Flourish Bakery Cafe

I had been meaning to get by here for the longest time. One day a couple of summers ago I finally made it over. A nice young, brunette lady behind the counter helped me with selecting. I saw some rosemary and cranberry cookies and asked about them but was unsure how they would taste.
After much back and forth in my mind. I got a couple of apricot and almond cookies instead on the way home thinking «Why didn’t I get the rosemary?» Well when I got home to my surprise the young lady put two rosemary and cranberry cookies in my bag. It was so nice of her to do I vowed I would go back and thank her. But I got busy and found out a few weeks too late that they were closing.
I felt bad I never made it back to thank her. It was so thoughtful a gesture to do all the while knowing the bakery would be going out of business.

I had no idea the place was closing and has in fact closed. Really too bad. I liked the older lady behind the counter who was always extremely nice and at one time insisted that I take the tea and cookies when my debit card did not go through.
I will really miss this place because it was a cool place to work, eat and relax for a minute. I will really miss those cookies.

So the cupcakes were ok…
I tried Flourish about twice. I always got a cupcake when went and it was ok. Sweet and yummy. Too bad this place is closed. It appears many people liked this place in Edgewater.

Five stars for their sourdough. I have a huge weakness for anything sour, and their dense, squishy loaves of this bread really deliver. In college I worked at a bakery and was super spoiled by daily made bread. Now, it’s a treat to buy bakery bread.
So Flourish is where you should pick up your bread. I have to pull myself away from Flourish when I’m done with church choir every sunday, because I will eat a loaf of this stuff in two days by myself.
My breakfast sandwich was good, but not remarkable.
My lack of star is due to the atmosphere, which I found uncomfortable. I didn’t even want to stay to eat my sandwich. :(

If it were slightly cheaper and I actually liked cake, I would give it 5 stars.
Either way, you will love the red velvet if have a soft spot in your heart for the stuff. They make mini-​cakes which seem to be very unique and popular.
The big tip here, is to call and order ahead so the stuff you want is there.

Stop #14 on my «Eating my way through Chicago/​St. Louis and possibly doing other things on this trip Summer Tour 2011» found me looking for breakfast again. I hadn’t been eating breakfast out much on this midwest tour, but on this morning it was time to find some. This place was just down the street from my friends place and it was on the way to the train to get me back downtown. Plus my other friend mentioned it as a place I might want to try. Done and done.
I was immediately greeted upon walking in by the nice woman at the counter. Originally I thought I might just get some kind of pastry or something, but then decided to go with a breakfast sandwich. After looking at the menu for too long (decisions, decisions) I ordered a Cappy Egg and Cheese Panini ($ 4.50). Cappy for those not in the know is Capicola. For those in the know, skip that last sentence. Along with that I figured I’d have an iced coffee as the day promised to be another hot one.
The sandwich came out nice and hot and with a side of fresh fruit salad. The coffee was not as cold as I would’ve liked, but if I remember there was a soda machine with ice in it and I’m not quite sure why I didn’t get any. Completely my fault.
The pastries and such over at the counter looked really good. Friendly service here. People sitting around on a weekday with their laptops open. Your typical coffee house/​café kind of crowd. Big space. AC. What more could you need?
Flourish is a nice place to wile away a few hours and escape the heat (in the summer) in the Edgewater neighborhood.

Go to spot for Mandy B level cupcakes in Uptown. Great cake and coffee too.

Okay, I’m getting won over (again).
The cake donuts are off the chain… seriously.
The soy hot chocolate has me hooked.
I’m starting to hit up this place 2 – 3 times a week now. Definitely improving!

Ok. This place and I have a love/​hate relationship.
I went today and had a german chocolate cupcake and let me tell you… I can go back every day and have one. Very moist, with coconut topping and chocolate shavings. Wow.

