Bleeding Heart Bakery Sucks

An inside look at Chicago's Bleeding Heart Bakery-turned-Lucha Dulce. "Punk rock pastry" that exploits its workers and treats its customers like crap.

Anonymous asked: I went in to get a box of assorted goods on a Thursday, and they told me they were out of the items they needed to make it. They said they'd call me when they got the items in. I didn't hear back from them for a while, and then they finally called me the next Friday and told me they'd had it ready since Monday. I told them that they were supposed to call and let me know, and they just asked if I still wanted it. I pre-paid, so reluctantly, I picked it up had to eat 5 day old greasy pastries.

Nice to know they plan on staying awful right up until the very last minute.

Anonymous asked: To employees who have not been paid: file a complaint with the Illinois Department of Labor for unpaid wages; the process takes a few months but if you are able to prove you are owed a certain amount, most likely you will receive it, as well as compensation for the time you waited for this check (usually about 8% of the check amount for EACH day you waited for your check). I was denied a check from an ex-employer (Lush wine and spirits- AVOID), but doing this paid off. Good Luck!

Good advice!

Submission: The definition of deposit is obvously missing from Michelle’s dictionary.

After I quit the bakery(literally the night before they opened the lakeview location) I knew I never wanted to step foot in that crazy house again. And after hearing all the shit talk Michelle had to say about me I knew if I went in there it would be a problem. So I had my fiance pick up my last checks so i didnt have to. Well we had these awful uniforms, they looked like diner dresses and cost us all a $100 deposit they said we would get back when we returned them. I waited 3-4 weeks after quitting to return them simply because i was dreading it. And after hearing my old coworkers couldnt get their back pay I knew i would have to deal with crap when i finally did return them. Well the day came when i knew i had to suck it up and go over there for my deposit. I walked in and the girl i had been trying to fire since last year was working ( she was unreliable, a liar,cheated on her timecard,and kissed michelles ass to get away with it) I gave her my 2 dresses and apron, asked for my money and got the heck out of there.

    About an hour later i’m sitting at the bookstore decompressing and get a voicemail from BHB. The worker says “I just spoke to michelle and you werent supposed to get that money, you just stole from us and im calling the cops if you arent here before we close.” WTF?! I call back and ask what the hell is going on, thats my money, i returned the uniforms i got the deposit back. She insists michelle said she gave it to me weeks ago (never happened, and 4 weeks earlier i was still working there so? hmm) and that i just lied and stole from the company and shes calling the cops if i dont return the money. I felt like I was in a soap opera or something, this crap just doesnt happen in real life. I never did anything wrong to this woman, i stuck with her even when i was working for free, getting paid shit and staying 16-18 hours a day, listening to her bitch and moan and share super personal marital info all the time.

  I started getting texts from the worker basically counting down the time until she called the cops, I text Vinny and told him what was going on thinking stupidly he would stop this crazy shit cause hes the normal one right? wrong. he told me i had to return the money asap and that texting him about it was disrespectful and rude because i should have text michelle instead. right, you control all the money business and are an owner but i shouldnt talk to you? alrighty. I checked my email and michelle had already wrote a page long email to me about how i stole from them, shes calling the cops and how in one of my checks i got paid $12 an hr and that added up to $100. I got paid that much because I was a manager and thats managers pay for every manager in any location we had.

   I couldn’t deal with the harassment so i went to the police station and told them what was going on. They said she never called them and to tell her to cease and desist contact with me. well i did that and she stupidly emailed me saying there was now a warrant out for my arrest because i stole her money. lol seriously? well talked to the police again and yeah there was no warrant and she never contacted them. you would think it would stop there right?

    After she was done harassing me she apparently went after the only friend i had left there, accusing her of being a narc and telling me inside info. This person after i quit never told me anything that was going on over there and besides that the last thing we ever want to talk about in our free time is BHB. It sucks that Michelle can scare her workers though so much to the point that now this person barely talks to me and it just isnt the same.  Its hard to let go of all the pent up anger and bitterness i have for this place. It has completely changed how i view new jobs, anything out of place and i get leary about it thinking they will fuck me over just like BHB did. There should be a support group for all of us since this completely fucks our heads up.

Anonymous asked: What's with all the skinhead stuff in their auctions? Don't they realize the negative connotation that carries, even in the punk community?

But they’re SO PUNK. So….punk….

Submission: Well, there goes nothing.

Hearing the news of BHB closing in some article really did make me sad, especially my girlfriend. I clicked on a few links and ended up here. At first I thought this was some troll site but story after story convinced me otherwise. Pretty sad that my girlfriend actually wanted to work here, but fortunately she doesn’t have to. It just bites me, all those times enjoying pastries when over the counter someone is dealing with a shitty day. I remember not seeing the same people behind the counter, I suppose they got replaced or quit on there own. It kills me how this place kept a fake reputation and made me believe a bunch of crap.

