Chef Laurie McNamara is Chicagoland’s very own scone queen. She worked as the pastry chef at Scone City, a bakery-café co-owned by Tim Canning in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago that operated from 2015 to 2019. During that time, Canning also was co-owner of Lemon Tree Grocer, a specialty grocery store formerly located in suburban Downers Grove, IL that served as the epicenter of a scone baking operation that saw a rapid trajectory of growth, serving loyal customers via Scone City, Lemon Tree, and farmers’ markets.
McNamara now plies her pastry prowess at Cadence Kitchen & Co., a restaurant that opened in 2018 and occupies the old Lemon Tree Grocer space, as well as at The Foxtail, which opened nearby in Downers Grove this year. Canning is also chef-owner of those restaurants, along with another chef-owner, Todd Davies.