Chef Sara’s Cafe is a family-built restaurant located in South Shore.

Savory smells coat the air amidst the sizzles of something on the griddle. Feel-good music is background to the chatter and laughter of coffee-sippers waiting at the table. Old cookbooks line the shelves of a bookcase near the front door, which swings open as a new guest enters and joins the others at the table. No, this is not someone’s home during family breakfast time, though it may as well be. Welcome to Chef Sara’s Cafe. 

Photo by Lydia Schultz.

Chef Sara’s is a beloved South Shore establishment serving homemade baked goods, warm beverages and Southern comfort food. 

Photo by Lydia Schultz.

It is named after — surprise — Chef Sara Phillips — who opened the restaurant in 2012 with her brother, Gene Phillips, and currently runs it with her sister, Gerri Lightning, and newest employee, Be’Anna Clark. 

Chef Sara poses with Be’Anna Clark on Clark’s first day of training. Photo by Lydia Schultz.

“People come here for conversation. The ambiance. The vibes,” said a longtime customer who goes by ‘Chief’. “Ask Chef Sara how long she’s been open and that’s the period of time I’ve been comin.’” 

Customers like Chief are some of Chef Sara’s earliest customers, back when she only intended to serve breakfast sandwiches and coffee on a block of otherwise vacant storefronts. 

Photo by Lydia Schultz.

While her establishment is still one of the only open businesses along the South Shore Metra station, her menu has expanded to more than just sandwiches and coffee. Cheesy grits, fluffy pancakes and chicken with waffles have captured the heart of regular customers whom Chef Sara now regards as relatives. 

“We’ve built this business on family,” said Chef Sara. “On the comforts of being at home.”

Cooking at home was always a central part of Phillip’s childhood. According to Chef Sara, her mother made the best rice pudding and her grandmother made the best chicken and dumplings. Saturday mornings in particular were special, when breakfast always meant fish and grits. 

“Because we would have fish on Friday and (my mother) would have it leftover,” Chef Sara explained. 

Chef Sara’s Cafe menu takes inspiration from the comfort foods of Phillip’s childhood, while also incorporating customer requests and suggestions throughout the years. 

In truth, Chef Sara said, her customers are the ones that put the menu together. 

For example, the most popular menu item — the Granger Arranger (a salmon burger served with sauteed greens and rice pilaf) — is based on the loyal customer who requested the meal. 

Other loyal customers also have their own menu item, such as: The Billy Boy (sauteed mixed greens, brown rice pilaf and cornbread) and Cook’s Breakfast Bowl (one egg any style with your choice of sausage and cheese or butter grits). 

“We’re still working on one for Chief,” Chef Sara said. 

Chef Sara’s Cafe is now an integral part of South Shore’s identity — though Phillips could never have imagined it when she first started. 

Just before retiring from her career as a flight attendant, she attended culinary school in Chicago to be a personal chef. 

When the sale of her restaurant’s current location was offered to Phillips, she decided to take the chance. 

“I took the opportunity because you never know. If I would have turned it down, I would have never been here,” said Chef Sara. 

The first few years, however, were a struggle. 

“I thought about giving up many times,” Chef Sara said. She recalled trying to promote her restaurant by giving away free coffee at the South Shore station. 

But something compelled Phillips to continue. 

“I didn’t want to stop. I just couldn’t,” said Phillips. “Giving up is not in my vocabulary.”

Over a decade later, Chef Sara’s Cafe’s strong family of customers is a far-cry from the gang-ridden media portrayal of Chicago’s South side communities.  

South Shore is ranked as “one of the most dangerous” neighborhoods in Chicago based on multiple sources, including the first result that pops up on a Google search.  

Screenshot of Google Search of “most dangerous neighborhoods in Chicago” as of May 2024.

Yet media representations that focus solely on a neighborhood’s crime levels paint an incomplete picture of an area’s multidimensional character and contribute to city segregation.  

“There’s good and bad people in every neighborhood,” said loyal customer Bill, who has lived in South Shore since 1969. 

He has seen South Shore undergo many changes throughout the years — since the time when Blacks and Jews were excluded from the South Shore Country Club, which is now the South Shore Cultural Center.

“South Shore is a beautiful neighborhood,” said Bill. 

New employee Clark agreed. “There’s a perception that it’s not safe. People who live here think otherwise,” she said. “Certain blocks aren’t safe, for sure. But that’s anywhere you go. There’s danger anywhere you go.” 

One thing that politics and unjust media depictions cannot take away: the communal haven that Chef Sara has organically created. 

From grocery shopping and prepping, to baking and cooking, Phillips still loves every aspect of her job (except cleaning). But her favorite part is the interactions she has with customers who have become family. 

Because of them, Chef Sara said, “This is my place.”

Chef Sara Phillips. Photo by Lydia Schultz.

Header by Samarah Nasir