Baked
Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Bar
Millionaire Bar with Chocolate, Sea Salt, Caramel, Shortbread
Lemon Blueberry Scone
Cinnamon Roll
Chocolate Cupcake
Cinnamon Coffee Cake
Located in Red Hook and a bit of a hike from the nearest Subway it was a bit of a schlep through neighborhoods I cannot say I’d venture into by myself late at night to get to Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito’s Baked, but during daylight – solo or with a pal – the small bakery focused on American classics was definitely worth the walk. Starting with the homey décor and moving right along to the friendly staff and clever consumables Baked is the sort of place where ‘cool’ or ‘hip’ is not so much the trend as is humble and happy – each simple-yet-delicious baked good something one could probably make at home (or from the Baked cookbook) but here made with top-quality ingredients and ready on demand at prices that seem criminally low considering the quality. From a buttery scone to one of the moistest cupcakes I’ve found in New York and then onward to the dense coffee cake it was only a slightly dry, biscuit-esque, cinnamon roll that failed to wow amongst the more ‘common’ items but moving onto two unique bars the bbakers redeemed themselves (and then some) with a warm pecan bar every bit as good as the malted chocolate pecan pie at Four & Twenty Blackbirds plus the Millionaire Bar – one of those rare instances where something is so rich that sharing is not just an option, but a requirement…unless you instead want to save some for later, which seemed much more logical to me.
