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| Café Selmarie began with the chance meeting of two neighbors in a local grocery store in 1983. It already seemed as though they were destined to meet. Jeanne Uzdawinis and Birgit Kobayashi lived one block away from each other on Giddings and had heard about each other from their neighbors. "A mutual friend had sung the praises of Birgit's hazelnut cheesecake and her nut tarts with apricot—she just loved her stuff," recalls co-owner Jeanne Uzdawinis. "One day we ran into each other at the old Pleasing Supermarket on Lawrence. We chatted on the spot for about 30 minutes, then got together for coffee afterwards," says co-owner Birgit Kobayashi. Their friendship and collaboration led to Lincoln Square's longtime destination restaurant and bakery. |
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| The serendipity of Birgit's and Jeanne's meeting didn't end there. There were other similarities in their backgrounds that prepared them to go into business together. Both grew up in households with mothers who baked and cooked regularly. Before coming to the US, Birgit's family lived in Freiburg, Germany, near the Swiss border. Both her father and mother worked in Switzerland. "My mother took great pride in what she had learned there," says Birgit. "She always made these wonderful dishes and told us that they were recipes she had learned in Switzerland." Jeanne, who grew up in Indiana, moved to Chicago when she was 25. She worked in a number of restaurants as a cook, yet her experience in commercial kitchens made Jeanne realize that she wanted something different. "I disliked restaurant line work, but the one thing I really loved was baking," she says. So Jeanne approached Rolf's Patisserie and offered to work one day a week without pay, in exchange for learning more about the art of pastries. Eventually, she went to work for Rolf full time and learned the Swiss pastry tradition. |
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| A few months after their first meeting, Birgit joined Jeanne as an employee at her wholesale bakery and catering business. They worked out of a rented kitchen at Cicero and Addison and served clients all over the city. It didn't take long for them to decide to start a new business venture together. "The gourmet pastry business was booming in Chicago at that time," recalls Jeanne. "No one had ever seen these types of sweets before and everyone wanted something new. We were at the right place, at the right time." |
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| Café Selmarie officially opened in a small storefront along Giddings Plaza in 1983. Lincoln Square was a very different place then than it is now. There were no similar restaurants or businesses for miles; the few that did exist in Chicago were mostly located in Lincoln Park. "We both lived here," says Birgit, "and Jeanne and I felt strongly that we wanted to do business in our own neighborhood." Most people didn't know much about European or gourmet food then, so they made the effort to educate their customers about what they offered. There was also the question of what to call their new business. As they were planning the opening, they still hadn't thought of a name. Then it became clear that it should represent their partnership. The name Selmarie—for those of you who have wondered—is the combination of Birgit and Jeanne's middle names, "Selma" and "Marie." |
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 In its early years, Café Selmarie started primarily as a bakery that served soup and sandwiches. Customers could carry out the food or eat it at the six or so tables they had in the café. "We bought the tables from an ice cream shop next to our rented kitchen on Cicero and Addison that was closing," says Birgit. "From the beginning, we always stuck to our guns about the way we prepare food here," says Jeanne. "We always have cared about the quality of the ingredients." The culinary environment in Chicago was much different then, too. In those days, Café Selmarie had the first espresso machine within a five mile area, which made them very popular with Lincoln Square's European residents. Café Selmarie also was the first restaurant in Chicago to serve Starbucks Coffee, back in the days when no one knew of the Seattle coffee roaster. "We shipped the coffee in via UPS," recalls Jeanne. "They were appealing to us because, at the time, they were a small, local coffee roaster. They invited us to take a trip out to Seattle to visit their roasting plant, so I went out and did a tasting." Now that Starbucks coffee is ubiquitous, Café Selmarie features Intelligentsia coffee, a Chicago-based roaster. Drawing patrons was a challenge at first, particularly because their address wasn't on a major street. But Birgit and Jeanne responded by adding more variety to the menu and listening to their customers. "Sometimes some of the best dishes come about because of what your customer suggests or requests of you," says Jeanne. |
