Argo Georgian Bakery
(between California Ave & Mozart St)
Chicago, IL 60659 (773) 764-6322
- Price Range: $
- Accepts Credit Cards: No
- Parking: Street
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
6 reviews
Neighborhood: Jefferson Park
"This is right around the corner from my school. It's awesome to see a local coffee shop right around the corner to study and sip on my mint…" read more »
9 Reviews for Argo Georgian Bakery
I try to only review unique places in Chicago. Places I feel are really one-of-a-kind. This place is amazing. Small, very friendly staff, and always something hot just out of the unique stone oven. I take all out-of-town people here and they cannot believe it. It amazes me how many Chicagoans do not know about it. Very inexpensive and worth every calorie. Enjoy. Cash or checks only.
Cannot say enough good things about the hachipuri, the cabbage-filled pastries, the mushroom and potato filled pastries, or the flatbread. For 10 bucks you can walk out of this bakery with enough carbs to really piss off the Atkins people.
The hachipuri is the real star here. Get it fresh and eat it hot. You'll make the drive out to the ass-end of Devon again and again!
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The Argo is one of those places that makes me glad I live here in Chicago, and makes me never want to leave. Sure, there's crime, and people hopping the curb and driving into houses and such (seriously, what's up with that; I can say with complete confidence that in the 27 years I loved* in California, that never happened even once, whereas here I have personally experienced it four times) but then, you can walk down what seems like an innocuous strip of crap dollar stores and BOOM, there's a Georgian bakery. Georgian! As in: one of the former Soviet Socialist Republics! I didn't even know they had ovens there!
But apparently they do, stone ones. There's one gracing the middle of the Argo, and said oven creates some crazy magic with the goods here. Sure, the hachapuri is mad tasty, as are the cabbage (really) and bean pies, but the real star, for me, are the regular breads. They are made of just flour, water, and salt, but like I said, that oven is magic. The breads are like nothing you've ever tasted. Shoti looks like a baguette, but the texture is denser and softer. The lavash, basically the same thing, in flatter form. And on Tuesdays**, there's no shoti or lavash, but there is "new bread", a delicious loaf.
And, best of all, they are cheap. Less than $2 a loaf. You can supplement your dinner with fresh cheese from the dairy case, dumplings, or a fresh hot fruit pie. Everything here is terrific.
Except the tapluna. WTF is that thing?
*This is a typo, but I liked it, so it stays.
**At least, I think they don't sell shoti and lavash on Tuesdays. They might have just been out - there is a significant language barrier here, and the proprietor was trying to tell me SOMETHING about Tuesdays and bread, but damn if I know what it was. He also seemed kind of worried about the new bread, like I would hate it or something, which is nutsy. Damn shit is great.
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As you can tell from the 15 pix of this place I posted, I was very impressed! I had never experienced cooking like this before, but thanks to both Argo and my Russian born friend Dennis, I am now an expert on formerly Soviet Georgia, it's people and it's baked goods.
While in the Chicago area, Dennis insisted that we visit Argo, a bakery that he had been to on previous visits. Good thing I'm easy going - I never would have found out about this wonderful place! It doesn't look like much from the outside - or even the inside really, but what their wares will do for YOUR insides is a complete wonder to behold.
As far as I know, this is the only true Georgian oven in the Chicago area. They cook all their stuff in it and the results are nothing short of fantastic! They feature all sorts of stuffed pastries, those made up of everything from cabbage, to beans, to mushrooms & potatoes to just about anything, all in the same enticing light and layered Georgian pastry from Argo's unique oven.
The real draws to this place in my opinion though are two particular offerings: hachipuri and churchkehlas. Hachipuri are like large, soft popovers, cooked on the inside wall of the Georgian oven. They contain three types of cheeses and they puff up hollow, with the moist, bubbling and flavorful cheeses clinging to the insides of the hachipuri once cooked. The result is a flaky, puffy, buttery, cheesy item of deliciousness that cannot be explained unless you've sampled one. After eating just one each of these delightful and deceptively light seeming baked wonders, both Dennis and I were pretty much full.
Another treat they feature is the churchkehla. This is a thing strange and toothsome as I've never before encountered. Either walnuts or hazelnuts (your choice) are strung together on a thread. The threaded nuts are then successively dipped into an emulsion of grape juice mixed with flour until the successive dippings form a candle-like thick grape coating on the string of nuts. They end up looking like sausages (or turds, really[!], but they taste about a billion times better that a turd!). You'll have to try some to believe me.
Alex, the guy who works the front part of the bakery might seem a bit abrupt on first encounter, but he's a really great guy and gets very animated when explaining the Georgian baking tradition. He's also quite versed in Georgian history and culture. I learned a lot from him while in there.