There is nothing I hate more than having to do multiple boring errands on a chilly, raw, rainy day. By the time I got over to this neighborhood it was 1pm, and I was tired and hungry. I had always passed by the funky little awning that framed this café, and decided today was the day I would check it out.
And I am so glad I did! Walking in to a cheery red and yellow space, complete with vaulted ceilings and a smell of fresh brewed coffee. I placed my order with a very pleasant older lady who was all too happy to answer my questions and make suggestions. I walked out with a sandwich, coffee and a tiny lemon cupcake.
The coffee and cupcake were wonderful and I must remember this place just for these items. The sandwich was humongous (and for $ 7 I guess it should be), but I wouldn’t order it again. The bread was huge and fluffy and had a sort of eggy sweetness to it that was just OK. I think the real reason to go here is the sweets and the bread, and the sandwiches are sort of an add-​on idea. There is a «make your own» sandwich option, and maybe customization is the way to go instead?
Anyway there is quite a bit of seating and I can see coming back here to sip coffee while people watching outside. Cute place Flourish!

Came here with a Plum District deal for their homemade bread, which ended up just being so-​so. It was definitely on the harder side, not fluffy and soft on the inside like I expected. The multigrain was packed with nuts and stuff. The cranberry, which they only make certain days and often run out of, ended up not being sweet like banana bread, which was disappointing for me. It was more like regular bread, with cranberries embedded.
The other desserts, and even the French bread they had, looked delicious, though I can’t tell you how they taste. But I wouldn’t come just for the bread.

The triple chocolate cake with ganache is AWESOME!
They don’t have it all the time so its kind of luck of the draw. The other bakery items I have tried are just average or slightly above; except the chocolate walnut cookies which are pretty tasty.

It was lunch time for me and since I was in the neighborhood I decided to stop by. I ordered a ham and Swiss sandwich on wheat bread with the potato salad as my side. The sandwich was very good but the potato salad wasn’t all that great.
Since this is all I ordered can’t really tell you anything else about the goods they offer. The service was good and the place was clean. We’ll stop by again some time.

Yes, I still get their mini cakes. However, when I have a taste for something other than cake, I get a chocolate chip cookie.
Boring, you say?
NO WAY.
This thing is delicious. Soft, buttery, studded with a lot of chocolate chips. And, oh yeah, huge! One time the counter guy offered me a cherry rosemary cookie, which was quite tasty, but honestly, chocolate chip is where it’s at!

I wouldn’t call it a coffeeshop — sure, they serve coffee, but it’s COFFEE. Not lattes, cappachinos, etc like we’ve come to expect from places with that name.
What they do is make pastries, and they do that well. I’ve tried the lemon curd ‘pie-​fait’ and the lemon was phenomenal. The chocolate trifle was also very good, decadently chocolatey.
They had samples of their turtle brownie out, and just a taste of that told me that I would need a big ol’ cuppa joe or a glass of milk to handle that richness. Very nice, though.

It increasingly has become a weekly routine now for me to swing over at least once each week, just for the half-​off pastries (including scones and croissants) after 5pm. And I think the service has improved, versus last year.
Tried the cookie sampler once, and those (including the rosemary cherry one) were pretty decent. I’ve tried some of the cake slices here in the past, such as the German Chocolate cake. While those aren’t bad, I think there are better places out there serving cake. But I think I will be sticking with the good thing I have going with the ½ off croissants and scones, and doubt I’ll be deviating much from those anytime soon. Which of course, would mean I’d have an unattractive hole in my wallet…

Fellow Unilocaler Dantee A. took be here after a lovely dinner in what I deem to be the best people watching neighborhood in Chicago, Edgewater. I really wanted Flourish to… well, flourish (or thrive would work too)…in my eyes. This little bakery has a lot going for it. Any café that has Soymilk available on the drink accompaniments bar deserves some loving (and no I’m not a hippie vegan), yet shouldn’t that be kept refridgerated? The bright colors and pop art give it a fun vibe, but the dirty, scrap-​ridden floors turned me off.
I had a pot of their Oolong tea which hit the spot, until I bit into my stuffed peanut-​butter cupcake that was stale and hard. I dug in the center to see where the hidden peanut butter cream ($ 2/​cc) was and it was non-​existent. I did take it back to the counter and the worker happily switched it out for a fresh red velvet cupcake which was muuuch better. I would still avoid the cupcakes and go for a slice of their cake (around $ 4/​slice). Do keep in mind that all bakery items are half-​price after 6 pm (thanks for sharing the secret in person Dantee).
I hope Flourish isn’t kicking themselves in the butt for having a sign near the bathrooms reminding critical people like myself to share their opinions on Unilocal because it definitely has potential, but my visit wasn’t all that positive.

