You can take the boy out of the bakery, but you can’t take the bakery out of the boy. Just ask third-generation baker Ted Tuzik who, with partner Bill Love, owns and operates Tuzik’s 95th Bakery in Oak Lawn.
Tuzik started learning his trade while in grammar school; he helped his grandfather, father and uncle at the original Tuzik’s Bakery, established in 1931 and still flourishing at 53rd Street and Kedzie Avenue in Chicago. Though he tried other jobs as a teen and young adult, “I guess baking was in my blood,” he said.
No one witnessing Tuzik in action in his kitchen could argue with that. He moves at a dizzying pace, popping trays of muffins into one oven, pulling pies out of another, hoisting gargantuan bowls of batter from one table to the next and looking as though he could do it all in his sleep.
Luckily, Tuzik, Love and their staff are used to cracking eggs and sifting flour by the light of the moon. Their workday starts at 2 a.m. so that by 5 a.m., the storefront sends a sweet wakeup call to the hospital employees, construction workers and earlybird commuters who faithfully grab breakfast here.
Tuzik’s is famous for its paczki (also known as bismarcks, $6.49 per dozen). These come in 14 varieties, from the familiar cherry, apricot and blueberry, to the more exotic chocolate-covered poppyseed and prune with whipped cream. On certain holidays, paczki pilgrims form a line down the street to get their supplies of filled, fried and frosted dough.
“This year, we sold 715 dozen paczki on the day before Ash Wednesday and 80 dozen on St. Joseph’s Day,” Love reported.
Other Tuzik’s treats include holska, an ethnic sweet bread with raisins ($3.49 per loaf); pizza coffee cakes ($3.99 each), which are segmented to include cheese and up to four fruit fillings; and for parties, the 12-inch atomic cake ($35) which features three layers, three different fillings and, according to Love, “feeds an army.” Any item can be ordered a day in advance, except wedding cakes, which require two weeks’ notice.
———-
Tuzik’s 95th Bakery, at 4955 W. 95th St. in Oak Lawn, is open from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and from 5 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday (closed Monday). Call 708-422-0099.
