Essential Baking Company

I had lunch recently at the Georgetown Essential Baking company, where I was treated to the lamest Caprese sandwich I have ever had. It is hard to knock the place because the staff was so friendly, but really this was ridiculous.

The small sandwich cost around seven dollars, which isn't exactly peanuts. The bread was fresh, as it should have been in a bakery, but the laughable innards of the sandwich consisted of one extra thin slice of coldcut style mozzarella, a piece of mealy tomato, and a couple of soggy basil leaves. One side of the bread had a faint drizzle of balsamic vinegar, the other was dry. WTF.
I know it isn't exactly summertime, so it is unrealistic to hope for garden fresh tomatoes. But this doesn't excuse the fact that they couldn't muster a couple of slices of thick fresh mozzarella or some additional sauce (more vinegar? olive oil? a nice pesto?) for the bread. Plus, for the price, the danged plate could have used some chips.

Buttery

In Santa Cruz now...
There were a few things that drew me to Buttery right off the bat: First off, the name sounds delectable. Second, rumors about the horrible service were all over the internet, and I am always interested in seeing what it's truly like in a place where people claim they turn around and leave because the couldn't get anybodies attention to take their orders.

I went at lunch time, and the amazing smelling cafe/bakery was bustling. That said, I had no problem at all standing in line and ordering my sandwich in the normal way. I got an avocado and jack sandwich on whole wheat bread.

The sandwich was tasty... it felt like something I'd make myself at home. I liked the little cornichons on the plate.

Sitting in the cafe smelling the bakery was a fantastic sort of torture, and after finishing the savory part of lunch I made a beeline for the pastry case. There was another option for the ordering process to go south... Buttery has a spool of numbered tickets in a wall dispenser and attempt to conduct business based on ticket number. That said, the minute I got close to the baked goods, just scoping out my options before I even had a ticket, an employee noticed me and asked if she could get me anything. There was nothing unfriendly or difficult about the process at all.

And the macaroon that I got (and unfortunately didn't take a picture of) was, hands down, the best macaroon I have ever eaten. It was perfectly moist and chewy with beautifully caramelized outer ridges. It was a real work of art!

Cinnamon Twisp

Cinnamon Twisp, in Twisp, is another standout in the Methow area. In addition to the famed cinnamon twisp pastry pictured below (a delicious twisted buttery doughball gooey with cinnamon laced honey and chopped nuts), I noticed that their pastry case carried small take-out containers of vegetarian friendly foods: peanut noodles with tofu, tabbouleh, etc. YES!!!

Specialty's Bakery

Specialty's Bakery is a chain bakery/cafe located in U-Village. The good smells come wafting out the door and it is hard not to stop. I've recently come to like this place as an alternate to my other U-Village standby, the enticing devil Zao.

I've never had their sandwiches, but they have a nice selection of vegetarian options, all of which seem to come piled high on homemade bread.

What I've ordered is the Southwest Salad, and I was reasonably impressed considering the source. It was large, and covered in bean salad, corn salsa, cheddar, avocado and a bunch of other veggies. It came with a creamy southwest style dressing on the side, and a chunk of fresh bread.

Picture from the Specialty's Website. The real salad is pretty close to this, but served on a big plate and not quite so tidy.

They also make a good looking vegan salad that I haven't had, but appreciated on the menu.
I really appreciate when a chain manages to prepare reasonably priced, minimally processed, regular healthy type food, and this place manages that quite nicely.

Specialty's Cafe and Bakery
2690 NE University Vlg
Seattle, WA 98105
www.specialtys.com

Lola's South City Bakery

If you live in South Seattle, you've likely zipped passed this discrete little restaurant and not even noticed it. It is located in Hillman City, just south from the heart of Columbia City, right across the street from the windowless extravagance of Maxim's Nightclub.

But it is worth a stop. Lola's is owned by really friendly and good intentioned people and has quality food. The restaurant is vegetarian (with numerous vegan options), but you wouldn't know it unless you surveyed the menu looking for meat because this detail isn't blaring. The values of the owner are clear: he makes high quality food and does his best to choose high quality, organic, local, seasonal, healthy ingredients.

