Ottawa Foodies

About 7 years ago, give or take, Ottawa had no good bread. The best was maybe at the French Baker (The French Baker) and even that wasn't up to European standards. Loblaws changed all that by introducing Ottawans to ACE Bakery baguettes. Now our stores are full of great bread and I'm a happy man!

Art-is-in makes the best baguettes in the region (Fresh Foodie's description is bang on) and the quality/taste is worth the sore jaw. It does make a great sandwich with the right ingredients (try roast beef, sweet pepper jelly, lettuce, and abit of mayo/butter). The distant runner-up is Ace Bakery, which is pretty good considering it arrives in Ottawa in a frozen state.

The honey nut raisin bread that everyone is talking about here is from Premier Moisson, a company out of Montreal. Farm Boy does not advertise breads from PM anymore since they are (sadly) phasing it out. Not all their breads are from PM...they have a few companies they order from.

Side note: what I think some people don't understand is that bread, about 99%, that you buy at grocery stores, is NOT made instore. What I mean is that it will either come par-baked and the store will just 'finish off' the baking process or it might come as a frozen dough and will be proofed (risen) and then baked. With that said, it is still fresh in a sense, but it does come to the store frozen. Could you imagine a grocery making hundreds of loaves of bread from scratch every day?? Impossible. The staff, the space, the time needed would be waaay too much to handle!

ksw don't go blowing up my sale rack spot haha. at the merivale location the rack is frequently overloaded with discounted wares including the premiere moisson croissants (not quite as good as a fresh batch, but a steal compared to their regular price of ~$1 each)

We buy all our bread at Farm Boy. Because it can be pricey, our trick is we go to the "sale" rack which is the day old bread and choose our bread from there. We usually only eat bread toasted for breakfast so it makes no difference that it isn't fresh from that day. We freeze the loaves and take them out as needed. (and let's face it, if you buy a loaf on Saturday and don't eat it till Sunday then it becomes day old anyways and you could have saved yourself some money!)
It's also fun because you never know what will be on the rack that day, so we get to try all different kinds of breads.

F&T - we also got the "day old" honey nut raisin bread (I think for $3.49) and we sliced it up and made french toast with it on a Sunday morning). It was sooooo good!! We have also tried their regular raisin bread and the egg bread as french toast - very good.

Obviously if we are making sandwiches or serving the bread to guests, we will buy a fresh loaf :):) (thought I better mention that....)

Food&Think This bread sounds delicious! It reminds me of a bread I bought from the Ethiopian man at the Lansdowne farmers market last year - it was a whole wheat bread with nuts in - perhaps brazil nuts? I was able to cut through it with a standard bread knife and found the slices had to be a little thicker anyway to keep the bread from falling apart...

Momomoto - That sounds like a terrific suggestion, but slicing it would be a bit of a challenge, cutting thru the nuts would require a professional slicer, me thinks. Because if you don't get it right, it would probably all fall apart. I think this will require further investigation... Lightly toasted Honey Nut Raisin Bread, Cheese, Fresh Grapes, Wine... Patio Party!

F&T - The Honey Nut Raisin Bread sounds like the perfect thing to use to round out a cheese course. Slice it monstrously thin, cut each slice in half, and bake it until crispy. Heaven.

After recommendations from fellow Foodies, I decided to try the Honey Nut Raisin Bread. As it is a Breakfast Bread, and something I can only really enjoy on the weekend, I had to keep it in the freezer. The freezer kept it longer (and at $ 4.49 a loaf, that matters) and it made ok toast, but I did enjoy it much better fresh from the store.

My review here is based on the fact the loaf I purchased was labeled FARM BOY (no other labelling credits) so I therefore assume it was baked onsite at their instore bakery.

Overall the bread was much more "nutty" than I thought it would be, and the use of hazelnuts came as a bit of a surprise, I don't know what I was imagining (it wasn't peanuts for sure) but for me hazelnuts was unexpected. Perhaps something creamier in texture like macadamians.

It was a nice enough change from the many multigrain breads that I normally purchase, and had a little ooomph over regular raisin bread. I would purchase it again.

"The Man" found the Honey Nut & Raisin Bread today (all on his own, I didn't tell him about it)... he thought it looked interesting, but at $ 4.49 was a bit pricey. Now that it's caught his eye I'm going to go back sometime and pick up a loaf and try it. I figure if we keep it in the freezer and toast a slice at a time, there will be little waste and thereby a good value.

We purchased hoagie buns today had them for lunch filled with coldcuts and cheese from the deli counter, they were very fresh and tastey.

I find the Première Moisson baguettes hit or miss. I like hard and chewy bread but sometimes find the freshness of these sub-par. I'll stick with ACE...

An amendment from my comment on few months ago, we bought the bread again, and did a thin cut into medallions, lightly sprinkled some olive oil, and crisped them up in the oven with olive paste ontop and goat cheese with chives on top... it was delicious. If the bread is cut that way it doesn't seem to cut the mouth and seems pretty good, and it does have good air pockets through out.

I got a baguette the other day and was quite disappointed. The crust was fine, but the inside was too fluffy and soft, and reminiscent of Wonder Bread. I usually buy their larger oval loaves, which I love, as they are flavourful, but this baguette was just the opposite.

I purchase a baguette at Herb and Spice today.

