Jennivee's Bakery & Cafe

Ube through the case, from latte to layer cake

Purple yam is the through-line at this Lakeview counter. Ube turns up as ice cream, as a latte on the espresso side, as brownies, and as an ube dark chocolate cake, which makes it the quickest way to read the shop’s personality. The Halsted Street room in Chicago opened in June 2024 as a second Jennivee’s, giving a Filipino-American bakery identity a more polished cafe format built around display cases and fast decisions at the counter.

Cupcakes, celebration cakes and a working espresso bar

The format is a neighbourhood bakeshop with an active cafe side rather than a full-service restaurant, so the visit is shaped by what is in the case that day. Cupcakes carry a lot of it: raspberry pistachio, Golden Oreo and hazelnut bomb are the flavours to look for. Around them sit scones, macarons, croissants, slices of chocolate cake, and the celebration and graduation cakes that bring people in for a reason rather than a habit.

Coffee is not an afterthought. Cappuccino, Americano and iced drinks hold the espresso side together, and the ube latte pulls the bakery’s signature flavour into a cup. The room reads warm and neighbourhood-scaled, with the bakery counter doing most of the work and seating that suits a short sit rather than a long one. Orders are placed at the case, which makes the decision a visual one: whatever looks best that morning tends to win.

Start with the almond croissant, then pick an ube

The almond croissant is the strongest first pastry and the clearest benchmark for the baking here. After that, choose an ube item by the format you want: ice cream for something cold, the ube latte for the cafe side, brownies for a denser bite, or the ube dark chocolate cake when cake is the point.

Cupcakes are the other reliable route, particularly the raspberry pistachio and the hazelnut bomb, and a slice of chocolate cake covers similar ground in a plainer form. If the visit is for an occasion rather than a snack, the whole cakes and graduation cakes are what the bakery gets asked for most. Its standing in Lakeview rests on moist cupcakes, rich cakes and fresh pastry, and on being a Filipino-flavoured, LGBTQ-owned bakery the neighbourhood treats as its own.