Bakery Touring: Tips for Success

....or Winter Picnic: Part 3 (Tales from my jaunt up the East Coast)

So I guess, by now, you are well aware of the fact that I love bakeries. I used to work in one and find myself drawn to the quaint and happy nature of little shops that produce sweet and delicious items in a cheerful way.

During my trip to New York, I visited four bakeries and one candy store all in the span of four hours (impressive, I know). Here are my trips for bakery touring endurance:

1) Stay well hydrated. Consider carrying a bottle of water with you and refill it at every stop.
2) Consider glittens (gloves+mittens). It is hard to eat a cupcake (or navigate on your iPhone) with gloves on when it is almost freezing in windy NYC.
3) Share one classic purchase at each destination with your bakery enthusiast friends. (I shared with Cara F., Julia S., and Gwen L.).
4) Don't waste space in your stomach on an item that is not the specialty of the shop. Buy what they're known for in traditional flavors.
5) Wear sensible shoes (cowboy boots, obv).

I can't really imagine a better way to spend the day... Here's the recap.


Doughnut Plant
It was my GW friends Katie R. and Carolyn G. that first told me about the Doughtnut Plant. And apparently the day we were there, the shop was also featured on a Travel Channel show.

Doughnut Plant is located on the Lower East Side and is tiny inside. We waited in a line about 15 minutes long, but it was well worth it. Although the hype about DP got my hopes up REALLY high, I thought it was a really fun experience and the doughnuts we sampled were scrumptious.

I tried the crème brûlée doughnut (which had a caramelized sugar top just like real crème brûlée). It was filled with a vanilla creme that was obviously made with real vanilla beans (I could see the vanilla specks suspended in the cream). The other doughnut we got was a classic chocolate. According to Carolyn, we should have gotten the Tres Leches (and I am still unsure why we didn't). I got to meet and chat with the owner for a few minutes after we completed our purchase which was fun. He was fabulous and enthusiastic (my kind of doughnut man).

My favorite part of the DP experience was hopping up on the fake doughnut covered counter with Julia S. by my side to snap a few last photos inside the shop.


Sugar Sweet Sunshine
Could I be happier about a bakery featuring alliteration in the name? I don't think so.

As soon as Cara F. told me I "had to try" Sugar Sweet Sunshine, I knew it would be part of our bakery tour. I trust any recommendation Cara F. makes--her suggestions are well researched and thorough. Have we talked about Cara? She is the best. I know her because she was a SYRF activist while she was still in college then worked with Elissa F. and others for a few years post-college. Although I am sad she is no longer my DuPont neighbor, she has an adorable and fabulous apartment in NYC and makes excellent cupcake suggestions. So, because Cara said so, we walked a few blocks from the Doughnut Plant to this tiny, retro, brightly colored bakery also located on the Lower East Side.

The cupcake I had there was really chocolaty. Not just chocolate like a cloyingly sweet chocolate, but a really solid and deep chocolate taste. I was thoroughly impressed but wished the cupcake would have been a bit more room temperature (if I learned nothing else from my CakeLove days, it is that baked goods always taste best when served at room temp).


Economy Candy
Okay, not so much of a bakery, but a sweet stop on our sugar tour.

I had actually heard about EC when Julia S. used to live in the apartment above it (imagine that). Do you know how amazing Julia S. is? She is actually one of my Flickr inspirations and I love discovering her new photo posts. I distinctly recall the discovery of her Economy Candy photos (WARNING: when you click through to Julia's Flickr feed you will get lost in her beautiful images and come up for air in about three hours. You can thank me later.)

Economy Candy is somewhere I would like to go for a full fledged photo shoot. Perhaps a backdrop for a completely unrelated shoot (an engagement shoot, perhaps?). The best part is OBVIOUSLY the wall of M&Ms you can buy in large quantities in custom color combinations.


Levain Bakery
The third stop on the tour was the Levain Bakery (FULL DISCLOSURE: As soon as I got off the bus in NYC on Friday, I went to Levain... But I also met a friend there on Saturday so I am comfortable featuring it in this post). We've talked about Levain before and since then, I have been featured on the shop's blog and have sent several visitors to NY to this famous cookie nook on the Upper West Side (including Jessica T.'s mom! Hi Robin T.!).

I recently learned that Levain was rated as the "#2 cookie in New York City" by Serious Eats New York (thanks Mat S.) which makes me want to protest use of the internet for the next ten years until this tragic mistake is worked out... but we both know that will ever happen. So my plan B is to preach the gospel that is the BEST cookie I've eaten to date and hope Serious Eats gets the message. (One more FULL DISCLOSURE moment: I have never even heard of the place they attest to being the best, but based on the photos I am not impressed.)


Crumbs
So, three bakeries and one candy shop later, you can imagine I was dragging a bit (I was actually really ready for a non-food activity by this point but New York is cold and I needed somewhere quick to meet a friend). I was waiting to meet my friend Alex B., former GW classmate and fan of Façonnable shirts, and remembered Crumbs around the corner from Levain.

I always hear people talking about Crumbs as a great destination for cupcakes in the Big Apple but I have never understood the hype. Firstly, the cupcakes are gigantic (and when you spend your day touring other bakeries, you need a gigantic cupcake "like you need a hole in the head," as my dad would say). Secondly, the time I did purchase one, it was dry. Thirdly, the flavors are just too much. I don't need an apple pie flavored cupcake, I'd prefer a delicious piece of apple pie. (I know this conflicts my doughnut flavor selection outlined above, but the Doughnut Plant can do whatever it wants because its doughnuts are just so delicious.)

So, we opted for branded bottles of water and chatted about Alex's life in the big city. While we were in the shop, another group of cupcake fans from New Jersey asked me to take their photo. After doing so, I wrote the name and address of Levain on a slip of paper and passed it to them. Was this awkward? Yes. And probably not a very nice thing to do to the owners of Crumbs. But my new-found bakery buddies were so close to cookie heaven, I felt it would have been irresponsible to leave them in the dark.


...And this giant photo of Alex B. and a well branded bottle of Crumbs water concludes my recap of my New York bakery tour. A big thanks to Cara F. for your bakery related enthusiasm and to Julia S. for making sure I was properly documented during our jaunt. Stay tuned for the next installments in my Winter Picnic series: one day, two cities and two iconic Jewish food establishments.