Fire Island Rustic Bakeshop Gets Me Through the Long Alaskan Winter | Bon Appétit
"A fiercely local, family-founded bakery in a modest residential storefront chosen deliberately to help revive the neighborhood, this spot is an altar to bread and a daily gathering place for the community. Lifelong Alaskan founders hired family as their first bakers and the current baker, Carlyle Watt, was a James Beard Foundation “outstanding baker” semifinalist in 2017, reflecting the shop’s serious craft: staples like Alaska whole wheat and a signature sourdough sit alongside weekday specials such as challah, plum-flax, and sprouted-grain loaves, and a proud Vollkornbrot built for smoked salmon and dill. The pastry case is unexpectedly refined—polenta cakes topped with blackberries and flecks of Earl Grey, lemon tarts laced with dark chocolate, chunky chocolate chip cookies, massive flaky scones (including a raspberry scone the size of a rugby ball and flavors like blackberry-rhubarb and ham-cheddar-chive), and a much-lauded cupcake selection. Beyond the food, the bakery functions as a neighborly hub—staff who will drop everything to help a local event, regulars who stop in after snow-clearing, soccer teams postgame, and a seasonal rhythm (a notable staff hiatus in January) that underlines its role as a place built by and for locals even as tourists now discover it." - ByGenevieve Roth
