Good Ambler

Three pastries that go first

The chocolate croissant, the ham and cheese croissant and the kouign amann are the first things to leave the case every morning, which tells you where Good Ambler puts its effort. This is a Chicago bakery and chocolate shop in Fulton Market that runs all day, with laminated pastry sweet and savory, breakfast breads, afternoon sweets, handmade chocolates and a lunch of salads and sandwiches. The case is not fixed. Specials follow local and seasonal produce, so what sits beside the croissants changes through the year. The work behind it is shared across the team, whether that means shaping viennoiserie, peeling apples for a filling or polishing chocolate molds, and the chocolate side is a second craft rather than a shelf of bought-in bars.

A counter that stretches across the day

Mornings belong to the viennoiserie, and the queue reflects it. What keeps the room busy afterwards is the range: breakfast breads and coffee early, afternoon sweets and handmade chocolates later, salads and sandwiches through the middle of the day. It reads as one concept rather than a bakery with a lunch bolted on, which is unusual in a neighborhood where most counters pick a single job. The setup is built for ordering and moving on, with dog treats kept at the counter for anyone walking one. Come early for the pastry and later for the chocolate and the same shop reads differently each time.

Order the kouign amann before anything else

Take the kouign amann if it is still in the case. It is the most technical of the three signatures and the one that shows what the lamination program can do, caramelized on the outside by its own sugar. The chocolate croissant is the classic sweet order and the ham and cheese croissant the savory counterpoint, and between them they cover the part of the case that empties fastest. All three go early on a good morning, so arriving late means ordering around them: breakfast breads with coffee, a seasonal special built on whatever produce is running, or a box of the handmade chocolates, which is the part of the shop that holds up after the pastry has sold out. For a longer visit, salads and sandwiches carry lunch, and the coffee is made to be drunk at the counter rather than carried three blocks.