In Chicago, there’s a restaurant that takes “sourcing locally” to a new level. Like, upstairs to their on-site garden level! Writer Betsa Marsh tells us more about it.

Save this article about Uncommon Ground in Chicago to Pinterest.com to help you plan a visit. Photo bottom right, courtesy Uncommon Ground. Other photos by Betsa Marsh. Graphic by Real Food Traveler.

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Uncommon Ground in Chicago: Dining on an organic harvest, close at hand

Sustainable restaurants keep a keen eye on their food miles, the distances their ingredients travel from source to kitchen to plate. At Uncommon Ground in Chicago, it’s often just a brisk jaunt up a metal staircase to all the organic vegetables, herbs and edible flowers the chef’s kitchen could want. Here, food miles can be measured in strides.

Concord grapes festoon the stairs, exemplars of the use-every-inch philosophy of co-owners Helen and Michael Cameron. Hops, used in the company’s organic Greenstar Brewery, blaze emerald green from the light strands above the tented patio.

Helen Cameron is the co-owner of Uncommon Ground in Chicago.

Up on the roof, it’s a compact food factory, small but mighty. Tomatoes climb, cucumbers trail over their raised beds. Basil scents the air and a living vegetable wall ripples in the breeze.

Bees buzz into their hives, fresh from a neighborhood forage, and goldfinches zero in on the rich seeds tucked into sunflower faces. On a sunny day, the action never stops at Uncommon Ground. Everything blends together in bloom and fragrance to create the first certified organic rooftop farm in the United States.

Following the principles of square-foot gardening, the Camerons and their team plant .015 acre intensively, harvesting about 1.5 pounds per square foot.

“We grow as much as we possibly can,” Helen says, “and use it in the restaurant.”

On a steamy summer’s day at the Uncommon Ground Edgewater, harvested herbs will come into play throughout the menu. The garden has served up basil for my warm artichoke – goat cheese – pesto dip served with crostini. That was followed by a Greens + Grains salad, with toasted buckwheat, roasted butternut squash, cranberries, clementine, orange champagne vinaigrette and spicy pepitas. The mix is vegan-friendly and gluten-free. Sustainable Salmon, flown in from Canada, is partnered with golden raisin-and-almond couscous and chili-crisp, again, gluten-free.

Sustainable Salmon entree at Uncommon Grounds.

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Some of my fellow diners choose Bacon-Wrapped Meatloaf, with Yukon Gold mashed potatoes, Bordelaise sauce, crispy onions and arugula salad. The meat for the meatloaf, according to Farm Director Allison Glovak-Webb, hails from Waseda Farms in Wisconsin.

Bacon-wrapped meatloaf at Uncommon Grounds.

Every gardener is at the mercy of the weather, of predators from grubs to raccoons, even the phases of the moon. How on earth do Glovak-Webb and Chef Chris Bart plan restaurant menus around a roof full of vegetables?

“I sit down over the winter with the chef so he gets a lot of input on what I’ll be growing,” Glovak-Webb says. “From there, he will develop some dishes that incorporate specific crops during the time frame they are producing the most. Really stand-out harvests get featured in daily specials.

“There are also dishes on the menu that are designed to ‘catch’ crops that aren’t producing enough to depend on. These dishes are usually salads, pastas and gumbos, things like that. We just go with the flow when the weather doesn’t cooperate.”

To supplement the rooftop, Uncommon Ground relies on Local Foods, which specializes in connecting Midwestern farmers to Chicago restaurants. For ingredients that aren’t locally produced, the restaurant uses a traditional supplier such as Sysco.

But the edible flowers that Chef Bart likes to sprinkle around the plates and over the drinks are definitely fresh from the rooftop.

After, of course, the restaurant’s bees have had a chance to forage among the blossoms and make their own ultra-local Uncommon honey.

Uncommon Ground gardener prunes a vertical plant.

When You Go to Uncommon Ground in Chicago

The original Uncommon Ground-Lakeview is at 3800 N. Clark St. It’s home to Greenstar Brewery, the first certified organic brewery in Illinois.

Uncommon Ground’s second location, Edgewater, 1401 W. Devon Ave., is crowned by the first certified organic rooftop garden in the U.S.

For more information, visit the restaurant’s website.

-Story and photos by Betsa Marsh