What’s the Best Bakery You’ve Even Eaten Your Way Through?

“One of everything, please.”

I came pretty close to saying that when I recently visited Nathaniel Reid Bakery per the recommendations of a few friends and the best food blog in St. Louis. When you walk in, you’re greeted with an impressive array of pastries and smells in the air to indicate that they really are baked just a few feet away.

A friend and I visited this magical place for the first time a few days ago, and we started off slow: We each selected a croissant and sat by the window to savor them. I ordered a chocolate croissant, which was very good, but I’m grateful my friend gave me a bite of her dish, because she selected something I will order every time I return to this place: a twice-baked chocolate almond croissant. While it sounds similar, it’s much more dense, almost like baklava with chocolate gooeyness inside and a decadent spread of almonds and powdered sugar on top. It was amazing.

I then ordered a bunch of stuff to take home and eat over the next few days: 2 mararons (chocolate and espresso, both delicious), 1 chocolate chip cookie (delicious), 1 Italian loaf (delicious with and without butter), another twice-baked chocolate almond croissant (I should have ordered even more), and 1 chocolate entremet (a fancy little cake with a mousse-like texture…so good).

I highly recommend this place. What’s one of your favorite bakery experiences?

3 thoughts on “What’s the Best Bakery You’ve Even Eaten Your Way Through?”

  1. Many a bakery has given me reason to revisit the counter after an initial purchase! Here in St. Louis, I am partial to Pint Size Bakery (pintsizebakery.com). For a few weeks a year, they use fresh strawberries to make a bunch of items. Their strawberry hand pie is otherworldly. Also, each Saturday a robust crowd gathers to purchase a limited number of salted-caramel croissants (check their home page for a picture). They are buttery and delicious…flaky and fantastic! I also love Nathaniel Reid, although my penchant for Pint-Sized has limited the number of visits I take to other bakeries. Nathaniel Reid makes the best ham and cheese croissant I’ve ever had–in looking at their menu, it’s either an occasional item or perhaps it’s the sandwich they list as “Prosciutto”. The one out-of-town bakery I think of immediately when considering best bakeries ever is Bakery Nouveau in West Seattle, Washington (https://bakerynouveau.com/our-creations/). They make the best croissants I’ve ever had along with several other treats worth tasting.

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  2. Back when I was living in Fleetwood, there were two (same local firm – one larger, one smaller and in a worse location but it was their original site) bakeries about a five minute walk from me. So, when I ran out of bread, the next time I’d be wanting lunch I’d go to one of the two to pick up a fresh loaf. But since I was in a bakery, well, obviously I’d pick up a sandwich to have for my lunch that day. And something for a desert – usually a custard tart, sometimes something different depending on what they had in and what I fancied. Wound up being something I’d be doing about twice a week.

    (The real treat, though? They did exquisite mince pies over the Christmas period. Gorgeous, gorgeous ones. Equal to the best mince pies I’ve ever had.)

    Gorgeous loaves, incidentally, much better than the ones the local bakery around 10 minutes from me now did (before he shut down because he was retiring and couldn’t find a buyer), and both cheaper and far better than supermarket bread. The one that was 10 minutes from me now (The loaves were cheaper, and didn’t charge tuppence extra for sliced, so the slight downgrade in quality was fine), incidentally? Didn’t typically have as good a selection of sweet pastries, but tended to do absolutely divine cornish pasties.

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