Paul's Bakery

Bakery: Paul's Bakery
Address: 3840 Broadway Ave, Smithers BC
Website: facebook 
Style: Canadian 
Price: $$ 

There is some conflicting information online about whether this bakery is still open. Please let it be! I reviewed two bakeries while in the small town of Smithers; Paul's knocked the socks off the competition. This small bakery right off Main looks more impressive in terms of selection than when you get down and analyze it. Sweets are pretty much located right at the cash and even then, they seem to sell out fast - on the return drive, I pulled into Paul's for more goodies and found it cleaned out. Essentially, there are all the usual treats: a nice variety of doughnuts, some turnovers and cookies, an empty space where the cinnamon buns used to be....

Still fresh with the memory of the amazing apple fritter in Quesnel, I spotted the one at Paul's and knew this was the pick of the day (honourable mention also has to go out to their pretzel sticks with cheese - the best I've ever had). Their apple fritter ($2.05) is a generously-sized piece of fried dough. The icing was a little crackled, which isn't the best sign (typically indicating the item isn't at peak freshness), but maybe that was just from the bag, since I bit into this and it was perfectly fresh. Deliciously fried, golden brown with small pieces of apples scattered throughout, moist and fluffy dough... oh boy, I really didn't know if this or the previous one was better. Both were amazing and Paul's is definitely one of the few contenders for best bakery in northern BC. They only get minus points for selling out of everything on my way back *pouts*; I didn't even get the chance to grab a cheesy pretzel stick!

Rating: ***1/2