Beth's Little Bake Shop, Evanston

It's been open about two weeks now and we sampled a few items in the past couple days: jury is still out.

Almond croissants tasted completely plain. Were it not for the label and the sliced almonds spread on top, I would never have guessed that there was a flavor to be discerned. Not a touch of sweetness. Considered as a plain croissant, not bad. But not a croissant I'd rush back to have...simply not particularly flaky or buttery or any of the other characteristics I'd consider to be indicative of a top flight croissant.

Cranberry-orange scone was quite good. Although the shape was a bit difficult to discern--I guess it's what you would call "free-form"--the texture and flavor were very good. Both the Lovely Dining Companion and I enjoyed this and I will buy them again.

Carrot cake cupcake was strike two, however. Very light on the carrot flavor and, worse (at least in our book), not particularly moist. One of those things that if you were blindfolded, I'm not at all sure you'd know what flavor you were eating. And a cupcake that's neither moist nor dry is not a plus in our book. (We note that on her LinkedIn page, Beth says that she was Head Pastry Chef at Swirlz and that she "developed many recipes and flavor combinations that are still being used at Swirlz Cupcakes." Under the circumstances, the extremely understated flavor and lack of moistness seem the more surprising.

Macarons. Split decision here. The LDC liked the several we tried. I didn't. In fairness, I'm just not much of a macaron fan.

I look forward to returning and trying some of the other offerings, particularly the baguettes and the brioche. We'll try more items and report back but for now, it's kinda teetering on the edge for us. It's a small but cozy place and there's a nice selection; the location--directly across the street from the Central Street Metra stop (on the south side of Central)--seems ideal. Since it's so close to our house and is an independent, we'd like to see it succeed. We will keep our fingers crossed for it.

Beth's Little Bake Shop
1814 Central Street
Evanston, Illinois 60201
224-999-7595
hello@bethslittlebakeshop.com

Swirlz is a few blocks from me. I love cake and cupcakes. I've eaten at the Chipolte around the corner more frequently than Swirlz. Those cupcakes are unremarkable, albeit pretty.

Try venturing a couple blocks west to Tag's Bakery. Very old school. Very well done cakes & pastries, though I doubt you'll find anything as continental as a croissant. There is a coffee place right next door that would fit the bill on that front. Both are mom & pop businesses.

Tag's Bakery
2010 Central St
Evanston, IL 60201
(847) 328-1200

Thanks, both.

pairs4life wrote:Swirlz is a few blocks from me. I love cake and cupcakes.... Those cupcakes are unremarkable, albeit pretty.

I'd say that hits the nail on the head. I can only recall going to Swirlz once but I had the exact same impression. I mentioned her connection only because it seemed a relevant piece of information about her background. I didn't mean to suggest that Swirlz is our Platonic ideal of a cupcake.

Steve: We've been to Tag's many times and have always found it perfectly, um, adequate. Neither of us has ever been particularly impressed with anything we've had there. Nothing bad, to be sure. But nothing noteworthy, either. In fact, that was one reason we were so pleased to see Beth's open up. The bakery we enjoy in Evanston is Hewn, but it's not particularly close--certainly not walking distance.

Linz and Vail, the coffee place, is where I usually get my bags of Intelligentsia; I must confess I've always "bought and run," never had any of their pastries or even sat down for a cup of coffee there.

If you want a really terrific croissant in Evanston, go to Patisserie Coralie, the downtown coffeeshop owned by Bistro Bordeaux. Their croissants are easily the best in town, full of flavor and perfectly flaky - unlike the "just okay" ones at Bennison's or the tasteless, dry ones at Hewn.

For photos, see:
Patisserie Coralie in Evanston

The jury's in. Sort of. On visit number two, we bought the following (brioche sold out and scones sold out):

Baguette. Really quite disappointing. Absolutely no crisp to the crust whatsoever. Completely even texture rather than irregular and dotted with holes from carbon dioxide. A very plain, undeveloped flavor, suggesting less than a long rise. The flavor wasn't bad, per se, it just had no nuance, no interest. The baguette itself was also surprisingly light. In a nutshell, nothing about it to like and whether we visit again or not, no baguettes will be purchased. In our neighborhood, the best baguette to be had can be found at Foodstuffs--about a block directly west of Beth's on the south side of Central. They tend to be overpriced but their baked goods are well done. (According to their website, they bake their own product, which makes sense since they supply four northshore outlets.)

Salted caramel cupcake. A distinct improvement on the carrot cake one posted on above. Moister cake, nice flavor. Too much frosting according to moi, not too much according to the Lovely Dining Companion and I am willing to acknowledge that this is a subject on which reasonable minds can differ. (A little).

Oatmeal coconut cookie. Very nice flavor, chewy, and perhaps just a touch dry which is surprising given the coconut. I'd been expecting something a tad moister and although it may be my fault for an unfair expectation, I'd still say a touch dry.

Buttercake. Excellent. Unreservedly. Very rich, very sweet. Extremely moist.

Banana cream cheese muffin. At the risk of seeming to repeat myself: dry and a flavor so mild it's quite disappointing. The cream cheese top is obviously quite moist which makes the dryness of the muffin that much more apparent and, in this case, it wasn't "not moist"--it was dry. Very disappointing.

On balance, we're not particularly impressed. Right now, it is very hit-or-miss. There are clearly reasons for optimism and we hope that perhaps a visit several months from now will show a change for the better. But for now, I think we'll continue going out of our way to go to Hewn.

I popped in (prior to seeing any thing on LTH) and bought an almond butter cake and found
it to be DELICIOUS. Not almondy but delicious, moist flavor. What do you think that recipe is?
Overpriced--that was my only thought.

Glad to hear it. We've always found her prices to be on the high end of reasonable.... I'll keep my fingers crossed for improvement in the entire line of items she offers (although the fact that an almond butter cake didn't taste of almond sadly kinda repeats some of my criticisms, above. Good to know it was moist, though, since dryness seems to be a distinct issue, at least in the items we've tasted).