The baguette gets top marks from me. After living in France for almost a year, I was so disappointed with bread back in Canada(Manitoba, specifically).

Here in Ottawa, I have been testing out the baguettes at various bakeries.

This baguette had excellent texture and a nice crust which was not too thick.

Their multigrain bread is also delicious. Light and flavourful with a fantastic crust. I bought a couple loaves after being served it in the bread basket at Benny's Bistro.

Just like FF, I opted to try the white loaf. I was very impressed! Tasty indeed. Loaf stayed fresh for several days.

I've been meaning to try this place for a while since I heard they have good bread. By the time I got there, they'd sold out of their more "hearty" breads so I had to settle for a fluffy Belgian loaf.

No problem! This was easily the best tasting fluffy white loaf of bread I've ever had. I still prefer more dense, moist breads but as far as fluffy goes this one was top notch!

If you haven't been to this bakery yet, you must go. I have had the fortune to try every type of bread and buns they offer and they are all wonderful. Their date/fennell bread is amazing as is the Chai spice. They close early though, and after 1 pm their bread (or what is left from the day) is available at the Red Table, next door which is also worth a try! I can also attest to their bread lasting for about a week.

This sourdough miche is quite fantastic! An excellent chewy dark crust and a hearty, moist crumb. Very reminiscent of the dark loaves I enjoyed as a kid in Switzerland (albeit more tangy, since it's sourdough).

The entire giant loaf goes for $12, but they're happy to cut it in half ($6) or quarters ($3). The half loaf I purchased was already a day old, so the price was $5. The baker/cashier assured me that she keeps it for a whole week at home. I had the last bit just yesterday and I can safely say that it really does keep for a week!

I'm really keen to try more bread products from this excellent bakery! There was a steady stream of customers while I was there, but even so I think this is one of Ottawa's undiscovered gems.

I used to go this bakery frequently when I lived in Ottawa 5+ years ago. I'm not a huge bread eater but I could eat a whole loaf of their sweet bread in one sitting. So good you don't even need to add butter, just rip off a piece, chew and enjoy. The texture is almost cake like, but lighter. I have tried their pastries as well but not recently so I can't comment on them.

The place itself is a little worn but whoever is baking seems to care. I tried the sweet bread a few weeks ago now that I'm back in town and it's just as delicious as I remembered and the prices still very reasonable. Go Portuguese sweet bread go!

Thanks. I'll check out The Independant Grocer. Before I discovered the Loeb line I was buying the Mario's round loaf that various stores (including Herb and Spice) carried. Mario's is a bakery in Manotick. It's a good loaf for toasting, but a bit dense and chewy for eating fresh. I may have to go back to it. Since I buy fresh bread every day I don't want to have to drive too far.

Haven't tried the bread at Loeb but Your Independant Grocer sells some nice breads. Farm Boy sells some nice breads too. I must admit though that I've been buy alot of my breads from the local bakeries these days as opposed to the grocery stores. You could always try looking for Parisien bread which is a little like a baguette but larger in diameter. Might be easier to toast if that's what you want to do with it. Alternatively you could use your day old bread to make croutons...

I've been buying the "old fashioned loaf" at Loebs for the last two years or more. For no discernible reason they changed their line of artisan breads in October and no longer offer it. The "old fashioned loaf" was crusty, with lots of air holes and made great toast the next day. Baguettes are fine for a meal, but they are not a good shape or size for toasting. I'm on the hunt for a replacement.

Loeb now carries artisan breads too, and they are (you guessed it)... delicious! :)

Yup, ACE Bakery carries the day. Especially if you follow the directions on the side of the bag to "freshen" the loaf up when you get home.

Loblaws led Ottawa's good-bread revolution by carrying ACE Bakery's fine artisan breads. Yep, bread made *without* sugar and oil tastes waaay better. They still sell it and it's still good!

I must concur with "smart cookie", I ordered a Cheese stick on my way home and it was awful. It was completely dry and sucked all the moisture out of my mouth. It was also tasteless. A good friend of mine used to work here and used to bring home all sorts of goodies, and amazing bread. So this is not a negative comment about Moulin de Provence in general, but their cheese sticks are pretty disgusting, seemed old and I would recommend saving the $.85 you might have spent on them. And the place is pretty much a tourist trap, but so is everything else in the market.

Nice place, nice coffee, nice cakes, *TERRIBLE CHEESE STICKS*

I bought some cheese sticks when I had a break during my class, found them to be very dry and lacked flavour.

A baguette I picked up here isn't at all bad. Not something I'd make a special trip for, but nothing objectionable.

The breads look great but are dry and airy. :-(

The BF and I bought our first loaf of light rye from Rideau Bakery yesterday. It was delicious. We will never go back to store brands again. It was so fresh we both had to have another piece!

I just, for the first time, bought some light rye bread and 9-grain bread from here. I've only had the rye so far, and so far so good! I was pleasantly surprised that the breads were only $2.90 each....very affordable for fresh handmade bread.
A little disappointed that they use enriched flour but oh well.

I've been eating the rye bread from here since I was a child. I remember their old logo used to be this menacing baker that looked like a cross between the Pillsbury doughboy and the Michelin Tire man. That aside, it's great bread and it toasts quite nicely.

There's a small rack of loaves and baguettes (Baguette) from Art-Is-In Bakery (Art-is-in Bakery) tucked away behind the cashier.