HELP - Good Bakeries / Bread on the Southwest Side?

Generally, I've been looking for a good bakery--probably mostly for good bread, even though I wouldn't complain if they happened to have good sweets--on the south side. Although I've been wondering about this for a while, I actually need some assistance today, if possible. I'm firing up my WSM, borrowed another, and doing Brisket and pulled port simultaneously. We're expecting 40 or so people and I wanted some nice, non-jewel/dominicks-prepackaged buns.

For those who may be wondering, SW side would be suburbs such as Oak Lawn, Chicago Ridge, Palos Heights, Palos Hills, Orland Park, etc. This would also include Chicago neighborhoods like Beverly, Mount Greenwood, etc.

So, taking all of that into consideration, any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

It has been a few years but I was always happy with with the bread and the sweets at Wolf Bakery on 95th street in Evergreen Park. It is on the south side of 95th between Kedzie and Central Park. I believe Homan is the cross street,

Lots of good stuff to be had here:

http://racinebakery.com/

Where was the Racine Bakery originally? They must have just moved in the last few years... that building (from the picture) looks brand new.

Is Tuzik's still on 53rd & Kedzie in the city?

Or Baltic Bakery in the Back of the Yards? (They used to have their breads at Dominick's, too. Very good.)

Baltic seems to be MIA lately.

I've never been here but I see their ad all the time. One of the things they advertise is Bacon Onion Buns which eventually will get me there.

Pticek & Son Bakery.
Family owned bakery located at 5523 S. Narragansett, Chicago, IL 60638 - 773-585-5500
http://pticeksbakery.tripod.com/bakerygoods.htm

Fat Tuesday means paczki at popular S.W. Side bakery
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_q ... _n12495115]

greatlakesstar wrote:Where was the Racine Bakery originally? They must have just moved in the last few years... that building (from the picture) looks brand new.

I'm not sure where Racine Bakery was before they moved but I think they've been at their present location (6216 S Archer) more than ten years.

greatlakesstar wrote:Is Tuzik's still on 53rd & Kedzie in the city?

Tuzik's Bakery closed a few years ago after 70+ years in business. A shame, it was a nice old neighborhood bakery with really good paczki. That location is now a panaderia but there's another Tuzik's in Oak Lawn (4955 W 95th).

greatlakesstar wrote:Or Baltic Bakery in the Back of the Yards? (They used to have their breads at Dominick's, too. Very good.)

Baltic Bakery closed earlier this year. You can read a report from two months ago here.

Also posted on a separate thread on Eating Out in Chicagoland:

Driving from Top-Notch Beefburgers to Vito & Nick's, I passed the storefront for Naples Bakery in Evergreen Park, and so stopped to check it out. Naples bakery has been serving the Southwest Side for over 85 years, and they have an article from the Sun-Times (I think) from 1970, labeling them as one of the best bakeries in the city (along with Lutz). I was very pleased by what I ordered: excellent cannoli, very flavorful almond cookies (amaretti), soft lemon cookies (angelettes), rich baba au rhum, and sfogiatellas. I place it in the category of Il Mulino (although without savory dishes), which is a nice category to be in.

I couldn't find a reference to Naples bakery on the board (Wolf Bakery is better known), but it deserves to be recognized. Friendly service, too. They specialize in wedding cakes (and describe themselves as the "home of the famous turtle cookies").

Naples Bakery
3705 W. 95th Street
Evergreen Park, IL 60805
708-424-1810
http://www.naplesbakery.com