Jo-Ann's Deli Market & Bake Shop

Bakery: Jo-Ann's Deli Market & Bake Shop
Address: 9 Edgewater St, Mahone Bay NS
Website: http://www.joannsdelimarket.ca/
Style: Canadian
Price: $$

Well, that's quite a mouthful of a name! Swallow first before starting with the baked goods. ;) Okay, okay, seriously now: while on our Lunenburg - Peggy's Cove tour, we stopped briefly in Mahone Bay to take a look around and to, hopefully, find somewhere to have lunch; lunch that didn't comprise of pizza, that is. And that's how we not only stumbled upon Jo-Ann's, but upon two bakeries, located next door to one another. How convenient! The first of these is Jo-Ann's, a market with a little bit of everything, most of which is locally made, not to mention made in-store as well. In addition to their deli counter, with plenty of ready-made options to be taken out or eaten there (we had lunch here, in fact: seafood chowder, salt cod cakes, and mac and cheese), they have a cute bakery counter tucked into one corner, with a few pies (they were advertising coconut cream when we were there), some squares, and cookies. The usual culprits. ;D Actually, the selection was more extensive than the bakery-proper next door and the goods, I'd even say, more attractive.

I'm not sure why we opted for the cookies this time around, perhaps for some variety. At around $2.00 each, they're also the cheapest option. :P Anyways, the first item was an oatcake (a Nova Scotian classic, I believe -- $2.00 for plain and $2.25 for half dipped in chocolate) which we felt needed to be tried somewhere. It was fairly good, but felt like it was lacking something. Given it was eaten immediately upon purchase (that is, after the seafood chowder), it seemed a little dry and could have benefited from a little more butter or oil, whatever the case may be.

Similarly, I thought my raspberry shortbread ($2.00, or around there) needed more butter. The beauty of shortbread is the butter. They got the texture right: melt-in-your-mouth softness that was actually melting a little too quickly, since it was difficult to even pick it up without it crumbling in your fingers. However, once it did melt, there was no buttery finish. Instead, it came across as a bit sandy. Filling was good as was the icing, but would have liked more butter and more cohesion, and it was the same of both.

Overall, Jo-Ann's is maybe too all-encompassing to have a spectacular bakery section. Both items were good, but lacking that something to make them super.

Rating: **1/2