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Magnolia Bakery shut down due to cockroaches

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    CHICAGO (WBBM) — The Magnolia Bakery location in downtown Chicago was shut down this week due to a cockroach infestation.

City data shows the bakery in the Block 37 mall, at 108 N. State St., failed a health inspection on Monday.

An inspector noted that they saw more than a dozen live roaches crawling between cracks and crevices near the food preparation area.

City data said inspectors came in after someone filed a complaint.

The health violations were characterized as “high-risk.”

A sign near the door at Magnolia Bakery said it has temporarily closed and will reopen soon. A lime-green “License Suspended” sign from the Chicago Department of Public Health is also affixed to the doors.

The Magnolia Bakery in Block 37 opened in 2011 as the first and only Chicago location for the New York-based operation. The bakery is known for cakes, pies, and banana pudding, among other delights.

Magnolia Bakery was founded in New York City in 1996. The bakery grew in fame when it was named in the TV show “Sex and the City.”

The bakery was also featured in the movie “Prime,” which features a character hurling Magnolia Bakery pies at his ex-girlfriends, as well as the movie “The Devil Wears Prada,” and the 2005 “Saturday Night Live” digital short “Lazy Sunday.”

Magnolia Bakery was credited with starting the cupcake craze that began in the late 1990s.

However, the original Magnolia Bakery location on Bleecker Street in New York City’s West Village also made headlines in February 2013 for being shut down for a couple of days by that city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene due to mice.

Magnolia Bakery also has numerous locations around Manhattan, as well as one each in Los Angeles and in Holiday Hills, Utah. The bakery also has six international locations.

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