Oak Park is known for its Frank Lloyd Wright architecture and as the birthplace of Ernest Hemingway.
It’s also home to one of the Food Guy’s favorite bakeries, now in a much larger space from where it started, allowing the owners to expand their menu.
Two sisters, who started selling baked goods at the Pilsen Farmer’s Market eventually got a small space in Oak Park in 2016. It was barely big enough to make pies and cookies. They moved around the corner a few years ago, and since then, they have been cranking out a lot more than just sweets.
If you truly eat with your eyes, then you’re going to be full before you even get to dessert at Spilt Milk Pastry, which sits across the street from the end of the CTA Green Line in Oak Park. Quiche, coffee and hand pies, including a sweet potato curry with brown butter are all good starters, but there’s no shame in just heading straight for the pies, which range from a textbook lemon meringue to their more seasonal ones.
“So we’re going into our busy fruit season, so we’re gonna get more rhubarb in…strawberries are coming up and all the berry pies,” said co-owner Molly Svec.
Svec and her sister, Meg, run the show.
They still have a decadent side – those intense, fudgie brownies vie for counter space alongside their impressive cookie towers. But now with their expanded kitchen space, they’re able to offer breakfast and lunch every day.
“Our breakfast sandwich is made on a buttermilk biscuit, homemade here at the shop, and then we make a soft, fluffy egg that we cut into a perfect little square, with Slagel bacon and aged cheddar cheese melted on top,” said Svec.
Cakes and breads rotate seasonally as well.
“We make our almond tea cake and banana bread, and then, depending on the time of the year, we’ll do our chocolate truffle pound cake.”
Svec said they’ve really leaned into grab-and-go, as well as Friday dinners, supplemented with a curated lineup of condiments.
“It’s a four-person dinner or a two-person dinner; you can come on Friday and pick it up. We’ve got a selection of sandwiches as well, so you can take them to go or eat them here or call us up and we can do catering as well,” she said.
Her roasted beet with herbed cream cheese and lettuce is a nod to her childhood, but Svec said she and her team are busy these days doing a lot more than just baking with butter and sugar.
“…in addition to soups and different salads you’ll see in our savory case,” she said.
Good idea to call ahead for those Friday dinner orders, and yes, catering is a growing part of the business, just in time for those parties and graduations this summer.
Here’s where you can go:
811 South Blvd., Oak Park
708-613-4403