Address: 3437 Bathurst St, Toronto ON
Website: http://www.grodzinskibakery.com
Style: Jewish, Eastern European
Price: $-$$
I think Bathurst is one of the few places in Toronto where you get that European feeling of there being a bakery on every corner. This makes not only repeated Cake Tour trips here exciting, but absolutely required. Hence the reason for the latest trip. ;) Having ventured most often north of the 401 in the direction of the Russian businesses, going south towards Lawrence hasn't been scouted in full yet and that was my goal this time. Well, to get a few more down, that's for sure. This time, I have two very good places to offer:
First up: Grodzinski. Driving past like I do, Grodzinski is not a place that necessarily stands out with their cursive sign and simple exterior. Maybe if you're going slow enough, you'll notice that little "Bakers since 1888" in the corner. If I had done so, I would have probably jumped out of the moving car. :D Naturally, it's not in Toronto, but I'm still one for history and Grodzinski has a fascinating one (if you get a bag, it'll be there). And the goodies are as good as the history... no, it probably exceeds it by a long shot. Or, at least by four huge stars! Grodzinski is good, really good! *-* In addition to breads and bagels, they have baskets full of delicious baked goods, rolled with fruit, sticky with honey, and boggling the mind as to which one should be picked. In addition to this, they also have cookies, some pastries and cakes (I must have been in poppy seed shock and not gotten a closer look) up near the cash.
Somewhere in the Cake Tour annals, there should be a quote along the lines of, "one only needs an amazing poppy seed bun to get a perfect score". It's happened before and it will happen again, I hope. At any rate, Grodzinski knows what they're doing. At first glance, it's pretty unbelievable that I almost didn't notice this lovely masterpiece; it was tucked behind the, for lack of a proper name, 'plum roll' ($2.50) which looked like poppy seed, but wasn't. It's sometimes hard to tell... still, let's start with that first. (best for last~) I decided to get this, not because it was beside the poppy seed bun, but because I've never seen anything like it: very thin dough rolled extra generously with homemade plum butter and sprinkled with rock sugar. Despite the warning ("it's not poppy seed!" :D) from the lady at the cash and me not being particularly fond of plum jam, this was so good. Actually, no one could believe how good this was, although I don't even know why. It just... was!
Secondly: I picked out what slightly resembled the What a Bagel! "kefli" ($2.10) As there was many similar buns rolled with fruit and featuring this sort of crumble on top, I'm not sure if it was or not. Nonetheless, this thing weighed a ton and was rolled with a mix of jam and plenty of dried red currants with a cookie-like crunchy layer with coconut (?) on top. Really good -- the dough itself was dense and chewy, like what you want your cookies to taste like, with that great crunch on top. Not too sweet and you have that slight tartness from the red currants -- yum!
Following my trip to the Danish Pastry House, I was wondering if anything else could get me excited after having sampled a bit of "Cakecstasy". And then came Grodzinski. ;D
Rating: ****
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