GROW WITH SARAH GRACE

If you’re visiting the Edgewater area in Chicago, I’ve found the perfect bakery for you to visit and it’s located at 6034 N. Broadway. 

Found between the Granville and Thorndale Red Line stop, Edge of Sweetness is a local bakery that has one mission, to make everyone and anyone feel welcome. Kate Merrill, the owner of Edge of Sweetness, wants to ensure that the human interaction we have lost in this generation is found at her bakery.

“We’ve become so self-involved as well as disconnected from other human beings that some people get lost in that,” Merrill said. “My goal is to be that place or space where someone feels that connection.” 

Merrill was born in Rogers Park, Chicago, and started her career as a nurse and only sold her cookies on the side. What started as “Kate’s Cookies” eventually turned into the Edgewater bakery we all know and love in April 2017.

At the corner of W. Norwood St. and N. Broadway, Edge of Sweetness welcomes you with a wooden display of treats, a chalkboard menu and a simple motto: “Living with integrity, acting in kindness and collaborating for a better tomorrow.” 

The menu allows you to choose from many different items like scones, bagels, sandwiches, cinnamon rolls, cookies and cakes (to name a few). You can enjoy a meal or satisfy your sweet tooth at Edge of Sweetness.

“We make everything by hand in-house,” Merrill said about her treats. “The recipes are my own, they may have started from somewhere but I have adjusted them to my own.”

Merrill wants to make her customers feel nostalgic and bring them back to whoever made the best cookies or pie when they were at a younger age. This goal is achieved with not only the food but also with the shelves full of board games located in the corner of the bakery to make you feel right at home and have you stay awhile. 

With a combination of board games, a chalkboard menu, red chairs pushed into wooden tables and hospitable workers, you will feel right at home. The bakery also offers an outside sitting area when the weather permits. 

I had a chance to run by the bakery to try one of their famous chocolate chip cookies and I was in awe of how good my treat was. I heard great things from fellow Loyola Chicago University students but nothing will compare to my first bite of that cookie. 

As far as plans for the future, Merrill is hoping to make “Kate’s Cookies” a national brand because she doesn’t want only Chicago to experience the delicious legacy she has created. As for me, I plan on going back to try a cinnamon roll with some tea while enjoying a board game with a friend and I hope you will check out this bakery.