Made by toasting a piece of French bread topped with an assortment of mushrooms, green onions, ham, and more, this traditional snack of Polish night owls goes sinfully well with a side of ketchup. Growing up, I have many fond memories of summer nights out with my cousins in Poland. Here in the States, I’ve long craved the zapiekanka that could take me back to those nights in Krakow.

The standard was set (unfairly) high when I walked into Cafe Two07, a late night bar and club with the reputation for serving up some of the best zapiekanki in Chicago. Yet the zapiekanki were just as I’d remembered: crisp, soft, and cheesy. The Polish appetizer menu – including potato pancakes, pierogi, and cabbage rolls – brought back memories of Poland and I soon learned that the nightlife was equally authentic. Located on the 58th block of South Archer in the Polish-Mexican neighborhood of Garfield Ridge, Cafe Two07 is far away from the chic club scene downtown—but only in terms of mileage.

“I’m a nocturnal creature myself,” explains owner and in-house DJ Ralph Pleszko. On most nights Pleszko (stage name Digital Driver), a tall blond vested in Aeropostale, can be found firmly planted in the DJ booth. There, he sifts through his vinyl, spinning German-imported classics such as “99 Luftballons” and “Celebration” as well as the latest in popular house music. Pleszko attributes his passion for music to the opportunities opened up by his move from Poland to Chicago in 1988. Fittingly, he named the place after his inbound flight number, #2007.

Pleszko is invested in giving the South Side youth a place that they can call their own, a place that’s “low key that isn’t in your face.” The tables and sofas are arranged casually in the lounge around the dance floor, and there is a private room in the back.  You can pick your playlist and throw a private party provided you cover the bar tab afterwards. The rest – the friendly staff, the dancing, the little slice of Poland’s nightlife – is all free.

When the music gets going the dance floor gets crowded.  “Some nights are so epic here,” Pleszko says. But you have to know when to go. The most crowded nights at Cafe Two07 are Wednesdays and the second and fourth Fridays of every month, when Plezko brings in DJs from around the country. One of these groups, Soul Kitchen, flies in every other Friday from Vegas to mix for a packed house of fans. During their set, I ran into one frequent Friday-goer, Marcin,: “their music makes me loosen up and free myself from the everyday world.”

Which is exactly what Pleszko wants. “My goal is to give people a universe they can define as their own,” he says. “The freedom to feel human.”

Cafe Two07, 5842 S Archer Ave. (773) 767-5740. Free. cafetwo07.com

Baumkuchen (yoppy/flickr)

Dana Kapacinskas and her husband opened Racine Bakery on Damen Avenue five years after arriving from Lithuania, frustrated by the scarcity of employment opportunities they faced as new immigrants with limited English ability. Crafting Lithuanian and Eastern European delicacies from staff and family recipes, Racine quickly became a neighborhood destination spot. Only five years after opening, it relocated to its current larger space in the neighborhood of Garfield Ridge. Since 1989, the Kapacinskas have opened three affiliate locations specializing in baking custom cakes and distributing fresh bread to over one hundred family-owned groceries and delicatessens throughout Chicago.

With thirty staffers and a kitchen larger than most student apartments, Racine Bakery now puts out a jaw-dropping variety of baked goods and dishes made from scratch daily. The racks and display cases of the bakery section are dense with American and Eastern-European delicacies: the usual cookies, cakes, pies, and donuts, along with strudel ($3.99/lb), kolachky (sour-cream dough pastries filled with jam, $6.99/lb), babka (a spongy, yeast-rise Eastern European Bundt cake often served on Easter, $3.69), and a dozen types of bread, ranging from dark rye and sourdough to white country bread ($1.50–$2.50/loaf).

Racine also stocks imported Eastern European dry goods. A freezer contains a half-dozen varieties of pre-packaged pierogi, and glass hot plates keep warm potato pancakes, cheese blintzes, cepelinas (flat, fried potato dumplings stuffed with meat and paté), keburekas (dense, snow-ball sized dumpling), kuegeli (potato and onion casseroles), potato-bacon sausage, and four types of soup ($1.59/pint), among other things.

Dana Kapacinskas is at Racine Bakery throughout most of its hours of operation, managing the bakery, answering phones and taking orders. Despite its commercial scale, Racine manages to retain a mom-and-pop feel that is reflected in its universally homey and hearty offerings.

Made from fresh, non-canned ingredients, Racine’s soups recall Grandma’s kitchen, and its hand-kneaded rye breads are dense, crusty, and complexly flavored. Kapacinskas’ staff cooks and spices meat for pierogis, sausage, and bacon buns. The latter are light, moist, and savory-sweet, bottoms browned and crisped with juice from the cooking meat.

Beyond providing a wide selection of well-executed, basic Eastern European fare, Racine Bakery has drawn the attention of New Yorker and Chicago Tribune food critics as the only bakery in Chicago to make ragoulis (sękacz in Polish), a lighter, dryer, Lithuanian variant of anise-heavy German Baumküchen (tree-cake), on a daily basis.

The traditional Lithuanian wedding cake, ragoulis is made by continuously brushing sweet batter onto a rotating spit over two to four hours. The spike is rotated slowly enough for the batter to form stalactite-like spikes, and the layering of wet onto dry dough creates golden striations similar to the rings on a tree trunk. Not only time-consuming, ragoulis production requires skill, Kapacinskas says, because there is little room for error in timing when to add the next layer of batter; batter applied before the previous layer is cooked will weigh sections down, causing them to fall off; overcooked, the cake will end up too dry. The end product, a hollow, horned column of a length between 16 and 24 inches, vaguely resembles a Christmas tree in shape and is as much of a special occasion staple to many Eastern European families as the Thanksgiving turkey is for Americans. Kapacinskas says many families purchase and decorate ragoulis during the holidays, coating the cake in green frosting and hanging tree ornaments on its horns. Ragoulis is only sold whole on special order at most bakeries, but Racine also sells cross sections by the pound ($9.29/lb). The journey to Garfield Ridge is definitely worthwhile for anyone with a weak spot for quirky baked goods, dense, hearty eastern European specialties, and quality-heavy mom-and-pop places serving a steady core of first-generation immigrants.
Racine Bakery, 6216 S. Archer Ave. Monday-Friday, 6am-7pm; Saturdays 6am-6pm; Sundays, 7am-2pm. (773)581-8500. racinebakery.org