I don't know if I've been in this boat alone, but I have a hard time finding supplies. I live 5 minutes from the Wilton Store, so everything I see is Wilton. Everything else I've had to find online, pay for shipping, and wait for my products to arrive. Well. . .this morning I found a post from a year ago about a store on the south side called Cakewalk Chicago. I checked out their website, checked the hours, and went out for a visit. It's about 45 minutes away from me but so well worth the hike. They had everything that I had been looking at online. . . .with NO shipping costs!!! YEAH!!! They carry things like Satin Ice, Dixies Buttercream, Filling sleeves, Lorann Flavors, Americolor colors, Dummies, Cutters galore. . .I could go on and on! And the store wasn't that big, but they had everything! Oh, well let me clarify. . .they did NOT have a lot of Wilton products. Just some essentials. The owner told me that since Wilton was so readily available, that she wanted to concentrate on other things. They even hold classes. I just wanted to share this with anyone who has been frustrated as I have. I am just so happy to know that there IS life beyond Wilton!!! Here's the website for anyone interested.

http://www.cakewalkchicago.com/index.html

Hey, jonicca, you must be flying low if you can get from Darien to Oak Lawn area in 45 minutes....

Thanks for the heads up on the shop.

Would be tempted to make a trip if ALL the major expressways in my area weren't ALL under construction.

BTW, you didn't happen to notice if they carried any brand of icing base, i.e. Brite White or Angel White, perhaps....

I've never been to Cakewalk, but I've always wanted to go there. I'm in the west suburbs, so its quite a distance for me too. It takes me about 30-40 min down 355 just to get to the Wilton store!

But we had guests from Cakewalk do a demonstration at a job fair event at the college that I went to. And it sounds like they have a lot of nice stuff.

I am from chicago but live in germany. How I wish I could just drive down 355 and go to the wilton store or be able to check out the cakewalk place. Enjoy Ladies!