March 18--"I like to see my flowers bud out first," Rick Bayless wrote on Facebook, "before I say they're going to bloom."
Consider today bud break, as they say in the wine business.
Less than an hour ago, Bayless took to Facebook to reveal new details about Cruz Blanca Cerveceria (900 W. Randolph St.), saying the highly anticipated beer-tasting room and taqueria would open "within two months."
He also revealed plans for the next-door space: Lena Brava, a restaurant focused on the cuisine and wines of Mexico's Baja California Norte. The northern Baja region is a part of Mexico like no other, its cuisine influenced by foreign settlers from various parts of the world.
"It's an incredibly exciting place right now, full of surprises and satisfactions at every turn," Bayless wrote, teasing to ingredients such as yellowtail, sea urchin and abalone from the Baja waters, and praising the "terroir-driven wines."
The kitchen at Lena Brava will be 100 percent wood-fired. "Not even a gas hookup," he said.
Phil Vettel is a Tribune critic.
pvettel@tribpub.com
Twitter @philvettel
