Bad Butter and Blame Butter tell the tales of two bakeries in Chicago. It is the best of times, and it is the butteriest of times. The former is a cult favorite preorder bakery at a hotel in the West Loop. The latter is a pop-up pie shop in the back of a poke shop in River North. By the end of the year, both will be gone as we know them.
My reviews won’t be starred due to the imminent changes, but I had to share in this peak pie and pastry season.
Bad Butter
Chef and owner Dan Koester still bakes some sourdough bread, his first love. But for now, it’s mostly exquisitely golden and flaky viennoiserie. Bad Butter offers classics, including croissants and pain au chocolat, and seasonal creations that generate a particular kind of pastry frenzy.
A towering cruffin, the cross between a croissant and muffin, has consistently become a bestseller with flavors changing every month. Tall and heavy yet tender, they hide not one, but two fillings. A recent ricotta and pumpkin cruffin held clouds of ricotta pastry cream intertwined with silken pumpkin ganache.
That ephemeral ganache begins with caramelized white chocolate, Dulcey by Valrhona, stirred with cream, then pumpkin puree and pumpkin spices.
The aromatic ham and cheese croissant, one of his original items, will remain.
“That’s one of my favorites,” said Koester. “Because it’s got sliced porchetta and whole grain mustard and gruyere cheese, and then it’s topped with sesame seeds.”
He sources the excellent herbed porchetta from Tempesta Artisan Salumi based in Chicago.
But it’s the crispy cheese skirt that steals the show.
“That’s the best part of the croissant,” said the baker. “The cheese that melts out the side and kind of gets crusty.”
It’s one of his earliest pastries, but the bakery began even earlier.
“I started Dan the Baker, like my own ‘business,’ in my house during COVID in 2020,” said Koester.
He had previously been the head baker at Soho House Chicago before the pandemic, so he was able to move his home operation into their professional kitchen in 2021, but just for a year. Luckily enough, somebody at The Emily Hotel said they had a spare kitchen for lease, so he moved again in 2023, and has been there since.
He had to change his business name at the end of 2024, because there’s another Dan the Baker in Ohio. Bad Butter was accidental.
“It’s honestly kind of a silly story,” said Koester. He was cooking for his family one night. The pan was too hot, so when he put a little butter in, it immediately burned, so he set it aside until after dinner.
“My wife and I were cleaning up, and she was like, what’s this? I said, it’s some bad butter. And she said, is that your rapper name? I said, no, but it could be our bakery name.”
The s’mores croissant is served at Bad Butter in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood on Nov. 22, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)
The stunning s’mores croissant, however, was as deliberate as it is delicious.
One of his bakers said that whenever s’mores becomes something else, the graham cracker gets lost in translation.
“I thought, why don’t we make a chocolate with cocoa butter, milk powder and graham crackers?” said Koester. “And that’s our graham cracker element.”
It’s toasty and textural and absolutely brilliant.
“So we have the graham cracker and then we add chocolate pastry cream and little chocolate croissant bars as well,” he said.
After they bake the filled and cross-shaped laminated pastry, they pipe in a gobsmacking heart of Italian meringue, similar to melty marshmallow.
My favorite, as a s’mores connoisseur, sells out in minutes, and as a seasonal specialty item may be taken off the menu anytime.
As is the case with a perfectly crisp and custardy canelé de Bordeaux, a beautifully caramelized kouign-amann and a spectacularly loaded sticky pecan monkey bread.
His so-called plain croissant and chocolate croissant will always stay as classic staples.
“We use Isigny Ste Mère butter from Normandy, France,” said Koester. “When I first started, it was $115 a case. Now it’s up to $200 a case, almost doubled.”
His pastry prices have certainly not doubled, remarkable for the ingredients and technique, but also the sheer enormous size of the pastries. They’re so big that the pain au chocolat actually holds three bars of chocolate, defying chefs in Paris who insisted two bars were the absolute limit and any more just madness. While generous, I do feel that the butter and chocolate croissants lean a bit toward bready boulangerie and away from buttery layered pâtisserie.
Unless they’re warmed, which they can do at The Emily coffee shop, where some of the classics are available daily. And in the afternoon, the shop offers a coffee and pastry deal. That may be one of the best-kept secrets in the neighborhood. Plus, when I picked up my preorder box at the coffee shop, impeccably packed by the bakers themselves, the baristas handled the handover with sincere hospitality.
“They don’t work for me,” said Koester. “But they do it with a lot of care, and they’re just the coolest people, and I really appreciate that they go above and beyond.”
The apple custard danish at Bad Butter in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)
A shattering apple custard danish also goes so above and beyond that it may be the baker’s favorite pastry.
“At least top five pastries that we do,” he said. “I put it on last fall, so we brought it back this year.”
A seemingly infinite layered croissant shell hugs a pie filling, made with Honeycrisp apples from Mick Klug Farms. That’s covered with custard, then baked again until the top caramelizes.
