More - Cupcake place on Delaware

I believe that More, Gale Gand's new sweet and savory cupcake place on Delaware, has opened. Has anyone visited and have any feedback to share? Thanks.

More Cupcakes
1 E. Delaware Place
Chicago, IL 60611
312-951-0001
www.morecupcakes.com

There was a blurb about this place in this week's Dish. They gave the impression that Gale Gand was brought in as a consultant on the menu, but that she has no stake in the place.

More (1 E. Delaware Pl; 312-951-0001), the long-awaited Gold Coast sweet-and-savory cupcake shop that got Tru’s Gale Gand and Henry Adaniya (formerly of Trio) to consult on the menu, opens September 12th

Thank you for including "cupcake" and "Delaware" in the subject line - I was worried that the first thread on this place would just pop up with the bakery name, and had just posted this in Site Help:

We're going to have a field day with the new "More" bakery.

http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/ ... plain.html

Do these people do ANY market / searchability research? Favorite line from the article:

More has been promised since last winter, when a press release heralded its imminent arrival as nothing less than the arrival of the cupcake craze in Chicago

You can't even visually parse a sentence like this and come up with the establishment name.

A co-worker had the salted caramel yesterday and thought it spectacular, worthy even of $4.25. I was itchin' for the BLT until I found out it came in a saucerful of ranch dressing (blech).

this was taken on thursday by my husbundt, he works nearby so i asked him to go check it out and there were construction/painting crews there. not open yet...

They at least had a soft opening yesterday (Friday), or had the case accessible to press. It's possible my friend sampled the cupcake through private means (she's a photographer). I'll find out.

I will admit from the start that I am a far more pedestrian diner than many who post here with avid dedication. That said, I am sure that I am as entitled to an opinion about a spot as anyone else, and my comments will be taken for what the reader thinks they are worth. Thus, my preface.

I read the brief in Dish yesterday regarding the opening of More and found myself appalled, sickened and saddened all at the same time. And all for the same reason.

Is there not a point at which our desire to be different, and to find a reason to charge more, takes us just too far away from what something is meant to be? After all, in my opinion, a cupcake is one of the most basic of American comfort foods, and to see them turned into some off-the-wall creation is just a huge disappointment.

No, More is not. It is less.

For me, a cupcake is what Cupcakes on Briar and Molly's are offering, and always will be.

I stopped by on my way back to work from lunch yesterday and they were indeed open. The smell of bacon smacks you in the face the second you walk in the door which prompted oohs and aahs from my other 20-somethings co-workers. I tried both the Bacon Brown Sugar Maple and Bacon Cinnamon Apple cupcakes. Both were great, the Brown Sugar Maple reaching "excellent" status. The do a good job of sweetening up the bacon and really making this a dessert type of pastry. At $4.25 a cupcake, I cant imagine I'll be back too frequently, but its definitely a place to try once. Especially, if you like bacon. And really, who doesnt like bacon?

Commbrkdwn wrote: And really, who doesnt like bacon?

Heretics?

The Trib's Stew blog weighed in on More. With lots of comments, too. Sounds intriguing at the very least.

I went yesterday and purchased a Salted Caramel, White Velvet (described as "white on white"), and a Bacon Sugar Maple -- or whatever it's called. The Salted Caramel was outstanding, the other two just good - -maybe even only "ok." I guess I was expecting "more" and expected every flavor to be on par with the Salted Caramel for the prices they charge. The Bacon Sugar Maple was also a little dry and not as light and fluffy - though maybe the savory cupcakes are supposed to be that way. To be honest, I think I'm one of those people that just prefers my cupcakes to be sweet. The Bacon Sugar Maple kind of reminded me of a high-end dog treat (and I don't mean that in the rude way that it sounds -- wasn't there a "bacon! bacon! bacon!" commercial for dog treats a while back?) If everything were like the Salted Caramel, the place would be unbelievable.

I didn't try the Bacon Maple cupcake but if i had my choice i'd pick that... :] ... a friend brought back the double brie champagne cupcake and i had half... it was good sure, but the brie was really subtle, it almost could have been any old cupcake.

I tasted a selection of More's cupcakes last November at the Food & Wine after-party. I thought they were spectacular. Beautiful, moist, balanced, and memorable. But to call them a cupcake is almost a disservice. I think they are comparable to fine pastries in Paris. Trust me - More's cupcakes far better than some of the pastries at Laduree - and there you would easily pay 6 euros each - that's $8.69 at today's exchange rate. Think about it - if they had a slightly different form and name - let's just call them pastries - would people have such a problem with the price?

Louisa Chu wrote:would people have such a problem with the price?

i would.

Tried three MORE cupcakes last week.

Overall cupcakes are passing, nothing great. For prices being charged they are a disappointment.

Had the maple bacon on second visit and this was the worst of the bunch. Split it into 1/3's and other tasters agreed, cake was too dry and very little maple except in the carmelization of bacon topping.

If you want to have a good cupcake without all of the "fuss", simply head to Southport Grocery, they are still the best in Chicago.

