The Purple Pig Combines Nostalgia with Delicacy in their Location at The Time Out Market

Three years ago, Nicholas Berggren, a food package receiver at The Purple Pig, created his own peanut butter. On a whim, the 29-year-old thought to add pistachios into the peanut mix. Tasting as he went, his first attempt became a lasting recipe, the work of a mad scientist in the kitchen.

The story of the pistachio peanut butter did not end there.

"I then thought, well, what goes well with pistachio?" Berggren said. "Cherry and pistachio go well together. And what goes good with cherry? Duck. And what goes good with pistachio? Duck. It was a trifecta that all matched up perfectly to make it work.”

The result: a duck prosciutto, pistachio peanut butter and cherry jam panini, the Duck PB&J for short. Nostalgia revolutionized. 

The panini is now the top seller at The Purple Pig stand at the Time Out Market in Chicago’s Fulton-Randolph Market District. But, you can’t find it at The Purple Pig flagship location on Michigan Avenue. Under the direction of Breggren, an ambitious newcomer who taught himself the culinary arts, the renowned restaurant adjusted its menu to The Time Out Market’s larger, less gourmet-focused audience. The demand for a reinvention of the restaurant in a new setting has allowed Berggren to use the Time Out Market as a testing ground for merging the restaurant’s high-end flavors with casual eating. 

Nicholas Berggren manages The Purple Pig stand at Time Out Market. The stand has a prominent location next to the communal high top seating. Joely/ Medill

In 2018, the Time Out Group, a global media and leisure business, reached out to The Purple Pig team to ask them to join the list of vendors at Chicago's Time Out Market food hall. The market brings the city’s top chefs and food under one roof with communal seating to prompt community and cultural exploration. The Purple Pig chef and owner Jimmy Bannos Jr. accepted Time Out’s offer without hesitation, Berggren said.

"Chef Jimmy gave me the blessings to take over [the Time Out Market location] and be the one to open it," Berggren said. "It was an opportunity to hand the baton over.”

When he joined the restaurant in 2014, Berggren was a food receiver, someone who manages food shipments. He had no formal culinary experience. He studied cookbooks, practiced in the kitchen and observed Bannos to learn about food preparation. Seven years later, Berggren can slice cured duck paper-thin, knows about cheeses from around the world and makes his own sausages.

He now manages the Time Out location with 30-year-old Jessica Rodriguez, a sous-chef at The Purple Pig. Berggren and Rodriguez imagined the restaurant would have a deli-style counter at the Time Out Market. Inspired by vendors at Eataly on Ohio Street and Wells Street Market on Wacker Drive, Breggren decided that The Purple Pig would sell cheeses, sausages and cured meat out of a display case.

However, Berggren and Rodriguez’s idea to sell a charcuterie board with nine different meats and nine different cheeses to choose from did not pan out. The Time Out Market opened on Nov. 21, 2019, and while Bannos has a James Beard Foundation Award, The Purple Pig at the market did not get the traffic they expected.

Berggren holds a slice of the duck prosciutto used in the Duck PB&J. Joely/ Medill

Competing against 17 other vendors for customers' attention requires bold yet familiar menu items. The Purple Pig could not just transplant its usual menu to the market, Rodriguez said.

“[At Time Out] we were using cheese such as scamorza, which is a smoked mozzarella," Berggren said. "That's what we do at the Pig. We use high-end products. But here, we had to change the name because people didn't know what it was.”

Thus began the journey of adapting The Purple Pig for the tourist and family consumers that came to Time Out Market. The terminology on all the menu items changed, and they reduced the cheeses and meats for the charcuterie board to six options. The menu changed twice in three months. Berggren worked 60 days straight, he said. And, he added his Duck PB&J to the menu. 

The Duck PB&J is served on thin white bread. Its crunch counteracts the sweet flavors. Joely/ Medill

“[The Duck PB&J] stayed in the brain bank for a while because we didn't really think it was gonna work,” Berggren said. At The Purple Pig, Bannos uses the pistachio peanut butter on his beet and foie gras appetizers. Paninis do not fit in with The Purple Pig’s upscale menu of milk-braised pork shoulder and stuffed squid. But, it works at Time Out Market. To name a few of the popular options, the menu features a meatball sub, grilled cheese and barbecue pork rib sandwich.

“What makes us successful at Time Out Market is having the same great flavors and culture, but also having a more quick and simplified menu,” Rodriguez said.

During January the restaurant averaged about $8,000 a week, and in February they averaged closer to $14,000, Berggren said. After updating the menu, Rodriguez notes an overall increase in foot traffic and steadier business levels. The Purple Pig struggles the most on weekdays due to the lower number of customers as a whole at the market.

Now, a weekly changing specials menu features new creations The Purple Pig wants to test out. Often times, the specials sell faster than the kitchen can catch up, Berggren said. Time Out Market has become the Purple Pig's food laboratory. 

Berggren and Rodriguez put out a special’s menu to test new creations with customers. Joely/ Medill