Entries Tagged as 'bakery'

New in Logan Square: The Baked Escape

May 19th, 2010 · 2 Comments


Blueberry Cassis

Have you ever sat around with a group of friends and daydreamed about all quitting your jobs and starting a business? For years I’ve done that with a group of my friends. Ed, you’ll bake. Chad, you’ll design the site. Rachelle, you’ll take the photos and maybe bake some cookies too. Kristin, you can manage the project. Someone else, you can do our marketing. And on and on. Daydreaming. Except you know what? Ed actually did it. For years he’s made pies and desserts and cheesecakes for us and now? He’s in business. We are not getting any more freebies!

Let me introduce you to The Baked Escape.


Pecan Pie

The Baked Escape is Ed’s for real bakery. It’s not just a dream any more! He’s all legit now and is using the Logan Square Kitchen to do all of his baking.


Marbled Cheesecake

For sale: Cheesecakes, chocolate lava cakes, cassis cake, pies, cobbler, smores dessert. I’ve tried many of these and they’re delicious. I mean, really delicious. This is one of my favorites:


Chocolate Lava Cakes

Right now, Ed does not have a storefront, but he lives and bakes in Logan Square, so I’m going to call this a Logan Square bakery. Ed is accepting your orders online and by telephone (773-732-4538).

If you have an event coming up, a holiday, a party, or if you just want to binge out on a delicious cheesecake, give The Baked Escape a call. You won’t be let down and Ed will even deliver right to your house (if you’re in the delivery zone).


Vanilla Bean Cheesecake

P.S. Guess who took all of the photos on The Baked Escape website? The girl who is typing this and gained 10 pounds working for cheesecake! (It was worth it!)

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La Boulangerie Coming to Logan Square

May 17th, 2010 · 6 Comments

Last week I read in Dish that a bakery called La Boulangerie is coming to Logan Square. A few days ago I set out to figure out where exactly it’s going to be. So you know how you can enter New Wave Cafe from both Milwaukee Avenue and Logan Boulevard? La Boulangerie will be right on the corner there, the tip of the triangle building.

The people behind La Boulangerie own Cook Au Vin, where they do cooking classes and bake bread for restaurants, but not for retail. This new business will be a bakery and creperie and they say their goal is to create a traditional, 19th century French bakery. They’re going to do freshly-baked baguettes, croissants, country-style loaves, and French pastries all day long. The crêpes will be both savory and sweet and Black Dog Gelato will be providing them with custom-made gelato flavors as crêpe fillings.

But do not think they are going to be old-fashioned, with the 19th century French goal. La Boulangerie plans on launching a delivery program called Bread-Flix. A Netflix, but for bread. So you will be able to go online and choose days to get bread delivered, 2 orders per week minimum. And the bread will be delivered by bicycle. To start, the program will be available for Logan Square and Bucktown.

I saw on their site that this is what they think the storefront will look like.

So they’re keeping the big sign and changing some awnings.

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Panaderia La Central

February 20th, 2009 · 4 Comments

Panaderia La Central, Logan Square, Chicago
Panaderia La Central, Logan Square, Chicago

Every morning when I walk to the California Blue Line train stop I have to resist the delicious smells coming out of Panaderia La Central, a Mexican bakery. Especially on a really cold day… it smells extra yummy then.

One day I will take photos of the interior too, but when you go in all of the baked goods are on shelves that line the walls and are down the middle of the store. You grab a tray and a tongs and take whatever you want. Nothing is marked so if you’re not super familiar with Mexican pastries it can be a bit of an adventure. Every time my dad visits he loves to go to the bakery and grab 10 different things to bring back to us and try. Just about everything is $0.50 per pastry. Some pastries we’ve had from the bakery were good, some were meh. You just have to chance it. Also, we’ve learned that most baked goods are better if you go in the morning and not, say, for an after dinner treat. Oh, and things run out. One night I went in at about 7 p.m. to get a french loaf and they were all gone.

Even though the smells taunt me, I like having this bakery so close to the train and our house.

Felix has Panaderia La Central interior shots and more discussion.

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Getting Settled

November 1st, 2008 · 10 Comments

I’m up kind of early and not motivated to start organizing and unpacking yet. Yesterday after we moved in we had a lot of house calls.

The Latino dry waller who worked on this building came by looking for our developer, David. He had 6 containers of homemade salsa that his wife made and I guess periodically he gives them to David because he knows how much he likes it. David wasn’t around, so he put the salsa in the fridge of the one remaining condo unit in our building, but not before giving me one of them, which was really nice. The dry waller had his adorable daughter with him. She was maybe 6 years old, but she wouldn’t tell me her name. Too shy. Me: “cómo te llamas?” Her: Blank stare.

Later on we went and ate at Taqueria Moran, a nearby inexpensive Mexican restaurant. I was hoping/dreading that this place would be good because we’ll be walking past it a few times every day. If it’s good, score! But then I’ll want to go all the time. I love Mexican food. Verdict? It was good. Dallas loved the carnitas. After lunch we went across the street to the Mexican supermarket. I wanted to get some good chips for the salsa we were given. Also just wanted to check it out. Loads of fresh produce. Hopefully it’s a good quality because it’s really nearby our place. Just looked, it got poor reviews on Yelp. We also stopped into Panaderia La Central, the Mexican bakery, that’s right there. I’d gotten sweets there one time with Jen and Jess when we first viewed the condo, but Dallas had never been. We didn’t get anything, but had fun looking.

