La Boulangerie

Chalk it up to French stubbornness that despite terms prohibiting the sale of coffee to go with his pastries, Vincent Colombet (who also owns the catering company Cook Au Vin) signed a lease on this Logan Square corner for his first retail bakery. Recognize that it’s only the passion of a Frenchman that could yield this quality of baguette (sometimes topped with herbs or fantastic cheese), which is the freshest in Chicago, still warm to the touch. And finally, acknowledge the French exactitude that makes his croissants so perfectly flaky that you’ll gladly buy them the only way he can contractually sell them: without an accompanying cappuccino.