Chef Gale Gand

3 more Evanston Bakeries, and one in Lincoln Park investigated! Praline Caldron, Coralie, Button Bakery and Verzênay.
Praline Caldron on Davis St. is a little hard to find since their sign just says French Bakery Cafe. It’s in sort of a glass office building, but has outdoor seating. Kind of a vast space with high ceilings but their jewel-like case and its contents make it worth the stop. The kitchen is on site behind swinging doors and the French pastry chef, Remy Ruiz, has skills. The pastries are classic, chocolate eclair, Mille-feuille, individual Paris Brest with praline pastry cream and a whole hazelnut garnish, a solid croissant and all the striped variations, and delicious long sandwiches of flour dusted rustic baguette that crackles when you bite into it, as it should. I got ham and Brie with butter. All the pastries were delicious and properly done. I couldn’t be happier.
Coralie, also on Davis St., has a cute but tight feeling space with people clearly parked at tables for the day (laptop is the give away) and fun kitchen utensil based art work on the walls. A smaller selection of pastries with not many of each on deck, except a whole case dedicated to Macarons. I bought a pineapple Danish that when bit into was a little soggy so might have been day old. So go there more for the atmosphere, and their cute French signage. They have a BYOB Champagne Afternoon Tea advertised.
My favorite of the bakery crawl was Button Bakery. I love the font they use for their logo, and walking in just felt fun and welcoming. There loads of breads, pastries, topped focaccia (alternated toppings on rectangles of dough displayed was a nice look), English muffins, ciabatta rolls, granola, all tastefully and beautifully display and staff are constantly refilling to keep it looking full, plus straighten signs. There’s a tall shelf with day old breads at $1.00 off, some sliced, some not. I got a sliced sesame semolina bread, plus an iced Lemon Cranberry Muffin (really loved this), croissant (a little soft), baguette, and English muffins. The prices are very reasonable and there’s aprons, tea towels and other fun merch as well.
Verzênay is a beautiful very French looking café bakery on N Lincoln Ave. They have macaron, whole cakes by the slice, croissants, bars, savory filled croissants and more. I got a raspberry rose filled croissant topped with their signature rose petal that seems to varnish most of their cakes. It ate very nicely. Next time I’ll get a coffee and sit in the cafe part or at their sidewalk café.

So the short of it is Praline Caldron for classic French items, Coralie for atmosphere, Button Bakery for breads and American items, Verzênay for sitting in Lincoln Park.

As part of my son’s wedding, the lovely couple held a Hindu wedding ceremony, all in Sanskrit. It included almonds, raw cashews, golden, raisins, coconuts, fennel seeds, flames, fragrance, and flowers throughout the ritual. Beautiful to witness, and at the end, Gio stomped on a wine glass to honor his Jewish heritage, under a chuppah. We wore traditional Indian dress, as well.

I got the phone call, as a pastry chef, you wait for your whole child’s life. The ask? To make your kid’s wedding cake. So the last 2 weeks my full time job has been making my son and daughter-in-law to be’s wedding cake. Vanilla cake with layers of pecan crunch, brown butter mousse, and whipped maple butter cream. Then drive it to Ohio and pipe the decorative elements, insert support tubing, stack it, level it, add the flowers, set the Tiffany cake knife next to it, then walk away, exhale, and hope it’s what they dreamed of. The wedding was May 21st so now I’m on the other side of it. Here’s the documentation. Thank you to all who helped me plan it, and apologies to anyone I neglected or snapped at during this hyper- focused time.