Treating French butter and flour with the reverence of a classic boulangerie is expected. But delivering that level of craft in a high-octane room where the hissing espresso machine competes with the bassline? That takes a certain kind of audacity. For Guillotine Bakery founders Alizé Bikard, Vincent Didry, and Vince Le Bec, that contradiction is the point. Bikard says: “We’re not copying and pasting what exists in France.”
Guillotine, which opened in June in West Town (1711 W. Chicago Ave.), began with a connection in Paris. While working as a strategy consultant there, Bikard was hunting for a way into the food world. She reached out to Didry, a former operations and retail director for the French Bastards, a cult-favorite Parisian bakery group. He was looking to launch his own spot in the United States and asked Bikard if she wanted to team up. Didry moved to Chicago in 2025, with Bikard arriving this year. For a head baker, they brought in Le Bec, a Breton who had previously spent time working at La Boulangerie & Co. and moved back this year.
Guillotine Bakery owners Vince Le Bec, Alizé Bikard, and Vincent Didry. (Jeff Marini/for Chicago magazine)
Initially, the trio looked to open in New York, but Didry was leery of setting up shop in a city saturated with French bakeries. Chicago had what they were looking for: a dining populace welcoming of new concepts and a supportive restaurant industry. They set up shop on a stretch of Chicago Avenue defined by independent businesses with the kind of community-first feel the team was hoping to cultivate. Their bakery is in the same building as the restaurant Brasero, where the two staffs share meals and more. Bikard says: “When they don’t have bread for a dish, they come in and get some from us.”
Guillotine draws on the trio’s experiences back home but adds a dose of what makes Chicago special. In traditional Parisian bakeries, bakers mostly work in basements, but two-thirds of Guillotine’s space consists of an open kitchen where diners can view the production process. The trio also saw how coffee plays a central role in Chicago’s bakery culture, and their beverage program features local makers Sparrow Coffee and Spirit Tea.
Guillotine Bakery’s croissant, kouign-amann, and pain au chocolat. (Jeff Marini/for Chicago magazine)
For baked goods, the team takes the technical foundation of the craft seriously. They source high-fat French butter and specialized flour to ensure precise, architectural layering. It takes them three days to make their croissants. Guillotine also serves other classics: pain au chocolat that prioritizes the pastry’s layers more than a heavy cocoa finish, kouign-amann that yields with a satisfying crack, and naturally leavened baguettes, made with nothing but flour, salt, and water. But the team is not trapped by old-school dogmatism: Take Guillotine’s ham and cheese croissant, which is made with a lamination technique that leaves it crunchy on the outside. Bikard calls it “not traditional in any way.”
Guillotine has garnered long lines since opening. “People have been really responsive, calling it a ‘no-bullshit’ place,” Bikard says. “That’s just what it is — done right — and I love that people are perceiving that.”
Carly Boers is a freelancer writer for Chicago magazine.