Chicago’s Best Cheese Dishes

It’s hard to think of any food Chicagoans agree upon more than cheese. They argue about hot dogs, beefs, tavern pizza, and tacos. But when cheese enters the conversation, locals become soothed like an angry tiger tamed by a trainer. They eat “cheese” on nachos in plastic batting helmets (no matter which team is playing), scarf-flaming saganaki, fried cheese curds, and gooey quesabirria, and are tantalized by the cheese pull from a pan of deep dish.

As the weather cools, Eater Chicago collected five examples of excellent cheesy dishes around town that will charm every savage beast.

La Serre’s French onion fondue

La Serre has been packing the house since they opened this past summer in the crosshairs of the Fulton Market restaurant zone. Every Emily-in-Paris-in-Chicago has been clamoring for a table full of St. Tropez Spritzes, angel hair with caviar, and duck Chinois, plus the best mussels this side of northwest France’s Brittany region. Naturally, there’s plenty on the French-ish menu to choose from for the cheese-loving set, but the French onion fondue is truly not to be missed. Gobs of wine-soaked caramelized onions served topped with melted gruyere cheese for spreading on grilled sourdough, baguette, or frite without annoying soup to water down the experience.

Nettare’s cheese plate

When Conner O’Byrne, owner of West Town’s Nettare, asked chef John Dahlstrom to add a Midwest cheese plate to his menu, he worried if his boss “wanted a quintessential phoned-in wine bar menu.” O’Byrne pushed hard, inspired by Wisconsin’s epic rep in award-winning cheese production. Dahlstrom accepted the challenge and made O’Byrne and Nettare’s customers happy. Dahlstrom is proud of a rotating selection of the Midwest’s cheese bounty, including Black Goat from Prairie Fruits Farm in Champaign, Dirt Lover from Kansas City’s Green Dirt Farm, and many more. Guests can select one, two, or three options and add a house-made charcuterie item. Dahlstrom throws in tahini crackers, local honey and jam, and a handful of smoked and candied black walnuts. This takes this cheese plate far higher than just a pedestrian wine bar menu.

Maxwells Trading’s Loaf Lounge marble rye with stracciatella

Wade Hall

The menu changes frequently at Maxwells Trading, but the local love-child vibe stays true to its delicious Chicago roots. That vibe includes featuring friends like Sarah Mispagel and Ben Lustbader and their magnificent Loaf Lounge marble rye sourdough bread and neighbors like rooftop basil and cherry tomatoes which, according to executive chef Chris Jung are amplified using a soak of Japanese flavors like shiro dashi and united by a tasty cloak of fresh stracciatella cheese from Caputo Cheese in Melrose Park. Because honestly, what brings folks (and other ingredients) together better than cheese? Stracciatella is poised to topple the reign of cheese terror previously held by the beloved burrata ball for almost a decade. Made up of torn bits of mozzarella dressed in cream (like what you’ll find in the center of that burrata), stracciatella’s milky, spoonable richness deserves the star turn it has been taking lately.

Mano a Mano’s eggplant cutlet

Mano a Mano

The menu at Logan Square’s Mano a Mano is loaded with stracciatella and other Italian-style cheeses — like zucchini flowers stuffed with fior de latte mozzarella and fresh buffalo milk ricotta, the tiny ravioletti filled with taleggio and black truffle, and — just like at nonna’s — you’ll get a bowl of grated cheese to sprinkle on your dinner at will. Your server will advise you to order the eggplant cutlet, and order it you must. Chef Doug Psaltis’s take on eggplant parm is a young farm eggplant, crisped up and served with a spicy tomato sauce, with that delicious stracciatella schmeared on top. Says Psaltis: “I fell in love with it after first tasting it on a trip to Puglia. Stracciatella’s wonderful creaminess and fresh cream flavor make it a perfect pair for the spicy Diavolo sauce of our eggplant cutlet.”

Beautiful Rind’s chevre sundae

Beautiful Rind

You already know that Beautiful Rind is one of the city’s best cheese shops. You might even know that they offer an exciting dine-in or takeout cheese board menu complete with imaginative, housemade, choose-your-own-adventure accompaniments, plus gooey sandwiches, charcuterie, and fried cheese curds. But did you know that you can order a chevre sundae, consisting of three scoops of fresh Wisconsin goat cheese plus seasonal sauces and crushed marcona almonds, and no one will judge you? “We’ve always scooped fresh goat cheese with an ice cream scoop to help showcase the fluffy, light texture of fresh, hand-ladled cheese,” says owner Randall Felts. The next step was serving it sundae style in a cut glass dish, obviously, with toppings like salted stout chocolate ganache, strawberry amaro jam, and pineapple jam spiked with Aleppo chiles. “We want people to have fun with cheese and see our shop as a more adult version of a candy shop… full of delicious treats of the cheese variety,” Felt adds.