Crawl your way through the best bakeries of Portland and beyond!

Bakery Bingo

Crawl your way through the best bakeries of Portland and beyond!

Mini Cupcakes, Big Taste: Baked by Melissa

Filed in: Reviews, Travel

7 E 14th Street, Union Square New York • 212.842.0220 • bakedbymelissa.com

Mini Cupcakes!

When I told my friend Elke who was showing me around NYC that I was doing a bakery crawl, she said I had to add Baked by Melissa onto my list.  “They have the cutest mini cupcakes – seriously, they are bite-sized!”  Of course, I said!  But I didn’t understand the mini obsession, I mean I’ve had small cupcakes before, why was she so excited about them? 

Once we arrived, I exclaimed “Oh my god! They are so tiny and cute!”  Elke just gave me the “I told you so” stare.  Yes, these cupcakes are literally bite-size!  And they only offer the mini size.  But that is totally fine by me because then we were able to try all 11 flavors!  Melissa’s flavors are certainly fun too –Chocolate Chip Pancake, S’mores, Peanut Butter & Jelly, Cookie Dough! Continue Reading...

The City’s Biggest Cookies: Levain Bakery

Filed in: Reviews, Travel

167 West 74th Street, New York • 212.874.6080 • levainbakery.com/

Two things made me incredibly excited about checking out Levain Bakery – #1) They have GIANT cookies, like 6 ounces giant.  They are good too – they won the “Chocolate Chip Cookie Throwdown” versus Bobby Flay.  That’s pretty cool in my opinion and enough to get me in the door.  But then there is #2) Levain Bakery was started not by professional chefs, but by two women who worked in the professional world, one in banking and the other in finance.  They started working on the idea for their bakery and their idea of the perfect chocolate chip cookie while training for an Ironman Triathlon!  These two are seriously my new idols.  Continue Reading...

Pretzels + Croissants = Love: City Bakery

Filed in: Reviews, Travel

3 West 18th Street, New York • 212.366.1414 • thecitybakery.com

City Bakery is known as one of the best bakeries in NYC, primarily due to its original Pretzel Croissant.  What in the world is a pretzel croissant, I wanted to know.  My friend Elke who works in NYC had never been there and was excited to check it out as well.  We walked into the large bakery/café and were immediately greeted by numerous treats tempting us from the display cases. There were so many delicious things to try!

City Bakery bounty – Baker’s Muffin and Pretzel Croissant

We ended up with a chocolate chip cookie (to continue our goal of finding New York’s best cookie!) and their other original, the Baker’s Muffin, which is like a cinnamon bun but add in apples, raisins and walnuts.  It might have looked a little better than it tasted – it wasn’t as gooey and flavorful as I was expecting.  So while it was still quite good, I think they have a few better items to get.  Such as… the Pretzel Croissant, which of course we got as well. Continue Reading...