Bread

My food snobbery is at its worst when it comes to artisan bread, especially the baguette. It's not that I can't handle consuming sustenance that fails to be artisan, which I'll qualify by stating that I absolutely love the sourdough sandwich bread from Sweetgrass bakery, a tiny and been-around-forever operation in Helena, MT. It's simply the yummiest bread that comes packaged in a plastic bag on this planet! No, what I find appalling is twofold: (1) bread that's marketed as being artisan that is crap, and (2) an ignorant customer base that actually trumps the virtues of said crap. 

For any non-Montanans, Helena (the capitol) and Bozeman (home to MSU, my grad school) are situated 100 miles apart, and as I live in Helena, I have the good fortune of having to make the commute to Bozeman four days each week. Here's the deal: Helena falls quite short relative to Bozeman with regards to both its restaurant and chocolate shop scene, though it is blessed with having a truly wonderful artisan bakery--the real deal. After traveling through Italy, I can assert with absolute conviction that Park Avenue has crafted a product so impressive that it rivals the best of what I ate overseas.

On the Rise, the Co-op, Park Avenue

Unfortunately, Bozeman's offerings fall short in this regard.  It lays claim to two "artisan" bakeries, one of which is On the Rise, an "artisan" bakery whose baguettes are, shall we say, sub-par. Though uglier than what's found in Safeway's bakery, their flavor falls somewhere between that and the Community Co-op's version, which is a more distant (but not out of the running) contender for the descriptive label "artisan." But I'll return to a discussion on the Co-op in a moment. On the Rise fails not only in terms of its poor baguette quality, but also in terms of its ciabatta (which boasts a pronounced and unappetizing ammonia scent, the hallmark of overfementation), as well as its croissants. I should have picked up one of the latter as well, just to prove my point. I think that they forgot to turn their ovens on and use real butter when making them. What really irks me, though, is that its advertisements frequently boast of being "voted #1" or whatever, while I'm left to ponder the question of who in their right mind thinks that this shit is actually GOOD???

Park Avenue, the Co-op, On the Rise

The Community Co-op's artisan offerings fall somewhere in quality between Park Avenue and On the Rise, and they are definitely Bozeman's best option for baguettes and ciabatta. As an amateur home baker, I can appreciate the learning curve of baguette shaping, scoring, and baking, and as the Co-op's dabbling in artisan bread-baking is young, I appreciate its efforts--I have no doubt that someday its baguettes will truly be spectacular! In fact, I have seen substantial improvement since it began this venture a year or two ago. If I could offer one suggestion to the Co-op, it would be to stop bagging its bread in plastic when the crust's crispness is essential to the whole bread-enjoying experience. Until then, if I'm forced to buy my bread in Bozeman, I suppose that my best option is to stop by the Co-op early, pick up a baguette, and immediately free it from it's repressive plastic bag. That way, all crispiness is not lost.