LINCOLN PARK — Maple bacon long johns, pumpkin old fashioneds, salted caramel crunch and, for a limited time, bourbon-egg nog filled Bismark will soon be available under the Brown Line at the Armitage stop.
Glazed and Infused hopes to fill the Lincoln Park void in donut-crazed Chicago, whose residents have been drooling over the counters of Donut Vault, Do-Rite Donuts and three other Glazed and Infused locations throughout the city.
Although the gourmet donut shop won't be open for up to two weeks, Lincoln Park foodies will soon be able to try the shop's holiday flavors that include mint chocolate cake, a candy cane twist donut and a gingerbread oldfashioned with a sneak peak opening Wednesday night.
"I'm surprised that Lincoln Park wasn't even the first option, that location particularly," said general manager James Gray, who also manages the three other Glazed and Infused locations. "We anticipate that being probably our busiest location of all of them."
The Lincoln Park shop, 939 W. Armitage Ave., will stay open the longest of any of the other Glazed and Infused, from 6 a.m. until 7 p.m. on weekdays and from 7:30 a.m. until 2 p.m. on the weekends, and will have seating for roughly 20 people. The business will serve Intelligensia Coffee, but is considering other independent roasters in the city on a rotating basis.
The owners had plans of opening in the summer, but negotiations for the space with the Chicago Transportation Administration took longer than expected, according to Gray.
"We finally worked out the deal with them that everybody is happy with and now it's a matter of permits and health inspections," he said. "Unfortunately it takes so much time in a city this big."
Rounding out Glazed and Infused offerings of 12 staple donuts are the seasonal glazed, German chocolate cake, oatmeal raisin cookie, chocolate chip cookie, carrot cake, apple fritter, crème brûlée, Bismark special and the vanilla bean glazed. The shop also offers daily specialty doughnuts.
Time Out Chicago announced it would host a sneak peek "opening party extravaganza" at Glazed and Infused's Lincoln Park location Wednesday night, which will still go on although the space remains under construction. The magazine advertised for the party weeks ago as a $29 event with donut stations, cocktails and a DJ.
"It hasn't been painted. Not everything is in there. Even the countertops aren't in there right now, but we decided what the heck, we are going to go ahead with the party," Gray said.
Christine McCabe, a Charlie Trotter's alum and Bon Appétit pastry chef of the year in 2005, helped launch Glazed and Infused as a consultant, and will soon compete with the Lincoln Park location. McCabe opened her coffee and pastry walk-up window, Interurban Café and Pastry Shop, about three blocks east on Armitage in November.
