As more entrepreneurs avoid brick-and-mortar costs in favor of smaller operations, one baker hopes the care she puts into her pastries will help sustain her popularity.
Samaria Pérez prepares pastries in the kitchen of her home microbakery on Sept. 5, 2026. (Arthur Maiorella/Chicago Tribune)
Samaria Pérez’s son, Luca, 4, stands at the door to Samaria’s Kitchen as the microbakery delivers boxes of pastries on Sept. 5, 2026. (Arthur Maiorella/Chicago Tribune)
Juan Estrada, Samaria Pérez’s husband, packs pastry orders for Samaria’s Kitchen on Sept. 5, 2026. (Arthur Maiorella/Chicago Tribune)
A pastry topped with elote in Samaria Pérez’s microbakery, run out of her Chicago home on Sept. 5, 2026. (Arthur Maiorella/Chicago Tribune)
Commercial baking equipment in Samaria’s Kitchen. While Samaria’s Kitchen may be run out of Samaria Pérez’s home, it isn’t run on standard residential kitchen equipment. (Arthur Maiorella/Chicago Tribune)
Samaria Pérez shows the backyard chicken coop where she can gather fresh eggs behind her home in Chicago's Ashburn neighborhood on Sept. 5, 2026. (Arthur Maiorella/Chicago Tribune)
A line forms outside of Samaria Pérez’s microbakery on Sept. 5, 2026, in Chicago's Ashburn neighborhood. (Arthur Maiorella/Chicago Tribune)
1 of 7
Samaria Pérez prepares pastries in the kitchen of her home microbakery on Sept. 5, 2026. (Arthur Maiorella/Chicago Tribune)