You can also pick up frozen pelmini, hinkali, vareniki and other stuffed Georgian pasta type things to take home to be boiled, fried or steamed from Argo. Also, there are chairs and tables, cafe style at which to sit and enjoy your pastries along with a cup of coffee or tea there too, so make an afternoon of it why don't you?
I wish Argo was in NYC where I am and not just Chicago :-(
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cheap, delicious fresh bread. Great with homemade soups.
One kind of dough, white. The bread has a nutty flavor, nice tooth on the crust, tender inside. Always fresh. It actually revives nicely after a few days, even if you try to ruin it in the fridge.
Two shapes, long baguette shape and round. Get at least one of each. You tear hunks off the long loaf in the car on the way home.
The oven is unique. It's worth a visit just to see it. It's igloo shaped, set into the floor. The heat is almost unbearable when you're up close.
The mushroom filled flaky crust pastry is delicious too.
The owner is a real stand up guy who treats me and my boys like we're from the old country. I wish I needed a loaf from here every day.
Check it out yelpers!
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Georgian Bakery or Argo Georgian Bakery as it's officially called serves the best pastry in Chicago. That's right, I'm afraid this cannot be argued. I'm careful to say pastry, singular, since quite honestly I've never had anything else besides the hachipuri. It's just that whenever I happen to be there I never have enough cash to try anything else and seeing as I buy as many as my dollars will allot, the other pastries simply don't get a chance. I'm sure they're good but it's hard to beat something as magical as the hachipuri. And when it's magic your taste buds crave, head to the Georgian Bakery. The hachipuri has milky mozzarella and feta cheese and is wrapped in soft, warm, and crispy pastry bread. They are cooked fresh several times a day in the only oven of its type in Chicago. These little bundles of love go quickly so there's a good chance of catching a fresh one when you walk in. It's common to see overly excited people waiting on them as the owner, casual in that 'old country' way, takes them out of the clay oven with a long flat wooden shovel. He knows what you're there for although he hardly shares the same enthusiasm. People say the bread there is very good as well as the meat pastries, I wouldn't doubt it and will definitely have to try it soon.
The place is located appropriately on 2812 W. Devon Ave, between California and Mozart. It's not fancy; the window advertisement is bi or trilingual; Russian, English, and probably Georgian. The neighbor to the east is Balalaika, a Russian book and music store, and the western neighbor is a mini Asian style grocery store. If the weather is nice the owner keeps the door open, either to cool off the place from the intensely hot oven or as an attempt to snag passersby with the delicious aroma that seeps out. On the inside it looks like the rest of my favorite foreign places; built as it would have been in the mother land and seemingly catering to it's "own" people with a collection of flyers and newsletters in Russian and an open kitchen. As a matter of fact the owner doesn't say much, even if you do speak to him in Russian, a non Georgian dialect will not raise any eyebrows. It's one of those places that all patrons could selfishly hope never to get "big", as the owner is the chef and his magical pastry cooking abilities are uniquely his. Eating the hachipuri at Georgian Bakery is a lot like going to see a movie; you don't want to do it by yourself. So, bring a friend and go eat some hachipuri then spend all day talking about which part was your favorite.
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This tiny bakery located on international Devon Ave. is a nice find. It's worth the trip to see how Georgian bread is made here in a large in ground cider block oven... the bread dough is slapped onto the inner wall of the brick oven and presto...... You have fresh Georgian style bread that is hot and tasty....and ready to consume.
Unfortunately, the staff on duty seems suspicious and not overly skilled in customer service. Outside of the bread, there really isn't much to offer to it's customers.
Some items are worth trying but, there really isn't much of a selection.
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YUMMMY! This place is sooooo amazing. They have a huge brick in ground oven thing that they cook all their breads in and they come out piping hot soft and fresh. AND its super cheap. Its a cute little place located right before California on Devon. YOU MUST TRY THE HACHAPURI!!!!! Took me a long time to pronounce what i was eating but its sweet sweet bliss. Its a layered pasty dough with yummy cheeses in the middle baked to perfection. My boyfriend got addicted to these things after trying them. They are absolutely delicious, so wonderful that they were written about in sun times and tribune. Everything i have bought there is wonderful. The place is very very clean which is an A++++ in my book and the staff kind and cautious! CHECK IT OUT!
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So delicious, and so cheap! Walk into this tiny, Devon Ave. storefront and you'll see the traditional Georgian oven (it looks like a brick beehive) and smell the fresh breads and pastries. They usually have a range of meat, cabbage, cheese, and fruit pies, all made of flaky pastry wrapped around a dollop of carefully composed filling, and all under $2. Round, low loaves of Georgian bread are stacked up in the back, as they come out of the oven, and a new refrigerator case in front is stocked with Amish-made yogurts, kefir, butter, and sour cream -- all natural and unusually good.
The only thing missing: someplace to sit and eat (add some chairs and I'll add another star!).
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