Knowing Your Neighbors: Ritual Salad A new restaurant has opened up in Lincoln Park that serves a healthier option to the community. Ritual Salad offers salad, bowls and occasionally soup. The owner hopes that your experience there will be a magical one. “There’s a lot of delicious salads and bowls in the area, but there wasn’t just a place that focused on that. And so I’m really happy and proud to lead the way to healthier eating,” said Owner Cori Zastera. Cori was a nurse for eleven years, but knew she wanted to someday run a restaurant. “If it’s pretty and beautiful, and there’s love put into it, then anybody’s gonna want to eat it. And I wanted to make salad fun for everybody,” said Zastera. Last July the pieces started to come together for her to pursue her dream. She and her husband found a space to lease in the Craft District and now, a little less than a year later, she is the proud owner of Ritual Salad. “We built all of this ourselves. We tiled. We drywalled. We painted. We did every bit of woodwork. All of this was done by us,” said Zastera. It wasn’t just the set-up and decorating that were done by hand, she also prepares everything for the salads by hand as well. “I created all of my own dressings, and I do everything. We make everything from scratch. We bake the chicken, do all that kind of stuff,” said Zastera. Owning a restaurant serving salads, bowls, and seasonal soups isn’t Cori’s only passion. “I also love practical magic, hocus pocus, all that kind of stuff and I’ve always been a part of that spiritual side. I love to paranormal investigate,” said Zastera. To make the space show her personality, you will also find a bit more than bread crumbs from the croutons. “On the side we have the apothecary. So I have all sorts of fun, whimsical, sort of witchy goodness. When I decided I was going to put the apothecary part in it, I was like ‘You know what, creating a salad should be a ritual.’ And that’s where Ritual Salad came from,” said Zastera. You can take part in your own salad making ritual most days between 10:30am and 6pm. Be sure to check their Facebook page for extended hours and closings once summer arrives.
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