Play back surveillance footage of the Glendale Americana parking garage circa 2009-2015 and you’ll have to scroll past hours of me stuffing cream puffs into my mouth before you’ll catch a glimpse of any perp. Ah youth, when I made the front seat of my car my dining room instead of ordering dessertS and eating them all indoors at a proper table like a proper gentlelady.
But Beard Papa’s is just that good – it doesn’t make it out of the car. Always freshly baked with customizable cream piped on the spot, it is rare that any portion of a puff makes it home. How could it even get any better? I’ll tell you how: add friends. I’m not talking about friends to eat cream puffs with, I’m talking about friends with which to collaborate on new custard concoctions. Hello, Aya Pastry!
Every Fri/Sat/Sun in the month of February, Aya and Chicago’s Beard Papa’s on North Ave will be offering two extra special specials on top of their already outstanding lineup. And so today, the first Friday of the month, I hurried on down and ordered everything and ate it all at a table like a lady.
#1: Croissant stuffed with horchata custard cream and layered with freshly sliced and FRESHLY BRÛLÉED bananas
#2: Kouign amann filled with matcha custard cream and topped with fresh sliced strawberries
#3: My old standby, chocolate cream in a chocolate puff. Please note you can choose a chocolate or an original, a honey butter, a strawberry, an Oreo crumble, a green tea, a s’mores, a churros or a variety of rotating shells and fill it with chocolate or vanilla, green tea, strawberry or horchata custard cream at any given time, but chocolatechocolate is my all-time fave for reasons that don’t need further explanation.
