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Baker Boys’ sweet gig
BAKER BOYS BAKERY
Where: 733 St. Johns Ave., Highland Park
Hours: 7:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday; 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday
Phone: (847) 433-0430
Web: bakerboysbakery.com
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Maps
Updated: May 16, 2012 1:20PM
Going on its two-year anniversary at the corner of St. Johns and Roger Williams in Highland Park, the Baker Boys bakery is firing on all cylinders — or burners, as the case may be. Co-owners and friends since childhood Peter Rauser and Jordan Rappaport always knew they wanted to work together and get back to their roots. “We grew up here,” explained Rappaport. “This was an awesome area when I was little and I knew that something like this here (in Highland Park) couldn’t go wrong,” he said. Despite serving Julius Meinl coffee, the partners don’t play in the space of behemoth java purveyors or niche cupcakeries. Instead, they consider themselves to be a more serious bakery and dessert shop, due in large part to Rappaport’s classical French cooking training. “I mean, coffee is definitely a part of it (and) cupcakes are fun and meant to be fun but I take them pretty seriously and, I hope, I take them to a different level,” said Rappaport.
Beyond cupcakes, BBs offers scones, brownies, cookies, eclairs and even frozen custard. They even have gluten free — in its original state — as straight, flourless chocolate cake hand-dipped into chocolate ganache and served up as mini or regular cupcakes.
As if all this were not enough, the Boys offer frozen custard made with mix-ins of your favorite muffin. What is custard? It is one of the highest-grade, least-aerated, on-par-with-gelato, richly-mixed ice cream concoctions. “You get more product for your spoonful,” explains Rappaport. While there is room for only nine flavors at a time, a full 30-40 are rotated on any given day, with certain staples remaining constant. The Red Velvet Cake & Ice Cream, for example, is the most popular and always available. The makers take their red velvet cupcakes, already frosted with cream cheese, chop them up and fold them into vanilla custard as it spins out from the ice cream maker. My personal favorite is the Oreo & M&M’s made with — you guessed it — chopped-up Oreos and M&M pieces. Dairy-free is also available in the form of sorbet (one scoop for $2.85, two for $4.20). “Do you ever go a day without eating anything sweet?” a customer asks Rauser on entering the aromatic shop. “That’s crazy talk, is what that is,” he retorts, underscoring the shop’s motto: “Life is short … Dessert first!”
