What happens when you mix a not-so-traditional career move, classical pastry training, and a folding table at the farmers market?
You get Verzênay.
But this didn’t start with a dream to open a bakery. It started with questions.
Could this work?
Could it work on our terms?
Could we build something that gave us both purpose and presence at work and at home?
There wasn’t a launch moment or a flashy debut.
The bakery came together slowly, through motion. Through repetition. Through the realization that what they were doing the baking, the refining, the showing up—it was already becoming a life.
Why Verzênay?
If you’re looking for a backstory behind the name Verzênay, there isn’t one. Not really.
It wasn’t a family name. It wasn’t symbolic.
It just sounded like what they were building: refined, rooted in French pastry, and easy on the ear.
But what the name lacked in sentiment, it earned in meaning. Over time, Verzênay came to stand for:
-
Pastries made with clean ingredients, from scratch
-
Slow mornings and regulars who stay awhile
-
A kitchen culture that values focus and calm
-
A woman-led business that doesn’t try to mimic the French boys club
-
And a Chicago bakery that doesn’t pretend to be Paris but borrows just enough
👉 Want to know how that meaning took shape, from the kitchen outward?
[Link to Blog 4: Read the story behind Arshiya’s vision and leadership →]
From One Table to a Life
Arshiya and Aqeel didn’t set out to start a business.
They were trying to build a life one where she could work with her hands, raise a family, and stay close to home. Pastry was the answer that kept unfolding.
The first customers came at the farmers market. There was one folding table. A few trays of croissants. And a lot of explaining.
Week after week, people started coming back.
“Do you have the kouign-amann again?”
“Are you the ones with the fig tarts?”
“You’re the bakery, right?”
And without really naming it, they’d become the bakery.
No storefront. No PR push.
Just food that tasted like care and customers who noticed.
Not a Growth Plan. A Purpose.
Verzênay wasn’t built to scale fast.
It was built to last quietly.
Every menu item is tested (sometimes for months). Every recipe is refined until it feels right. If the ingredients can’t be sourced with integrity, it waits for next season.
New offerings don’t appear just to create hype. They show up when they’re ready—and when the flavor has earned a spot.
There are easier ways to run a bakery. But this way? It still feels like theirs.
The Story Is the Standard
You can taste the training. The discipline. The clean ingredients.
But what brings people back might just be the feeling behind it all. Verzênay is the kind of bakery that doesn’t yell for your attention.
It stays steady. It keeps showing up.
We’ve shared our story. Now we’d love to be part of yours.
Come visit or take a peek at what’s baking: verzenaychicago.com
Already a regular?
Share your go-to order or favorite memory and tag us—we love seeing how Verzênay shows up in your day!