Chicago Specialty Bakers
Chicago Specialty Bakers got its start back in 1982 as a string of bagel shops and delis run by Felix Barats, offering bagels and custom-made sandwiches. Today, its business is purely wholesale, focusing on a wide variety of artisanal breads for airline, foodservice and grocery customers.
To read the complete feature on Chicago Specialty Bakers, see “Chicago Specialty Bakers brings Old World baked goods to life.”
Chicago Specialty Bakers
Chicago Specialty Bakers got its start back in 1982 as a string of bagel shops and delis run by Felix Barats, offering bagels and custom-made sandwiches. Today, its business is purely wholesale, focusing on a wide variety of artisanal breads for airline, foodservice and grocery customers.
Chicago Specialty Bakers
One product unique to Chicago Specialty Bakers is its “Borodinsky” rye, a levain-based, dark-colored, coriander-topped, sweet-and-sour Russian bread. The Borodinsky reportedly surfaced in the early 1800s after the Napoleonic Wars, created by a war widow who established a convent at the site of the Battle of Borodino.
Chicago Specialty Bakers
Felix Barats suggests Chicago Specialty Bakers is “the only major wholesale artisan bakery of its kind in this country to use 100% rye flour and a 30-year-old rye levain,” claiming that levain is “superior to yeast as a leavening agent.”
Chicago Specialty Bakers
Felix Barats suggests the most-important “ingredient” in his bread is the lengthy fermentation period, which yields an open-cell structure and improved flavor. George Goldberg, vice president of marketing for Chicago Specialty Bakers, says, “Time is the only ‘ingredient’ that you can’t put on the label.”
Chicago Specialty Bakers
Chicago Specialty Bakers currently operates a 20,000-sq.-ft. plant with four lines, with output of around 1 million pounds of product per week. Even with higher-level production runs, the bakery incorporates some “made by hand” aspects.
Chicago Specialty Bakers
Development of the first artisan production line at Chicago Specialty Bakers took four years; the second artisan line took two years. Another line remains strictly devoted to rye breads, while a fourth line handles more-conventional products, like kaiser rolls and sandwich buns.
Chicago Specialty Bakers
One piece of packaging machinery at Chicago Specialty Bakers involves vibrating bins that deposit finished products onto three vertical conveyors that sort and deposit products into bags, and then seals the bags.
Chicago Specialty Bakers
The lineup at Chicago Specialty Bakers also includes items like French toast soufflés, made with brioche and custard, in four different varieties: raisin, Kalamata olive spinach, ricotta blueberry, and ricotta chocolate chip.
Chicago Specialty Bakers
Felix Barats sees “more bold flavors, and breads that are different shapes and sizes” as strong trends in artisan bakery. “Before, customers wanted a more typical style of bread. Now they want a more custom style of product, one that is also all-natural, without preservatives.”
Chicago Specialty Bakers
Output at Chicago Specialty Bakers regularly includes dinner rolls, French-style baguettes, focaccia, German-style pretzel breads and buns, Italian ciabatta with open-cell structure, and handmade focaccia with toppings, along with its signature ryes.