After eight years of operating as Chicago’s premier wholesale bakery providing specialty bread to top local chefs, restaurants, and independent retailers including Blackbird, Dove’s Luncheonette, Girl & the Goat and The Duck Inn, Publican Quality Bread (PQB) is opening a retail outlet at 1759 West Grand Avenue in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood,

The officially opening and ribbon-cutting will take place on Monday, June 6th at 7 a.m.

PBQ interior. Photo courtesy of Kelly Sandos

The expansive bakery features a grab-and-go café and retail counter offering decadent pastries, from-scratch sandwiches, and a full coffee bar.Customers will also be able to purchase an expanded selection of baker and Managing Partner Greg Wade’s signature bread, which goes through a lengthy fermentation process and has earned a reputation of being the most flavorful and sustainable bread in the region.

By day, guests can carry-out handmade baked goods like layered sweet and savory croissants, morning buns and indulgent stuffed pastries with oozy cream fillings in addition to specialty teas and La Colombe coffee drinks made to order.

Photo courtesy of Kelly Sandos. 

Fresh-out-of-the-oven baguette sandwiches will be served at a baker’s whim when hot-and-ready and available for patrons to quickly grab along with tartines and pre-prepared salads.

Headlining Wade’s new offerings is “The Big Sandwich.” Sliced and sold by weight, the loaded bite will feature a bianco Roman-style pizza base prepared according to Wade’s personal training with world-famous Italian pizza chef Gabriele Bonci, that is then piled high with mortadella, Stracciatella, arugula, Vidalia onions and Dijon before being finished with a generous smear of balsamic & sour cherry spread.

On Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, look for over-the-top weekend-exclusive specialty treats like Lemon Meringue Croix and Pistachio & Amarena Cherry-filled Maritozzi, alongside an expanded retail menu of rotating bread offerings including toasted sesame sour dough and malted rye loaves.

PQB’s retail section has a glass wall peering directly into the natural light-filled bakery that allows guests and those passing by to watch the team roll out and bake bread offerings in their massive ovens, which can now bake up to 200 loaves of sour dough at once.

Publican Quality Bread will be open Monday – Friday 7 a.m. – 6 p.m., Saturday & Sunday 7 a.m. – 3 p.m. For more information visit www.publicanqualitybread.com or call 312.605.1618.