Fun day out for culinary/baking student in NW burbs?

My brother, who is going to culinary school with an eye on becoming a baker, is coming to visit for a few days. I'd planned on taking him into Chicago to check out some of the great specialty and ethnic bakeries, with a couple of stops at some fun donut and cupcake places. The thing is, his visit got cut short and now we won't have a day to spare to go downtown.

So, I'm looking for places in the Northwest suburbs that a culinary/baking student might find interesting. I live in Schaumburg and I'd really like to find maybe a terrific bakery, maybe an off-the-wall donut shop in this general area. We can go a few towns over, if needed, but we're going to have keep the entire expedition to less than a half day and I'd really like to see two or three places.

I will be frank with you that my brother, while a lovely man, and a maker of tasty things to eat, lives in Western Kentucky and has not had much exposure to many of the last few years of applicable culinary trends. (His small town is in total ZOMG mode because they just got an all-cupcake place.) So while he would appreciate fine breads and pastries or ethnic treats, I can probably get a lot of mileage out of trendy places serving oddball stuff.

Does anything spring to mind? Thanks in advance.

There are several conventional American bakeries in the Schaumburg area, such as Jarosch in Elk Grove Village, but they're nothing out of the ordinary. There's one truly excellent European/French bakery in the northwest burbs, Ambrosia in Barrington. That's a good place to show off upscale pastry, croissants, etc. I bet he'd also enjoy a trip to Mitsuwa, the Asian grocery/mall in Arlington Heights; in addition to all the Asian foodstuffs there, they have a couple of Asian bakeries including Pastry House Hippo, and that's probably exactly what you're looking for in the way of "oddball stuff". Mont Blanc Pastry in Arlington Heights is another small Asian-European bakery close to Mitsuwa but the selection is very limited.

I would also recommend that you visit Ambrosia Euro American Patisserie in Barrington. They are closed on Monday and Tuesday.

St. Roger Abbey in Westfield Hawthorn Mall is also good, but it is far from you. It is the kind of place you visit if you are already shopping in the mall.

Spunky Dunkers is not too far from Palatine. You would go there for the donuts.

Not NorthWest suburbs (although it's NW Chicago) but some of our most unusual bakeries can be found on Devon. There's Argo Georgian Bakery (Georgia as in the country) which has a traditional clay oven dug into its floor and sells some amazing savory cheese-filled pastries (hachapuri). A couple miles East on Devon is Chimney Cake Island which sells its namesake Romanian pastry - a strip of lemony coffee cake dough wrapped around a wooden spindle and baked into a hollow cylinder which is then rolled in various toppings (sugar/cinnamon, Nutella, coconut, etc.). In between those two you can find Indian pastries in a number of locations. Not all are to my liking but it's a nice introduction to Indian pastry. Those spots are also not too far from some of the better Middle Eastern pastry shops (baklava and other sweets).


http://chicago.menupages.com/restaurant ... akery/menu

http://www.chimneycakeisland.com/menu.html

Thanks for the replies, everybody. Ambrosia and Spunky Dunkers sound like the way to to go, with Mitsuwa as well, probably.


I know Chimney Cake Island well, spinynorman. My wife is from Transylvania, so we hit that one fairly often. It is indeed very good stuff.

Since you'll be in the area, also consider Oak Mill Bakery, which has a location in Arlington Heights at 2314 E. Rand Rd.

I second the rec for Mitsuwa- Pastry House Hippo is great and tons of fun!
here some of their offerings:

irisarbor wrote:I second the rec for Mitsuwa- Pastry House Hippo is great and tons of fun!
here some of their offerings:

The Hippo is GREAT! And it is completely different than most you will find. Also, you have to like its Korean counterpart in H-Mart on City Center Ave. in Niles.

I have to say that I am partial to a German bakery:


Heidi's Bakery
103 W Rockland Rd
Libertyville, IL 60048
(847) 362-6434

In addition to the normal stuff, they do a wicked pretzel.


Also, there is a Spunky Dunkers in Palatine:

Spunky Dunkers
20 S. Northwest Highway
Palatine, IL 60074​
http://www.spunkydunkers.com/

shorty wrote:St. Roger Abbey in Westfield Hawthorn Mall is also good, but it is far from you.

I had not heard of this place, so I stopped by there yesterday to try it. Only to find that they were closed all day for Ash Wednesday. Closed for Ash Wednesday? Seriously???

I appreciate the suggestion, though, and look forward to trying it on some other occasion.

I had not heard of this place, so I stopped by there yesterday to try it. Only to find that they were closed all day for Ash Wednesday. Closed for Ash Wednesday? Seriously???

St. Roger Abbey is ran by the Fraternite Notre Dame Order. According to their website:

"A few years ago, our Father Founder started our Religious Order at the service of the poorest of the poor, throughout the world.

We, the Nuns, Friars and Priests, dedicated to this Cause, had much trouble to gather enough funds in order to help our poor people, our Missions in developing countries, and to pay our bills."

I am not surprised at all that they would be closed on Ash Wednesday.

nsxtasy wrote:

shorty wrote:St. Roger Abbey in Westfield Hawthorn Mall is also good, but it is far from you.

I had not heard of this place, so I stopped by there yesterday to try it. Only to find that they were closed all day for Ash Wednesday. Closed for Ash Wednesday? Seriously???

I appreciate the suggestion, though, and look forward to trying it on some other occasion.

So sorry to hear that. On a sidenote, I believe that they only accept credit card for purchases over $10. I like their chocolate croissant, tarts, and the apricot nest. Some of the people working behind the counter (who are not nuns) are volunteers.

shorty wrote:

nsxtasy wrote:

shorty wrote:St. Roger Abbey in Westfield Hawthorn Mall is also good, but it is far from you.

I had not heard of this place, so I stopped by there yesterday to try it. Only to find that they were closed all day for Ash Wednesday. Closed for Ash Wednesday? Seriously???

I appreciate the suggestion, though, and look forward to trying it on some other occasion.

So sorry to hear that. On a sidenote, I believe that they only accept credit card for purchases over $10. I like their chocolate croissant, tarts, and the apricot nest. Some of the people working behind the counter (who are not nuns) are volunteers.

The place was located at Algonquin Commons since 2005:

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=2386&hilit=st+roger+abbey