On board with baked goods: The Great Sandeenie opens at Downers Grove Metra station
After years of preparing pastries for friends or to sell at farmers markets, Jennifer Sandeen decided to take the plunge.
In late August, she opened The Great Sandeenie, a shop in the Downers Grove Metra station where she sells her baked goods.
“This is my artistic outlet,” Sandeen said. “When my daughter was born, I started baking birthday cakes. People started saying, ‘Hey, if you bake me one, I'll pay you.'
“It stayed low-key for a very long time. I'd been doing it for 15 years,” said Sandeen, who works as a sleep technologist for two medical groups.
Sandeen, 48, of Hanover Park, is low-key no more.
Her shop is open seven days a week and her oven at home is kept busy.
“It's early, but we're doing OK,” she said. “We're making enough for payroll and rent. It's not a huge profit, but a lot of people don't know we're in here.”
The shop's name is a play on her last name and “The Great Santini,” a 1979 movie starring Robert Duvall, she said.
Daughter Jessica, 19, a College of DuPage student, is one of three employees.
“I don't see her much because she's gone 95% of the day, so when I see her, it's fun,” Jessica said of working with her mother.
Sandeen has no oven in the train station. Instead, she and Jessica bake goodies at home and bring them to the station.
“It's a lot of work,” she said. “I have just the one oven. It takes a lot of time to get stuff done.”
One of her specialties are cake pops, which is vanilla, chocolate or red velvet cake in a tiny ice cream cone. Cake tacos also are popular.
“It's a ring of cake surrounded by a chocolate shell. And then in the middle we've done butter cream, peanut butter filling, whatever the case may be. ... They're very popular and sell quickly,” Sandeen said.
Cookies, croissants and macaroons also are in the mix.
For early risers, The Great Sandeenie is the perfect spot for commuters to grab a snack. It opens at 6 a.m. Monday through Friday.
“Sometimes, they'll want coffee to go or a Danish or a muffin or a croissant,” Sandeen said. “We also get people who work (in) downtown (Downers Grove) and the seniors who are out and about.”
Some customers are students or teachers from Downers Grove North High School, said Jessica, adding the big rush is just before 8 a.m.
Moms with children in strollers have been known to visit, Sandeen said.
The business fills a space formerly home to two coffee shops in previous years. The second fell victim to the pandemic and closed in 2021, Sandeen said. She pays rent to the village of Downers Grove.
“We find it tight, but it's a place to start,” she said. “I don't want to work too big too fast and fall on my face. It's maybe 250 square feet. We have to stockpile things. We bought shelving. We're making the best of it.”
Julius Hope of Chicago recently stopped in for his first visit. He strolled up to the counter about 5 p.m. and ordered a coffee with a dash of French vanilla to go for $3.24 before catching a train to the city.
Hope said he liked the convenience of a shop inside the train station.
Moments later, Cecilia Siragusa of Downers Grove ordered an iced coffee for her train ride to attend a bachelorette party on a Friday night in Chicago. After noticing baked goods are available, Siragusa said, “I'm sure I'll be ordering from you guys soon.”
The Great Sandeenie is open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For more information, visit www.the-great-sandeenie.