and Blues Café
- beef stew from Kettlestrings Tavern
- pollo asado from Media Noche Café
- almond tea cake from Blackout Backing Co.
- Southern peach cobbler from Chef Daddy’s
Malik Jawid, owner of Khyber Pass restaurant, lent his recipe for lamb rogan josh.
“It’s been very popular in our restaurant since we opened in 1995,” Jawid said. He wanted to take part in the project to give back. “We love what Takeout has done for all the restaurants since they started. It’s always been wonderful.”
The sentiment is similar for other restauranteurs, including Mayra Fernandez of Café Cubano.
“Takeout 25 is very dear to me,” she said. “When we were at our worst of our worst. Ravi walks in the door and said, ‘Would you like to be part of it?’ It rescued us.”
Her contribution is her father-in-law’s picadillo. He was the original chef at Café Cubano and all the recipes there are based on his cooking.
The book is a volunteer effort. Both the donation of the recipes and the work it took to pull the publication together. In addition to Parakkat and his wife, Amy’s contributions: Editors Diane Bartley Connolly and Terri Lackey pitched in. Major financial sponsors are April Baker Homes and U3 Coffee.
Purchase price is $25. Most of which covers the cost of printing, but a percent will go to the sales location and about $2 will go to further programs run by Takeout 25, which is now a non-profit organization.
Cookbooks are on sale at 20 of the 25 restaurants featured, at the Pile Bookstore (7117B W. Roosevelt Rd, Berwyn) and at The Book Loft (1047 Lake St, Oak Park). Both bookstores are new businesses too.
Bon Appétit!
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