Michael W.
Yelp
Was waking up at the crack of dawn and hiking approximately 8 miles to-and-fro an unprecedented amount of effort to purchase artisan bread just as the doors opened at Columbia City Bakery?
Perhaps.
Performing this blasphemous ritual for two consecutive days?
Possibly.
Would you see me doing it again if I ever find myself back in Seattle?
You bet your bunkers you would.
My brief venture to Seattle can easily be summarized in two wonderful words: Bakery Blitz. The general area is rife with wonderful venues for finely crafted loaves with crackling crusts and cavernous crumbs, curated beside candied creations of captivating colors.
Amongst all of the bakeries I journeyed to, a week-long endeavor comprising of Dahlia, Macrina, Three Girls, Bakery Nouveau, Grand Central Bakery, Crumble and Flake, Tall Grass, Sea Wolf, Le Panier, Amandine, Fuji Bakery, and London Plane, I can say with earnest that Columbia City Bakery's captured my heart. After a bounty a boules and baguettes, no other store provided a loaf so astonishingly appetizing, so pleasantly palatable, so gloriously glutenous, that I found myself returning thrice.
I sampled several breads:
The Sunflower Multigrain
The Walnut Focelle
The Pain de Campagne
The Walnut Levain
The Apricot Walnut Loaf
The Baguette
The Focelle
Excluding the Sunflower Multigrain, which I received slightly underbaked with a gummy crumb and a softened exterior, each bread was exceptionally executed. The spotlight, however, goes to the Walnut Focelle - A skinny symphony of sparkles that supplies a sensational spectacular, with a crust so devilishly delicious that it denotes divinity. I am not a religious man, but I am certain that Satan could have easily foregone with the Fruit of Knowledge and felled Eve with this Focelle.
Customer service was pretty good, too.
5 out of 5.