Flour Bakery + Café
Cold Brew Coffee
Kouign Amann
Blueberry Muffin
Carrot Cake
Boston Cream Pie
Sticky Bun Bread Pudding
Not as wowed as many by Flour Bakery + Café, a 2011 visit showing little more than the Almond Croissant to be particularly memorable, it was with high hopes based on a recent James Beard Award that a return visit was made to the Washington Street location on Wednesday morning, the place still quite popular though little save for a few seasonal specials has changed.
Now sporting several locations around Boston, Joanne Chang’s cookbook also quite well received, Flour Bakery + Café features a layout will not prove unfamiliar to those who’ve visited places like Panera, and although there is no doubt the ingredients used in Flour’s baked goods and sandwiches are better than a place just now trying to go “clean” with its image the fact remains that considering the pricepoint it still does not perform on par with the Bouchons of the world, nor many local bakeries in both larger and smaller cities.
A high volume space to be sure, both literally and figuratively as businessmen bustle in and out as noise generated by music, kitchen and coffee brewing all clash overhead, it was with Cold Brew in hand that several minutes were spent waiting for others to add milk or creamer at a cramped station before four boxed items were taken to a table, the fifth requested to be warmed and taking nearly fifteen minutes to do so.
Having stuck mostly to laminated pastry the first time, but this time hoping to see improvement by way of some classic American treats, suffice it to say that Flour Bakery + Café’s Kouign Amann fails to meet high standards set by bakeries such as San Francisco’s b. Patisserie while the Blueberry Muffin also comes up short by focusing on typical grocery produce instead of bringing in the smaller, more concentrated fruits readily found just a few hours north in Maine.
Not a total loss, the Carrot Cake exceedingly moist with nuts, raisins and light citrus all accounted for in the tan Spice Cake, Boston Cream Pie was as delicious as it was novel, yet as a result of some serious miscalculations from the kitchen the bottom was still half-frozen, the Bread Pudding likewise still cold at its center making one wonder just how bad it may have been were it not for the requested trip to the warming oven.
www.flourbakery.com
