Bleeding Heart Bakery

Once I became gluten free and started sharing with family and friends that I had started a food blog...everyone started giving me tips. It's fantastic. Before (other than my parents) I never received comments like "Hey Vanessa, I know how much you like baked goods, you've got to try out x, y, z." Now I have so many sources of inspiration, I barely even need Yelp.

In the beginning, my friend Lauren mentioned that a couple doors down from her place was an organic bakery that offered all sorts of funky baked goods. She wasn't sure if it was gluten-free but figured it was worth looking into. I was intrigued because not only did I love the name (the bleeding heart is my favorite flower...so pretty and tragic), but I am a total sucker for anything local or organic (thanks Mom!). I looked them up online and it looked like they just made cupcakes. I know it's not fair to discount a cupcake like that, but at the time I had been discouraged because I felt that was the only type of gluten free item that I could get in this city. Fast forward six months later when my Dad emailed me after a race he had just run in Oak Park telling me about this cool/funky bakery in Oak Park selling multiple gluten free items. He said it was called the Bleeding Heart Bakery. I was like "I know that place. I think that's the same one at Belmont and Damen." Needless to say within weeks I was at their doorstep.

The place is cool. They describe themselves as "Local. Sunstainable. Punk Rock Pastry." How could you not love that? If Joan Jet and Betsy Johnson decided to open up a bakery...this is what it would look like. Lot's of flourescent colors and black running through this place...and a staff that looked like they'd been baking since they left the Metro at 3 am. They offer a variety of baked goods: Cookies, Scones, Cupcakes, brownies, etc. and all a combination of some type of local or organic or Vegan. Their gluten-free selection was limited to a brownie, a chocolate chip cookie and a cupcake...but I was not about to complain.

The cookie had a gluten-free flour taste to it, but the fact that it was huge and chewy made up for it. The brownie was very fudgy and simply sinful. The cupcake wasn't my favorite flavor, chocolate and peanut butter, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I'll be stopping by once again this morning to see what flavors are on tap for today...