Need good bakery near Devon and California

Starting a new job tomorrow morning and would like to show up with a couple quality coffee cakes or sweet rolls. Does anyone know of a good bakery between Lincoln Sq. and Devon and California thats open before 7am ?

JSM

Not necessarily right along your route, but on Foster, east of Kimball is Schlegle's Bakery. Their coffee cakes ain't too shabby at all.

Not sure how early the open, however, you may want to give them a call:
3334 W. Foster Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60625
Telephone: 773-539-9207

From their website:
Using 3rd generation recipes originating from the Bavarian Hills in Germany, the Bornschlegl family have a long sweet history in the Chicagoland area. Owners of Schroeder's Bakery in Chicago and Niles Pastry Shop in Niles, the two current Schlegle's locations continue to bake fresh daily from scratch!

http://www.schlegls.com/index.html

Check out Levinson's. I haven't tried their cakes in a while, but they might fit the bill for you. Just a block and a half west of California on Devon, open at 6am

Levinson's Bakery
2856 W Devon Ave
Chicago, IL
(773) 761-3174

Best,
Michael

eatchicago wrote:Check out Levinson's. I haven't tried their cakes in a while, but they might fit the bill for you. Just a block and a half west of California on Devon, open at 6am

Levinson's Bakery
2856 W Devon Ave
Chicago, IL
(773) 761-3174

Best,
Michael

If you do go to Levinson's, please report back. It was one of the bakeries of my youth and I wonder if they have held up all these years. I seem to remember a stellar chocolate frosted banana cake.

stevez wrote:If you do go to Levinson's, please report back. It was one of the bakeries of my youth and I wonder if they have held up all these years. I seem to remember a stellar chocolate frosted banana cake.

I grew up within a block of Levinson's, but we were always partial to Gitel's, which is no more. Part of our preference was due to the fact that my grandfather built their shelving, but also because we all loved their cookies. I have stopped into Levinson's for a rye from time to time, but as I said earlier, I haven't tried a cake from there in years. I'd love to hear about how things are going there.

Levinson's has a very good apple babka (sweat yeast dough baken in a tube pan) that was quickly scarfed down whenever I brought it to the office.

Oops, I knew I should have put my glasses on before typing the last message. Of course it's SWEET yeast dough, not sweat yeast dough.

Sorry.

Thnaks for the suggestions, went to Levinson's and got two coffee cakes, one cheese and one pecan both were gone within 5 minutes ! Not quite Dinkle's but still very good.

The next time you go to Levenson's, pick up a couple bags of kichel. This is the most addictive stuff on the planet.

11+ year bump!

Yesterday I went to Levinson's Bakery for the first time. OMG!!! I found so many good things. I can't believe it's been there for so many years ("bakeries of my youth" posted in 2006 ) and I haven't tried it till now!

I didn't try everything in the store, although I was tempted. It was interesting to see the Jewish baked goods, as well as the European/French/Swedish items. Starting with the former...

caribiner23 wrote:The next time you go to Levenson's, pick up a couple bags of kichel. This is the most addictive stuff on the planet.

Great recommendation! I love really good kichel. The two places I've previously gotten it locally are both somewhat inconsistent, in both the texture and in the sugar coating. Levinson's is PERFECT, best I've ever had!

I also got a very nice loaf of challah.

They had quite a few European style cakes and tortes.

They had decent eclairs, with real creme patissiere (pastry cream) filling.

Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles - they have a marzipan cake just like the ones at the late, dearly-missed Swedish Bakery!

And just like at Swedish Bakery, you can get them in individual slices ($3.10) or an entire log ($10.50). The log is about the size of maybe eight individual slices, so it's a far better value.

They also had small marzipan petit fours.

I love this place!!!

P.S. They have a website, here.

nsxtasy wrote:I love this place!!!

P.S. They have a website, here.

Today, for the first time, I found mazariners at Levinson's, and they're terrific! These are individual-sized tarts, with a crumbly sweet pastry crust filled with a cakelike almond paste filling and glazed with sugar. They are similar to ones formerly found at the now-closed Swedish Bakery. Just don't ask for them by name, as the staff person there never heard of the term mazariners, but knew them as "almondy cupcake like cakes", LOL.

nsxtasy wrote:Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles - they have a marzipan cake just like the ones at the late, dearly-missed Swedish Bakery!

And just like at Swedish Bakery, you can get them in individual slices ($3.10) or an entire log ($10.50). The log is about the size of maybe eight individual slices, so it's a far better value.

Since my previous post, prices have gone up a bit. And in addition to the individual slices (now $3.50) and the log ($13.25, still a bargain), they sometimes have an entire cake ($31.00), as shown below.