Back to unpacking. The Comcast guy came over next to get our internet service up and running. Then the plumber came over to work on finishing up the steam shower (!!) and David the Developer (groan) came over to check in on things. At night, after trick-or-treating Chad helped us move a few more things that we didn’t trust with the movers. Looooong day.

Today we’re expecting to see David again. An electrician is coming over to finish up a few things, a cleaning person is coming over because there’s a lot of dust and dirt on things from construction still, and I think the painter might be coming to take care of some sealing on the stairs. Oh, and the Direct TV is getting transferred over today. My parents are arriving in a few hours to help us out over the weekend. On Monday we have “the trimmer” coming to finish up some things in the bedroom that we had the developer change in the last week before we moved in. Our place is 99% complete but there are still some things on a list that need to be completed with the developer. Hopefully he’s cool and follows through on all he has promised to finish working on.

Now that you read all that, I guess I can show you a few photos of the place! These were taken when I came over before the movers, so it was completely empty. The condo is two floors, like our last apartment was. On the top is the kitchen, dining room, powder room, and living room. The bottom floor is a den/rec room/second living room, spare bedroom that will most likely be an office, bathroom, laundry, master bedroom and master bathroom. We have a private patio space as well as a shared deck on top of the garage. Oh, and a parking space in the garage. Right now our bikes are parked there!

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The Olympics Came to Chicago, and so did The Go Team

October 15th, 2007 · No Comments

Brian’s BirthdaySaturday was Brian’s 40th birthday party, but instead of having some distinguished dinner or fancy party, he and his wife Jill demonstrated why we respect our elders and why they are some of our favorite role models.

Jill planned a party in the spirit of the Olympics and Festivus by getting together at least 35 of Brian’s favorite friends to compete in a 3-stop bar crawl with activities that were basically a microcosm of Brian’s Chicago existence. Olympic medals and prizes were given out to individual event winners as well as an overall Triathacrawl champion. Competing and heckling were greatly encouraged and there were beer specials at each bar to aid in this. Brian Playing PoolBrain’s brother Chad also helped make the party a success by designing a theme that was carried out in every aspect of the party. They used a photo of Brian next to a big 40 at Wrigley Field and created a design that went on the shirt Brian was wearing and on his cake and on some magnet party favors. Jill really got into details and had everything planned out. And somehow kept her head enough to remember to do everything. Like pass out party favors and later on in the night she had other things like Buckeye candy for everyone (Brian is a huge Buckeyes fan).

At Toons, from noon – 3pm, there was lunch and a shuffleboard competition. Justin came in first and won a “gold” medal and a gift certificate to Brian’s favorite meat emporium, Paulina Meat Market. Brian got the silver and Chad won the bronze. Dallas and I skipped the Toons portion of the day because we were running errands and Brian’s Birthday Cakewanted to rest for a while before being out all afternoon and night.

At Southport Lanes, from 3pm – 6pm, there was a cut-throat pool tournament. Justin came in first again, not without a lot of controversy about rules, and won Brian’s favorite movie, Boomerang. Sam came in second and Chad got third again.

Finally, at Guthrie’s, there was an Asshole tournament. Also, Jill ordered Brian’s favorite pizza for everyone, the Chicken Tang Peeza from Yak-Zies. I’d never had it before, but basically it’s buffalo chicken with buffalo sauce instead of the pizza sauce. She also got a cake similar to the one I got for Dallas’ 30th birthday from everyone’s favorite bakery, Dinkel’s. Dallas and I were able to start playing in the Asshole tournament, but we had to leave early to go to the Double Door to see The Go Team.

The Cool KidsAt the Double Door the show was supposed to start at 9pm. We were having so much fun at Guthrie’s and not really interested in The Go Team’s opening bands, so we didn’t arrive at Double Door until past 9. Turns out the opening bands hadn’t started yet. We grabbed some beer and got a spot and were waiting out some DJs that we didn’t really care for. It was so hot though, maybe that’s why. After the DJs were a group called The Cool Kids. They were composed of two MCs and a DJ. They were better than the first group, but we were still The Go Teamanxiously awaiting The Go Team. After The Cool Kids got done there was a long break. It was past 11 and we were still waiting to see what we came for. It was so hot inside Double Door, up front where we were standing.. finally we couldn’t take it any more. So we moved to the back where they had outside doors open and a big fan blowing. It was so much nicer. Sure, we gave up some good spots near the front, but we had so much more fun standing in front of the fan dancing and singing and being goofy. And it wasn’t like we couldn’t see the stage. We still could, just farther away. Oh, and it was closer to the bar.

So, we’re still not sure if anyone ended up winning the Asshole competition or if anyone took home the trophy for winning the Triathacrawl, but we had a great Saturday. Also, because of the show, I didn’t have my camera with me, just my camera phone, so that’s why I’ve got these tiny, crummy photos.

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