296313 Mon Mar 01 14:29:34 -0800 2004 21 27 General Chowhounding Topics 0 1631724 Does your grocery store have a good in-house bakery or is it just a dismal corner with lots of sad-looking pastry crammed into plastic containers? Who buys this stuff? Which grocery store chains out there have decent bakeries? And how do some grocery stores get away with selling this stuff? Do you have any guilty pleasures? Mon Mar 01 14:29:34 -0800 2004 0 raj1 1 1631729 I haven't been to a grocery store bakery in a good many years because they tend to be few and far between in NYC. But I will tell you that I would be a happy lass every year if someone produced a birthday cake for me from Giant Food in Washington, DC. (Though I understand that Giant has undergone some not so great changes of late so I don't know if the cakes are the same as when I was a kid.) Something about that sugar/lard icing and those hard as a rock on the outside but creamy inside roses that decorated their cakes. Yeah. White cake, vanilla/lard concoction. That would be my guilty pleasure. But only on my birthday. Mon Mar 01 14:49:07 -0800 2004 1631724 0 Dipsy 2 1631733 I have some lip gloss from Rocket City cosmetics (Sephora) that smells exactly like sugar/vanilla/lard icing. I let a friend smell it just this weekend and "icing...birthday cake icing" came out of her mouth w/ about 2 seconds thought. Just think, you can have a little of that birthday experience everyday for no calories. I think my lips are feeling dry.......... Mon Mar 01 15:15:32 -0800 2004 1631729 0 danna 3 1631772 oooooh....great tip! Thanks very much. I shall seek it out. Mon Mar 01 21:45:10 -0800 2004 1631733 0 Dipsy 1 1631735 Some grocery stores in Orange County, California, have consigned bakers within their establishment. Gelson's contracted with ?? - it's the same company in all but one of their Gelson's stores. They bake on site. However, anything on the shelf is not necessarily fresh enough. I bought a dense chocolate cake and the next day it was very flavorful and really beautiful, but slightly dry by noon the next day ($24.00). Our Alberton's on Campus Drive in Irvine has a good in-store bakery with a cake designer who loves her stuff. I'm glad they are no longer on strike and hope she returns. A few of their employees were going to culinary school when the strike hit. Ralph's on Harvard in Irvine, (Orange County) used to have a good bakery before the strike in terms of morning stuff, some cakes, petifours, and tarts. However, the strike wiped that out. Maybe it will be good again, but not so far. The Wholesome Choice store on Culver in Irvine bakes bread fresh hourly, however, the bread they make is bought and then just baked on site. Many varieties. Pretty good. Not stellar. Mon Mar 01 15:24:25 -0800 2004 1631724 0 kc girl 2 1631736 I believe the Gelson's/Mayfair related baker you are talking about is Viktor Benes. I agree that most of their items are mediocre. Guilty pleasure---aforementioned Benes' fruit tart. lots of glazed fruit in a pie shell, atop a custard filling. Very European in its sweetness level (low). Terrific, but a ridiculous 20+ dollars. Hence, the guilt... Mon Mar 01 15:36:26 -0800 2004 1631735 0 Eric Archer 3 1631773 i used to go for their carrot muffins. very moist. they just hit the spot in the a.m. on the drive to work in the car..... Mon Mar 01 21:48:27 -0800 2004 1631736 0 fat kitty 3 1631863 Mostly agree, but I LOVE the Bavarian lemon torte/cake. Once I ordered one for a wedding shower and was presented with a stunningly elegant and delicious cake. Tue Mar 02 17:34:14 -0800 2004 1631736 0 quiz wrangler 2 1631845 I have never understood why our Gelson's bakery is so busy - other than a few muffin tops, nothing is good. Have bought cookies there for school classes & even the kids took one bite & tossed them. Cakes are just plain nasty. Love the store/hate the bakery! Tue Mar 02 14:37:57 -0800 2004 1631735 0 torta basilica 1 1631743 Our big chain grocery store bakeries are dismal here in my area. My mom and I joke that the "bakers" (actors?) just go through the motions and all of the dough comes out of one giant bucket in the back. The dough just oozes out - bloch, bloch, bloch - and they slide in an oversized Play-Dough die to change the shape. It sort of has a Orwellian feel to it, or perhaps Pink Floyd's "The Wall"... However, some of the specialty stores do bring in contracted bakery, though the selection isn't quite as great as I wish it would be. Mon Mar 01 16:31:46 -0800 2004 1631724 0 MkeLaurie 1 1631770 As a general rule, a supermarket bakery cannot possibly do as well as an independently-owned bakery. It uses cheaper ingredients, and the people who work there probably don't really care, since they are just employees--hired hands--and get no benefit out of "caring". Indeed, the desire to do a really