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| Not only has Café Selmarie survived, it has thrived and grown exponentially since its early days. By 1989, the business had grown enough for Birgit and Jeanne to expand into the storefront next door. "We were never in a hurry to get big," says Jeanne. "We decided that, only if it feels 100% right will we knock down that wall or expand into that space." Their recent renovation was the most dramatic in their history. In 1999, they reconfigured the café to use the space that had once housed Brisbane's Jewelry at the corner of Lincoln and Giddings. Now they have the coveted Lincoln Avenue address that helps people find them, and they have windows that provide those strolling along the shops of Lincoln Square a view of its tempting pastries. "That was our renaissance," says Jeanne. |
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| Café Selmarie is an anchor business in Lincoln Square. Adored equally by locals with a sweet tooth and by those who enjoy having a leisurely meal in their outdoor café, the café is inseparable from the neighborhood. It's famous throughout the city among those looking for a casual place to have a wonderfully prepared meal. It has received many great reviews from the local press, including the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times and The Reader. The café is also famous for its breathtaking wedding cakes, which have been featured in publications such as Chicago Magazine. "Early on, Birgit wanted us to do wedding cakes with the philosophy that they would be really high quality and really good to eat," says Jeanne. "Wedding cakes were typically not something that you looked forward to eating," laughs Birgit. "We figured that if someone appreciated fine pastry, they would want a good wedding cake." |
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| Although they both experiment with recipes, Birgit and Jeanne have since hired a chef, Chris Stoye, who now develops their menus. "We're really excited about the menu," says Jeanne. "Chris's cooking is so beautifully consistent, so thoughtfully seasoned—how he prepares fish and his composed salads..." They also have a pastry chef, Jose Gutierrez, who grew up at Café Selmarie. He started working for Jeanne and Birgit when he was 16. Now it's 12 years later and they have trained him by hand, passing on their methods. "We really try to take good care of our employees," says Jeanne. "From the very first day, we wanted to create a place where people want to work and are happy," says Birgit. "We wanted a comfortable, good working environment." It shows in their employees' faces, many of whom have worked at the café for years. |
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| Café Selmarie is a neighborhood meeting place that serves breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner or coffee and sweets in-between. The space is casual with warm touches like rotating art shows, which Café Selmarie has offered back to the time it had much less wall space. Jeanne manages the shows, booking them for two-month runs. The shows are so popular that the café already has artists lined up for the next two years. |
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 And then there's the food. There's always something new offered in the daily specials, and the menu goes through periodic evolutions to feature foods compatible with the seasons. There is nothing static at all about Café Selmarie's cuisine. It features wonderfully inventive salads that combine ingredients like watercress, fresh strawberries, spiced pecans and blue cheese, or roasted pears with Belgian endive, toasted walnuts and sherry vinaigrette. The soup of the day might be roasted red pepper with creme fraiche and dill, or turnip puree with herbs. Entrees include items like braised lamb shank with pumpkin risotto or monkfish mediterranean with sauteed spinach, garlic confit and caperberries. In the tradition of European-style cafés, you can choose an imported beer or a glass of wine from their substantial wine list to accompany your meal. That's all before dessert. |
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| Many people are irresistibly drawn into Café Selmarie by the desserts lined up in its display cases. The Swiss/German influences still come through in items like their Sacher Torte, Linzer Torte, Black Forest Torte or Marzipan Torte. But you'll also find classics like muffins and cookies of all varieties. "We do German-influenced pastry," says Jeanne, "but we're not afraid to throw in carrot cake, pumpkin pie and big American-style sugar cookies." And those sugar cookies might come in somewhat odd shapes, like fish, carrots, roosters, hippos or hands, since Jeanne and Birgit have been collecting unusual cookie cutters for years. Now is also the time of year when Café Selmarie introduces its holiday specialties, including its famous Holiday Stollen, Raspberry Linzer Torte, Festive Yule Log and Gingerbread House Kit, to name a few. |
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| After all these years, it's obvious that Birgit and Jeanne both love what they do and take great pride in Café Selmarie. They've made a successful restaurant that's truly integrated into the fabric of the Lincoln Square neighborhood and that contributes to its character. |
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Café Selmarie
4729 North Lincoln Avenue
Chicago, IL 60625
773.989.5595
cafeinfo@cafeselmarie.com
www.cafeselmarie.com
Hours
Monday 11am to 3pm
Tuesday through Thursday 8am to 10pm
Friday and Saturday 8am to 11pm
Sunday 10am to 10pm
(Sunday brunch from 10am to 3pm) |
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| Read more profiles in the Member of the Month Archives |
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