Atwater's now in Catonsville!

[bmorecupcake]

http://www.atwaters.biz/about_storeLo...

We in Catonsville are very fortunate to have this location because, and this is a biggie, I was told all the baking for all the Atwater's location now happens in Catonsville. (For the curious, I was also told all the soups are now made at the Ploughboy location.) And the coffee here is pretty good, although some of the baristas at Belvedere are better. They sell coffee beans here, too, but I feel as if there is not as much coffee variety as other locations.

The storefront is very basic compared to the other locations, but they do have some items like goat cheese, Trickling Springs dairy items, Atwater's soups in carry out containers, etc. I am confused about one thing. I see all the bread, brownies, muffins, scones, macaroons, pound cakes, cookies, and biscotti, but so far I haven't seen the fancier baked sweets (cakes and tortes and such) that I'm used to from Belvedere. Maybe those are still baked there, or maybe those are just not sold here because there's absolutely no room in the shop.

[bmorecupcake]

An update on this place. The fancier desserts are still made in the Belvedere location, but all other baking happens here. I had a problem with their pies. The crust was sometimes not flaky and/or soggy. For the price (almost $6 for a mini pie), this was very disappointing. I found this was happening because the pies are sometimes refrigerated overnight and always clingwrapped. What you can do is call ahead to check if they are baking pies that day, specifically ask for a pie to be put aside for you without refrigeration or clingwrap, and then pick it up before closing.

If you are into bread baking yourself, be sure to stop by late afternoon one day and talk to Tim -- the "head baker" (that's what I call him.) I haven't baked enough varieties of bread to keep up and sometimes I just find myself nodding, but the conversations are always informative and enlightening.

If you get there early in the morning, they have day old bread at half price. It's a great way to try bread you're nervous of trying at full price. They rotate local artwork through their various Atwater's locations. Lastly, they are good with listening to their customers. I got them to order heavy cream from Trickling Springs, they are trying to get smaller sample size bags of Counter Culture coffee, and one of these days I'll have them put out a couple macaroons without chocolate coating. :)