Fresh bread makes life better.

Photo | flickr _e.t

Sure, cake is great, but nothing makes you feel warm and fuzzy quite like the smell of bread right out of the oven. Being the lazy male that I am, I set off on an endeavor to find places that would make it for me so I can enjoy the fuzzies without having to do any dishes.

I was able to find four places near where I live in Norfolk that bake and sell their own French bread. On 21st Street there are Farm Fresh, Panera Bread and Baker’s Crust. On Granby you can find the French Bakery & Delicatessen.

One morning I visited each location and purchased a single loaf of bread to compare the crumb (the soft, inner portion of the bread), the crust and the cost of each loaf.

The first place I stopped at was the French Bakery. It’s a quaint, family-owned shop that also serves pastries and other items.  The owner informed me that they don’t usually bake baguettes because Americans don’t eat them, and offered me a loaf of French bread instead. He said they bake these every other day and keep them frozen on the days that they aren’t made fresh.

I was then instructed to heat the bread at 325 degrees and told that the longer I left it in, the harder the crust would get. I followed his instructions and sliced off a sizable portion of the loaf. The crumb was soft and light, and the crust was crisp and flaky.

This kind of bread would be better suited for sandwich making than the others, as it’s larger and easily cut into slices. At $5.95 per loaf, it’s also by far the most expensive of the bunch.

Next I stopped by Baker’s Crust, which is part bakery, part restaurant. They have an assortment of nice-looking breads to choose from, including baguettes for $1.99, making theirs the cheapest baguette in town. The crumb of their baguettes is semi-soft and somewhat dense–not as airy as you might like. The loaf I got that day had a slightly burnt taste to it, though it wasn’t actually scorched and the crust was the crispiest of the lot. Not a bad piece of bread, but not the best either.

From front to back: Baker's Crust, Farm Fresh, Panera Bread, French Bakery.

Just down the street from Baker’s Crust is the Farm Fresh Marketplace. The baguettes that are offered here are “Wild Organic,” which I could care less about. I’m buying bread, not a chicken. The baguettes here are $2.99, though in the past I’ve seen them as high as $3.49–I’m not sure why they fluctuate. Perhaps because they are so wild and unpredictable. The crumb and the crust of the bread were somewhat chewy and very dense. This puts them at the bottom of the list, as the bread didn’t really have any redeeming qualities.

After leaving Farm Fresh I walked across the street to Panera Bread and purchased a baguette for $2.59. This loaf was the largest of the four by a small margin due to it’s width, and although it was burnt on the bottom I couldn’t taste it. It had a nice, crispy crust that didn’t flake upon tearing and the softest most flavorful crumb with the exception of the loaf from the French Bakery, which was just as good in a different way. In fact, despite being burnt this was the best of the four.  It had just the right combination of textures and taste that make it ideal for enjoying with spreads or for use as a part of a hors d’oeuvre.

I’m sure there are other places in Norfolk that sell baguettes that I haven’t found out about yet. If you know of any, please leave us a comment and tell us about it!