Milk Bar
Restaurant · West Town ·
Inventive desserts, cookies, soft-serve, cake truffles, pies
Inventive desserts, cookies, soft-serve, cake truffles, pies
"With locations in NYC, LA, Vegas, DC, and even Bellevue, it was only a matter of time until Chicago got a version of this very popular bakery from the Momofuku family. At Milk Bar in Fulton Market, you can expect classics like a cereal milk soft serve and Compost cookies, as well as Chicago specials like a hot dog bomb with a poppyseed bun, tomato, relish, pepper, and mustard. We haven’t been here yet, but want you to know this spot exists." - John Ringor
"The bakery, founded 17 years ago in New York and known for treats such as Compost Cookies and the once-controversial Milk Bar Pie, will open its first Midwest store inside the Hoxton Chicago hotel lobby at 200 N. Green Street, debuting on Saturday, February 8 at 10 a.m. A national chain with locations in New York, D.C., and LA, it helped raise founder Christina Tosi’s profile as one of the most recognizable figures in the restaurant industry; the concept is an offshoot of the Momofuku empire where Tosi served as pastry chef and has been bolstered by TV appearances and books. The Chicago crew will unveil exclusive items like a Portillo’s Chocolate Cake Cookie and the Hot Dog Bomb, described as a rounder Chicago-style cousin of a bagel dog made with “bun-inspired bread” stuffed with hot dog bites and topped with the familiar mustard, tomatoes, and neon-green relish combo; there are also bagel bites stuffed with cream cheese for savory fans. The smaller Hoxton location (the chain’s 11th) will offer a full menu of cookies and treats like cake truffles, and signature items such as Birthday Cake and other cakes and pies will be available by the slice and whole, though shelves and inventory won’t match larger New York outposts; the menu shifts seasonally — opening-menu examples include soft-serve pancake-flavored ice cream and winter items like Velvet Cheesecake Cake and Red Velvet Truffles, alongside year-round standards like Cereal Milk soft-serve ice cream. The Chicago site is a partnership with Boka Restaurant Group, which handles food and beverage at the Hoxton and runs the basement bar Lazy Bird, Stephanie Izard’s rooftop restaurant Cabra, and the first-floor Mediterranean restaurant Cira. To mark the opening, the first 50 people in line before the 10 a.m. opening on February 8 will receive a copy of Tosi’s latest, Bake Club: 101 Must-Have Moves for Your Kitchen; Tosi also created the Netflix cooking competition Bake Squad, which featured Chicago’s Maya-Camille Broussard of Justice of the Pies. The location will also be available on third-party delivery services DoorDash, GrubHub, Caviar, and Uber Eats." - Ashok Selvam
"A high-profile bakery from Christina Tosi is opening in Chicago this winter inside a corner café of the hotel at 200 N. Green Street through a partnership with Boka Restaurant Group. Founded in 2008 with locations across major U.S. cities, the shop has used pop-ups and a pandemic-era ghost bakery to serve locals and has aggressively protected its brand; it plans a menu of signature items including cookies in flavors like cornflake chocolate chip marshmallow, confetti, and blueberry-and-cream, cake truffles, whole cakes and pies by the slice, cereal-milk soft-serve, milkshakes, breads, a Chicago-style hot dog riff on its stuffed bagel called a Bagel Bomb, and a forthcoming cookie collaboration with a local institution, while leveraging hotel foot traffic and third-party delivery." - Ashok Selvam
"After partnering with Target, Milk Bar is now selling packages of its soft-baked cookies — in confetti, compost, and cornflake chocolate chip marshmallow flavors ($4.99 for eight) — and newly created truffle crumb cakes — birthday, chocolate birthday, and chocolate chip ($2.99 for two) — at Target stores nationwide. The brand had already begun selling desserts at Whole Foods and had signaled plans to bring its baked goods to grocery shelves across the country, a strategy founder Christina Tosi outlined in February 2019. Last year the company opened a sprawling 4,000-square-foot flagship inside the Nomad’s Ace Hotel, paid for with more than $10 million in investor capital; Tosi likened the store to a daytime "slumber party." However, critics have noted a loss of the original East Village character as the chain grows — Eater critic Ryan Sutton wrote that the new flagship feels like "a joint outpost of a Hudson News and a commercial bakery at JFK." The Target rollout is the latest step in Milk Bar’s push to become a national, household dessert brand." - Luke Fortney
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