Noonday Bread

Oh how we’ve missed you Noonday Bread. We are counting the days until September 12 when we can pick up crunchy Anadama bread and malty pretzel rolls. No phosphates or oxides or nitrates in your bread, just natural goodness that we try not to eat on the way home from pickup. Thank you for returning to us after a bread less summer.

This is the best bread I’ve ever tasted. I look forward to my weekly pickups. Some times I order extra and freeze it to enjoy later.
The Bread Dude is very helpful. I wish he baked every week.
Give it a try if you like heavier, flavorful, tasty bread. Full of flavor. Great for sandwiches or just on its own. Mysteriously, half a loaf disappears on the ride home from pick up. Yum!

This is the most amazing thing! You order bread and saturday around noon pick up a fresh warm loaf with no crap in it. Just good olé bread and you get to meet the bread dude. This was my first subscription but I just went online and signed up for more. The entire experience from walking into the door to grab your fresh loaf to taking it home (and trying to resist snarfing it down completely in the car) and enjoying it — it is heaven in a bag. Each week the bread is a new experience, baked with real ingredients. I always forget what I ordered so it is a surprise each Saturday and who can’t use a happy surprise each week? I’m looking forward to Cranberry Walnut, Honey Whole Wheat, Cinnamon Swirl — and that is just a start.
In these days where faster is better, cheaper is best and unpronounceable ingredient lists how refreshing to take some time, have your bread go from bakers hands to yours and not need a dictionary to understand what you are eating.

Omg. I’m not sure how I stumbled upon Noonday Bread, but so glad that I did. I placed my order online — easy peasy. Picked up my first order on Saturday; Bread Dude was super friendly and plied me with yummy samples before I left! The spinach parm bread vanished within minutes. Our second loaf (forget the name, but was recommended for BLTs) was delicious on its own as well as as a vehicle for soaking up homemade chicken stock. Truthfully, I could live on that combo. So worth the trip from Arlington Hts to Palatine to stock up… just wish I could remember if I ordered anything other than the first week’s selections! Hoping I’ll get some sort of email reminder if I need to pick up future orders. Future subscriptions, I’ll order every week, so there won’t be any question as to whether I need a Saturday Palatine run. Thanks, Bread Dude! Are you offering any bread making classes?

I picked up my first loaf of spinach Parmesan bread yesterday AND it was INCREDIBLE! My husband is a carb addict and absolutely loved the bread
Need to say I will be a regular customer and can’t wait to try a lot more of the creative bread loafs the Bread Dude, Ted makes
And speaking of Ted, what a nice guy. Made me feel very comfortable and really loves people and what he does
You pick your bread up at the cookie store, so bring some extra money so you can pick up some awesome homemade cookies!

Love this bread! Excellent texture and flavor. Clear bread guy is using top ingredients and takes his bread to a whole new level!

If you love bread and you are okay with a little planning/​waiting Noonday Bread is for you!
I am a serious bread lover and Noonday delivers amazing bread that is fresh out of the oven. You place your order the week (s) before and pick it up at Cookie Cards in DTP from the bread dude. This dude lives up to the name with a laid back vibe and a (more than) serious love of bread (which shows in his baking).
There is a wide variety of breads to pick from with the sourdough being my favorite. You cant get any loaf any week it is based on what the bread dude is making that week which is good and bad. It is nice to stick with your favorites but it is also nice to try a wide variety, the system leans more to the latter. Since this bread is made with high quality ingredients (including love) you are getting a high quality product so you can’t go wrong.
Noonday bread is not for your everyday bread consumption but for something a little special. It is perfect for once a week pick up of one or two loaves.

