The Cupcake Gallery

The area of Chicago that we live in is called Uptown, in the heart of the north side of Chicago just a mile north of Wrigley Field.  It’s a gentrifying neighborhood, or “up-and-coming” as some put it, and as such has a very diverse population in a small area ranging from the homeless to the working class to young professionals to insanely wealthy mansion owners.  Many business have come and go, trying to fulfill the needs of this wide clientele.  One newcomer to the game filling up an empty storefront along a stretch of Wilson Avenue is The Cupcake Gallery.  Everybody, both rich and poor, loves cupcakes so it’s a welcome and refreshing addition to the neighborhood!






Katrina and I first visited The Cupcake Gallery back in November of 2009 when it had its grand opening celebration.  One of the first flavors we had was the Vanilla Creme, a free mini cupcake sample while we were out walking our dog Simon, and it was enticing enough to bring us back for more.  Its owner, Darius Williams, started the shop out fairly underfunded in pursuit of a dream.  While the interior space was lacking, really just a counter and cash register, the cupcakes were pretty amazing.  It was really unfortunate that during this early period the building facade was being worked on, and scaffolding was covering this little bakery up.  Since these early days the shop has really come along.  At first I had never seen more than two flavors on a back shelf, but now there is full stock of six to eight flavors sitting up in the front display case. 


This past weekend Katrina’s little brothers were visiting from Northwest Indiana, and I picked up some Double Chocolate and Cookies and Cream flavors after dropping off our Zipcar.  The Double Chocolate was moist and had a wonderful thick mousse-like frosting with chocolate chips and the Cookies and Cream had a simple vanilla frosting that was enhanced by a bit of crumbled Oreo cookie.  Check out the other Flavors on the website.  Some of them sound amazing, but I haven’t seen them in the display case yet.  I really want to try the Arnold Palmer, a lemonade cake with sweet tea frosting, and the Green Apple Martini, a green apple cake and frosting enhanced with brandy.  Most people grab a cupcake and go and feast on it at Starbucks or nibble on it after a meal at Fontana Grill. For people that want to stay, there’s a comfortable area with couches and music to enjoy their snack. The site has an online ordering system where you can prepay for a pickup order, or you can even have them shipped to you (downside is $25 for overnight shipping).  I’d highly recommend stopping by for a treat if you happen to be in this area on the north side of Chicago.

Regular cupcakes are currently $2.50 each or $28 per dozen. Vegan and gluten free versions are available upon request.

The Cupcake Gallery is located at 1319 W. Wilson Ave., Chicago, IL 60640

You can follow the shop on Twitter @WeBakeCupcakes or Darius directly @everydaycookin

The Cupcake Gallery


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