How We Opened Balkan Bakery in the Heart of Chicago

If you step through our doors on La Grange Road in the morning, you’ll catch the warm scent of butter and toasted flour, the crisp crackle of pastry cooling on racks, and a thread of conversation in English and Serbian weaving through the shop. That mix—old-world flavors, Chicago energy, and a family’s devotion—is the story of how Balkan Bakery came to be.

Our roots stretch back to a small kitchen in Kosovo, Serbia, where recipes were measured by memory and feel: a palmful of sugar, a pinch of salt, butter softened on a windowsill. Those recipes traveled across oceans and time zones, tucked in a mother’s hands and passed to a daughter-in-law who would later make Chicago their home. Today, at 541 South La Grange Road, that heritage lives in every tray of burek we roll and every slice of cake we frost.

A Family Recipe Becomes a Chicago Ritual

Balkan Bakery was founded in 2007 by my mother-in-law, Olja Igic. When she came to the United States, she brought what she knew best: the flavors of home. In our community, food isn’t just food—it’s a ceremony. It’s how you greet guests, how you mark a holiday, how you say “we remember.” Olja understood that the Balkan diaspora in Chicago craved more than a pastry—they craved belonging.

In the early days, the bakery was simple: a small storefront with a few ovens, a well-loved mixer, and a menu written on paper. But word spread fast. People would drive across neighborhoods for a tray of still-warm burek or a box of Bajadera pralines for Slava. Families would stand at the counter and tell us about their grandmother’s kitchen, or ask, “Do you have Jaffa cake? Kinder cake? Can you make it like my mom did?” That’s when we knew: this was less a business and more a gathering place.

How Chicago Chose Us—and We Chose Chicago

Chicago has a way of embracing you if you show up with heart. It’s a city of neighborhoods and small triumphs: a perfect espresso shot in a corner cafe, a butcher who knows your name, a bakery where the pastry case feels like a memory box. We chose La Grange because it sits at the crossroads of our community—walkable, welcoming, and humming at the right pace. On weekends, the sidewalks fill with strollers and grandparents and teenagers on their way to practice. People linger. They talk. They make time for a slice of cake.

That rhythm suits us. We bake for daily life as much as we bake for milestones: burek and jogurt for breakfast; a Kinder slice to sweeten an afternoon; a custom cake to mark a birthday, baptism, or wedding. The heart of Chicago beats in the little rituals, and we’re honored to be part of them.

Passing the Wooden Spoon

In 2020, I, Marija Pejkovic, took the reins from Olja. I was born in Paracin, Serbia, and came to the United States when I was three. My degree is in Fashion Business from Columbia Chicago, which might sound far from baking—but fashion taught me something essential: the power of craft, fit, and finish. A garment lives or dies by its details. So does a pastry.

When I stepped into ownership, I promised two things:

• Preserve the soul of our recipes exactly as they taste in our memories.

• Evolve our bakery to welcome the next generation of guests.

  
  

That’s meant investing in our kitchen—Hobart mixers, four ovens, sheeters—to scale thoughtfully without losing the handwork. It’s meant updating our menu with modern confections, vegan options, and gelato while keeping the classics at the center. And it’s meant designing a space and brand that feel trustworthy and warm, in our palette of black, rich cocoa brown, and soft golds and creams—a nod to espresso, pastry, and sunlight.

Marija and Olja

What We Bake—and Why It Matters

Our most-loved items are more than bestsellers; they’re cultural touchstones.

• Burek: Paper-thin layers, hand-stretched and folded, filled with cheese, spinach, or meat. It’s the Balkan breakfast you can’t quite replicate at home unless you’ve folded a thousand sheets. We like to say burek teaches patience and rewards it.

• Jaffa and Kinder Cake Slices: These are our nostalgia heroes—bright citrus chocolate in Jaffa, creamy chocolate-hazelnut layers in Kinder. They remind our customers of childhood, of nameday parties, of sneaking an extra slice while aunties talked in the kitchen.

• Bajadera Praline Cookies: Symbol of prosperity and respect. In Serbian tradition, Bajadera belongs at Slava, Christmas, and Easter. It’s a dessert, yes—but it’s also a quiet invitation: share, linger, be with us.

• Crepes: Both savory and sweet—Nutella, Black Forest, Spinach & Feta—made to order. They bridge the familiar and the new, attracting those who grew up with palačinke and those discovering them for the first time.

• Seasonal Specials and Gelato: We celebrate the year with what tastes best right now. October through February, our menu blooms with holiday specialties and warm, spiced flavors. In summer, our gelato case becomes the neighborhood’s afternoon habit.

We also stock carefully chosen European imports—everything from Plazma keks to ajvar and rakija—so you can bring home the pantry items that complete the experience. About 30% of our business is these imports, which let you build a Balkan table from breakfast to dessert.

