Brown Butter Cafe and Bakery bringing new taste to St. Charles

Dawn Phillips knows that the food she makes brings people together.

And that's one of the things she likes the best about being a baker and chef.

"When I was growing up, we all got together and we cooked and baked and would take it to neighbors," said Phillips, the founder and baker at Brown Butter Cafe and Bakery, which opened last month at 311 N. 2nd St., Suite 104, in the Charleston Center in St. Charles.

She has developed a following over the years after previously owning Early Light Cafe, which had been open only during warm-weather months at the walk-up window at Mill Race Cyclery in Geneva. Phillips also had a pop-up shop at The Sugar Path in Geneva.

In addition, Phillips was a specialty cook at Kava Diem in St. Charles and sold her gluten-free doughnuts there. Some of her customers from over the years have been stopping in Brown Butter since it opened.

"I feel really, really beyond grateful," she said.

All of the baked goods that she makes are gluten-free. Her doughnuts are not only gluten-free, but they are also soy free and nut free.

"The sandwiches you can get as a gluten-free option," Phillips said.

Brown Butter, which is open for breakfast and lunch, also sells vegan doughnuts that don't contain butter. Everything on the menu is made to order.

"You can get it how you want," Phillips said.

Geneva resident Julie Martin is her business partner. They had met each other after previously being neighbors in the Mill Creek subdivision in Geneva.

"We were very good friends instantly," Martin said.

Martin can only eat gluten-free food because she has a wheat allergy. Phillips turned to her to try gluten-free items that she had made.

"When she made something, she would be like, 'Can you come over?'" Martin said.

And she has tried to make her gluten-free foods as tasty as possible.

"I just started baking with different flours and trying to create something that didn't taste like cardboard," Phillips said. "So Julie, bless her heart, she was my guinea pig."

Martin and her husband, Jeff, convinced Phillips to open a restaurant that would be open year-round.

"They have been supportive of me from the very first day I opened Early Light Cafe," Phillips said. "They were my first customers and were sitting in the freezing rain that day because there was only outside seating."

Phillips chooses to shop locally when it comes to buying the ingredients for her recipes. For example, the bread she uses is from Breadsmith of St. Charles.

"I love their bread," Phillips said. "Their bread is really good, and it is great for paninis. It's crisp on the outside, and it's really soft on the inside."

During the warm weather months, customers at Brown Butter will be able to sit outside. The name of the business refers to butter that has been heated in a pan until it has a light brown color and a nutty flavor and aroma.

"It smells amazing," Phillips said. "It is incredible. And then it turns this beautiful brown color. Any day, just walk in the kitchen, and you can smell the brown butter."

Celebrity Jenny McCarthy is a fan of her doughnuts. McCarthy and her husband, Donnie Wahlberg, founding member of the boy band New Kids on the Block, live in St. Charles.

"Jenny has actually bought my doughnuts several times," Phillips said. "They haven't come here yet, but we are keeping our fingers crossed."

Brown Butter Cafe and Bakery is open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays through Saturdays. More information is available at brownbutterbakedgoods.com.