Go ahead. Pull your bread apart piece by piece at The Bristol, Bucktown’s newest artisanal spot. The restaurant’s monkey bread, a biscuity little loaf of dough balls baked into a leavened conglomerate, makes for perfect, fluffy tearing. Each ball is rolled in butter, dill, and sea salt before it’s baked into a fist-size loaf and offered up for $3 on the restaurant’s snack menu. Chef Chris Pandel, Rick Tramonto’s former right-hand man at Tru, favors honest American classics such as roasted organic chicken and stone-fruit panzanella ($17). But the monkey bread, Pandel insists, is the star: If he had his way, you’d order another loaf for the road and divvy it up on the ride home. 2152 N. Damen Ave.; 773-862-5555. 

Photography: Anna Knott