Haven Bakery and Cafe 10-12-09

Haven Bakery and Cafe
8 Franklin Street
Lenox, MA
www.haven.berkshireculinary.com

I can't believe it took me this long to get to the Haven Bakery. I had walked by it many times, and even dropped laundry off right next door, but never wandered inside. The curb appeal is minimal and the menu looked a tad fussy. And often I walked by it with Nessa, another factor in not darkening its door.

I decided I would pick up some lunch after walking the Ness over in Lenox this morning and stopped in. The inside is far more charming than the outside - warm wood floors, comfortable lighting, an appetizing case of fresh delicious looking baked goods, wine bottle at the end of the counter just waiting to be poured into a glass for you. You order at the counter and your breakfast/brunch/lunch is delivered to your table. I can't wait to take guests here sometime soon.

There were a lot of fancy young families on this Columbus Day - the children's wardrobes looked to be worth close to my yearly salary, and I would speculate there was more than one set of Land Rover keys in the pockets of the diners. I will probably return again later in November when its a bit more peaceful.

I ordered a hot chocolate and the friendly counterwoman recommended the "Haven Hot Chocolate." It was excellent and I am extremely picky hot chocolate drinker - the top of the top is Burdick's in Cambridge with its shaved real chocolate mixture and I have to say this topped it. Whatever they use permeates the milk more fully and leaves minimal chocolate at the bottom.

For lunch, I ordered a chickem sandwich with ham and sage aioli. It turned out also to have cheese, I think some kind of gruyere, which was mysteriously (and sort of disturbingly) left off the menu. The challah bread roll was toasted, crunchy, rich and buttery. It was a nice sandwich although the aioli was super-garlicky. I also bought a peanut butter cookie which is still waiting for me to eat - I ate a piece of it and can report it to be very good. Next time I want to try a slice of chocolate chiffon cake.

There was one down side and that was that I ordered the sandwich to go, it tooks forever, and there was no where to wait where I did not feel I was in the way and in danger of getting stepped on by one or more pair of very expensive boots. I would not rush in there again to get a sandwich for takeout.

And wow - that aioli was garlicky...