Stan’s Northfield Bakery
“Big Dupa” – Vanilla Meringue Paczki
Mixed Nut Paczki
Pumpkin Spice Frycake
Dutch Apple Fritter
Autumn Spice Butter Drop, Snickerdoodle, Peanut Butter Cookie, Oatmeal Craisin Cookie
Located in the suburb of Northfield, a thirty minute drive from Downtown Cleveland in average traffic, Stan’s Northfield Bakery occupies a tiny space amidst Laundromats and Autoparts Stores on Olde 8 Road, the family owned and operated site generating the majority of its traffic from a nearby middleschool and other local businesses…not to mention accolades for Northeast Ohio’s very best Pierogis and other Eastern European specialties.
Open since 1961, baker Stanley Srodek’s recipes all time-honored traditions handed down from his Polish-Catholic upbringing to the current third-generation ownership, a first look at Stan’s is like a step back to simpler times as glass and metal cases nearly fill the entirety of the retail space with store windows also lined in sweet temptations, the back-half of the building reserved for baking that starts before 3am Monday through Saturday.
Even smaller than it looks from the outside, a Standing Room Only sign probably as warranted as any on the door, it was after brief perusal of several options that an order was conveyed to an elderly woman behind the counter, a total of eight items tallying $13.45 Cash and taken to a nearby park to be devoured.
Dining solo at the time, and thus unable to partake in several styles of Pie or luxurious looking Nut Bread, it was instead with four cookies that the tasting got started, the Snickerdoodle and Seasonal Butter Drop absolutely perfect with meltingly soft centers surrounding by crisp rings while the Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Craisin were equally well crafted, though not particularly different from those that can be found at most good bakeries.
Intrigued by the “Fritter,” essentially a fried Apple Streudel that eats lighter than the traditional version but comes off a bit greasy due to cooking oil flooding the pocket’s fold, a better bite was found in the moist Pumpkin Fry-Cake slathered in Buttercream and Cinnamon Streusel while year-round Paczki virtually unheard of elsewhere are every bit as good as those found around Lent in Polish neighborhoods, the nut paste version itself good while the “Big Butt” named to many local ‘best-of’ lists offers the pillowy lard-fried treat sliced in half and wrapped around a cloud of Vanilla Meringue.
www.stansbakery.com
