Roeser's Bakery on North Avenue rolls with the changes
A day in the life of Roeser's Bakery recalls the dawn of another era. The Humboldt Park bakery at 3216 W. North is on the fringe of the park.
But it was the sweetheart of bakery row when John Roeser Jr. installed the 20-foot-long Roeser's neon sign in 1946 to illuminate his father's dream. And it was a hot spot in the mid-1970s, when it provided cakes for Bucket No. 2 on "Bozo's Circus" Grand Prize Game.
(John H. White/Sun-Times, Courtesy)
PHOTO GALLERY
Family-operated Roeser's Bakery
Established in 1911, Roeser's is the city's oldest family-owned retail bakery.
Someday, John Roeser III will hand off the operation to his 21-year-old son, John IV. Fourth-generation businesses -- that's as rare as Baked Alaska in Maui. At Roeser's, every day is as dependable as Father's Day.
Tastemakers spread the word, and the appointed restaurant or bar develops a bland, unrooted sameness. But an early morning Friday crowd at Roeser's is unique. There are brawny city workers, roofers and gentle nurse's aides.
Tamika Porter, 26, picks up a 9-inch buttercream cake with strawberry filling for a co-worker's birthday at the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center.
Angel Hughes carries a seven-tier cake for her late May wedding. The 28-year-old teacher's assistant lives near Jackson and Cicero and has been coming to the bakery for a decade, mainly for chocolate cake doughnuts.
There are no hipsters, not even many people on cell phones.
"We buck every trend," Roeser III says during a chipper 7 a.m. conversation. "There's no bus on Kedzie boulevard. In 1949, they tore down the L that was behind us. And then there's 220 acres of uninhabited [park] space kitty-corner from us. In the early 1950s, there were 12 bakers in the eight blocks from here [Kedzie] to Pulaski."
The bakery is on the ground floor of a three-story Victorian building. In the late 1890s, it was a saloon and restaurant that served Salvatore beer.
John Roeser Sr. bought the building in 1911 and turned it into a bakery. The 900-square-foot interior is painted bright yellow. "Butter and eggs," Roeser III declares.
Roeser's opens at 6 a.m. every day except Monday, when it is closed. Even though eight people stand in line around 8:30 on a mid-May morning, the bakery is respectfully quiet.
"May is our biggest month," Roeser III says. "Mother's Day, communion, confirmation, beginning of graduation. We don't have the Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter we used to just because of the dynamics of the neighborhood."
When Roeser's grandfather opened the bakery in 1911, he catered to German and Scandinavian residents. John Sr. had come to Chicago from Mayen, Germany, along the Rhine River. He was a baker.
"These guys in Europe would hang sheets around them so other guys wouldn't see what they were doing," Roeser III says. "You didn't share information."
John Sr. and his wife, Hattie, served hard-as-rock scones, strudel and rye bread to their Humboldt Park neighbors.
Today, Roeser's sells cakes for birthdays, weddings and baby showers, as well as the basics such as bread, doughnuts and nine flavors of homemade ice cream.
The old-country Hot Milk Sponge Cake is a house favorite. Buttermilk Devil's Food Cake (buttermilk balanced with cocoa and baking soda) is the second biggest seller.
A portion of chocolate used for baking is ordered from the Blommer Chocolate Company in Chicago.
"The '80s and '90s were a very busy time for us as ethnicity changed here," Roeser III says. "It became Puerto Rican. They came in here to buy an $80 cake and would go next door to buy the French bread. It was the same bread I was making. But they felt they had to buy that product from their own store."
Guava is now a house specialty. A new line of designer cookies includes roasted cashew dreams with coconut, peanut butter and jelly cup and caramel and roasted pecan.
"Ice cream and doughnuts have been adversely affected not only by the economy, but by everybody wanting to be on a diet," says Roeser III, wearing a starched white baker's shirt. "And the fact you can get a doughnut at almost any gas station doesn't help. So we keep trying to do new things."
He picks up a red velvet donut with cream cheese icing.
"I don't think you'll see this any place," he says. "Red velvet was a Southern thing. It's a light chocolate cake because cocoa was too expensive at the beginning of the century. Sugar was also expensive so they used beet juice. That's how it became red. It's leavened with soda and vinegar. We started making these a month ago."
The back shop starts cooking around 8 p.m., about the time Roeser's closes to the public. During late night and early morning hours, production begins on bread and fried doughnuts. About 10 workers are on the all-night shift. Overall, Roeser's employs 35 people.
Roeser IV arrives at 5 a.m. and begins icing cakes and making cookies and crunch cake mixes. By 8 a.m. on a Friday, he has worked on 30 cakes.
Says Roeser III: "A bakery is one of the only businesses in the world that manufactures from raw materials every day. You package it, retail it and what's left over you donate to somebody. And then you do it again tomorrow."
Roeser's also bucks the trend of third-generation owners leaving the business.
"We always get blamed," says Roeser III, who is 55. "Success rate with third-generation is less than 10 percent. I like doing this, but when I was in college, I said I would never come back to the bakery. When you're 'John III,' you need to feel, 'I'm not successful because I am the boss' son.' I'm here because I chose to be here and had other opportunities."
"As a restructuring and turnaround advisor, I have seen many third- and fourth-generation companies that have failed," says Dan Wikel, managing director of Huron Consulting Group in Chicago. "The company's product or service business cycle has run its course and the younger generation of owners have trouble adapting or adjusting its business plan to meet the current market or customer needs."
Roeser III earned degrees in retailing and sociology at Drake University. He was offered other food industry jobs, but he remained true to his roots and took over the bakery in 1976.
"My dad wasn't counting on me," he says. "I came in on even footing and we worked together. My dad was the quintessential good father. He wanted everything to be right for you. Even when I was young, he asked me my opinion about anything that came up."
The family lived in a two-bedroom apartment above the current Roeser's Party Store just west of the bakery until Roeser III was 3 years old. The family then moved to Oak Park.
Roeser III purchased the building in 2000 and opened the store filled with toys and party favors.
He and his wife, Deb, plan to return to an apartment above the bakery. They have three children: Allison, 27, Kailee, 25, and John IV, who is obtaining a degree in hotel and restaurant management from the University of South Carolina.
"I've always been passionate about the bakery," John IV says. "My dad always told me I could do different. There was no pressure. It is job security to me. It is tradition. And it is pride. I've been working here since I was 10."
The family is committed to the neighborhood. Between 1990 and 2004, Roeser III served as vice president of the North Pulaski-Armitage Chamber of Commerce. On Earth Day, a box elder tree was planted near the Humboldt Park boat house in honor of John Roeser Jr.
In 2003, Roeser III created the John C. Roeser Youth Development Foundation to teach fast pitch softball to minority girls from Humboldt Park.
"Hopefully they will get college opportunities," he says. "We were featured in Fast Pitch magazine because we were the only program that doesn't charge people. In order to be on our team a girl has to have a 3.0 grade average. That's their pay. And there's a lot to be learned from team sports: the effort you put in and the reward you get out."
Angel Gonzalez has been a rewarded Roeser's customer since 1976. The City of Chicago hoisting engineer is standing in line around 9 a.m.
"This is the only place you can get real cream on a coconut donut," says Gonzalez, 54.
He comes to the bakery from his home near Grand and Laramie.
"This bakery is different than others because of the generations of families who run it. It's consistent going back to the '70s," he says.
Gonzalez will never forget the first time he came to Roeser's. His father bought him a birthday cake.
Check out more photos and history of Roeser's Bakery at Dave Hoekstra's Scratch Crib at blogs.suntimes.com/hoekstra.