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CHRIS SHERMANTraditional bakeries featuring tastes of the proprietors' homelands are a comforting, flavorful antidote to today's corporate kitchens.
At times I despair that the food revolution is over, that we are condemned at all prices to mediocre meals mass-produced and mass-marketed.
I revive whenever I find some place like a small Portuguese bakery in Gulfport, where the yeasty smell saturates the air long after the morning bread is pulled from the oven. The very dust is white.
Perhaps there is a glass case filled with operas, napoleons and tarts glittering like jewels. The wooden shelf is always laden with humbler stuff, loaves of bread in all shapes, grains and textures.
And at the cash register are often the calloused, floury hands that made it all. They kneaded dough for bread with crusts sturdy as a cottage roof and built luxuriously detailed confections of fresh fruit, Bavarian cream and chocolate.
In some places, a revival of artisanal baking has created a new generation of shops and cafes, of which we have a few, such as Pane Rustica in Tampa and outlets of the Panera and Great Harvest Bread Co. chains.
More bread, however, comes fresh from traditional bakers, especially those serving our immigrant communities with Italian crostini and country loaves, Middle Eastern pita and lavash, Greek cookies and cakes, German and Polish rye, Chinese buns and, of course, Cuban bread. And new waves of immigrant bakers are restocking our breadbasket.
They often sell baguettes or fine pastries, and some may be from France, but our newest bakers come from Bosnia, Portugal and beyond.
Handmade breads and pastries are the cheapest of luxuries. Two or three dollars can turn the simplest meal of soup, eggs or salad into a banquet.
Here are the newest sources we've found, and we're looking for more.
-- Au Rendezvous, 200 E Madison St., Tampa; (813) 221-4748. A chef and baker from Marseille, Gerard Jamgotchian, has taken over the kitchen and ovens at this downtown cafe and bakery. It serves a long list of crepes and croques, plus soup, sandwiches and salads, and a wide range of fresh baked goods. Breads include baguettes, boules, lusty olive loaves and fragrant rosemary. He hopes to open in St. Petersburg, too.
-- Balkan Food Store and Bakery, 6837 Fourth St. N, St. Petersburg; (727) 526-1341. Asilan and Zahide Osmakac are among several shopkeepers who have opened in recent years to serve immigrants from Eastern Europe with products they miss from their homeland, including fresh breads. Their burek is made from a rope of dough filled with meats or cheese throughout. Small kifles are like curved hot dog rolls. A lovely, light round loaf is called lepine.
-- Bon Appetit European Bakery, 1415 49th St. S, Gulfport; (727) 321-6025. The name is French, but the baker and his Old World specialties are Portuguese. Alfredo Gonzales grew up near Lisbon and spent decades baking there; two years ago, he brought his talent and recipes for stone-baked breads here. He makes the familiar sweet breads, king cake fruit breads, holiday tortes and more, including hefty cascara loaves, smaller rolls and pao, and the small almond and custard tarts from the Belem section of Lisbon. The bakery also makes sandwiches and other breads, and sells Portuguese wine.
-- Cafe de Paris (formerly European Bakery), 2300 Gulf Blvd., Indian Rocks Beach; (727) 593-0277. Amid the newest condos on the gulf, Xavier and Valerie De Marchi bake the fullest range of traditional artisanal breads, from long, pointed campagnards and husky 10-grain to perfect brioche topknots, buttery croissants and delicate tuiles. Xavier De Marchi, from Bergerac in the southwest of France, also makes cakes, pastries and chocolates.
-- Mediteran Fast Food, 6300 Fourth St. N, St. Petersburg; (727) 526-4466. Forgive the spelling, and don't believe the fast-food part. This spinoff of the neighboring Bosnian Food Store reminds us that despite war, Bosnians have enjoyed the sidewalk cafe life of the Mediterranean and the elaborate sweets of Viennese coffeehouses. You can have bureks of meat, spinach or cheese, the walnut-cream stuffed apples of Damira Delic's hometown and ornate pastries full of powdered sugar and cream made by other local bakers.
-- Tastee Fresh Bakery, 9700 Ulmerton Road, Largo; (727) 587-7077. Jeff and Frida Alipour started with a Dunkin' Donuts after they moved here from Iran 20 years ago. A few years later, they opened a full-scale bakery and coffeehouse, and this month Tastee Fresh moved to this expansive location, with all the bakery line open to customers' view. The menu sticks to traditional sweets and breads, cookies and cakes, plus scones, bagels, paninis and the Alipours' own coffee blends.
-- Chris Sherman dines anonymously and unannounced. The Times pays for all expenses. A restaurant's advertising has nothing to do with selection for a review or the assessment of its quality. He can be reached at 727 893-8585 or sherman@sptimes.com