Melissa

was photographed by Clayton Hauck
at See You Soon during a Keep it 100 session
on February 5, 2025.

Interviewed on location and edited by Clayton Hauck

My ancestors were deported from something called the Highland Clearances.

Melissa’s Music Playlist:

All right, how are you feeling today? How you doing?

Good. I’m enjoying this espresso and tonic from Dayglow downstairs. I thought I’d treat myself before this.

Are you big coffee drinker?

No, so I'm gonna be very energetic later. I mean, I love coffee, but it makes me a little crazy. I gotta be careful with it.

Are you a food person?

Yeah, I’m a food person. I was the food and drink editor at Chicagoist and now I'm one of the moderators of Chicago food sub-reddit.

We did we did some restaurant buyouts recently. We got $50,000 from Reddit, and we bought out, I think like five restaurants: Kyoten, Cariňo, Cellar Door Provisions, Akahoshi — so people got to dine free!

That's awesome. What are you some a couple of your favorite restaurants? and why?

Probably Taxim. It's a regional Greek restaurant in Wicker Park and they just have a Greek food that I've never had elsewhere. It's more Middle Eastern, kind of, inspired. They have this one ice cream, it's called salep, it's made with like orchid root. And and they have mastic, which, it's a liquor made out of a tree resin. It’s really interesting.

Is there like a hidden gem restaurant that comes to mind?

Gosh, I passed Casa Yari when I was coming here … and they have really amazing vegan and non-vegan food. They have a fried chicken sandwich, but they have one with mushrooms too, and they do really cool vegan stuff. I'm not a vegan, but they have this fish dish, like a vegan version, and I was like, “Did I accidentally order the fish?” because it was like a coconut stew and they use eggplants instead of fish. Oh, and they have my favorite fried cauliflower wings in the city.

What about travel? Do you have a favorite place you've ever been or a dream destination you've never been?

I used to live in Sweden so I've been back there a few times and I went to school — my senior year college there at the Swedish University of Agriculture. I did not end up working in agriculture but, you know, it was a really good time.

I love Scotland. I went to the Isle of Mull, and I worked on a farm there for Worldwide Workers of Organic Farms. It's an organization where you volunteer at a farm in exchange for room and board. And I stayed on the island at this farm and did some random farm chores, and like kind of hung out, you know?

I've been to Scotland as well and I loved it there. Do you feel like you could live in Scotland year round?

I want to, but I hear it's actually not that good to live in.

Why not?

I guess, like there's no jobs there (laughs). But if I retired, maybe! Maybe it's affordable to live there. I don't know. Maybe if Scotland becomes independent they'll have like right of return, or let people whose ancestors were deported from Scotland, like mine were, let them back in.

My ancestors were deported from something called the Highland Clearances. The Highlands had people who were small farmers, and the lords of the land, they wanted to graze sheep on that land, so they had a lot of the small farmers deported. (wikipedia)

Wow, how long ago was that? I'm not familiar!

Like 1700s? 1800s, actually?

Is that how your family ended up in the US?

Yeah, that's how the McEwens did.

Interesting. Are you Scotch drinker?

Yeah, I do like scotch. I love Islay Scotches, but Isle of Mull has some good scotches: Tobermory

Do you like exploring different hobbies?

Yeah, I have like a thousand hobbies. Yeah.

Are you like me where you're trying to turn your hobbies into jobs?

I sometimes do and then I regret it often. I started an Etsy for some of my headbands that I make, and I immediately regretted it because I was like, “Oh, I have to go to the post office and like package things. Damn! Maybe I can do digital products instead?” I don't know — I just don't wanna ship anything!

Anything else you want to add?

I met Dennis [Lee — where she heard about this project] back when I was a food writer. I need to do some writing for his newsletter. But I haven't done any food writing in years, so I'm like, how do I get back into it?

One last question! How does it feel to get hundreds of photos taken of you in a very short amount of time?

It's cool. A lot of photos are boring to take, but this I was like, oh, wow, there's so many things that are happening right now.

Cool. I appreciate it. It was great meeting you and talking with you.