Toni's Patisserie Has New Owners. The Recipes Stay, and Breakfast Could Get a Bloody Mary

Twenty-five years ago, Craig Zoberis and his wife, Tracy, cut a white chocolate mousse wedding cake from Toni's Patisserie & Café. A couple of weeks before The Hinsdalean ran its story this fall, Toni Cox made the top tier of that cake again for the couple's early anniversary. This time Zoberis wasn't ordering it as a customer. He's now one of the bakery's three owners.

The Hinsdalean reported that Cox and her husband, Paul Pell, sold the business earlier this year to three Hinsdale residents: Zoberis, Mark Konieczka and Tom Wake. The new owners say they have no plans for immediate changes at 51 S. Washington St. The one change they've asked for has nothing to do with the pastry case. They want different liquor-license hours, and that request goes to the Village Board on Tuesday, Oct. 6.

How a 32-year-old café found its buyers

Cox and Pell opened in Hinsdale in 1994. They later opened a Chicago location, which has since closed, so the Washington Street shop is the only Toni's left.

The sale nearly went another way. Zoberis said that last November he saw a listing from Eatz, a broker that sells restaurants and other food businesses, and recognized the business from its description. "I chased this broker, because when he had the description, I knew what business this was," he told The Hinsdalean. Cox was already working with another buyer then. That deal fell through in the first week of January, and the broker called Zoberis.

He brought the idea to Konieczka over dinner, and Konieczka agreed. Konieczka and his wife, Stephanie, who studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, had thought about opening a cupcake shop in Hinsdale about 10 years ago. Wake signed on, he joked, because "I'm failing at my recent retirement. You can only play so many games of Wordle."

Each partner brings a different background. Wake worked in wholesale distribution and Konieczka in commercial real estate. Wake describes Zoberis as "a serial entrepreneur and engineer." Cox is staying on indefinitely to help with the handoff. Steve Rennau will keep running operations as director of operations.

The recipes were part of the deal

Cox's recipes were included in the sale, and the new owners say customers' favorites will keep being made from them. Cox described what the binder actually looks like:

"Everything from hand-written to typed up to in the computer system. Everybody who has been involved with the recipes has touched them in some way, and there are some stains on them to show they have been very well used, kind of like an old cookbook. It's a bit like passing down your grandmother's recipes."

That means the regular menu stays the same. The pastry page lists macarons and French croissants as signature items, along with éclairs, fruit tarts, cream puffs, raspberry meringues and petit fours. The signature cakes include the white chocolate mousse from the Zoberis wedding, plus flourless chocolate, chocolate raspberry mousse, Black Forest, lemon raspberry mousse and carrot. The café side serves soups, salads and sandwiches, including the Croque Madam, a smoked saumon galette and the salade chèvre.

Zoberis joked that the partners first wanted to keep the sale quiet. "We want them to think Toni is back there somewhere," he said.

The license change is about the morning

The Hinsdalean story mentions in one line that the owners "might expand the café's liquor options, which have been limited to wine and beer," and that they expect a new village license this month. Konieczka added, "Perhaps there are bloody Marys in the future."

The village code explains why that matters. The previous owners held a Class B1 license. In Hinsdale, B1 means beer and wine only. It also means no sales before 11 a.m. on most days.

Toni's posted hours are 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. Under B1, that leaves the first four hours of every day with no drinks at all, and those are the café's breakfast hours.

The new owners have asked for a Class B6 license. That class covers restaurants serving breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner, and it allows "alcoholic liquors," a wider category than beer and wine. B6 sales can begin at 7 a.m. every day.

Here's how that looks against Toni's own hours:

The code's closing times under both licenses run well past 5:30 p.m., so the new license changes nothing at the end of the day. All of the change happens in the morning. Monday through Saturday, the hours when the café can serve a drink go from six and a half to ten and a half. On Sunday they double, from four to eight.

Three mornings a year under the old rules

The B1 rules did make room for brunch drinks, but only on three days a year. The code lets B1 holders start serving at 7 a.m. on Mother's Day, Father's Day and Easter, "for the purpose of serving brunch."

The 7 a.m. start that was a holiday exception under B1 is the everyday rule under B6. If the board approves it, a mimosa with a croissant on an ordinary Wednesday follows the same rules as Mother's Day brunch does now. Whether the café actually adds a bloody Mary is up to the owners, and so far they've only called it a possibility.

The second license, for takeout bottles

Trustees also backed a Class B4 license for Toni's, which The Hinsdalean describes as packaged sales of wine, champagne and beer. In the code, B4 is the "restaurant package sales" license for alcohol sold to take home. Packaged sales are allowed from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday.

The code limits how much room alcohol can take up. Package sales under this license follow the village's retail conditions, which cap alcohol display and sales space at 5 percent unless another license provision says otherwise. So don't expect a wine shop inside a bakery. A cake pickup that includes a bottle of champagne would fit within those rules.

Tuesday's vote, then the holiday season

At their September meeting, trustees supported both licenses and scheduled the formal vote for Tuesday, Oct. 6. Until that vote, everything above is a proposal. The café is still operating under the old beer-and-wine setup.

The owners also have the holiday season coming. "The fourth quarter is always a huge thing for us and a lot of work," Cox said. "We have to be in a position where we are prepared." Toni's website doesn't post a Thanksgiving ordering deadline. If a holiday cake or tart order is on your list, call the shop on Washington Street for the cutoff.

Check the time before you head over early. The contact page says the café opens at 7 a.m., but the online ordering page recently showed a 7:30 a.m. opening, so online pickup times may differ from the café's walk-in hours.

Rennau said that at his first meeting with Zoberis in February, the two found they shared Cox's focus on people and culture. That fits with what the owners say is their priority. "Carrying her legacy is the key thing because she is behind all of this success," Zoberis said.

At Second City Agents, we follow downtown Hinsdale block by block, from new liquor licenses to who's moving into which storefront. If you'd like to talk about what changes like these on Washington Street mean for a home nearby, schedule a free market consultation with our team.