Awesome advice. Thanks!

What's a honey badger?

mrefjl wrote:What's a honey badger?

It's described in TOC as "a sweet honey almond cake that's a play on a bear claw" (and Bad Wolf's as one of the 100 best dishes they ate in 2014).

Incidentally, I think the caption in the previous post has the two pastries reversed; if I'm not mistaken, the honey badger is the one shown on the left in the photo.

Pretty excited to try Jonathan's latest offering, the Boeuf-Amann: http://skyfullofbacon.com/blog/?p=5704

I will stand in line once he introduces his coffee with lard diet.

Tambreet wrote:Pretty excited to try Jonathan's latest offering, the Boeuf-Amann: http://skyfullofbacon.com/blog/?p=5704

You've fascinated me, and disgusted my darling wife, Jonathan!

That's nothing--until you've had the famous OFD fritter/Calumet Fisheries smoked peppercorn salmon combo, you're still in the bush leagues. Stevez may have photo evidence of the deliciousness

Although I like pastry, I don't find the combination of a supersweet pastry - and Jonathan's kouign amann and OFD's apple fritter are among the sweetest anywhere - with a savory protein appealing. But tevs. I'm glad people find new foods they enjoy!

While the Bad Wolf post is for, I assume, April Fools day, I have to confess to being one of the people who actually ate the OFD fritter/Calumet Fisheries combo on a car trunk in an Indiana parking lot. Ahhhh.....memories.

mbh is correct--the Bad Wolf concoction will likely get you a smile but no beef if you try and order it. But the OFD Smoked Salmon Fritter Sandwich was 100% real

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Bad Wolf Coffee Owner Selling Cafe, But Hopes Pastries Will Stick Around

Boo. Another addition to Chicago's varied list of short-lived oddball terrific pastry shops. I hope very much that the BW magic is transferrable and scalable, both for Jonathan's sake and ours. But I'd be pretty surprised. One can already pretty easily tell the pastries made by his hand from those of his newer sidekick(s) despite the identical recipes and equipment. I'm happy to think he can retire from Chicago as an undisputed superstar and use that momentum to do great things back in SC.

Thanks everyone. I'm going to miss you all. I really do feel confident that someone will carry on bad wolf well and push to expand it like I would have wanted. And I really would like to write the book.

I am so bummed! I will definitely have to get over there every chance I get now.

The kouign amann I had this morning might have been the best one I've had at Bad Wolf. The cheese danish was definitely the best I've had anywhere and the blueberry muffin was a great, great treat.

When this place leaves, it will be a massive loss for our pastry scene. Along those lines, does anyone know Jonathan's firm departure date?*

*Secretly and selfishly hoping he's already left as that would mean the quality has survived him leaving.

It's great to know that good stuff is still coming out of that kitchen. I hope I haven't missed my chance to have a chat with Jonathan.

I was in there today, he said he hadn't decided when he's leaving, but he'd let everyone know.

knitgirl wrote:I was in there today, he said he hadn't decided when he's leaving, but he'd let everyone know.

Yay! I might get there tomorrow, as I have an appointment in the area. Go, Jon, go! And no, I don't mean leave. Just enjoy yourself.

bean wrote:

knitgirl wrote:I was in there today, he said he hadn't decided when he's leaving, but he'd let everyone know.

Yay! I might get there tomorrow, as I have an appointment in the area. Go, Jon, go! And no, I don't mean leave. Just enjoy yourself.

Also the young woman who was there on Sunday did all the baking. I couldn't detect a difference in the kouign aman or the canele.

Looks like the time has come. 2 more weeks based on today's instagram picture.

https://instagram.com/p/7VLbM3KoOc/

Got there at 12:28 today and there was exactly one pastry left - a solitary and delicious blueberry bar. I doubt we're looking at anything like a Hot Doug's-closing event but it'll be smart to get there on the early side over the next 2 weeks.

It's down to 1 week. I went Saturday and all that was left were the blueberry bars. Yesterday I went earlier and got 2 caneles. I didn't want to be greedy or I would have bought more. I did have a good time talking breakfasts around the north side with someone else who was waiting. I asked him how early you have to get there for a kougn aman. He said 8:00 is a good time.

I feel a bit wrong writing this, it's kind of like speaking ill of the deceased at a eulogy, but I was severely crestfallen after visiting Bad Wolf yesterday.

I went once over a year ago, maybe two, and had a canele (my first ever and quite delicious) and a paris-brest (competently executed but admittedly not a favorite of mine). I don't normally eat pastries from shops as I find them subpar and overpriced, though it is my understanding the pricing is necessary and not out of a desire to gouge the customer. However, with Bad Wolf closing I wanted to get back to try their kouign amann. We also grabbed the well-regarded and novel honey badger.

The honey badger was very unexciting. Just a honey flavored cake with a bit too prominent almond extract flavor. The cake crumb was not particularly pleasing either; I would say the texture was a bit dry and thick. The edges, however, had a pleasant crunchiness.

The kouign amann tasted good (how can it fail to be with all that butter?) but was really disappointing. It tasted like a slightly sweet croissant. There was almost no sugar on the exterior to form the signature caramelization and crunch. Finally, ours was weeping copious amounts of butter.

I am not a regular, so I can't say if this is some kind of lame duck period for the shop or actually indicative of the quality of its product over the years.

Had what might be my last kouign amann today. Even after sitting in a bag for 12 hours, it was still amazing. Hopefully my saint of a girlfriend is up for visiting two days in a row and picking us up some pastries so that we can enjoy them one last time.

Today is indeed the final fay as Jonathan picks up and moves his operation for Charleston. The pastries were as good as ever today too. I've heard some rumors the location will likely remain a coffee shop, but don't know any details.

This reminds me: I need to plan a trip to Charleston.

DNAInfo is reporting former employee Val will be opening a coffee/pastry place in the same space early next month.

I'm definitely excited to have a similar option back near the Paulina stop.

Jonathan is not one to suffer ignorance. I'm sure Val will keep up the tradition.

Bad Wolf is now Loba Pastry + Coffee. New thread here.

Thanks,

=R=
for the Moderators

Commenting about Lost Larson got me thinking about Bad Wolf. Some googling revealed that Jonathan Ory closed the Charleston location of Bad Wolf in February and has left the culinary world entirely to embark on a career in cybersecurity.