Boulangerie Cheskie
Bakery · Mile End ·
Iconic kosher bakery featuring legendary chocolate babka, rugelach,
Iconic kosher bakery featuring legendary chocolate babka, rugelach,
"One of the finest bakeries in a city full of them, Mile End’s Cheskie (or “Cheskie’s” to locals) has been the go-to kosher Jewish sweets spot for over two decades. Founded by Cheskie Lebowitz, a New Yorker turned Montrealer, the bakery nails its Russian babka, a chewy, gooey, impossibly rich confection that steals the show — though it’s tucked away on the back counter. Cheskie’s is also well-stocked with cheese crowns, rugelach, black-and-white cookies, mini cheesecakes, and kokosh, babka’s denser Hungarian counterpart, ribbonned with chocolate or poppy seeds. Cheskie is open until 11 p.m. most nights, but closed on Saturdays." - Valerie Silva
"At a heimishe bakery called Boulangerie Cheskie I was introduced to items I’d never seen in New York: a cheese crown, a thick, firm pastry filled with sweet cheese that melted into a delightful paste in my mouth, and kokosh, a chocolate-filled roll that’s a cross between babka and strudel — which my husband happily devoured since I don’t like chocolate." - Morgan Goldberg
"A traditional Jewish bakery known for chocolate babka and other Jewish treats, celebrated as a classic patisserie within Montreal’s Jewish culinary tradition." - Valerie Silva
"From black and white cookies to cheese crowns, Cheskie serves all manner of Jewish sweets. But its decadent chocolatey coils of sweet dough — i.e., the babka — are the hallmark at this beloved kosher bakery, open since 2002 in Montreal’s Mile End." - Valerie Silva
"Montreal’s go-to kosher bakery displays piles of rugelach in the window, but don’t be compelled to stop there when ordering. This 20-year-old establishment, started by New Yorker Cheskie Lebowitz, makes some of the most outstanding chocolatey babka in town, plus black and white cookies, cheese crowns, and more." - Daniel Bromberg