led me hunting for a dedicated thread on baguettery.
We don’t appear to have one. How have we allowed this to happen?
To start the cylinder rolling, let me say that Clear Flour’s Ancienne is my favorite for crust, crumb and overall flavor. They have at least two other types. I prefer their Ancienne to Breadboard’s baguette, current champion though it is (see link above).
Iggy’s also has several versions of which I like the Country the best. Incidentally, Formaggio carries CF’s Ancienne, Iggy’s Country, and A.J. King’s baguette, so that you can one-stop-shop if you want to compare.
Thanks for starting this! I played a big part in starting the major baguette in Boston drift from the Maine trip report. I forwarded the comments to my husband who isn’t on HO and he’s vowing to explore more now.
I’ll report back! So far Michette in Somerville is still his favorite.
I am 100% sure there are more than a few know I am the culprit! I did the same on another thread and another kind person, saregama, suggested started the Eastern Townships thread.
Sorry to have been lax with these new threads myself. It’s been an especially difficult few weeks during a difficult year trying to get services for my son. So I really appreciate the helpers here!
Clear Flour definitely has some of my favorite baked goods, but especially breads. It’s a hike for me though, and on the T, which means I haven’t been really able to get their in the last year. My more accessible favorite is Iggy’s. At least I can grab a baguette from Whole Foods, Roche Bros, or another nice market. Ironically, even with Paris Baguette and Tous less Jours by me now, I’ve never tried their baguettes or breads (except for shoku pan). Has anyone ever tried their baguettes?
Same. Iggy’s for the win, in terms of accessibility at the least. Lots of locations carry their baguettes and some of their breads. I can find it at Whole Foods in Westford and Summer Street Market in Chelmsford Center. (Summer Street keeps theirs near the front register, which keeps shoppers from squeezing the bread to judge freshness, which also ruins the loaf. Props to Summer St. for stopping the squish.)
Also good for anybody around West Concord is the baguette from Nashoba Brook Bakery. Nashoba Brook’s sliced breads are available at various retail locations. But as far as I know the baguette is only sold at the bakery.
Wish that I were closer to Formaggio for that one-stop-shopping of notable baguettes that @fooddabbler mentions upthread. That has field trip potential for me.
Paris Baguette and Tous Les Jours seem to be chains with outlets in many states.
I prefer to try local bakeries. It turns out we’ll be in Brookline for other reasons on Saturday, so definitely going to Clear Flour then and have made notes on fooddabler’s post. Decades ago I lived within walking distance of Clear Flour and loved it. Then moved to Arlington and then Somerville so haven’t been able to easily experience their evolution. So glad Clear Flour is still there and even expanding to coffee bar.
On our list to try from those recommended on the Maine thread is Breadboard in Arlington, as mentioned by fooddabbler and others. http://breadandstuff.com/. My birthday is coming up so I have a great chance to suggest Formaggio, which I love visiting and trying out while also needing to conserve money.
Spring Onion loves the baguettes from Bread Obsession which we get from LexFarm. I’m not a baguette expert but these are tasty, especially when slathered with cultured salted butter from the farm.
They are chains, but their baked goods (non bread or shoku pan) are decent. There is no local bakery for me that sells bread. Every place I like is at least a 1 hour T ride away when the T is running normally. Colette has opened up recently in the South End, so that might be the closest option now but I haven’t been. But even on a good day - that’s a 45 minute T trip. Not meant to be a whoa is me post, but I think there are certain areas that’s a bread bakery desert of sorts.
Fire King used to have a small retail spot in the Fruit Center Marketplace in East Milton, and they make good bread. They closed that years ago to focus on wholesale.
Not baguettes, but whatever dense rye-type breads they might have that day are also well worth getting. They last for a while, and freeze well (pre-slice them to make it easier to peel off a slice at a time, perhaps with a little parchment paper between the slices), so are worth stocking up on. Their sweets are excellent as well – financiers, canelés and the like. The sandwiches at their new cafe next door, although pre-made, are equally excellent (don’t know if they have them on weekends, though). I particularly recommend the tofu banh mi.
Thanks! I love rye and whole grain breads of all kinds. He grew up in a German family in the midwest yet far prefers baguettes. We hope to get to Clear Flour early enough in the morning to see more choices.
For us in East Somerville, there didn’t used to be much choice close by beyond what Whole Foods and Formaggio Kitchen stock from local bakeries. That started changing before the pandemic with Colette in Medford and then later with Michette just down the street from us and PBR Boulangerie a few further blocks away. Breadboard in Arlington is further away but if we can remember, easy to combine with another errand occasionally.
We feel lucky. Depending on the T these days is very tough and even when it’s running halfway what it’s supposed to, you have a long lug home.
I actually have a doctor’s appt in the Allston area next week, and it’s a reasonable walk to Clear Flour from there. I would normally walk by and grab a baguette, but since they are the old fashioned un-bagged loaf type of baker, it gets lugged on a long T ride on the way home. That night in particular I also have dinner plans right after, so it would be an open loaf for several trips on the T! I don’t think I would want to eat the loaf even if it survived that and an evening sitting on a restaurant floor.
I’d feel sorrier for you and more inclined to feel that you’d drawn the short end of the breadstick had I not been aware of how widely you eat up and down the NE coast. Fans of your eating adventures, such as I, know what you eat, and therefore what you are. We may not “like” every post, but we do like every one.
Lowell Festival, here you come tomorrow – and here we await your accounts of your latest eating.
They do sleeve the baguettes, and I am sure will double sleeve for you, so that nothing is exposed to the howling elements, or the floor.
If that’s not sufficient safety, get a baguette backpack. I did, and it has made me the laidback, cheerful person you see here. Many years ago when I was entertaining heavily in NY I needed to go to this bakery or that and bring back 6–8 baguettes at a time. How to safely carry them on the subway? I dug around and found a slender backpack long enough to safely enclose the bread and just broad enough to accommodate them and a boule or three.
