A Fresh Idea on Capitol Street
I was walking around Capitol Market over the weekend with my partner in food blog crime. We were hoping to get our hands on some ramps and morels, but they were all sold out. Instead, we headed for the back of the market to browse around the best section — the wine & cheese shop. We bought a couple of 22-ounce bottles of Rogue (Juniper Pale Ale and Chipotle Ale) and a chunk of Red Dragon cheese.
Red Dragon is a Welsh cheddar made with beer and whole grain mustard with a strong spicy bite to it. Nibbling on a few morsels then washing them down with some mildly spicy Chipotle Ale really killed the roof of my mouth (which was still raw from the Graziano’s pizza that had burned me earlier in the day). Mouth injury aside, both the beer and the cheese were quite delicious.
While making my way through the market from the produce section, past the chocolates and the coffee shop, through the fish market and the meat market, then finally arriving at the wine & cheese shop, I remarked on the one glaring omission — where’s the bakery? It seems like a logical addition to the market. Maybe they’ve thought of it but they just haven’t found anyone to fill the spot.
Well, my dreams of fresh bread in Charleston have been answered, not from within the Capitol Market, but just a block away. Through the food rumor mill, I learned last week that a new bakery was about to open on the corner of Capitol & Christopher streets. I first heard about it from Bill Lynch, who got to try some free samples in advance of opening. I asked a friend who’s usually up on local food happenings if she knew anything about it, and she said she heard that the proprietors went to the King Arthur Flour baking school. Though she hasn’t tasted the bread, she walks by there on a regular basis and says it passes the smell test.
I decided to do a drive-by to scope things out. I spoke to a woman who was exiting the store carrying a big loaf of crusty bread spinkled with poppy seeds. She said that the owner was hoping to open up on Friday morning. She had also managed to procure a free sample. The place looked like it was still undergoing finishing touches (someone inside was applying a final coat of paint to the walls). But there were racks of various kinds of delicious looking crusty breads fresh out of the oven that, if they taste as good as they look, will most likely cause customers to overlook any minor unfinished remodeling tasks.
Though there’s no sign yet, apparently the bakery is called Charleston Bread. I haven’t had a chance to taste the wares myself, but I’d love to hear assessments in the comments from anyone who has.
May 15th, 2006 at 1:18 pm
I ate a loaf –yes, the whole damned loaf— of the honey whole wheat. It was still hot, had probably been out of the oven for only a couple of minutes.
The baker warned me about that, said that I should probably wait an hour before eating it, but I ate it anyway. I’ve probably scorched my insides and may eventually wish I was dead, but it was crusty, and very tasty.
May 15th, 2006 at 1:25 pm
Isn’t half-a-loaf as good as, well, none? The first step, primal, is admitting you have a problem over your consumption of bakery goods.
May 20th, 2006 at 4:07 pm
I waited in a rather long line for this stuff and was quietly booed when I claimed (what was thought to be the last)a loaf of raisin bread for my own. It’s bare bones right now (no idea if it will stay that way), but a little slice of bread heaven.
February 3rd, 2008 at 11:05 pm
White Bread or Whole Wheat Bread?…
For any kid who grew up eating doughy, thick Wonder Bread for lunch, the encouragement by dietitians and nutritionists to switch to whole wheat bread can be a tough transition….