Traditional bakeries in Oak Park?

Forget the schools . . . are there any good, old-school bakeries in Oak Park? Moving there soon from Evanston and will really miss Tags, Bennison's, Swedish Bakery, etc.

I know about Kays, but despite the charming sign and staff I think the place is pretty sub-par. Decent for a birthday cake now and then, but everything else is mediocre to poor. And the place isn't terribly clean or fresh smelling-- even Dunkin' Donuts changes the oil in the deep fryer every decade or so.

West-side bakery lovers: Your thoughts? Thanks!

Sorry, there's nothing approaching Bennison's for bread. And just wait till you start looking for a good bagel (Onion Roll deli on North Ave is as close as you'll come). But, possibly better than Kays for cakes and doughnuts

Oak Park Bakery
904 S. Oak Park Ave., Oak Park 708-383-1712

viewtopic.php?p=183465#p183465

For good Italian bread, make your way to Freddy's Pizza

http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=3723

The only thing I like from Kay's are their paczkis . Athena's Silverland in Forest Park has tasty M&M cookies. Marion St Cheesemarket carries Red Hen bread and they make delicious croissants in house. I have only had an angel food cake with chocolate from Oak Park Bakery that wasn't very good. For baked treats I normally drive up Harlem, north to Palermo Bakery.
LO

There are several very good bakeries North on Harlem Ave.
Along with Palermo here are 3 of my regulars.

Domino's Pastries (est 1952)
1745 N Harlem Ave Chicago
just North of North Avenue
http://www.dominospastries.com

Reuter's Bakery (in business 81 years)
7177 W Grand Ave
just east f Harlem Ave
Chicago
773-889-1414
http://www.reutersbakery.com
Outstanding selection of Coffee Cakes

Kolatek's Bakery
2445 N. Harlem Ave.
Chicago, IL 60707
773-637-3772
Just North of Grand Ave
This is also an outstanding Polish Deli

Also
Liborio Bread Bakery has a retail store
in front of their plant at
8212 Grand Ave
River Grove, IL 60171
708-452-7222
Go Early!

I second Liborio's though it's not in Oak Park proper, but close. An old fashioned Italian place, their breads are superb, and the pizza bread second to none. When I first got back to Chicago after grad school I worked with an old Italian guy who lived in Melrose park. Often before rehearsals at his house we'd hit Buono Beef and Liborio's to gain sustenance for the work ahead.

Hi,

If Southern is your tradition, then try Laury's Bakery in Oak Park.

Laury's Bakery
12 Madison,
Oak Park IL 60302
(773) 378-1880
www.laurysbakery.com

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:http://www.laurysbakery.com

Their website does not appear to be working. Not for me, anyway.

I agree with varying degrees with many of the ideas mentioned in this thread.

Liborio has one of the better of that kinda bread around town (especially good if combined with a trip to Gene n' Judes), but for that character of bread, I'd rather Freddy's. Still, I do very much like Liborio's friselle, very versatile!

Many of the coffee cakes at Oak Park Bakery are quite good, and I find better than Reuters generally. My only problem is, we (I mean as society) are not a coffee cake eating society anymore. I mean who "stops by". I keep telling my wife I want to start a daily minyan at Oak Park Temple so as to have an excuse to eat coffee cake. I also like their donuts and their paczki's are amongst the best period.

I'd say I used to be more enamored with Reuters. It's one of those places that I love in theory, a real old school, all purpose bakery. I just wish they'd use better ingredients. I mean they make a seasonal plum cake that's quite good.

On the other hand, no one's using better ingredients than Marion St. Cheese, and their pastries are about as good as they get. They are, by far, the best danish I know in the six county area.

A close second best to Marion St. in high quality pastries is the stuff made by the French Nuns with the mission on Chicago's west side. You can find their pastries at various markets including the winter markets Ann Fischer mentioned. For instance, they were at the market yesterday. You can also try calling them at 773-261-0101 to order some stuff (a bit of French would help here).

The problem I find with the Italian pastry places is one of freshness. Hit Palermo or Claudio or someplace else at the right time, and the stuff is exquisite, a day later and it's awful. The new guy at Claudio is talented, he just has real turnover problems.

Gosh I'm a fan of Kolatek, awesome prepared foods--go on Friday for the smoked fish! For Polish pastries, however, I'd rather go just a bit further to Cookie Monster's Delightful Pastries.

Unfortunately I live in Oak Park and have nothing to add. Reuter's is like a very poor man's Bennison's. Not that Bennison's is that amazing to begin with. The donuts at the farmer's market are good in the summer. They are hot and fresh, but come from a mix. When in need of a french loaf I go to Marion Street Cheese Market and get the Red Hen brand. Pasticceria Natalina in Andersonville is only an hour away!!

I have to put in a good word here for Reuter's rye bread. It is the real deal. Having been raised on Reuter's, I could never understand why people got so excited about the Berghoff's rye bread.

Full disclosure: My grandfather worked at Reuter's most of his life. He retired in 1965 and has been dead 30 years now, but the best Father's Day gift I ever came up with for my dad was an annual 3 hour round trip (by bus) to Reuter's for rye bread and coffee cake.