When people say, ‘The greatest thing since sliced bread’, I have to give them the crazy eye for a few reasons.
#1. Is whatever you’re mentioning better than TV? Because TV is certainly better than sliced bread and I’m pretty sure TV came after the slicing of bread thing, so TV should really be the new point of measure.
#2. Is sliced bread really *that* great?
Personally, I’m a tortilla girl, but to each his own I guess.
I actually stumbled upon Noonday Bread because of an auto-​correct typo. I wanted to find a place in the area that offered blow-​outs for my ‘do, but somehow that turned into bread and up popped Noonday. «What the hell is that?», I thought… and from there I forgot about my bad hair day and got sucked in to a carb-​loaded research spiral and just had to know more.
The set up for this biz can be a bit confusing, they’re def a tad outside the (bread)box, but I like that about them. I’ll do my best to explain the process… though I’m admittedly a newb at it.
First thing you need to know is that they don’t have an official storefront.
The second thing you should know is that it’s called ‘Noonday Bread’ because noon is when the bread is ready for pick-​up. If you’re lucky enough to near the store in Palatine, I believe you can also get the bread delivered for something like a $ 3 delivery fee, otherwise anything you order (order should be placed in advance on their website) will be ready for pick-​up between noon and 3pm (no earlier because the bread won’t be there yet and no later because the shop closes at 3) on Saturday from Cookie Cards’ store in downtown Palatine on Bothwell St.
In order to even have a chance of ordering from the a bread ‘series’, you need to sign up for emails on their website. When a series opens up, you’ll get a single email from the «Bread Dude», Ted Harro, letting you know what he’ll be baking for that series and when the orders will be ready.
It’s important to note that in a series, there may be 3 different pick-​up dates with varied kinds of bread in a series, which def tripped me up a bit and caused me to show up one and two weeks early for the 3 loaves I’d ordered. Lucky for me, I got to meet THE Bread Dude himself, and was able to purchase one of the few extra Challah loaves he’d brought right off him and it should be noted that the bread was still oven warm when I nabbed it just a hair after noon last Saturday.
In order to avoid any confusion, don’t be like me and instead just be sure to read the dates on what you order… which are also on your e-​receipt, which I obviously totally ignored.
Bread Dude was so nice, though. When I walked into the store he greeted me like we were family and he’d been excitedly anticipating my arrival… which is actually quite the opposite of what really happens when I see my family. I was excited just to get to talk to Bread Dude (you CAN call him that, he abides), He’s like a super chill, new-​wave hippie (the good kind), who does things a little differently and just wants to share his passion. In fact, when I realized I’d come the wrong week for my bread, Bread Dude insisted I take a loaf on the house so I didn’t have to go bread-​less over the weekend. So sweet, though I counter insisted on paying and had a gut-​feeling my fresh challah would be worth every red cent… and it was.
The Challah was a beautiful braided golden brown, soft, full of flavor, good enough to eat on it’s own (which we did with the first half) or dipped in a jar of Nutella (which I alone did with the other half).
The ingredients on brown paper packaging are REAL ingredients. None of that sh*t made out of yoga mat foam, so while it’s not *exactly* the healthiest food choice, it’s not going to kill you either… at least not is semi-​moderation.
I’m by no means a bread connoisseur, so I loved that the website really laid out what what my options were with detailed flavor and ingredient descriptions. The bread series I ordered from has closed/​reached max order capacity already, but just as an example you can check out the menu for series 23 here:

I can’t wait till next week when my chocolate babka (insert Seinfeld humor here) and old fashioned oatmeal bread are ready, and then my sourdough that will be ready the week after that.
Noonday Bread: The greatest thing since… well, that’s debatable. But this place is right up there with TV in my opinion.

Just had the German Stollen ~ Fantastic! Best I every had. Started out with one small slice and ended up eating 3 slices!

GREAT, GREAT BREAD!
Get hooked!
It’s not just fresh, the baker is overly generous with ingredients.
Better get on that email list, so you have first shot at what’s being made each week.
We’re getting a ton of this, for holiday meals…
…and as gifts!

Love noonday bread! Best bread in the state, and that is coming from a self proclaimed bread snob.
My only complaint is that when you first get the bread on Saturday morning it is still a bit warm and therefore irresistible. Oftentimes my wife and I end up eating half a loaf before it even makes it to the kitchen and then we regret not ordering more.
Bread Dude (head baker) puts his heart and soul into his bread and you can taste the great results. And no, Bread Dude is not like Aunt Jemima (except for maybe an occasional bandana), he actually exists and will respond to your texts and messages. If you’re extra nice, you may even get your bread made with extra flare from time to time.
Can’t rave about Noonday Bread enough. Go buy a loaf or two and tell them that Dan O sent you!

I am SO happy I finally subscribed to Noonday Bread! Noonday does not have a storefront (the address listed for them is their pickup location within the Cookie Cards store), but instead operates on what they call a bread «subscription.» I fully admit to being confused by the system at first, but here is how it works. Sign up for e-​mail updates (
) and they will e-​mail you when a new subscription is open. When the next round is open there will be a list of bread choices for the upcoming weeks. I think they cover about a month at a time. You must purchase your bread before the subscription closes (which they will also remind you about by e-​mail). You can purchase bread for just one week, or all of the weeks if they all look good to you. So for example, before the subscription closed on Friday, March 16^th I purchased bread for the 17^th, 24^th, 31^st, and April 7^th. They typically have a premium loaf option for $ 5.50-$ 6 and a classic loaf option for $ 4.50. Of course, you can always get both if you can’t settle on just one. On Saturday afternoon you head to Cookie Cards and pick up fresh hot delicious loaves of bread! For an extra fee they will also deliver to your house.
This weekend being my first pickup ever, and having been desperate for a bakery in Palatine ever since my husband and I’s trip to Paris ruined our bread taste buds forever (in a delicious way), I was pleasantly surprised to find that I really love Noonday’s bread. We ordered the Multigrain and Irish Soda bread and I thought both were really good. The multigrain had a nice hint of sweet and went really well with some cheese we grabbed at Mariano’s. The Irish Soda bread, well… I don’t want to admit how fast I ate that thing. I mean, Irish Cream soaked raisins? Yes please. We were also given a chance to try the Spinach Parmesan bread (that we didn’t order) while picking up our loaves and boy did I regret not ordering it. So so good!
I don’t know if it is in their long-​term goals or not, but I would really love for them to open up a full bakery in Palatine. I think they would do really well! Hell, I’ll quit my job and put my culinary skills to use making delicious coffee/​espresso drinks and my great grandmother’s pies right alongside them. Okay, maybe after the student loans are paid off…