Somethin’ Candy Doughnuts Opening 2nd Albany Park Retailer By Summer time

ALBANY PARK — Jim and Ling Chao begin their work day at 9 p.m.

Within the kitchen of the couple’s now-closed Somethin’ Candy doughnut store in Belmont Cragin, they form and fry conventional glazed and frosted doughnuts whereas filling ube and matcha bismarks. They work by the evening to allow them to convey the freshly made items to their present Somethin’ Candy store at 4456 N. Kedzie Ave. earlier than it opens at 7 a.m.

“Our donuts are kind of one-bake-a-day within the sense of like, every little thing we bake, if we promote out, we promote out,” stated Andrew Chao, Jim and Ling Chao’s son and co-owner of the Albany Park doughnut store. 

The household opened Somethin’ Candy in Belmont Cragin in 2012 and expanded to Albany Park in 2019. They closed the unique location in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, however they’ve continued to bake out of that facility since there’s no kitchen at their Kedzie Avenue store.

“Simply the logistics of creating that occur [was] simply consuming up plenty of our time,” Andrew Chao stated.

That can change this summer time. Because of a metropolis grant, the Chao household plans to open a bigger second location across the nook at 3244 W. Montrose Ave., which can embrace an on-site kitchen and seating for purchasers. The brand new retailer might open as early as Might, Andrew Chao stated.

Somethin’ Candy was awarded a $137,032.50 neighborhood growth grant in January 2024 to help the enlargement. The grants acknowledge tasks that uplift and revitalize neighborhoods throughout the town.

The Chaos plan to maintain each Albany Park places open.

“My mother used to go to Roosevelt Excessive College [in Albany Park],” Andrew Chao stated. “To serve the identical communities that gave my mother an schooling, it’s a surreal expertise.” 

Ling Chao and her household had been refugees of Cambodian dictator Pol Pot’s regime. They made it to a refugee camp in Thailand, and in 1981, Ling was sponsored by her uncle to return to the U.S., the place she settled in Chicago’s Albany Park neighborhood.

That very same 12 months, Ling’s future husband Jim Chao additionally arrived within the U.S. from Cambodia, settling first in Chicago after which California. Jim realized find out how to bake doughnuts at his uncle’s bakery in southern California, the place there’s an 80 p.c likelihood a mom-and-pop doughnut store is owned by Cambodian refugee households, based on a CBS report.

Jim Chao returned to Chicago in 1991, and that’s when he met Ling. In 2011, Jim Chao was working as a baker at his brother’s doughnut store in west suburban Batavia and commuting from the couple’s Chicago residence when Ling misplaced her job. When Jim’s brother and sister-in-law determined to retire, the Chaos noticed a chance to start out their very own enterprise. 

“Meals has at all times been essential to our household story, and I feel it’s pure that we’re doing one thing like this,” Andrew Chao stated. “Issues we make, like crimson bean donuts for Chinese language New 12 months or matcha bismarcks and ube donuts, seeing that resonate with our patrons, it feels excellent understanding that the meals that we grew up consuming are one thing that they like as effectively.”