SOUTH SHORE — Chef Sara’s Café has proven that fresh food sells on the South Side of Chicago, and the chef behind the restaurant has finally accepted her success.

“I didn’t have 6 cents set aside,” Sara Phillips said, looking back at when she started her restaurant at 7201 S. Exchange Ave.

In 2011, Phillips had spent six years selling deli items from the back of a truck outside beauty shops and offices and doing the occasional personal chef job. She admitted starting a cafe wasn’t even on her mind because no one was doing anything similar on the South Shore.

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Chef Sara – by Phyllis E. Roker
In Medias Res Vol. 2 Summer 2013

Sara Phillips is a chef with a plan. Her plan entails creating a comfortable space and good healthy food to eat. Chef Sara’s Cafe located in Chicago’s South Shore community is where she has begun to follow her passion. For the past 32 years, Sara Phillips worked for TWA Airlines as a flight attendant. Familiar with first class quality, her goal was to bring that idea to her current customers.

After her retirement from the airlines, Ms. Phillips reflected on some of her favorite times during her youth. That was watching her mother cook and enjoying whatever the meal was that she created. Her decision to attend the Art Institute Culinary School felt like a natural progression.

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