My first visit landed on a Tuesday, a day that I soon learned is a slow start day for the restaurant, as it is transitioning from being fully closed on this day. We had come for pizzas, but the dough hadn't fully risen, so we got a couple of sandwiches instead.

The sandwiches were a bit light on the filling and heavy on the bread. I ordered the Vietnamese sandwich, and it contained a tofu mix, cilantro, pickled carrots and vegan mayonnaise.
We also had some homemade ice cream, which was made with local organic cream and no eggs. I appreciated the lack of eggs, but it did produce a lightly differently textured ice cream than one might be used to. They also make vegan sorbets. We ordered a bowl with two scoops of ice cream: one scoop of nectarine and one scoop of raspberry.
I also sampled an unusual cookie called the "Herb Garden." It was a short bread type cookie with gritty cornmeal, lemon, thyme and rosemary.
Fast forward to today... another rainy afternoon where the idea of hot pizza was overwhelming. We phoned Lola's with a pizza order to go (the pizzas are individual sized), and chose one cheese topped with Mamma Lil's Hot Peppers, and one cheese with Field Roast vegetarian sausage.
Even after the trip home, the pizzas were piping hot and full of integrity. The crust was really delicious. Not wafer thin, but thin still, and chewy and oily and gritty and crisp in all of the right places. The sauce was simple and good... not sweet at all, good tomato flavour. The cheese and toppings tasted great. I was thrilled.
They also have a fully vegan pizza made with caramelized onions and walnuts (with the option of adding blue cheese), but I'm not sure I'll ever get around to ordering that after tasting the pizza with cheese and spicy peppers.

Next time you're going out for pizza, give these guys a shot!!!

Lola's South City Bakery

(206) 725-0443

5607 Rainier Ave S
Seattle, WA

Columbia City Bakery

I recently went to the Columbia City Bakery for a late breakfast. I had been there before to pick up their wonderful pastries (the almond croissants are a favorite around my house), and sat and drank a cup of tea, but hadn't ever stayed to eat a meal. They have a daily menu that changes a bit and sells out as the morning progresses, including many vegetarian items like quiches, fritattas, etc.

By time we got there, there were two vegetarian savory foods left: a veggie sandwich with goat cheese (strike: I don't like goat cheese), and a Caprese sandwich. I tend to view the Caprese as a greasy vegetarian standby that works, is good enough, but is often too bready and just not all that notable.

And for this reason, I was blown away when I bit into my sandwich and found that it was *really* delicious. The bread was well textured, salty and oily, and had an amazing subtle bit of mint in the herbs across the top. The pesto was fresh and layered on thick (I think this is what made the sandwich so good!), and the mozzarella and tomato were perfect. I savored every bite!

We also ate a pistachio snail, a delicate sort of tender flaky roll with a marzipan-like paste inside and crunchy, caramelized pistachio bits on the outside.

I don't generally drink coffee, but felt indulgent on this day and ordered a delicious mocha. I love a mocha made with real quality chocolate, and this one was awesome.

Going to have to remember the bakery as a good place to get more than just pastries!

Tony's Bakery

I recently went to Tony's Bakery, in the MLK/Graham complex, to sample their Bahn Mi. In a similar style to Q Bakery (in the same complex), the bakery is full of both prepared packaged foods, prepared hot foods, baked items and sandwiches.

I ordered a tofu sandwich and a basil seed drink and took the food home.

The sandwich had some good attributes including lots of good fresh veggies, but there wasn't anything that really made it stand out. My normally non-finicky meat eating dining companion's pork sandwich was slathered in so much butter that he had to scrape his bread.

The basil drink was an experiment... I'd never had it before and wasn't sure what to expect. I was hoping for a lightly sweet, crisp, basil scented sparkling beverage, and was about as wrong as I could be. The reality of the basil drink was a mega-sweet, mega-viscous cream soda flavored syrup with basil seeds in little mucousy pods.

For dessert we chose on of the many interesting looking baked goods, and landed upon this deep fried hollow sesame rice starch ball with a seemingly raw, chalky dough ball bouncing around in the center. I found many of the Tony baked goods to be intriguing, but I think that my MLK/Graham tofu bahn mi preference lays with Q Bakery, if for no other reason because their bread seemed fresher and they have a spicy lemongrass sauce that I love.