MORGAN PARK — Laine's Bake Shop will debut this weekend at 11057 S. Homewood Ave. in Morgan Park.
The new bakery will open to the public from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday and continue its grand opening from 2-6 p.m. Sunday, according to Rachel Bernier-Green.
She and her husband Jaryd expected to open May 30 but were hampered by delays in delivering equipment and other construction woes. Their bake shop specializes in made-from-scratch desserts and also supplies Whole Foods Market, Starbucks and others with an assortment of specialty cookies, brownies and sweets.
The couple from the Oakland neighborhood trace the start of the bakery to April 15, 2013 — Tax Day.
Rachel had been working as an accountant and often used baking as a way to relieve stress, bringing in treats for co-workers as the filing deadline approached.
"People would ask me, ‘If you can do this [baking], why are you here?’” said Rachel, 28.
On that Tax Day three years ago, she and some co-workers whipped up a website and Facebook page for Laine’s Bake Shop just ahead of their trip to a bar.
The prior to opening the Morgan Park bakery, the pair had been using a shared location known as Kitchen Chicago on the Near West Side. From there, they supply 11 Whole Foods stores in the Chicago market with four types of cookies, including Mexican wedding cookies, mocha raspberry thumbprint cookies, bourbon caramel thumbprint cookies and honey nut peanut butter cookies
The bake shop will also soon add Starbucks in Englewood to its list of clients. Laine's Bake Shop will sell its red velvet cheesecake brownies and a seasonal assortment of sandwich cookies in the coffee shop that opens in August.
Besides the wholesale sweets, Laine's Bake Shop in Morgan Park will also operate as a retail bakery, stocking its signature items along with bakery products such as fresh bread and peach cobbler, said Jaryd, 31.
Rachel was raised on the South Side and in the south suburbs. She named the business for her grandfather, Laine, and her mother, Elaine.
The all-natural bakery also is working to add Target, Wal-Mart, Mariano's and Walgreens to its list of wholesale customers, Jaryd said.
"We are not just a bake shop," he said. "We are business people."
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