Saturday, June 21, 2008

Let Them Eat Cake ... & Danish & Flan & Bread

"The fine arts are five in number, namely: painting, sculpture, poetry, music, and architecture, the principal branch of the latter being pastry." Marie-Antoine Carême (1783-1833)

Me, on the phone: "What kind of bakery are you?"
Baker: "Today we have baguettes, yesterday we had olive bread, what kind of bread would you like tomorrow?"
Me: "I'll be right there, don't move."

There is nothing I crave more than fresh bread. One of my favorite sayings is that, "life is too short to eat stale bread." This past week a new bakery has risen in Laurel and no one needs to eat stale bread ever again.

Csilla Baez-Tanczos and her partner Eligia Vallecillo have opened the Ideal Bakery across the street from the Laurel Library at 603 7th Street, Unit 104.

Csilla is a white-coated pixie of a woman with an engaging smile and determined eyes. Csilla and Eligia met at L’Academie de Cuisine, a Maryland based culinary school. They went on to work together in the the food service industry until deciding last year to open their first business together here in Laurel.

Csilla (photo) is from Romania and Eligia is from Columbia and they have created a full service bakery focused on pastries and some breads.

All of their pastries are prepared on the premises and they range from well executed danishes and crescent rolls to the more unusual Latin pastries like flan and tres leches, a sponge cake with cream. This morning their display case showed off brownies, chocolate & raspberry croissants, cheesecakes, carrot cakes and shiny fruit tarts, to mention a few treats.

They offer coffee and soft drinks and few tables to sit and watch the action. They also have deli sandwiches made with fresh bread and salads for lunch and dinner. A hot food table and a catering menu are in the works.

Csilla is serious about her question concerning the kind of bread you want? She wants to hear from the neighborhood. I vote for San Francisco sour dough bread bowls filled with fresh clam chowder.

Mornings just got sweeter in Oldtown Laurel.

The Ideal Bakery is open weekdays from 6-8, Saturdays from 8-8 and Sundays from 8-4. Phone 301.497.1393. Tell Csilla you heard about her from the crazy Laurel blogger guy.


9 comments:

betsy said...

Good news and nice work. Delicious photos. Thanks especially for including the hours of operation.

Have you written anything about the Dutch Market moving to the old Hub store on 198? (I was looking through old posts and I agree with you -I'd patronize a farmers' market on some other day! In its Burtonsville location, the Dutch Market is open Thurs/Fri and Saturday....

anyway, nice work.
Betsy Mitchell Henning

Rick Wilson said...

Thanks Betsy. I know nothing of the Farmer's Market moving from Burtonsville, except that it's moving. I hope one of my better informed readers will inform all of us on the details.

Keith said...

That's just great, "crazy Laurel blogger guy". It's posts like this that make it impossible to follow through on any diet-related resolutions.

Good stuff.

(According to the farmers market web site they're still projecting a "mid-summer" move.)

Anonymous said...

A wonderful addition to Laurel. I can remember when we had TWO bakeries on Main St.

The Dutch market is moving to the small strip mall next to the Party Store on Rt. 198 just past The Home Depot. There Iis a sign in the window. They plan to move late this summer, I believe.

Jim McCeney

Rick Wilson said...

I've rcvd a couple of Ideal Bakery reviews today via email. I've sanitized them a bit to protect their identities from their dentist's and cardiologist's stern tsk, tsk'ing.

"Evil. I just went by there and [bought] lovely pastries for a dinner party. Exceptional: The mango mousse cake. One of them did not make it home. WOW!!!!!!!"

"We stopped by the bakery today and hope to make it a regular event. Delightful people and wonderful bread and pastries.
Many thanks for pointing it out."

Mike McLaughlin said...

"Wow" indeed. All the recent buzz about the need for "high end" stores in proposed developments around town, and here comes a little establisment with all the reason you need to shop in Laurel: nice folks offering quality products. The fact that I can walk there will not only help justify my purchases, but is icing on the cake (pun intended). I'm already four items into the first display case. And Csilla is working on my request for mandelhöernchen, a German marzipan and chocolate cookie that has got to be in Heaven’s cookie jar.

Anonymous said...

they have challah bread today!!! it's tastes better than glazed doughnuts :-)

Tanisha Brown said...

we have tried to frequent as often as possible to make sure they stay here.
Their flan is the best! nice to just have a small piece vs buying a whole one. Going back for a whole one!

Dazy said...

I've always wanted to make flan. But the whole caramel making process gives me the creeps! I tried once,
and it failed. May be I should give it a try once again bcoz this looks amazing!