Dovetail Bakery opened their first brick ‘n mortar retail bakery this past Friday at the corner of NE 31st and Alberta, offering long-suffering fans a permanent place to enjoy a hot cup of Courier Coffee and some of the finest vegan pastries in town.
The light-filled little bakery has a charmingly homespun feel inside, with polished-’til-they-gleam concrete floors, lots of wood, and walls painted a lovely pale green. Affectionately mismatched furniture and plenty of fresh flowers make the simple space warm and welcoming.
Owner/baker Morgan Grundstein-Helvey was behind the counter, ringing up glistening pecan-topped Aunt Miriam’s sticky buns, gently-domed pear cardamom and blueberry and pumpkin spice muffins, flaky cranberry scones, and roly-poly swirly cinnamon buns.
One thing that always strikes me about Dovetail’s goods is how beautiful they are. I spend a goodly amount of my life with my nose pressed up against bakery cases, and I’ve gotten choosing my pastries down to an art. It hardly takes me but 10 seconds to know exactly what I want. But Dovetail’s case, even sparingly stocked as it is compared to some, stopped me in my tracks. Everything looked like something I needed.
3039 NE Alberta St. * dovetailbakery.blogspot.com * 503.288.8839 * Tue-Sun 8am-8pm
Next stop: The Montavilla neighborhood, which is becoming quite the culinary destination. Already home to Country Cat Dinner House, Bipartisan Cafe, Vintage Cocktail Lounge, The Observatory and Ya Hala, among others, in the coming month or so, SE Stark will also welcome newcomers Pastrygirl and Immortal Pie and Larder.
The Pastrygirl in question is former Higgins and Southpark pastry chef and baker/cakemaker Laura Widener. Her new bakery, located between Country Cat and Bipartisan at 7919 SE Stark Street, may still be a brown paper-shrouded mystery, but the Facebook page is filled with positive updates, and it would appear things are coming along nicely for a February opening.
Pastrygirl OMG! The new counters are in and they look really awesome! Yesterday at 2:30pm
A mouth-watering preview of what’s to come:
Pastrygirl Chocolate covered espresso butter caramels, pecan triangles, pinenut cookies, reindeer antlers, chocolate gingerbread, cinnamon chocolate chip and oatmeal cranberry walnut cookies…mmmm….more to come.
A block down the street at 8029 SE Stark is Immortal Pie and Larder, a pie and edible sundries shop. They would like to be your larder away from home.
According to their Facebook page, which promises an early 2010 opening,
Today is all about beer and wine and figuring out which ones to start with. Tomorrow is all about vegetarian pie experiments: Moroccan vegetable, gorgonzola tart, spiced tomato and egg, and Italian carrot and leek tart.on Friday
And that is that. Now I have gone and made myself hungry, so I am going to go eat the Pearl Bakery chocolate panini that I was saving for my midnight snack.
