Decatur has become a whole lot more gluten-tastic of late. Two idiosyncratic and wholly original bakeries have opened, but neither is the cheerful downtown storefront you might expect. There are no window displays of cookies and cakes, no sidewalk patios and no charming awnings. In fact, both hide in plain sight -- one slightly hard to find, and the other nearly impossible.
La Calavera Bakery , the more senior of the two, offers a gourmet/organic turn on a Mexican panaderia. It is set in a modest space in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it mini mall on the south side of the train tracks. Baker Eric Arillo and his wife Dale Ralston previously sold their product at the Decatur Farmers Market.
Every day, they set out daily trays of hearty, hunky rolls, cookies and croissants as well several kinds of sweet and savory bread. Typical offerings include ojos de buey ("oxen eyes," a puff-pastry-wrapped almond cake), mini-babkas (some glazed in chocolate), cinnamon rolls and my favorite orejas, or elephant ears imbued with crunchy caramelized sugar. There are a few tables if you want to eat on site, and a pot of Café Campesino fair trade organic coffee. You can also order a freshly blended licuado.
La Calavera doesn't lack for charm, but the daily offerings can be a little higgelty-piggelty. I must have stopped by a half dozen times hoping to try the house specialty, a whole wheat bread made from sprouted wheatberries milled in house, without any luck. It's only made on certain days, or it sells out early, or the supply of wheatberries dries up. The licuados are delicious, but the last time I detoured for one the blender was broken. But these growing pains make this place all the more lovable.
Ratio Bakeshop joined the scene a couple of weeks ago, having moved from a shared kitchen space nearby. Like La Calavera, its product may be familiar to farmers market shoppers. Baker Chris Flores, who previously created pastries for West Egg Cafe and Nikolai's Roof, makes distinctive croissants. Their sharp-edged cuts show off their many, many crisp, gorgeously steam-leavened layers.
His new bricks-and-mortar location is a real charmer, with comfy tables, free wireless and a fantastic house blend coffee created for the shop by Smyrna's Rev Coffee Roasters. But good luck finding it. The shop lies in the basement of Commerce Plaza, an office building filled with medical clinics and public health facilities that doesn't even have a street-front entrance.
Here's what you do: locate it on a map (across the street from the Soviet Kroger), figure out the side-street way in, get a parking ticket to validate, then ride the elevator to the basement. Once inside, you'll be rewarded with the likes of a ham-tallegio cheese croissant, a slice of spinach quiche, a chocolate tart or an absolutely incredible scone studded with caramelized white chocolate chunks and dehydrated strawberries. I've never eaten a better scone: perfect (not too) sweetness, canny flavors, brilliant firm crumble to the texture.
Flores plans to start making bread soon and pumping up the lunch menu to include sandwiches and salads. I can't wait for the day he starts serving breakfast sandwiches.
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