Ivannia Segura didn’t expect the overwhelming response her bakery has received since opening in Elgin a week ago.
“We haven’t done any publicity” for the Churro Bar at 238 S. Randall Road, Segura said. “We just did an announcement on Facebook that we were opening. … We didn’t expect (it to be an immediate hit).”
Plans for the store started last year when, after Segura lost her job and was trying to decide what to do next, she started thinking about her dream of one day launching her own business, she said.
“I started to work on options to do something else, something with my family,” Segura said.
The idea came to her when she noticed that Elgin residents were driving to bakeries as far as 10 or 12 miles away to buy churros — deep-fried, sugar-coated pastry sticks or tubes piped with fruit jam, custard, chocolate or other fillings or served unfilled to be dipped in sauces.
“I thought, why not one here?” Segura said.
The menu the family came up with includes options you might not find elsewhere, including a churro “banana split” made with fresh strawberries and bananas, a churro ice cream cookie and even a churro s’more.
“People are trying different things,” Segura said, adding that the banana split is “getting famous. … The expression says it all.”
There were a lot of unexpected challenges she hadn’t anticipated, she said, especially when it came to remodeling the store space and making sure she had the necessary permits.
“It was more difficult than we thought, but we did it,” Segura said.
Segura’s daughters, Valeria and Melissa, as well as other relatives and close family friends jumped in to help. Even her parents, Carlos and Sonia, came from Costa Rica to lend a hand, she said.
This week, Valeria was at the counter taking orders. Customers have been telling her they had to check the place out after hearing about it from others, she said. It’s been exciting to hear the feedback, she said.
All the churros they sell are made in-house, and the family does everything. Valeria said she is especially proud to be working with her mother, who has always been a hard worker and taught her to be an independent woman.
Segura said that while she knows churros are one of those things you don’t have to be Hispanic to love, the reception the business has received so far was totally unexpected.
“We didn’t know it would grow so fast,” she said. “Gracias a Dios (thanks to God).”
Segura, who previously made churros for family gatherings, said the key to making a good one is having the oil at the right temperature and the masa or dough at the right consistency. “There are many different things you have to watch,” she said.
And don’t forget the one ingredient you can’t buy at the store, Segura said. “The love you put into it,” she said.
Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