“It’s creamy, it’s appley,” he added. “It’s very fall.”
But seasons change, and so will his bakery yet again.
“We are opening a storefront,” said Koester. “We’re moving to Bucktown, hopefully in January.”
The space at 1655 W. Cortland was last Mable’s Table and previously the beloved Jane’s.
“I’ve always wanted the neighborhood spot,” said the baker. “And it’s perfect.”
Owner Dan Koester shapes the dough for the country sourdough bread for the next day’s preorders on Nov. 22, 2025, at Bad Butter in The Emily Hotel in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)
They will still focus on viennoiserie, but expand the sourdough bread program because they’ll have space to do it.
“And we have deck ovens, which are going to be kind of behind the pastry case,” he said. “So you’re going to be able to see the action, hopefully.
They plan to make breakfast sandwiches later on, but will have no plated dishes or inside seating, because there’s not enough room. The coveted seasonal patio will open when the weather permits.
Until then, the Bad Butter preorder bakery menu goes live online on Monday mornings. Ordering opens at 3 p.m., and I highly recommend signing up for an alert, because the hundreds of pastries will sell out fast.
“I always tell people like you just really never know when something’s going to come off the menu,” said the baker. “So definitely don’t wait.”
Bad Butter
311 N. Morgan St. (pick up at The Emily Hotel coffee shop or front desk after hours)
Open: Friday to Sunday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. (preorder only) (holiday hours may differ)
Prices: $4.25 (plain croissant), $4.75 (chocolate croissant), $6.50 (ham and cheese croissant), $7 (ricotta and pumpkin cruffin), $8 (s’mores croissant), $9 (apple custard danish)
Accessibility: Wheelchair accessible with restrooms on same level
Blame Butter
A single slice of pie at Blame Butter, 168 W. Huron St. in Chicago, comes boxed and beribboned with a metal fork, a napkin and shopping bag on Nov. 21, 2025. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)
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A single slice of pie at Blame Butter, 168 W. Huron St. in Chicago, comes boxed and beribboned with a metal fork, a napkin and shopping bag on Nov. 21, 2025. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)
Founder and chief pie officer Asa Balanoff Naiditch does all the baking herself for Blame Butter.
“I call myself a pietisserie,” said the baker. “Kind of like a pâtisserie in France, but pie.”
Like a high-end French pâtisserie meets modern art.
“I think of it kind of as a living archive,” she said. “I consider myself an artist, and pie is just kind of the medium.”
Balanoff Naiditch is clearly obsessed with pie. And I don’t just love what she’s doing with Blame Butter. I am completely smitten.
The baker will hand you bundles, tied like something urgent and precious. Your first instinct will be to rush outside for a taste. But you’ll want to keep that moment for a little bit longer. You will discover that the pies themselves are delicious and delightful works.
“My hope is that I’m passing my memory,” she said. “Food is everything. It can even be political. It’s the one thing that you carry with you when nothing else remains.”
Asa Balanoff Naiditch salts her Dying The Honey Pink pie at the pastry shop Blame Butter, 168 W. Huron St. in Chicago, Nov. 21, 2025. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)
Dying The Honey Pink is the title of one pie, with a narrative that begins, “To the ache of loving something you cannot save.”
It’s a compelling salty and sweet burnt honey custard, infused with tart sumac, under a dark pink floral orange blossom glaze finished with petals, leaves and salinity from Maldon sea salt.
“It’s the pie of the residency,” said Balanoff Naiditch. It’s also the only one that’s been on the menu since she opened in September to lines wrapped around the corner, and will remain until she closes at the end of the year. “It gets a variety of flowers, depending on what Mike brings me.”
That’s Mike Murphy of Chef’s Local Choice, who grows flowers in his own local suburban home garden, and has also supplied flowers to Kumiko by James Beard award-winning chef Julia Momosé.
But Dying The Honey Pink began with fragrant, organic, handpicked Palestinian sumac at Middle East Bakery & Grocery in Andersonville.
“This pie is a tribute to Palestine,” said the baker. “It was kind of a love letter to its love and heartbreak.”
Her best friend is Palestinian, whom she met at pastry school in London, and they now spend a lot of time together in the Middle East.
“It’s my way to kind of be political,” Balanoff Naiditch. “To call resistance through food.”
The flavors are deeply rooted in the region.
“They hold both beauty and grief, that salty and sweet,” said the baker. “All folded together into a pie.”
A slice of The One for Paul pie at the pastry shop Blame Butter, 168 W. Huron St. in Chicago, Nov. 21, 2025. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)
The One For Paul is a fantastic fruit-forward apple pie, topped with a thin sheet of cinnamon rolls and mascarpone frosting.
“That actually came about before Blame Butter was ever a thing,” said Balanoff Naiditch. “It was for my friend’s dad, who loved apple desserts.”
When she came back to Chicago, it became pie and her first original recipe.
