Boo hoo.

A great loss. Personally, I love her/their work and I love that she has the balls to speak her mind. Too many don't.

I don't go nearly as often as I like because of the cost, but I'll be damned if I don't get one last cannoli before they close.

Jazzfood wrote:Personally, I love her/their work and I love that she has the balls to speak her mind. Too many don't.

Speak her mind about what, exactly? In her case, "speaking her mind" seems to be about borderline-insane, circular rants in which she unfairly and meanly skewers the appearance of her customers, and then when her customer base drops off as a result, and prices need to be raised, she rants about how Chicago doesn't understand true artisan pastry, because they're unwilling to pay the prices they've set for them. She's got talent, for sure, but it takes more than talent to run a successful business. A real shame, indeed. (In the meantime, a place with a similarly-minded business model is still going strong, for now. Here's some perspective on this issue. Must be the water in Andersonville.)

I was in there Saturday.

She was in a spectacular mood. Practically gushing with descriptions of her stuff and the friendliest I've ever encountered her.

I love her "stuff" and will miss it.

What inside information do you have about a diminished customer base being the reason for higher pricing? Sounds like speculation.

Even I'm tired of this debate about Natalie's tweets, which is really saying something. Can't we all move over to the Fox & Obel thread for our ranting? Or resurrect some Plotnicki chatter?

I'm sorry to see them go, even though I wasn't happy with recent price increases. They filled a valuable niche in Chicago for unique sweets and baked goods. I honestly can't think of another bakery in the city that would serve as a suitable alternative. Who else does such awesome things with riccotta for example?

I certainly think she could use a better internal "filter", and perhaps a better awareness of the realities of trying to feed families on a limited budget. I get irritated when she throws out "grocery stores are mostly poison" and silliness like that. But I don't mind that she has a particular point of view and I have the highest respect for the Zarzours' work ethic, and I love love love to eat the fruits of their labor. Also her husband, in particular, is a genuinely lovely person.

Cracks me up, every third time Natalie regurgitates 140 characters of no-filter twitter we go 10,000 interpreting. PR ploy, its all a PR ploy. I blame Ellen Malloy. [humor alert]

Kennyz wrote:Even I'm tired of this debate about Natalie's tweets, which is really saying something. Can't we all move over to the Fox & Obel thread for our ranting? Or resurrect some Plotnicki chatter?

I advise everyone to spend their energy on the much more relevant CoatCat sighting.

Habibi wrote:I'm sorry to see them go, even though I wasn't happy with recent price increases. They filled a valuable niche in Chicago for unique sweets and baked goods. I honestly can't think of another bakery in the city that would serve as a suitable alternative. Who else does such awesome things with riccotta for example?

I generally like (a lot) what I've got at Pasticceria Natalina, and I almost, about find it worth the money, the same way a Hoosier Mama pie can be worth it, but I do not believe they have a monopoly on quality ricotta baked goods. Just the other day, my wife and I had another good run at Palermo Bakery on Harlem. I would say at their highest, Pasticceria Natalina is higher, but all around, discounting the occasional clunker, this place in just about, nearly, on par. If nothing else, I do not think PN has cookies like Palermo. Oh, those cookies!

Palermo Bakery
3317 N. Harlem
Chicago

(Rumor has it that the best espresso in Chicago can be found nearby.)

That's not the kind of news I like to hear. It's nice to have a special neighborhood bakery that also draws people from all over the city. I also love her unfiltered rants, except when they border on being overly abusive.

crctim wrote:That's not the kind of news I like to hear. It's nice to have a special neighborhood bakery that also draws people from all over the city. I also love her unfiltered rants, except when they border on being overly abusive.

Tim,

I am with you but don't mind the rants so much. Great product (although one I cannot afford every week) and they are people that really care about what they do.

After talking to her on several occasions, I can say that she is an incredibly warm and intelligent person and will miss their shop.

I, too, will greatly miss PN, Natalie, and Nick. I'm fond of both of them and will be very sorry when they're gone. Though I can't afford to go as often as I would like, I can honestly say that I've never had better pastries than what I've bought there. I'm not saying that better (or equally good) things don't exist elsewhere, I just haven't had them.

I don't particularly care for a few of her tweets; whether they're a PR ploy or genuine is irrelevant to me. But the holier-than-thou reaction of a few people astonishes me. Apparently some folks have never said a nasty or snarky thing in their lives and can't (or won't) cut Natalie any slack. The only reason more people didn't hear it when we were younger is that Twitter didn't exist back then. I certainly said some things I regret in retrospect, including some pretty nasty things. (Hell, I probably still do.) Natalie can say what she likes; I don't have to agree with her...I'm just buying her product. If I only did business with people whose politics, thoughts, and public statements (not to mention private statements) I approved of, I'd have a mighty small circle.

(And as far as the water in Andersonville: if you don't want to patronize PN or Great Lake--both GNRs--be my guest. I guess you'll also have to skip GNR Sunshine Cafe and Anteprima and GNR Hopleaf and In Fine Spirits. And Jin Ju. And don't forget to skip GNR Sun Wah and Big Jones. And Ba Le and GNR Tank Noodle. After all, we wouldn't want you to have to drink our water.)

