Pastry Shops

One of the things I miss from living in Providence is that there are so many wonderful pastry shops in the city. Growing up I used to shop at Scialo Brothers on Atwells Avenue with its Art Deco design and bins of Italian candies and sugared almonds and of course there was The LaSalle Bakery across from LaSalle Academy. They are the kind of bakery where you could buy bread, cookies, pies, cakes, egg and wine biscuits, bread-and-tomato only pizza strips wrapped in waxed paper, and of course pastries. There is nothing of the like that I have found on the Cape. I miss that kind of place so much that I did make a pilgrimage last year to Ladurée while I was in Paris to pay homage to the muses of flour and sugar but that place is, in the words of L. Frank Baum, a "horse of a different color".

Last week, I went "off Cape" with The Contessa and we went to visit Crate and Barrel at the Derby Street shopping center in Hingham, where there is a bakery/pastry shop called White's. We went in for a look around and I felt like I was a child again. Cakes, pies, brownies, hermits, "lobster tails", ricotta pies, rum cake slices and strombolis were in abundance. It really was a great "memory blast".

Well Mr. B and I went back to Hingham to visit the Apple Store in the Derby Street location as he wanted a new mouse for his computer and lo... the bakery swept me up in its Siren's song and I couldn't resist going in for a macaroon or two. I ended up getting a couple of cookies and a few cupcakes just to have around the house in case anyone was hungry, you understand. The cupcakes are still in the fridge but I am not guaranteeing that any or all of them will make it to November 17th but I can tell you they look damned tempting.

Give White's a look-see and let me know of your bakery memories.