Lovely A Bake Shop

There's something about Lovely A Bake Shop that makes it so alluring. Located in the unsuspecting West Town neighborhood of Chicago, its vintage and quaint charm with mismatched furniture add to its character. And, oh yes, the bar stools at the counter-- just gotta love them. The retro design of the bar stools momentarily transports you back to an old school diner or an old fashioned ice-cream parlor. Most of the people there who had their laptops with them had MacBooks. T and I got seats on those very cool bar stools and parked ourselves at the counter. I had brought my MacBook along to do some research on our upcoming trip to New Orleans, and there you go I secretly felt proud to be a part of that Mac niche. There, I just said it. Sounds a tad bit geekish, I know. At a nearby table, there was a group of about 10-12 women who plopped themselves at the big communal table and had rolls and rolls of knitting threads set out on the center of the table. Each of the women had their knitting sticks working away with their own project. What an interesting and charming atmosphere this place has. An elder couple who had a dSLR camera draped around the husband's neck went over to that table, presumably intrigued, asking the ladies about their activity.

Giving this place a quick glance over, it felt like we were at the Anthropologie store. At one corner of the wall there were displays of aprons and hand and dish towels secured by wooden pegs to a string hanging from one side of the wall to another. On a vintage cabinet were bakeware, mugs, etc. Adding to its vintage charm, another table at the wall displayed a black old-fashioned typewriter.

Courtesy of Lovely A Bake Shop

Lovely A Bake Shop serves Intelligentsia which is T's favorite local brew because of its strong and intense flavor. I ordered a caffe late and T had a single shot espresso. The coffee beans were freshly ground for our drinks after we placed our order.

They also have quite an array of baked goods that include cupcakes, fruit pies and tarts, muffins, cookies, scones, etc. As tempting as the others looked, we've only tried the red velvet and carrot cupcakes. The cupcakes were a tad bit dry which was a little disappointing. I usually only eat half the amount of frosting on cupcakes in general because of its sweetness but I found myself eating each bite of the cupcake with the frosting (and effectively almost finishing all the frosting) to compensate for the dryness of the cupcake. I think we had expected more especially when we found out that the owners were graduates of the French Pastry School in Chicago. That said, we would really still love to try their other baked goods. I realize that Lovely A Bake Shop is not a cupcake boutique but instead a coffee and bake shop that may has its strengths in other baking aspects. For this, we would definitely return although not for their cupcakes but for the atmosphere, character, coffee, and of course to try their other baked goods.

 

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Lovely A Bake Shop

1130 North Milwaukee Avenue

Chicago, IL 60622