Chicago's Bakery Boom Continues with a Hotly Anticipated Rarity: A Simple French Spot

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In Chicago’s ongoing bakery boom, everything from saucy Korean rice cakes nestled in laminated dough to challah cradling spiced tomatoes and an egg has drawn lines out the door. The creative ferment of this gluten-fuelled golden age is fed by flavors from the Philippines, India, Mexico, Italy, the Middle East and the Midwest.

But what about the plain croissant? It’s the base for many of the maximalist creations that capture social media attention today, dating all the way back to the cronut, the original viral pastry. Plenty of bakeries make and serve croissants, but they’re not often a proud focus, as they are at Guillotine Bakery, which opens at 1711 W. Chicago Ave. in West Town on June 17. But then, even with all the exciting global combinations appearing in pastry shops these days, it’s rare for a bakery in the U.S. to focus on one of the cultures most infatuated with pastries: France. 

Guillotine is a French bakery, offering fairly traditional goods at that. Vincent Didry and the baker Vince Le Bec are both French, while their partner Alizé Bikard is French and American. They’re importing flour and butter from France, their pastries are carefully laminated and not too sweet, and their espresso machine will produce cafe staples instead of colorful lattes. The baguette contains only flour, salt, and water, and can be bought hot from the oven throughout the day, ready to be ripped into and eaten as soon as you leave the shop. 

But this new house of bread is subtle in its Gallicness. It’s Guillotine Bakery, not Guillotine Patisserie or Maison Guillotine. There are no Eiffel Towers or tricolor French flags but instead cream and cooper hues and long caged lights, in a space designed by Chicago’s Siren Betty that combines the subtle industrialism of a large-scale bakery and the lived-in comfort of an old European apartment. (It was previously an art gallery.) It’s not like the boulangeries that dot Paris’ arrondissements have to proclaim their Frenchness, any more than they need to explain that there are no additives in their bread, thank you very much, and the jambon-beurre is truly just ham and butter on a baguette. 

But Guillotine isn’t in France, and takes advantage of its American setting to indulge in some rule-breaking – that’s part of why Dedry and his co-owners wanted to open here. Sure, there is that classic French ham sandwich, with cheese, but they also allow the cruffin. No beheadings here for tainting a croissant by hybridizing it with a muffin. (Despite the name, Guillotine is soft and warm, although there is a guillotine-shaped stainless steel sign on one wall.) The quiet revolution against gastronomic strictures may even eventually extend to a croissant dough-wrapped hot dog. (For those Chicagoans who scoff at the notion of inviolable culinary precepts, think of how vehemently we reject ketchup on a hot dog.)

Another difference from France is the large, visible production kitchen, where customers can observe the bakers rolling and shaping pain au chocolat (chocolate-filled croissants), kouign-amman (a popular caramelized pastry from Le Bec’s native Brittany), and pain de campagne (sourdough bread). The kitchen is visible through bar seat-lined glass windows with recipes written on them in marker by Le Bec.

The transparency is a way to celebrate the bakers – and to give them a little natural light, something which the cramped production facilities of France sometimes lack. The thought for restaurant workers carries over to Guillotine’s unusual hours: it’s closed Tuesday and Wednesday and open 7:00 am - 3:00 pm Sunday, Monday, and Thursday and 7:00 am - 5:00 pm Friday and Saturday. The hope is that restaurant industry workers, who often work weekends, can have a place to hang out on Monday, their day off.

Didry and Le Bec have both worked their way through bakeries in France. They met after Didry began formulating plans for Guillotine with Bikard, who wanted to leave corporate life behind. 

Didry is particularly excited about the pain suisse, a flat laminated pastry containing pastry cream and chocolate chips whose elegant strips of exterior dough are not just decorative but provide a crunch to contrast with the soft filling. It’s the kind of treat that could be cloying and heavy with its cream, but is instead light and textural; one Guillotine employee confessed that it’s the first pain suisse she has actually liked. 

Le Bec is passionate about his bread, proudly touting its simplicity – he doesn’t even add yeast – which he says makes it easier to digest. He wants to eventually expand into seeded and whole grain breads and to work with a local miller to produce flour to his specifications, but for now he’s sourcing from France and baking only baguettes and pain de campagne. Guillotine will also eventually sell bread wholesale to other eateries. But they don’t want to step on the toes of other bread bakeries in town, instead hoping that they can all rise together. 

The team behind the bakery is already integrating itself into Chicago’s hospitality scene, popping up in Wicker Park at Mindy’s Bakery to an impressive crowd. Mindy Segal was one of the first people Didry met in Chicago, while West Town neighbors have been welcoming to another addition to what is becoming one of Chicago’s best dining neighborhoods. Along with the now open Bar Bambi and soon-to-debut Gilda, Guillotine is one of the most hotly anticipated openings this year – and all three spots are within half a mile of each other on Chicago Avenue. There’s a strong chance a line will be forming along the street come June 17, even with just the good old croissant instead of a novel pastry to focus social media hype.