After the ordeal that I went through with this place in my whoopie pie quest (see previous update), I was chagrined to walk in two of the last three Sundays to find a whole basketful of the things. So even though they made me a giant one before (see photo), I wanted to try the regular whoopie pies.
First off, they have «flavors.» I am a whoopie pie purist and do not accept «flavors» of whoopie pies. Even my favorite place to get them back home has pumpkin, mint, etc but I shun them. Actually… in the middle of writing that sentence, I just remembered that I tried a mint one last summer because I am a sucker for anything chocolate/​mint. So, my standards aren’t what they once were. Never mind.
Flourish sells regular whoopie pies plus ones with chocolate icing and peanut butter icing. I admit to buying a double-​chocolate one in a (nother) moment of weakness. The regular whoopie pie is DAMN close to the real thing for which I have been searching all over Chicago. The icing is a little stiff and not sugary enough, but the cake is very, very close. It’s the texture which is so wrong among all these local whoopie-​pie makers, but Flourish’s is very nearly the exact right density. So chalk this up as an A– whoopie pie. Hooray!

Flourish has all of the makings of a really great neighborhood bakery/​coffee shop hang-​out. Great lofty space, cutesy décor with some funky/​retro flair, large smattering of bakery options, Metropolis coffee (available in a REAL mug no less) and ample seating…
However, they fall a bit short in the execution. First of all, if one desires to be employed by a bakery, I feel they should be… happy. Sugary cupcakes, brownies, cakes, and deserts in general warrant and produce smiles. These guys acted like they were being forced to deal with us (the only 2 in the store) and for a moment I thought «oh they must be closing.» Well, no they were open for about 2 more hours… they were just curmudgeonly. Booo!
Secondly, the coffee bar was a fantastic mess. Coffee spills everywhere, empty packets of sugar dotting the counter, half and half haphazardly strewn about. This leads me to ask, «what exactly DOES the staff do here?» As, they are certainly not 1. worried about helping customers or 2. keeping things tidy.
Thirdly, my 7-​layer bar was crusty and dry. Not so good, though of course I ate the whole thing because if I don’t finish dessert the oceans will dry up, and that would be a travesty. Ok, no maybe not but I don’t like to tempt fate.
Fourthly, no free Wifi. C’mon, that is the easiest thing a place can do to attract people to come and hang out. They do have «pay» wifi, which I think is actually worse than having none at all. It makes you.Starbucks.
So, basically I’ve concluded Flourish has potential but if they want to make it they need to hire some fresh, happy faces, clean up the coffee bar, make sure the stuff is up to snuff and get a freakin’ router for free internet. Bam, there ya go… business plan in a nutshell.

I am in Ur lobby eatn Ur red velvet cupcake! This text kicked me into flash speed– an incredible accomplishment.
On the weekends and my days off, I am lazy. I am never quick, fast, speedy, or alert in the mornings, but on the weekends, this goes to another extreme. We are talking about REALLY lazy. Like– it can take an hour for me to figure out if I want to wear jeans. This weekend a friend and I decided to get out and go thrift shopping. She is aware of my inability to get moving and knew I needed some time to get my butt in gear. I had to get dressed and walk the dog. We agreed on an hour lag time. She went to flourish and picked up cupcakes for nutrition and walked over.
I got the text and it speeded me into high gear! The dog was walked– I was presentable in record time, racing downstairs (did not even take the elevator) to claim my prize!
Why?
A FRESH. Soft. CREAMY. RICH. red velvet cupcake from Flourish– with Cream Cheese icing on the top was waiting for me. They are awesome.
So, my friends, take heed! If you are trying to speed me up, this works!