“It is thinly sliced, peeled apples that then are very heavy with cinnamon, dark brown sugar, but not too much, not too sweet,” said the baker. “And he loves a flaky crust.”
Her flaky buttery crust is a rough puff pastry, also unusual for pie.
Her newest pie is a two-part birthday cake pie.
“On your birthday, you either want a chocolate cake or vanilla,” said Balanoff Naiditch. “So I couldn’t say I had a birthday cake pie on the menu and not have one that was chocolate, and one that was vanilla.”
Both are layered like an entremet with sponge cake, a birthday cake infused pastry cream, more cake, more pastry cream and frosting, plus choux à la crème (cream puffs) and sprinkles.
It’s My Party has cake that’s infused with tonka bean and vanilla. To my relief, it’s subtly sweet, evocative of distant childhood birthdays, with a tender crumb throughout.
A slice of the I’ll Cry if I Want To pie at Blame Butter on West Huron Street on Nov. 21, 2025. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)
And I’ll Cry If I Want To, however, has cake infused with toasted cocoa nib and chocolate. Also lovely and not too sweet, but the sponge cake was a touch dry and needed a bit more of a syrup soak.
The choux, though, were perfection with crisp shells and luxurious cream, which she pipes to order.
It’s all part of the remarkable performance art that captures the intensity of a chef during a fine dining service. But there’s also ordering, finishing, wrapping, beribboning, bagging, real forks, heavy paper napkins and a shopping bag that feels like a couture experience. The baker works fast, but it does take time.
“The lines came a lot faster than I expected,” she said.
Balanoff Naiditch was born and raised in Chicago. She has dual art degrees and a minor in political science.
Her first job in pastry was at Dutch & Doc’s in 2018, now Swift Tavern in Wrigleyville.
“I cried almost every day,” said the baker, who loved the experience, especially prep, but not service.
She graduated from pastry school at Le Cordon Bleu London in 2019.
“I came back to get my work visa, and the pandemic hit in ’20,” she said.
Her return to London coincided with a job offer, but then another wave of COVID lockdowns hit Britain.
“And I started doing Blame Butter from my flat as a secret micro bakery,” she added, adapting the name from the Blame Gloria cocktail bar in Covent Garden.
Another job offer came, for what was her dream job in London, but the baker turned it down, realizing she had no desire to be the executive pastry chef at a fancy hotel.
“When everything reopened, I started staging,” she said, at Violet Cakes, Pantechnicon and finally The Pie Room at Holborn Dining Room, where she was hired and worked for two and a half years.
“All we did was make savory British pies,” said the baker.
The last place she worked was Hart Bageri, the bakery in Copenhagen, famously featured in “The Bear.”
At Last, In Quiet Company was a nutty, studded pecan pie on a recent menu at Blame Butter.
“It was the one pie that even if I had any left over, I just had no desire to sit and eat it,” she said.
The baker is not a pecan person, so she started introducing hazelnuts into the ganache, then the glaze and tempering the traditional sweetness with cocoa nibs and burnt maple on top. The terrific toasted hazelnut croustillant alone crackles with creativity.
“It slowly came together,” she said. “But it’s never as much mine as some of the others.”
All whole pies come fully wrapped, with her signature wax seal and art labels showing the title, artist, date, medium, description and a tagline. For Dying the Honey Pink, it’s Even Honey Bleeds. They are not inexpensive at $112 each. Slices range from $13 to $16. All prices include tax with no fees or tips expected.
“When I came back from London, I was kind of shocked, because I had gotten so used to seeing a price and that’s what you pay,” Balanoff Naiditch said.
Her prices reflect ingredients that come from specialized vendors within two hours of the city.
“I work with individuals,” she added. “I work with Pete at Seedling. I work with Al at Nordic Creamery. It was one of the only places where I could find cultured butter, 85% butter fat, even in London, I was only getting like 83%. My flour comes from Josh at Farm2Flour in Alvin, Illinois, where they do organic stone ground.
She’s mostly a one-woman show, except for her father, who helps by driving pies from a nearby commercial kitchen or folding boxes. Bob Balanoff was the presiding judge of the Child Protection Division in Cook County until he retired in January.
Meanwhile, the pietisserie will only remain in its current residency until the end of the year.
“I’m not sure exactly what’s next,” said the baker. “But for sure, I’m going to do a pie-focused supper club series, I think in January.”
Part dinner, part party, kind of love letter to the universality of pie and travel.
“Blame Butter will never leave Chicago permanently,” she said. “Even if it disappears, it will return.”
Blame Butter
168 W. Huron St.
Open: Friday, 4 to 6 p.m., for whole pies by reservation only; Saturday and Sunday, 12 noon until 3 p.m. or sold out, for slices (holiday hours may differ)
Prices: $13 to $16 (pie slice); $112 (whole pie), all including tax with no tips expected
Accessibility: Wheelchair accessible with restroom on same level
Meals are paid for by the Tribune.
lchu@chicagotribune.com
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