Loaf Lounge

Sarah Mispagel ran pastry at mk, Nightwood and Sepia, and now bakes the English muffins that go under her own sausage, egg and cheese. Her husband Ben Lustbader cooked at Lula Cafe and helped open Giant.

Why go

The two of them started this as a pop-up during the pandemic, selling bread and pastry out of friends' restaurants, Superkhana International among them, and opened the room on Milwaukee Avenue in August 2022.1 It is their first place together. They bake the bread first and build the sandwiches on it: smoked salmon on marble rye with dill and white sesame cream cheese, fried capers and roe, or turkey on seeded bread with bacon, cheddar and roasted garlic ranch.1 Coffee is Four Letter Word, tea is Volition.1 Mispagel consulted on FX's The Bear and made the chocolate cake that shows up in it, and that cake is on the counter here.1 They sell whole loaves over the counter.1

Order this / avoid

Order: the sausage, egg and cheese. The Infatuation: the sausage egg and cheese is what all promising young breakfast sandwiches dream of becoming when they grow up, on what might be the fluffiest English muffins we’ve had.2
Order: the almond bear claw, or the danish filled with rhubarb jam.2
Order: a slice of the chocolate cake, which the review calls a skillfully balanced combination of sweet and pleasantly bitter.2
Avoid: arriving after 2pm expecting a sandwich. The kitchen shuts at two and the counter runs on pastry until four.3

What locals & experts say

The Infatuation Chicago (John Ringor, 31 October 2022), scoring it 8.1: this counter-service spot has some of the best baked goods and breakfast sandwiches in the city.2
Ben Lustbader, on what he wanted (Block Club Chicago, April 2022): We want the neighborhood to come in and feel stoked to be there … hopefully we’re that, plus the best croissant you’ve ever had.1

Good to know

Hours: kitchen 8am to 2pm, cafe 8am to 4pm. Closed Tuesdays.3

Verdict

could-visit — Two career pastry and kitchen people opened their first place together and bake the bread the sandwiches sit on, which is the whole argument for going. The Infatuation scored it 8.1 in October 2022 and singled out the sausage egg and cheese. It stays a rung below a detour because the only writing on it is one scored review and one opening report, both from 2022.