Shout Out to Gourmet Pop Tarts

If a pastry consisting of pie dough, frosting, and fruity filling is wrong, then there’s really no need to be right. Elevating the toaster pastry template of our childhood, bakeries and cafes across the city are popping out novel new takes on “pop tarts.” The nostalgia factor coupled with the dough factor equals unparalleled deliciousness.

If anyone in town does Americana nostalgia justice, it’s Bake. This Bucktown bakery prides itself on peddling refined versions of childhood obsessions, from mightily frosted cupcakes and gooey chocolate chip cookies to banana bread, muffins, and pies. The perfect pastry to summarize Bake’s proclivity for nostalgia, though, is the pop tart. Far better than anything you’ve ever tasted out of a box, these treats are made by pressing two pieces of buttery pie dough around a fruity filling – a recent example was a luscious strawberry-rhubarb jam – and smearing it with a bit of treacly icing. It wouldn’t be complete without a bit of sprinkles strewn on top for good measure.

Just down the street from Bake is another pop tart purveyor of sorts. The Cup & Spoon may seem like an average coffee shop but looks can be deceiving, as one glance at the pastry case can verify. The pastry specialty here is pop tarts, readily available in a myriad of different fillings. The dough used for the pop tarts at Cup & Spoon is flakier than typical pie dough though, which lends a nice croissant-like bite to it. This is especially extraordinary when juxtaposed with tartly sweet blueberry preserves, or vanilla-scented strawberries, or the dynamic duo of cherry and chocolate.

The godfather of gourmet pop tarts that started it all in Chicago deserves the cred. Southport Grocery & Cafe has been slinging haute pop tarts for years. The most offbeat pop tart of the bunch by a long stretch, this grown-up version is definitely a fork-and-knife pastry, and large enough to share. Two doughy and thick pieces of pastry are stacked with local fruit preserves, mascarpone, and vanilla walnuts before it’s griddled just enough to lend a golden brown hue and infuse the mascarpone with the preserves.

Bake
2246 W. North Avenue, Chicago
(773) 384-7655
Website

Cup & Spoon
2415 W. North Avenue, Chicago
(773) 697-4421
Website

Southport Grocery & Cafe
3552 N. Southport Avenue, Chicago
(773) 665-0100
Website