For Those Who Got Screwed

After reading the post about the bride who will not be receiving her wedding cake, I was hoping I could help. I’m the co-owner of a small baking business, PolkaDot Baking, that specializes in custom cakes. We do everything from classic floral wedding cakes to funky superhero-themed carved cakes. To help those who affected, I’d like to offer 20% off any cake order to anyone referred to PolkaDot from this blog.

No bride deserves to be cakeless on her wedding day. www.polkadotbaking.com

Anonymous asked: When I was a BHB op employee, I was asked/told to lie to the health dept about certain products that the health dept needed to be refrigerated. MGs response was that they learned at FPS cured meats don't need to be refridgerated,(not true) and if there was any problem, just hide the foods before the health inspector comes in, or while they have their backs turned. I can also attest to two week old cake, months old chocolate covered bacon ($$) and cake balls made with even older cake. Sickening.

Not surprised!

Submission: In The Shit (Quite Literally)

Once upon a time I got hired at a bakery. I was hired toward the end of March. It seemed like a swell opportunity to be involved under what, supposedly, was a huge name in the industry. I was told time and time again that they would be opening the new location in Lakeview “a week from now.” This continued until their opening in June; so I had a job, I just wasn’t gainfully employed. This should have been the first warning sign of what was to come. Once they had opened and I had started working regularly, I began to notice how phony, childish, and nearly mentally handicapped the owners were. The next giant, gaudy sign I should have heeded was that our paychecks were late…and when I got it (post-termination) it was only for 14 hours. 

I’d like to speak on how I was fired: I was filling in for a friend the day it happened. Oh, I remember this day and will until my last gasping breath. I had come inside from a break and walked to the front of house. Something smelled, downright terrible. Like shit. I thought,

“Great, just what I need, a pipe burst or something.” I asked my coworker if he smelled what I was smelling. No sooner did he say yes than a customer appeared from the bathroom hallway with a look of sheer terror on his face and choked out,

“You guys got a situation going on back here. There’s shit everywhere”

“Really? What do you mean?” I asked.

“Just come and look.” he said. I went around to the hallway and lo and behold there was human shit, piles of it, all down the hallway, on the walls…everywhere. Inside the bathroom was like someone had horded a month worth of feces and stuck a quarter stick of dynamite in it.

I’m not blaming the incontinent woman who allegedly ran in and ran out without buying anything, leaving substantial gifts from her bowels on the way. Shit happens, really.

It goes without saying how I felt at this point. We cleared everyone out and locked the door as to not expose the public to such an indecency. So I called Vinny. I explained the situation to him and that we needed to either call a professional (service master etc., someone who was able to deal with human waste properly) or get the right cleaning solution ourselves. He replied,

“Oh, no. We’re not going to call anybody. It’s your job. Get the mop and some all purpose cleaner and give it a little elbow grease.”

I was revolted. How could this mook even suggest that we deal with human fecal matter on our own, with no gloves, improper sterilization liquids and implements and…elbow grease?

I explained to him that that wasn’t alright. That it was human shit. That something legitimate needed to happen here as we were ill equipped to deal with the situation.

He repeated himself, reminding me that my job was to clean shit…apparently…then hand people baked goods.

I hung up on him.

And proceeded to clean up the shit. I feel any normal person would have walked out at this juncture. I cleaned merely for immediacy’s sake. Rolled up all the crap laden carpets and brought them out back and took the mop to the lot of it, tears in my eyes, fumes polluting my lungs. My coworker and I almost vomited numerous times.

I guess they didn’t like the fact I hung up on Vinny. So they had one of the managers call and terminate me. He asked if I wanted to stay the rest of the shift and I said yes because I felt bad leaving the other person there alone.

So I stayed, and posted something to my Facebook about being up and out of there; I guess Michelle REALLY didn’t like that. She stormed in and postured with all of her normal legal threats and attempted to make me feel bad for “treating the people who paid my rent” like I did. (I’m pretty sure I just cleaned up shit and got fired for it, and had only seen 150 dollars of their caring money)

After this incident was the true downward spiral of that place. People started dropping like flies as they were jolted awake to realize they’ve been acting as slaves to this crazed bitch.

We have all yet to be paid.

I want retribution.

If anyone else sees this (fellow ex-employees, ex-employees who know lawyers, or lawyers etc.) and wants the same and is willing to actively go after them (at this point I see no other way to collect our wages), we should organize a coalition.

I understand that working for a small business is an effort, that you’re supposed to institute a family based environment, but this was like no small business I’ve ever worked for.

I regret the decision to sign on with them, empathize with everyone else who has felt their self-righteous wrath, and feel utterly sorry for anyone still involved with them.

Addendum: When I returned a week later to claim (unsuccessfully) my paycheck, the shit filled carpets were still in the exact same spot as I had left them.