At Bloom Plant Based Kitchen, Plants Take Center Stage

It’s not surprising that Bloom Plant Based Kitchen would find its roots in Chicago in the lively, youthful, and fiercely independent Wicker Park neighborhood. With bars, thrift shops, boutiques, bookshops, cafés, and restaurants—most not of the chain variety—packed shoulder-to-shoulder for blocks on end, Bloom’s location is smack-dab right in the mix of attention-grabbing storefronts, an anomaly with its clean, classic design. It’s an aesthetic that extends into how relaxing the restaurant feels immediately after walking in from the busy, cacophonous street. You are immediately transported.

Bloom Plant Based Kitchen

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It is not as if you’ve walked into a Zen monastery, though. Most of the tables on a weekday evening are occupied with happily bantering friends and couples, music playing at just the right volume to notice it but still have a conversation without shouting, and comfortable, modern booths and tables as well as two small counters. With a neutral, calming palette along with green touches of cacti and air plants on the walls—not to mention lots of natural light and an indoor garden from which they source their microgreens—Bloom’s style elegantly weaves an uncomplicated, modern sensibility with natural elements. In the warmer months, the entire front window opens garage-style for an indoor-outdoor atmosphere that is perfect for a languorous weekend brunch. No matter the season, the effect is chic but not stuffy, perfect for an elevated, comfortable meal for herbivores and curious omnivores alike.

The beginning of Bloom Plant Based Kitchen

Opened in 2021 by Chef Rodolfo Cuadros after finding success as a ghost kitchen, Bloom created an immediate splash with its warm date-night ambiance and stellar menu, quickly scoring a coveted Michelin Bib Gourmand recognition. This recognition bestows that designation on restaurants offering simple food that is easy to eat, familiar, and affordably priced—and there are fewer than 370 restaurants in the US that have earned such status. For foodies who love to watch chefs working their magic, Bloom also offers a tasting menu to be enjoyed from a bar that looks into their open kitchen.

“For me, Bloom being recognized as a Bib Gourmand restaurant, and being 100-percent plant-based, is more meaningful because of the challenges it poses to most diners in a society that is so used to thinking about meat as the first option,” says Cuadros, who estimates that about half of Bloom’s guests are omnivores.

For those wanting to try a bunch of different menu items at a great value, Bloom also offers a special Tuesday menu, which is a three-course dinner for two for $75.

Bloom Plant Based Kitchen

It’s easy to see why Bloom appeals to so many. While more elevated than veggie burgers and baskets of faux fish and chips, you will find nothing of the sort on the menu. Nearly everything is made in house, and Cuadros is not personally a fan of meat replacements—the well-curated menu is unpretentious and accessible with a global breadth, tipping a bit more toward Latin and Asian flavors, and not afraid of reimagining beloved dishes. The love of fresh ingredients, especially the flavors and textures that can be coaxed out of vegetables, is clear but never precious or fussy. Cuadros and company simply love to explore the possibilities within plants.

Bloom Plant Based Kitchen

Cocktails and cheese boards

We enjoyed our drinks, a Spicy Boii for me, an unforgettable mocktail featuring a warming, allspice-cardamom non-alcoholic spirit plus lime juice, grapefruit soda, and jalapeño simple syrup for a refreshingly peppery, fizzy elixir. My dining mate ordered the Purple Pisco, a balanced, pretty spirit with crème de violette, lemon, lavender bitters, and a fresh sprig of thyme, topped with a frothy vegan egg white foam, lifting an already sophisticated cocktail to new heights.

Bloom Plant Based Kitchen

The brilliantly hued Beet Tartare, a divine, beautifully-plated, tender mold of beet purée resting atop a rich avocado mash and served with a tangle of homegrown microgreens along with a dollop of grainy mustard was next on the list. It is deceptively both simple and complex, a study in complements and contrasts on a plate. Most important, the appetizer is an earthy joy to be savored on one of their housemade everything-seasoned crackers.

Bloom Plant Based Kitchen

The Cultured Cheese Board, an appetizer arriving Instagram-ready on a wooden plank, is something your eyes will devour first, with its dark grapes and green olives, pickled pink onions, microgreens, grainy mustard, and three heaps of Bloom’s own cheeses. The cheeses—an umami-rich ash truffle, delightfully zesty pimento “goat,” and light-as-air, ricotta-style whipped cashew with ancho chili agave—continue the theme of being complementary of each other but contrasting enough in color, texture, and flavor profile to keep the palate joyfully engaged. The fact that they are cultured makes them more complex and vibrant than most dairy-free cheeses.

This attention to detail (of the plating, the layering of texture and flavor, of vegetables expertly elevated to the main stage) carries on through the meal. For Cuadros, who was born in the US but raised in Colombia, this is very intentional. As someone who grew up cooking with his mother and aunt, it was Cuadros’ wife who expanded his interest in eating and living plant-based. Understanding his role as a business-owner and employer, he has also had Bloom take on several green initiatives beyond being vegan: they use only clean energy and are in the process of installing a micro-turbine as well as partnering with organizations to compost waste and recycle their oil.

Bloom Plant Based Kitchen

An unapologetic vegetable enthusiast, Cuadros has been reveling in the warmer months’ seasonal options. “Two of the vegetables that I [always] really look forward to are kohlrabi and rhubarb. I like kohlrabi for its subtlety and depth of flavor, and rhubarb for the acidity, crispness, and overall versatility,” he says.

The dinner menu

For dinner, I ordered the Yuca Gnocchi, featuring fluffy-on-the-inside, toasty-on-the-outside nuggets with housemade cashew pecorino cheese sprinkled on top, all served over a creamy malanga purée, a rich mushroom sofrito, and just enough kale to earn yourself a halo. My companion ordered the Chateaubriand—mainly because we felt fancy saying it, and it is a bit of a splurge next to the rest of the entrées but well worth it. Picture two large, seasoned lion’s mane mushrooms, grilled with crispy edges, and served on a rustic board with roasted potatoes, herby butter, black garlic, and a bright chermoula sauce. It is a rare opportunity when a vegan gets to use a steak knife and embrace it with gusto. The dish is an absolute showstopper, with plenty for leftovers.

Bloom Plant Based Kitchen

At this point, we were beyond full but had to take one for the team: for dessert, we shared the luscious and cool chocolate mousse, served over a shortbread crust with roasted, caramelly parsnip dollops. It was the perfect finish to an outstanding meal.

It’s exciting to live at a time when we can enjoy meaty versions of old comfort foods at this innovative eatery, which emphasizes quality and an unabashedly vegetable- and flavor-forward approach. It is not surprising that Bloom, like its home on a street that bisects Chicago on a diagonal, should also cut across and unify different tastes, flavors, textures, and cross-sections of society. It is blooming, beautifully so, where it was planted.