The pastries and baked goods are selling like hot cakes at Oak Park’s newest bakery, this one in the Hemingway District.
Spilt Milk Pastry, 103 S. Oak Park Ave., has been open for less than two weeks, and co-owner Molly Svec said the response has been so big they’ve had to quadruple the production of some of their baked goods.
Svec, who opened the business with her sister Meg Svec, said she made 10 chicken Marbella pot pies – braised chicken with capers, olives, lemon juice, brown sugar, herbs and white wine – on each of the first days after the shop opened, and they sold so fast that she has quadrupled her production of the savory pies.
Spilt Milk’s breakfast sandwiches – a buttermilk biscuit with flaky sea salt on top, egg, bacon and sharp cheddar cheese – also have been “flying off the shelves,” she said.
“It’s going so much better than we anticipated,” she said. “We’ve almost sold out every day, and we’re baking more stuff throughout the day to sell. It’s amazing. We couldn’t have asked for anything better to be honest.”
The bakery carries drip coffee from Metric Coffee Co. as well as a selection of homemade muffins, pies, scones and other pastries.
Svec said the shop is capturing a lot of foot traffic from people headed to the nearby Oak Park Avenue Green Line El stop and early data shows that about a quarter of their patrons are return customers.
The first-time entrepreneur said the overwhelming response has made for some long days, but the bakery is eventually hiring another baker and Molly’s husband is soon joining the Spilt Milk team, she added.
“I knew there would be long hours, but I didn’t realize it would be 19-hours a day for however long it takes,” she said.
Spilt Milk plans to add a lunch menu at some point in the future but not until the second baker is hired, Svec said. The bakery is opened Tuesday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
CONTACT: tim@oakpark.com
