#baker miller

It’s harder to go out for special dinners and nights out with ol’ Rosebud around, so when we feel like treating ourselves, it’s usually to good coffee and pastries. There are loads of little bakeries and cafes around Chicago, and on April 28th (still back in 2019), Rob decided it was time to try Baker Miller over in cute little Lincoln Square. 

We decided to share a few pastries and a breakfast plate - first to emerge from the window was this heavenly little cinnamon toast dough boy in the foreground.

It doesn’t look like much, but it came highly recommended by the cashier, and it was the part of this meal worth writing home about. This ball about the size of your palm was so dense and moist with a sweet, yeasty flavor and this perfect, crunchy little ring of cinnamon and sugar around the outside. It’s like the best, softest bite of cinnamon toast you can remember from your childhood - almost brioche-like in texture with its chewy pillowy-ness. So good, they put the Pillsbury Doughboy to shame.

Rob can seldom resist a cinnamon roll, and I didn’t think it was quite as good as the doughboy. It was perhaps made with a more savory, earthy flour, which gave it a little bit of a different impact. Hard to argue with that gigantic dollop of super tangy cream cheese, though.

We try to get things a little less sugary for Rose, so she nibbled on a rosemary orange scone. Both the sweetness of the orange and the savoriness of the rosemary came through, but the texture was a little dry and crumbly for me. I’ll let Buzz Coffee Roaster and Bakery keep my scone business - I’ll have to tell you more about them sometime.

After nibbling on our pastries, Rob and I shared the salmon lox plate, which was sadly a little disappointing. Rather than bagels, this plate came with housemade sunflower rye bread. We’ve learned over time that their housemade breads are generally really good (they’ve definitely earned the “miller” title), but it was a little clumsy to eat all of these accoutrements on bread rather than a sturdier bagel. Plus, there was so very little salmon! Too bad.

I’ll add that we have visited Baker Miller since then (it was great to pick up curbside and take to nearby Welles Park during these COVID times) - moreso than the salmon plate, we can definitely recommend the elote creamy grits and the delicious housemade biscuits.

Though not all the items wowed on this first visit to Baker Miller, we had a lovely experience there. The look and feel of the place is adorable, and I’m always down to go back and try more of their wide array of breads and pastries. I’ve yet to have one that I liked as much as the doughboy, which was the standout of this indulgent meal. We truly love places like this and look forward to the day when we can eat again in their inviting environs.

Real bread. Fo Reals!

Ok, this might be my first of many posts about my obsession with how bread has changed. I don’t really eat much bread, doesn’t work for me. It is not that I don’t love it. Who doesn’t LOVE BREAD?! The thing is, though, that if I am going to eat bread it better be the real deal. Last Thanksgiving I cooked a turkey at my house. I bought cheap wheat bread to make the stuffing. Afterwords, I put the…