An Infusion of Danish and Neighborhood Character into South Park: Hygge Bakery

From a storefront located in the highly controlled, non-spontaneous South Park district of Downtown glows a business that is actually an important piece of any real neighborhood: the local bakery.

Open since June 30, Hygge Bakery is stocked with fresh traditional Danish baked goods, including the expected signature flaky and custard-laced pastries, buns, butter cookies, and super sweet marzipan-loaded petit fours.

Photo credit: Jessica Ritz

Hygge infuses a bit of Denmark and neighborhood character into South Park.

Cases are also packed with other continental fare, such as croissants and meringue cookies, breads, focaccias, plus a coffee bar. Co-owner and Denmark native Rasmus Lee says sandwiches are made fresh to order for the Downtown lunch crowd, too.

Hygge's customers so far have been "a good mix. And we have a lot of Danish people," Lee says. The interior aesthetic is consistent with the quasi-industrial, exposed-ducts-and-raw-concrete look of its surroundings on Hope and 11th Streets (diagonally across the street from BottleRock). No need to drive to Solvang, whose famed bakeries are apparently devoid of actual Danish bakers anyway. Master baker Henrik Gram helps assure that going to Hygee is "like walking into a bakery in Copenhagen. It's 110% authentic," says Lee. Look, no kitsch.

Hygge Bakery: 1106 S. Hope St., Downtown; (213) 746-2141.