For the my first post on food in the Valley I had to write about this place. It makes hands down the best bread I have ever had. Ever. No comparison. Before this place I would have said Semifreddis in Berkeley, CA but there is a new #1 in my book. And it is...Hungry Ghost Bread!
Or as my wife often refers to it, Ghost Whisperer Bread, because she loves "TV's sexiest leading lady" Jennifer Love Hewitt (no, I did not come up with that tittle some magazine named her that).
I don't throw around the term "best" lightly. This place is the real deal. Wood-fired oven. Small batches. Sourdough culture. Amazing.
There are a few things that set them way ahead of the pack for bread bakers around here. To start, I love that they focus almost all of there attention on bread. Many bakeries often sell a myriad of offerings, maybe some coffee or espresso, sandwiches, pastries, etc. Here it's bread. That's about it. Yes, they do sell a few other options, which I will get to in a minute because they definitely deserve praise, but it's all about the bread.
Next, they cook the bread till it is dark, crispy and delicious and it picks up a smokey character from the oven you simply can't get with a gas oven. Not just lightly browned on the outside. I'm talking dark. You may even thinks it's burned it's so dark. Then you bite into it and it's soooo good. Moist, aromatic and flavorful. Eating it is a revelation in what bread should and can be.
The building looks small from the outside and when you get in you realize it really is tiny. You walk in and there is some Grateful Dead or Coltrane blasting from the cd player and all you see is the wood oven, a rolling/kneading station and the counter. That's it. Nothing else. Plain and simple. Sometimes it may be a little smokey in there, yes, from the oven.
My personal favorite is the olive-semolina fougasse. I'm not normally an olive or semolina bread fan but this stuff is magical. Crusty, salty, moist, tangy from the sourdough. Perfection. They also make french, 8-grain, spelt, rye, annadama (it's savory but has molasses and cornmeal in it, delicious) rosemary, country, double wheat, raisin and on Fridays after 3:30pm they make Challah (call ahead for this stuff because it sells out quick).
As for the rest of their edibles, they make cookies, brownies, local wheat crackers, granola and a few other assorted items as the oven allows. I HIGHLY reccommend the mocha cookies. The smoke from the oven turns it from a good cookie into something amazing.
The breads cost $5. Now, I have heard some people complain about that being expensive for a loaf of bread. I always tell them if they think so than go buy a loaf at Big Y and they can save themselves $2 and eat glorified Wonderbread from their bakery. I would pay whatever they asked for those heavenly loaves...
Go and eat one today. And tommorrow.
Happy eatting.
TELEPHONE: 413-582-9009
62 STATE STREET - NORTHAMPTON, MA 01060
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