Opening a Bakery Is a Love Story (and a Logistics Story)

People often ask how we did it—how we opened and kept going. The romantic answer is love for heritage. The practical answer is 4 a.m. alarms and a lot of spreadsheets.

• We learned the rhythms of our community. Mornings from 9 to 11:30 are bustling. Weekends are our heartbeat. Our hours reflect the way people actually eat and gather.

• We invested in craft. You can’t fake flaky. We guard our dough processes and butter temperatures like heirlooms. Quality control isn’t a department—it’s me, watching every tray.

• We embraced both tradition and Chicago’s openness to new flavors. That’s how Kinder sits next to pistachio cream, how classic crepes welcome a raspberry chocolate riff.

• We listened. Customers told us which cakes tasted like home and which ones needed more orange zest. We tuned our menu by ear.

• We said yes to milestones. Custom cakes—piped simply, no fondant—let us celebrate alongside you. When a family returns a year later and says “same design, bigger size,” it feels like growing together.

The Moment the Neighborhood Opened Its Arms

There was a Saturday early on when the line reached the door and someone started passing plates backward so the kids could share samples while they waited. A woman told us she hadn’t tasted a burek like this since she left Niš. Another customer brought his American coworkers to “explain why I talk about this place all week.” That was the first time I cried in the kitchen—not from exhaustion, but because I understood we’d become more than a shop. We were a bridge.

From One Kitchen to Many Tables

If you’ve ever carried one of our boxes down the sidewalk, you’ve probably seen the round stickers we seal them with. It’s a small thing, but we love that tiny moment of ceremony: the lift of the lid, the collective intake of breath, the clatter of forks. Our best days are the ones when someone comes back and says, “We used your cake for our engagement,” or “My dad ate three slices of Bajadera and told the same story twice.” That’s success to us.

Growing Without Losing Ourselves

We’re proud of our growth, but we measure it by more than revenue. Yes, we track sales. Yes, we’re aiming high—more catering, more daily regulars, a refined croissant program, and new crepe flavors like raspberry chocolate and pistachio. But the scoreboard is also softer: the smile when someone tastes something familiar; the family who chooses us for every celebration; the person who shows up alone, sits with a coffee, and feels at home.

We’re experimenting thoughtfully:

• Expanding gourmet croissants while guarding classic dough methods.

• Adding three new crepes, balancing tradition with playful combinations.

• Trying more vegan options where they truly shine.

• Refining our blog to share recipes, stories, and guides to Balkan food culture so newcomers can dive in.

Chicago’s Heart, Our Home

Being here means rubbing shoulders with a thousand culinary traditions and cheering for all of them. We swap tips with neighboring shops, we read the city through our customers, and we honor the immigrant arc that shaped Chicago itself. We’re a Balkan bakery, yes—but we’re also a Chicago bakery. Our shelves hold Slava desserts and birthday cakes with Cubs-blue piping. Our cases show off pistachio glazes and Midwestern berries. That mix is the magic.

What We Believe

• Food should be made with premium ingredients and patience.

• Tradition is a living thing—it grows stronger when shared.

• A bakery should make you feel seen, whether you grew up with these flavors or you’re tasting them for the first time.

• The best marketing is a box on your table and the people around it.

From Our Family to Yours: How to Visit

We’re at 541 South La Grange Road in La Grange, Illinois. Weekdays from 8 to 4, Saturday from 8 to 3, Sunday from 8 to 2. If you love a morning rush—come on a weekend. If you love a quiet chat and a slow crepe—try a weekday morning. For custom cakes, we ask for a week’s notice: one day for prep, one for decoration, one for delivery or pickup. We deliver via DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub for smaller orders, and we cater larger celebrations—baptisms, birthdays, weddings, and everything in between.

What to Try First

• Breakfast: Cheese burek with jogurt.

• Sweet Tooth: A slice of Jaffa or Kinder cake—our everyday icons.

• For Sharing: A pound of Bajadera and a mix of pastries for the table.

• For Exploring: Savory Spinach & Feta crepe or our seasonal pistachio/raspberry chocolate specials when available.

• For Tradition: A Slava assortment with Bajadera at the center.

Thank You

We opened Balkan Bakery to honor the kitchens that raised us and the city that welcomed us. Every day, we get to watch old-world recipes become new memories. Whether you’re Balkan by birth, by marriage, by friendship, or simply by curiosity—you’re part of our story now.

Come for the burek. Stay for the conversation. Leave with a box that makes your table feel full.

About the Author

Written by Marija Pejkovic, owner of Balkan Bakery, a family bakery serving traditional Balkan pastries, cakes, pralines, and modern confections in the heart of the Chicago area. Founded in 2007 by Olja Igic and lovingly carried forward since 2020, Balkan Bakery is where heritage meets everyday joy.