La ragazzona needs a bigger stage. I'm rooting for her.

whats happening in 10mths? I can imply they are closing, but are they opening anything else? Or moving out of city?

Apparently, they are closing when the lease is up

G Wiv wrote:Cracks me up, every third time Natalie regurgitates 140 characters of no-filter twitter we go 10,000 interpreting.

Agreed. I like to hear myself talk as much as the next person (or read what I post). But this one wasn't even a rant. It was an announcement that she's closing.

Hey everyone, meet you back here in March so we can again going back and forth about what we think of her tweets. Be sure you read her old tweets, though, in case she doesn't say anything new.

Gypsy Boy: I ate at Jin Ju once and wasn't particularly impressed. Sounds like I should give it another chance.

Hey look! We haven't had an update in almost a week!

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/pasticceria-natalina-closing-acre-menu-pipeworks-brewing/Content?oid=2889862

cilantro wrote:Hey look! We haven't had an update in almost a week!

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/pasticceria-natalina-closing-acre-menu-pipeworks-brewing/Content?oid=2889862

I won't buy an $8 cannolo, but I'll pay double to see what she does with one in an erotic film.

Kennyz wrote:I won't buy an $8 cannolo, but I'll pay double to see what she does with one in an erotic film.

Well I know fucking nothing about pastry, but I am -- all modesty aside -- quite the expert on porn. So watch out, Natalie! If there's bad lighting or the plot is hackneyed, you will be hearing from me!

This is quite a bit of drama over pastry. Perhaps she's looking for a spot on the next edition of Top Chef: Just Desserts?

jesteinf wrote:This is quite a bit of drama over pastry. Perhaps she's looking for a spot on the next edition of Top Chef: Just Desserts?

That could be funny. After giving her refined sugar to work with for a challenge, "Refined sugar? Go f*** yourselves."

Having casually chatted with her in the shop a few weeks before the announcement (over tea and biscotti) she did say she wanted to continue to educate herself, experience more, etc.

You might not agree with people that do that, but I think it's great when people choose that over growing complacent with life.

There's a new interview with Natalie in the Tribune:

Sugar and spice and everything …

"It's the most democratic form of natural selection," she says. "Industrial food is going to kill the stupid people."

So it's not because people aren't educated about food, or can't afford decent food, or can't access it in their neighborhoods. It's because they're stupid.

She is such a dick. Will not be missed.

Suzy Creamcheese wrote:

"It's the most democratic form of natural selection," she says. "Industrial food is going to kill the stupid people."

So it's not because people aren't educated about food, or can't afford decent food, or can't access it in their neighborhoods. It's because they're stupid.

She is such a dick. Will not be missed.

I don't think it's people who are uneducated, poor, or in a neighborhood far from Andersonville (socioeconomically and geographically) that she's upset about as they weren't the ones buying from her before her prices tripled. She seems to be particularly angry about the people who used to buy from her and have since stopped.

She doesn't seem to think too much before she speaks and her past comments made it hard to give her the benefit of the doubt, but her disgust with people who she thinks should know better (and buy from her) is a clear theme in the article and in other comments she's made. I haven't seen her dismissive of people who can't afford/don't know about her shop and see no reason to project that attitude onto her.

Suzy Creamcheese wrote:

She is such a dick. Will not be missed.

This is a GNR that will be missed.

It's very difficult, for those of us who like sweets, and don't always want to bake them ourselves, to get good quality product. My scale will lighten, and thankfully I have the dessert exchange.

Every time I was there, I was treated warmly. I watched them treat mothers and children warmly. I never saw anyone disappointed with the product. I gave expensive cookies to friends who said they were fantastic. They would rather spend that money on cheap drinks or cigarettes, to each his/her own on how they spend their money.

Now if I can learn to make that cannolo, I would be a happy camper.

nsxtasy wrote:There's a new interview with Natalie in the Tribune:

Sugar and spice and everything …

A G.I. Jane reference? Basting factory-baked pastry in 'her most expensive butter' before sale? Bakery bathroom sex? This scurrilous article misses any of the fun and beauty that Natalie creates alongside her opinions. Chefs have been pushing craft and persona simultaneously to the edge for centuries. It's a culture of cockiness, but she has some love, and it shows in her shop, if not in her Twitter account. I still see a wink in both, and not in the piece, and I think that does her a disservice, whether she actually cares about public opinion or not.

Santander wrote:This scurrilous article misses any of the fun and beauty that Natalie creates alongside her opinions.

If another opinion is any consolation, Santander, I just read the article and found it not unsympathetic to Natalie. Along with talking about her idiosyncrasies (for lack of a better word), Pang quotes other pastry chefs, bakers and restaurant proprietors in support, or tacit support, of Natalie's products and POV. If I could sum up the overall takeaway of the piece in one sentence, it would be "It's a shame this place is closing."