Go ahead and believe the hype about the cupcake here: It’s moist, it’s substantial but not heavy, and the thick, sugary icing hides deep flavors of chocolate and vanilla. If you’re going to pick up a dozen, you may as well stick around for breakfast or lunch…

Race through the housemade cream of tomato soup, flanked with sweet, housebaked white bread. Plow through that merely serviceable salad…

Former Blue Water Grill pastry chef Nathaniel Meads is behind this Lakeview pastry shop, and he’s managed to convince hungry wanderers that there is indeed a reason to navigate the odd side entrance and look beyond the shop’s dreary tinted windows…

This is what happens when fresh bread and hot sauce combine.

From Pakistani to Israeli to Cuban, this street has it all.

The fourth location of the popular sandwich/salad/prepared foods shop.

This peddler of baked goods is on a mission: Founded by Reverend Stan Sloan, Sweet Miss Giving's donates 100% of its profits to Chicago House, an organization dedicated to providing housing and support to locals living with HIV/AIDS…

Hilary Black is not a vegan. But most of the cookies on display at her simple Lincoln Square shop, the outgrowth of a decade-long cookie business that's brought her into Whole Foods stores across the region, are. What's up with that? They're softer, she says…

The cupcakes at this L.A. export have a homey crumb and are glazed with icing with blessed restraint. There’s no opening wide for these things—these are cupcakes that, for once, are of manageable size. That may convince you to eat more than one, which you probably can…

There’s nothing twisted or off-kilter about this second-story Old Town bakeshop. In fact, the tarts (banana cream, apple pie) and cupcakes (red velvet, carrot) are pure, straightforward, old-fashioned goodness…