My Grampa's Store — Restaurant in Lyons Township

The Grandpa for which this store is named was Hank Morello, owner and operator of Hank's Candy Store during my childhood days. Ogden grade school is located right across the street and a Catholic grade school is kiddy-corner to the store as well. Hundreds of kids used to mob this store daily when I went through grades 1-6 at Ogden. In fact, as a young paper route guy I used to stop in every single morning and tank up on glazed donuts and other sugary delights.

Now Hank's is a gourmet cake and catering company run by his grand-daughter. We communicated via email and later by phone last year after I had seen the name of the store show up on Google maps and was surprised to see it still surviving. I have many stories concerning this great little store. If you stop in, tell her I sent you.

EDIT: So here I am finally, Sept.22, 2018, visiting My Grandpa's Store and meeting Gina. I've returned to La Grange after 50 years and am enjoying my 50th high school reunion at LTHS. I haven't walked inside this sacred candy shrine since my old grade school across the street, Ogden Avenue School, in 1961.....mind-boggling, eh?

The store was started way back in the 1930's, I believe, though I did lose track of the exact chronology as Gina explained the photos that chronicle the grandparents, parents, children, and grand-children that have run this store. It should be certified and put on the National Register of Historical sites for sure. The photos and old telephones make this establishment more of a museum than you can imagine....oh, the memories......such a great time...

THE best bakery!! I worked with Gina for a Baby Shower cake...she designed the cake to coordinate with the design and color palette of the invitations....amazing! The cake was moist, the frosting delicious and the filling fresh! We selected "wedding white" cake with fresh berries and whipped cream filling with a cream cheese frosting...tasty, light and PERFECT! I selected this bakery based on posted reviews...they were "spot on" that this is a wonderful bakery for custom cakes...this will now be my "go to" bakery! The photo is "cropped" to not show the name of the baby...Gina made a "custom" topper "Baby to be...

Gina is the absolute BEST! She made cakes for our twins for their 6th bday. They requested some elaborate pokemon cakes that they found online and I figured they would be nearly impossible to recreate. I reached out to Gina, she was super responsive and helpful. I sent her some pics and she literally recreated their dream cakes with no issue. They were reasonably priced and they were delicious! Wish I would’ve known about this place sooner. Highly highly recommend,...