Introduction to Cafe Yaya
LINCOLN PARK — Many of chef Mary Eder-McClure’s pastries at Lincoln Park’s Cafe Yaya are rooted in the nostalgic flavors of her youth, growing up in a vibrant, multicultural corner of Minneapolis.
As a kid after school, Eder-McClure would wander into an Afghani bakery for a spinach puff one day and stop by a Mexican bakery for a churro the next. The neighborhood where she was raised was comparable to Albany Park — one of Chicago’s most diverse communities — where global cuisines exist side by side, she said.
“That kind of diversity shaped the way I think about food and where I draw flavor inspiration,” Eder-McClure said. “Those foods are nostalgic to me. That’s what I grew up eating.”
Cafe Yaya’s Pastry Menu
Eder-McClure’s childhood influences are baked into the pastry menu at Cafe Yaya, the new all-day café and restaurant in Lincoln Park from the team behind Galit.
The potato boureka at Cafe Yaya, 2431 N. Lincoln Ave., in Lincoln Park on April 10, 2025. Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago
Opened last month at 2431 N. Lincoln Ave., Cafe Yaya gives chef Zach Engel, general manager Andrés Clavero, Eder-McClure and the rest of the team space to experiment and create with more flexibility than they have at Galit.
“One of the things I was most excited about when we opened was being able to use hyper-seasonal produce,” Eder-McClure said. “Working in this environment allows me to do a fresh cobbler or fig crisp, just to highlight the fruit at its peak.”
Pastry Highlights
A close-up photo of the baklava bun at Cafe Yaya, 2431 N. Lincoln Ave., in Lincoln Park on April 10, 2025. Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago
Some of the early highlights for Eder-McClure from the pastry window include savory spinach and feta challah, an apple pie-inspired miso caramel sundae and a classic carrot cake.
“I just wanted to have something comforting and classic on the menu,” she said. “Like, why can’t you go into more restaurants and get a good slice of carrot cake?”
Dinner Menu
Engel has that same flexibility when it comes to the dinner menu.
“A lot of our dinner menu is super simple but still utilizing high-quality ingredients,” Engel said. “We’re not reinventing the wheel. We’re just doing stuff that is approachable, delicious and dishes we could execute at a high level consistently.”
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