You can visit the portal thingy (i did after rebuilding tavern and getting 1st level in reputation) and unlock recipies there. If you do some quests, the Mai asks you to go to ur tavern. If u go to the tavern, mai like teleports you to the entrance of the door and text just skips idk really how to desribe this. Mai/Mei soft locks at the entrance too, if u unlocked recipies before starting this story segment
#[Fixed] Story bug
rancid yew
quasi meteor
It'll be fixed in the next patch.