On our jaunt to the Bay Area this past weekend, we passed a number storefronts devoted to Beard Papa, the Japanese-import cream puff chain that promises “the world’s best cream puffs.” Both locations that we scoped out were completely empty — “Beard Papa, stop trying to make cream puffs happen!” said our SF-based companion. “It’s not going to happen!” Maybe cream puffs will have better luck here: at the end of an official blog post introducing a new pastry item (the Paris-bresd, a flaky ring of sweet dough filled with custard cream), the Beard Papa bloggers say that they “hope to have it available for the Chicago store very soon after grand opening.” Oh really?
Yep: that’d be the store in Block 37 (108 North State, joining branches of Freshii and Bleeding Heard Bakery) that they’re planning to open in mid-November, serving Illy coffee alongside the various custard-pastry treats. You have a scant month to prep for your new addiction. [Beard Papa Blog via @CitySearchCHI]
