09/29/2026
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Hi All!
TLDR: We are so excited to be moving back downtown and very grateful to our community, who have been supporting Pekara for over 20 years! We look forward to 20 more great years in our new location!
My name is Lauren, and I'm the owner of Pekara along with my husband, Jeffrey. I thought I'd hop on our socials to say thank you personally to everyone who has supported Pekara over the last 22 years. Even though Jeffrey and I have only owned Pekara for the last 4 years, I've been working with Pekara since 2007, nearly 20 years! Way back then, I was looking for a local bakery to partner with on a project when I first met Seka. Seka is from Serbia (Pekara means "bakery" in Serbian) and she founded Pekara with the desire to bring old-world European bread baking to Central Illinois. We became very close friends, and over the next many years we worked together to open a second Pekara location on campus (brownie points to anyone who remembers where that was) and to open the Bakehouse. It was originally called Pekara Bakehouse, and later the name was changed to Central Illinois Bakehouse. I managed the original downtown Pekara Bistro for several years, handled bookkeeping and supported outside sales for the Bakehouse, and managed years of Farmers Markets along with the incredible team of bakers and market staff at the Bakehouse. I added it up the other day, and I realized that I've worked over 900 farmers market days across the Urbana, Champaign, Danville, Monticello, Bloomington, and Springfield farmers markets!
The original downtown Pekara location was the first wholesale account where Prairie Fruits Farm & Creamery sold our gelato, and Espresso Royale Cafes were one of the first wholesale accounts of the Bakehouse (so many almond croissants have been sold at ERC over the years! It's like thousands!) So all the companies that we have brought together as Salt Fork Food Works have decades of working together and supporting the incredible local food network that we have here in Champaign. I am so proud to have been working with our incredible teams for so many years, and to see how our CU community continues to support local food and small business is just incredible. Our dream over 20 years ago of working in a culture in Champaign that appreciates the skill and work that go into crafting real, delicious food is alive and well, and we are all just so excited about bringing Pekara back downtown and to see where the next 20 years take us! We will be moving slowly into our new space at 500 N Walnut (right next door to Martinelli's Market Bakery & Deli) over the next few days, so stop by and say hi, and know we may have a limited menu for the first week or so as we get settled in. Follow us on socials for the latest updates and for when we will host our official Grand Opening. Thank you CU for keeping Pekara going all these years; it is so special to me and to our family and we are deeply grateful everyday for your support!
-Lauren
