Amy’s Bread - Chelsea Market
I’m departing from my ‘Beginning Baker’ stuff for a post or two. I was recently in Manhattan, and I talked my wife into a trip to Chelsea Market. You may have heard of Chelsea Market if you watch the Food Network; their offices are there.
So what does Chelsea Market have to do with baking? There are more bakeries there than anything else. The largest of them is Amy’s Bread, which has locations elsewhere in NYC, too (they started in Hell’s Kitchen), but the Chelsea Market location is great in that the whole bakery is exposed to the public via floor to ceiling windows.
I’ve never seen so many couches lined up, and racks and racks of dough rising. Several people all working at once on different doughs, and flour everywhere (though never a mess!). I don’t know if you can see in one of the photos that the oven has several levels, and they were all filled with baking loaves.
The bakery has a small retail spot that sells not only a wide variety of breads, but also dessert pastries and sandwiches on, of course, their own bread. I walked by at one point and noticed about a dozen large pieces of carrot cake; I was back 20 minutes later to find they were all gone!
If I’d had more time in NYC, I would have thought of asking for a tour of the bakery. I did try the bread, and it was very good; Friday’s special is black olive bread, which had nice chunks of olive. I also tried a rustic Italian bread that had good crust and great crumb to it.
I loved seeing the different bakeries at the market… But I have to admit, there’s a local bakery in Ohio that can compete with them any day, too; it’s still not the same as getting a good loaf in NYC!
75 9th St.
New York City, NY 10011