Thanks to Pucca, germuska, aruzin and eli for joining me at More after work yesterday. With the size of our group, I think we were able to sample a very respectable number of cupcakes. I wasn't blown away by anything, but my favorites were the grape brie champagne and the maple bacon. With the former, I liked the use of fresh grapes, the medium density of the cake and the way the brie (though I didn't get a big chunk in my bite like others did) cut the sweetness overall. With the latter, I enjoyed the savoriness of the bacon and the different (kinda doughy, as eli pointed out) texture of the cake. (Side note: I walked into More expecting to be overwhelmed by the smell of bacon, but all I could smell was sugar. We were told that they've actually moved the production of the bacon cupcakes off-site because of how the smell overtook the space.)

Not knowing a whole lot about cupcakes, I was puzzled by the icing on a few of the cupcakes we tried, which didn't seem to have any taste. (Granted, if it did, I'd probably complain that the icing overwhelmed the cupcakes.) What was supposed to be marshmallow filling in the "More" cupcake was also tasteless. Finally, two or three of the cupcakes I tried had very dry cake tops, which was disappointing.

Maple brown sugar bacon


Coconut mango


Grape brie champagne


Salted caramel and More (their version of a Hostess cupcake)


Salted caramel detail


More detail


I think More is definitely worth trying. It's made me curious to try other cupcake places around town. Before meeting the group at More, I stopped by Sarah's on Oak St. and tried one their black and white cupcakes, which unlike More's B & W, is a pretty straight translation of a black and white cookie to cupcake form. It was delightful--dense and moist, with an even split between sides of frosting and cake.

Simply put, More is overrated, but they sure did a bang up job with the PR!

I tried the maple bacon cupcake (too dry), the grape champagne brie (interesting, but not outstanding) and the salted caramel. The caramel was the best of the bunch, but it's no match to the salted caramel cupcake I had from Lark Bakery in Los Angeles.

More reorganized its website and PR to focus on special event ordering, but I confirmed today they still do have a retail case for walk-ins.

I had the BLT cupcake back when More first opened, so please pardon the slightly hazy memories.

The big things I remember is that I thought the ranch frosting was fantastic, great ranch flavor & a really cool texture...kinda airy, not too gooey, and instead of being spread on it almost seemed like it was sitting on top like a big, fluffy, ranch-y pillow (the pics posted in this thread show what I mean). A halved grape tomato served as the "cherry on top".

Unfortunately, the above-par ranch frosting sat atop sub-par cake. The cake portion was very dry & dense, and the bacon bits mixed into the batter were small in both size and number, to the point where I didn't get even a hint of bacon flavor. I was hoping to encounter some chunks of thick-cut bacon...no dice.

So in essence the BLT cupcake was a dry, cakey dinner roll topped with very good ranch frosting & a tiny tomato on top. As far as cupcakes go, my favorite is still Sarah's carrot cupcake...now that thing is a moist, soft, cream-cheesy thing of beauty.

I tried two cupcakes from More today and was pretty impressed, although perhaps more with the originality than the execution. I tried the chocolate hazelnut brittle and the bacon maple cupcakes.

Here are pictures of them, whole and split:





Chocolate Hazelnut Brittle



Bacon Maple

I preferred the chocolate hazelnut brittle cupcake. The cake was delicious and moist and the chocolate frosting and filling were both outstanding. The frosting was as good a chocolate frosting as I have had - silky smooth, dark and rich. My only complaint with the cupcake was that the presence of hazelnut brittle is limited to the sliver of brittle on the top of the cupcake. I would have appreciated some hazelnut flavor below the brittle, and maybe some brittle incorporated into the middle filling. Still, great for the chocolate flavor.

I was slightly less impressed with the bacon maple, although I still liked it. The bacon cupcake was very lightly sweetened and had a nice crumb, even if it was the very slightest bit dry. It was studded with plenty of bacon which delivered great flavor, bacony but not overdone. I was not as thrilled with the frosting. It could have been a little sweeter (it really wasn't sweet at all) and it definitely could have used more maple flavor as the maple really did not come through. Also, too much frosting, although the texture was wonderful.

The chocolate hazelnut brittle cupcake, although lacking a bit in the hazelnut brittle department, was good enough to convince me that I need to return. If I had thought I was purchasing a chocolate cupcake, I'd tell you that it was the best one I had ever had. So I'll definitely be back for More!

More fans:

Just got this in a Restaurant Intelligence Agency email:

R.I.A. wrote:More Mondays for June

To celebrate summer, more is going big for the month of June with its
"more Mondays" promotion. The extravagant offer guarantees every guest one
free cupcake of their choice. No purchase is necessary, and additional
cupcakes are available for regular purchase. Says owner Patty Rothman,
who's celebrating more's new summer schedule and Monday hours, "We'll
pretty much be giving away the store." Limit one per customer per
Monday.

more
Owner Patty Rothman
1 E. Delaware Pl.
Chicago, IL 60611
(312) 951-0001