Potenza's bakery?

[hamster]

Has anyone been? Is it worth going to check out? What do they have there, just bread or other tasty treats?

[hamster]

Finally dropped by this place over the weekend. We bought a lovely fresh semolina baguette for $3, which I thought was a pretty good price. It was indeed a bit airy, but I think that's just Italian versus French style. It was still warm when they handed it to us, which was pretty awesome. I would definitely return to this place for more bread. They also had something called a Nutella coffee cake which sounds intriguing. The other pastries (mostly puff pastry items, some muffins, dry Italian cookies, and canolli) didn't tempt me. I would be curious about returning for a lunch special during the week, though woodleyparkhound's review does give me pause...

[Jacey]

Their gelato is just ok.

[jennwenn]

Italian cookies, gelato, rotating lunch menu of five sandwich type items. The mushroom tart is my favorite savory, if a bit oily. Stromboli is also heavy on meats and nice. For bread, I like their fennel boule but I hate the baguettes. Too airy. Most pastries are of course Italian themed, so they have a sweet focaccia, nutella tart, cherry sticky bun, etc.. (Well maybe that last one isn't Italian, I don't know.) Its worth checking out. I like Breadline and G Street better for lunch, but their sweets are nice.

[repete]

Had the Nutella tart the other day and it was good but not great. The cannoli seemed way overpriced (not sure what you get) but if I recall it was $6 -- which makes me think of those $2 bargains from Donna's "Grill Days."

[jennwenn]

I thought nutella tart was a little too sweet for me, though I love nutella. My favorite are the cookies (because they are maybe the least sweet things) and the sticky buns.

[woodleyparkhound]

I just got back from there... I'd read they had good sandwiches, so I wanted to try one. They have lots of varieties, all of them pre-made, which is a turn-off for me. Some are wrapped in plastic bags, others are panini. I got a sopressata panino, which looked pretty small. I was surprised to be charged $7.50, but I paid it and waited. And waited. When it arrived, it was oily, salty and tiny and was served with with a large pile of room temperature fried potato shavings (like an up-market version of canned potato sticks) that had a sprinkling of parmesan cheese and parsley flakes and a very liberal dose of salt. These potatoes must be what they feel justifies the price. At the end of the meal, I felt like I had just had a lunch consisting of oil and salt and not much else. I definitely won't be back for a take-out lunch, but their gelato and loaves of bread looked delicious - as did their baked goods, to a lesser extent. I'll keep them in mind the next time I want a special loaf of bread for dinner, or if I'm near there and have a yen for gelato.

[CoconutMilk]

haven't been but Kliman at the washingtonian has said very good things, if that means anything to you. I recall something about "best cannolis" in the city.