Warda Pâtisserie (Little Village)

There is a James Beard Award behind the counter here, which is not a sentence you get to write about many bakeries operating out of a blue house. Warda Bouguettaya was named Outstanding Pastry Chef in 2022 for her Midtown pâtisserie; in July 2025 she opened this second shop on McClellan, just off East Jefferson in Little Village, and it may well be the prettier of the two — plants running the length of the sidewalk, a wide porch with seating that wraps around the side, cases arranged closer to a jewelry counter than a bakery display.

The work is seasonal and stubbornly hard to file: Algerian roots, French technique, and whatever the produce is doing that particular week. Expect tarts, cakes, flan, quiche and tortas, sweet and savory both, rotating often enough that regulars walk in without a plan.

It’s daytime-only and it isn’t cheap for pastry, but this is the rare bakery where the thing on the plate is actually attempting something. Convenient, too: Father Forgive Me is essentially in the backyard, which makes an obvious afternoon-into-evening out of a pastry run. Very high on our list.