Jamie wrote:I have to put in a good word here for Reuter's rye bread. It is the real deal. Having been raised on Reuter's, I could never understand why people got so excited about the Berghoff's rye bread.

I'll also put in a good word for Reuter's. They sell one of the two best chocolate éclairs in the city, and their chocolate donuts deserve to be in any top 5 list as well (something you can't say about Bennison's).

stevez wrote:They sell one of the two best chocolate éclairs in the city

...along with...?

My nominee for the best eclair in the suburbs is Three Tarts in Northfield...

You know what's ridiculously good at the Oak Park Bakery - German Chocolate Coffee Cake. Moist, high-flake kringle-like base drizzled with chocolate, and then a huge schmear of sticky, buttery coconut frosting. One of these per weekend kept us going while setting up house this summer and fall.

nsxtasy wrote:

stevez wrote:They sell one of the two best chocolate éclairs in the city

...along with...?]

Roeser's Bakery, another old school gem (located nowhere near Oak Park).

Roeser's Bakery
3216 W. North
Chicago, IL
773-489-6900

... and nobody mentioned ...

Vesecky's Bakery‎
6634 Cermak Rd (just east of Oak Park Ave)
Berwyn, IL 60402
(708) 788-4144

For shame.

My goto spot for coffee cake when I need to bring some into work. A nice Czech bakery that has authentic desserts and breads.

Not right in Oak Park but close enough. Awesome!

Ann, LO, Marshall, Cathy, Steve, Jamie and others: Thanks for the great tips on Oak Park (and beyond) bakeries. Sounds like my fears of a yeast- and goody-free existence in Oak Park are at least somewhat unfounded.

I had completely forgotten about the proximity to some of the Italian places mentioned, and learned about a few old gems I've never heard of. Can't wait to try . . .

The Turano Baking Company across the street in Berwyn is an unsung hero of the region, doing yeoman's work getting reasonable bread to many of the market chains, and saving the very best stuff for their bake shop on Roosevelt:

Turano Baking Company
6501 West Roosevelt Road
Berwyn, IL 60402

I can't tell you how happy this place makes me at the holidays, though I stop by in "Ordinary Time" as well. With pictures to come, they make some Calabrian specialties with pride and skill, including lemon-frosted knot cookies, almond paste crescents and roundels, and a sfogliatelle (Neapolitan, but they make a Calabrian version, the kind my family calls "a-shvooyatz"). At Christmas, they make beautiful tree cakes, citron tortes, and my favorite, a tiramisu tower with the ladyfingers on the outside which is almost too pretty to devour. Their cannoli are not my favorite (Domino's when the shells are right out of the oven are jewels), one slightly weaker link. They have particularly elegant, well-designed, thick-walled boxes which make what's inside easy to gift; their dry cookies are $9.99/lb and a half of a pound of mixed biscottini and chocolate chip cookies is a present most would appreciate for their coffee.

Oddly, at Eastertide they make Irish soda bread and hot cross buns, which are also delicious and quite authentic.

Not your everyday traditional bakery for coffee cakes and donuts, but for Italian specialties and breads you don't see at every Dominick's (again, they save the great stuff like the pane mariano, little ciabatt' and focaccia for the shop), I endorse Turano. One caveat: there is a big facility behind the place making things for distribution all over the city, so the controlled conditions tend to yield a lower-moisture product across the board than some of the smaller artisanal shops like Freddy's. This does not bother me in the slightest since dry baked goods are what I grew up with (and experienced in coastal Italy). The loaves are perfect for sandwiches and pastas (heated and brushed with oil if you like), and the sweets keep very well right at room temperature on the counter.

I am a frequent flyer at Turano for fresh bread, and always find it hard to leave the shop without a few lemon squares. Definitely not he best I have ever had, but I like them a lot, and they seem to be a fav orite amongst their customers, because on several occasions when I've stopped in, they were sold out. Just adding another thing for folks to try if they visit.

I didn't see a post here recently, so I thought I would give an update on Oak Park Bakery.

I stopped in this morning and picked up a piece of swedish flop and 3 smilely face cookies for the little ones at home. They are still hitting on all cylinders. There were at least a dozen different donut varieties and even more coffee cake and danish varieties.

I really miss those old fashioned bakeries...Glad to see Oak Park Bakery is still around.

KevinT

KevinT wrote:I didn't see a post here recently, so I thought I would give an update on Oak Park Bakery.

I stopped in this morning and picked up a piece of swedish flop and 3 smilely face cookies for the little ones at home. They are still hitting on all cylinders. There were at least a dozen different donut varieties and even more coffee cake and danish varieties.

I really miss those old fashioned bakeries...Glad to see Oak Park Bakery is still around.

KevinT

Oak Park Bakery was the bakery of choice for my parents all through my childhood, and I have a lot of good memories of their coffee cake, butter cookies, donuts, and cakes.

So now that my wife and I live 2 blocks away and I can walk by any time they're open, well... my waistline has seen better days