Vella Cafe
For the past few years Sara Voden and Melissa Yen have been selling what may be the finest sandwiches in Chicago from a small patch of grass in Lincoln Park. Their grill at the Green City Market produced wondrous items like a grilled Moroccan chicken panini and the French Toast, whose name is a total undersell: it’s Red Hen country white stuffed with honey-orange cream cheese, baked in a custard, and pressed on a panini grill. Last week Voden and Yen took their operation indoors, opening Vella Cafe, a breakfast-and-lunch storefront under the Blue Line stop at Western. Named after Voden’s old cat, it has a roof and seats and everything.
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The outstanding paninis are still on offer, including a frittata panini that’s among the best egg sandwiches I’ve ever had, but the menu has been expanded to include house-made pastries, crepes, soups, and salads. At the cafe’s inaugural Sunday brunch a continuous line circled lazily through the restaurant–a roomy, colorful, high-ceilinged space–and around the tables Voden and Yen built themselves. The counter was designed and constructed by Yen’s husband. Friends helped paint. The ceiling globes and glass pastry platters were thrifted. “There’s no frills,” says Voden. “Everything is patched together.”
When Voden and Yen were introduced through a mutual friend about three years ago, they were both looking for their own business. “I was crepe obsessed and I wanted to do a stand,” Yen says. “I thought I was going to do it myself, which would have been so stupid. And Sara wanted to do a panini stand.”
