Real Pastry: The Places So Good They Stop Me In My Tracks

When did mediocre start passing for great?

When did we start saying it was just plain OK to lie, or accept lies as truth, or say something's great when it's really just mediocre? No, I'm not talking about the McCain/Palin campaign. I'm talking about good bakeries. Like many baby boomers I have a private room in the back of my brain filled with fragrant memories of my childhood bakeries that fed my soul while they were feeding my stomach. I'll never stop searching for that moist delicate Danish Rye bread my mom bought ritualistically every week at Deerfield Bakery. She'd buy "sweet butter" (unsalted) special to schmear on it, then lay on a piece of ham and that was considered a proper lunch in my home growing up. And their cup cakes, pies, and cookies were made with real butter, satisfying you so you never felt like you needed more than one at a sitting.

So what happened? For the last decade I've been searching for that flavor of real butter, real cream, that sublime texture of hand made, not machine punched out, pastries. People will tell me of a place that they think is great but then I go and walk out shaking my head and thinking, "I guess I just have to make it myself." When did our standards get so low and when did we start accepting mediocre as great?

Awhile back I was hired as a consultant at a bakery, which I won't name, and as they were showing me all their ingredients and where they kept them, I noticed a row of spice drawers. Nutmeg, cinnamon, salt, BLOV. BLOV? "What's BLOV?" I asked. The owner said "Huh?" I said, "BLOV? There's a drawer there that says BLOV ... what is it?" Then he said, "Oooooooooh, that's the butter, lemon, orange, vanilla flavoring." That day I knew something had changed in my world ... my tribe was becoming extinct. I exhaled, tried to be understanding, and then thought, NO!

It seems that the downfall of pastries in America parallels the downfall of our health, maybe even our civilization. Do I sound dramatic? It's just that it seems like we just keep getting heavier as the food gets less satisfying and less real. We don't seem to know in this country how to enjoy food and let it really feed us, how to relax, how to savor time with family and friends, how to stay balanced and how to be sensitive to what we need. So I've been hunting for my tribe of pastry chefs making real food, real pastries. The people that bake with real butter, real vanilla, real everything. And I think I found a few. So, in my eternal search for real pastry, recently I found not one but two kitchens to satisfy my over-educated palette and very high standards. Here's the places that are so good it stops me in my tracks when I try to walk on by and I just have to go in, (with credit card not cash because I can't resist buying large quantities) buy things and bring it into my home for my family to savor and hopefully remember some day to carry on the campaign, for good pastry that is.

Pasticceria Natalina is a charming jewel box-like Italian bakery that draws from Sicily for its inspiration. It is owned and run by Natalie Zarzour (and her husband Nick) who was mentored by her Sicilian aunts and grandmother and also goes to Sicily twice a year to refresh her repertoire (I think she's there right now). My favorite item there is her Aragostine (Lobster Claw). This pastry is similar to the Italian sfogliatelle, but it's baked without the traditional cheese filling. Instead, it's split and filled with a cannoli cream and chocolate chips. Also try her candied orange rind, Torrone, and cannoli piped fresh, which she insists you consume within 30 minutes of it being filled. She has myriad traditional Italian cookies, pristinely bagged up. Try her gelati, too. Really try anything ... it's all good.

Pasticceria Natalina
5406 N. Clark St
Chicago, Il. 60640

773-989-0662

http://www.p-natalina.com

Julius Meinl is a coffee and tea shop from Vienna, the home of coffee cafes, with locations in Chicago (aren't we lucky?). Try their Almond Croissant, which may be the best in the city. It's slit and stuffed with ground almond pastry crème. The pastry chef Nicole Stemler went to French Pastry School in Chicago as did a lot of the pastry assistants, so that's part of why the stuff is so good. They have traditional Austrian pastries as well as seasonal favorites. A plum streusel tart is the darling right now. They boast 50 kinds of tea in case coffee isn't your drink. They also make the pastries for Jolane's Café located, of all places, at the ABT Electronic Appliance store in Glenview. I'll go anywhere for good pastry, even an appliance store ... and so should you.

Julius Meinl Café - Southport
3601 North Southport
Chicago, Il. 60613

Phone: [phone]
http://www.meinl.com

Julius Meinl Café - Lincoln
4364 North Lincoln Avenue
Chicago, Il. 60618

Phone: [phone]

Jolane's Cafe
1100 Milwaukee Ave.
Glenview, IL 60025

847-375-6986

http://www.jolanescafe.com

Comments

[1343]

There's a very good bakery at Clark and Barry -- next to the Bagel. It's called House of Chocolates. Don't let the name fool you, they have delicious bakery items and delicious chocolates.

[gangwayjan]

In Chicagoese, one does not "go to a bakery", one "gets bakery" as in "I'm going to get bakery, do you want some podvila (prune) kolacky?" In times past, any place west on Cermak could guarantee good Bohemian bakery -- houska, kolacky, rye bread and everything with poppyseed. I'm sure there are a few places left. In the words of my Grandmother "Peciva y kava do silna dava" (bakery and coffee gives us strength).

[cnobody]

Lovely on Milwaukee, half block south of Division. Not sure if they use "real" ingredients, but I like the place quite a bit.

[Mahi Joe]

I wish someone would list some good bakeries here in Chicago. I live about a block from Lutz which I think still has some great stuff but it is getting way too pricey plus they no longer offer breads. Anyone have a favorite bakery they can recommend?

[Max01]

Gale, thank you so much for this article on one of my favorite subjects. However, I was disappointed that you weren't able to list more than two bakeries.

As a child, my family frequented the buttery confines of Schmidt's on Irving Park & Central Park on the northside of Chicago. The Schmidt family also owns Deerfield's. You can see the old pictures in the vestibule of the Deerfield bakery in Buffalo Grove. What a thrill to see those pictures.

Many old bakeries have closed up, but these two are still going in the Northwest suburbs:
* Central Continental Bakery - Viennese tortes, pastries, strudels, anything
* Jarosch Bakery - whipped cream tortes, coffeecakes & strudels

[Kalie]

When I buy chocolate chip cookies from my local grocery store chain, they neither taste nor smell like fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. I too remember the small local bakeries where you could buy a pastry and a bag of muffins for under $5.00. Listen up stores, quit poisining us with your fake ingredients!!

[breakfastqueen]

A world without Gale and her perfect offerings would be a world filled with BLOV!!
Thanks for reminding us all to accept nothing but the 'real' and the 'best', which you always give.

[Hiphopcrates]

Years ago, I worked as a baker at Just Desserts in San Francisco. Home style baked goods, brownies, banana bread, chocolate chip cookies, lemon buttermilk pound cake, poppyseed cake, apple pie, fresh criossants, real bearclaws, and on and on. We baked the kinds of pastries your grandma used to bake, only with better ingredients.
Alas, one needs to generate a profit to remain in business and we didn't know how to do that!

[Mike Doyle - Huffpost Blogger]

If only the coffee at Julius Meinl were as good as the pastry, I'd be a fan. Meanwhile, at the end of this post, I still find myself fantasizing about that ham and sweet butter on Danish rye...