good job could well get them fired. This is not to put down those who work in such places, but to put down the management of supermarkets, who care so highly about making a buck that they overlook other aspects of the business. There's nothing wrong with wanting to make a buck, in my book, but you have to give some thought to how you do it, and I just do not trust the management of any supermarket chain to do that. Mon Mar 01 21:42:52 -0800 2004 1631724 0 Howard-2 1 1631779 I live in Southern California but spend lots of time to Minnesota (where my SO is from). Lund's, a grocery store chain in Minnesota, has a fabulous bakery. Excellent doughnuts, cakes, pies, breads, bagels, etc. Best chocolate old-fashion doughnut I've ever had-bring some back with me every time. The Lund's bakery would blow away any grocery store bakery in California. The Lund's bakery is a huge part of my every visit to Minn. Mon Mar 01 22:52:58 -0800 2004 1631724 0 Samantha 1 1631804 Whole Foods (formerly Bread and Circus) on Westland Ave here in Boston frequently disappoints, but I think that a lot of their baked goods have out of store labels on them. Some of their whole grain breads need electric carving knives to be properly sliced. Rock hard and so dense you wonder whether something went horribly wrong with the yeast. Delightful exceptions are Iggy's foccacia and Iggy's breadsticks - but they are not whole grain. Shaw's supermarket (in the Prudential Center) has a wonderful store-made rosemary bread - YUM! Tue Mar 02 09:24:19 -0800 2004 1631724 0 WC 2 1631807 I think the quality of whole foods bakeries depends on the store. Out here in MetroWest Ma, the Framingham one is okay. But the bellingham one is excellent and has a baker there that always tries new things and bakes everything there. Tue Mar 02 09:47:25 -0800 2004 1631804 0 baruch 1 1631808 Wegman's has first rate bakeries in the New Jersey/PA region. They would stand on their own anywhere. McCaffreys, another local chain that is kind of between a Wegmans and a Giant, also has good bakeries, at least compared to other supermarkets. Tue Mar 02 09:50:11 -0800 2004 1631724 0 Ellen 1 1631849 SuperOne in Duluth MN has a great bakery. Always pick up loaves of sweet cardamon bread when there over the holidays. Lots of other fresh breads, pastries, etc. Multi-loaf (wheat, etc.) specials. Tue Mar 02 15:40:29 -0800 2004 1631724 0 Taralli 1 1631859 Without reading the other posts I can say I generally agree with you. Here in SoCal, the breads are usually pretty good but the pastries and other baked goods just don't taste very good. There is one exception to the rule, however, and that is the muffins at Pavilions (Von's). I am always looking for when they go on sale...the blueberry and chocolate chip muffins are the most moist flavorful muffins around! Tue Mar 02 16:48:16 -0800 2004 1631724 0 RSMBob 1 1631864 I have to confess: my co-workers and I buy them, the cakes anyway. My office is a few doors down from a Ralphs, and when we've forgotten about a birthday (i.e., frequently), someone scurries to Ralphs and buys a cake for $8.95. I think we have sampled nearly every cake they have to offer and they run the gamut from dreadful to pretty good, though the vast majority are dully mediocre. Believe you me, convenience and low cost play a major role in grocery store bakery survival. There used to be a fantastic cake shop around the corner from here, but nobody wanted to spring for the $29.99 6" carrot cake. Pity. Tue Mar 02 17:44:48 -0800 2004 1631724 0 quiz wrangler 2 1631878 I would tend to believe that the grocery store could have made a better carrot cake and charged half that price. All they need is a food processor, an oven, a good recipe, and a bakery person. Little overhead. Tue Mar 02 21:17:53 -0800 2004 1631864 0 kc girl 2 1631903 Our office too celebrates b-days with cakes from the Shaw's across the street here in Boston. The cakes from Whole Foods are much better but so much more expensive. We usually get a quarter sheet cake for our department every month and that only sets me back about $13 (I lay out the money and get reimbursed later--a system I just despise--so I resent having to pay more that $10 of my own cash for these things). I've stopped eating them. I peaked into the bakery one day and saw a huge tub labeled "BetterKreme Frosting". Yikes. Wed Mar 03 10:41:06 -0800 2004 1631864 0 raj1 1 1631906 I knew a couple of people who worked in the bakery section of a huge Kroger in the midwest. They informed us that the "buttercream" frosting is actually whipped lard!!! Wed Mar 03 11:35:18 -0800 2004 1631724 0 shrimpbird 2 1631927 Yeah, the quickest way to understand that is to take a bite of anything from a bakery and close your eyes. If it tastes like a mouthful of Crisco, it probably is. Wed Mar 03 14:21:44 -0800 2004 1631906 0 MkeLaurie