is an intimate, pop-up dining experience that focuses on building community and lasting memories through entirely house-made food, warm hospitality, and a meticulously curated experience…

SALT SPOON, in its original format, is on hiatus as its founder Eric Reeves works to revamp a new space in Chicago’s Bucktown neighborhood and breathe new life into this project. Read on to learn more about how it started, how it exists today, and where it’s going tomorrow…

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Eric Reeves custom tailored his career to develop both culinary expertise and his own style of hospitality. After working in kitchens and dining rooms for the likes of restaurant groups including Land and Sea Dept., 16” on Center, Boka Restaurant Group, and Caramelized Productions in both Chicago and Los Angeles, he set out to put his unique blend of front and back of house experience at the base of a series of intimate dining experiences.

Salt Spoon was started in 2017, when Reeves originally transformed his South Loop home to provide these experiences to groups of 10 guests at a time. The food was served in a tasting menu format, and its inspiration, as is often the case with modern cuisine, shifted seasonally. Because it was a small operation - light on its feet, so to speak - it was able to reinvent itself often. As the inspiration changed, so too, did the surrounding framework. The entire space would be transformed in new ways at the change of every menu. Floral arrangements, lighting schemes, tablescapes, and playlists were curated to invoke new feeling. Eventually collaborators were invited to partake and brought new perspectives and expertise to the table. Sommeliers, florists, mixologists, artists, and other chefs folded in their inspirations. Tables of strangers would come together into a comfortable space, for an elevated experience, and make genuine connections, leaving as friends. (Some of our favorite moments and menus are captured in the gallery below.) As the community grew, so did the experience’s popularity. Our guests began to generously share an evening with their own groups of friends and family. Reeves was honored to serve these private groups, but the magic of bringing together strangers and building community began to dissipate, and so grew the first new branch on the Salt Spoon Hospitality tree...

Salt Spoon Tavern came about in 2018 in an effort to refocus on the building of community. While the more formal tasting course menu format continued to exist, Tavern offered a more casual, three-course, family-style experience for larger groups of people that was never made available as a private event. (To see former menus and the Salt Spoon Tavern gallery, navigate to the page using the “pop up experiences” link at the top of the screen.) Serving familiar food, made with integrity, from scratch, allowed the guests to be nourished simply and to focus more on connecting with each other.

The 2020 pandemic brought these events to a halt, but the spirit of companionship that inspired them lived on when the third branch of Salt Spoon Hospitality grew into Salt Spoon Bakehouse. Though we were no longer able to break bread with our guests in person, focusing on baked goods let us continue to build community and stay connected while we were all forced to be so far apart. Through pickup and delivery offerings, Salt Spoon Bakehouse was able to bring fresh, naturally leavened bread and specifically, handmade bagels to Chicago and its surrounding suburbs. Bakehouse still lives on today and Reeves has a strong following of avid bagel lovers. (To learn more about Salt Spoon Bakehouse, see pictures and menus of our offerings, and learn how to get your hands on our baked goods, navigate to the page using the “pop up experiences” link at the top of the screen.)

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Reeves has relocated to Chicago’s Bucktown neighborhood where he is in the process of renovating a new space with plans to revive this one-of-a-kind pop-up experience in the near future.

To be added to our Guest List and receive an invitation to our next event, please sign up at the bottom of the page...

We use locally-sourced and organic product whenever possible and prepare every component in house, from fresh-baked breads and pastas, to hand-churned ice creams and sorbets...

Season 1

SEASON 2

Season 3

Season 4

For other questions regarding any of Salt Spoon Hospitality’s offerings please email info@saltspoon.com