Bakery + Sticky Buns = Deliciousness?

Flour Bakery + Cafe

190 Massachusetts Avenue

Cambridge, MA 02139

When we are visiting a city, I do a lot of research on where to eat. I look up places on Yelp, Urbanspoon, and lots of web sites. I also always want to eat at places that have been on TV. That is how we came to find this place, Flour Bakery + Cafe.

Flour Bakery has been featured on the shows, The Best Thing I Ever Ate, and Throwdown with Bobby Flay. In both shows they were touted for their Sticky Buns. In fact, in Throwdown, the sticky buns at Flour actually beat Bobby Flay's sticky buns. Owner/Pastry Chef Joanne Chang opened her first bakery in South Boston in 2000, and has since then added two more locations.

We arrived at the Cambridge location, just after nine on a Thursday morning . The cafe was full of people leisurely eating all assortments of baked goods and drinking coffee. The cafe definitely has a sleek and modern feel to it. This location is located right next to MIT, and the staff fit into the surroundings because they were all young, and college age. After approaching the large bakery case, it was a no-brainer what we would be ordering, so we sat down with our two sticky buns.

My first impressions of the Sticky Buns were that they looked good, but on TV they were drenched in the caramel sauce. These had a decent amount on them, but were not over the top like I had seen. These also could have been served warmer. These were lukewarm at best, and I wanted to try it so bad, I did not want to have them reheat it. The sticky bun was not overly sweet, had plenty of pecans and the bread was not as heavy as I was expecting. They were soft and delicious. Even without all of the caramel sauce on top, and the temperature issue, this was one of the best sticky buns we have had.

Glad we had seen this bakery on TV, but wish we had more time to explore more of the baked goods and sandwiches here. That is the problem when traveling, you only have such a limited time to find the best places to eat, and you only have one shot to order the right thing. Glad we got it right here.

Out of five beavers, (because Flour Bakery is located next to MIT, and their mascot is a beaver, also known as nature's engineers), five being best to zero being worst, Flour Bakery + Cafe gets 3 beavers.

For more information on Flour Bakery + Cafe, click here: http://www.flourbakery.com/index.php

Taking a Trip to Bartley's Burger Cottage

Mr. Bartley's Burger Cottage

1246 Massachusetts Avenue

Cambridge, MA 02138

I finally made it to Harvard! Okay, I am definitely not Ivy League material, but I just felt smarter even being around the 375-year-old school. The air around Harvard just exudes intelligence. So I knew I would make the right choice when it came to food around here. That is why I picked Mr. Bartley's Burger Cottage.

Mr. B's has been around for 51 years. Their goal when they opened their doors was to serve the perfect burger to Harvard students. Soon after opening, they gained attention from the national and local press, and celebrities picked up on the great burgers here. Jackie Onassis, Bob Dylan, Katie Couric, and Adam Sandler have all swung by to eat here. Even now customers wait outside to grab a seat at this Cambridge Institution, so we wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

We got to Mr. Bartley's at about 8 on a Wednesday night. The place was jammed pack, but we grabbed a seat at the counter. Of course, being across the street from the college, this place had a very young feel to it, at a very rushed pace. The young servers were running around, picking up drink orders, ice cream orders, and of course plates of hamburgers. Sitting at the counter we had a front-row seat to all of this organized chaos. Let's see how our burgers came out.

We will start with my Viagra Burger. This burger was erected with blue cheese dressing, bacon, lettuce, and tomato. I really enjoyed this burger, but there could have been more dressing on this for my taste. Also, all of the bacon was clumped together, so it was not spread evenly throughout the burger. The meat was definitely the star of the show here. They use chuck, and it does make a flavorful burger. I opted to get the onion rings instead of the fries. I like a thicker cut of onion ring than these. They are a very simple onion ring, nothing I was wowed by.

Katie probably made her parents shutter when she ordered the Democrat Burger. This Reuben type burger came with grilled sauerkraut, Russian dressing, and Swiss cheese. Katie could not be more pleased with her burger. Eating this made her wonder why this is not on the menu at other burger places around the country. The bite that I had was very good. The condiments worked very well with the meat. It really was like eating a Reuben sandwich. We both liked the fries here better than the rings. The fries were salted and fried crisp.

Mr. Bartley's was all it was cracked up to be. I may have gotten the wrong burger, but there are so many more to choose from, that I am sure I could have no trouble finding one that I liked better. The restaurant itself was very cramped, and you will be eating very close to people that you do not know, but that is part of the charm of this place. The service was great. All of the servers were very focused and got the food out quick. Even as we were leaving close to nine o'clock, people were still coming in the door. I guess being this close to Harvard not only made me smarter but made them smart enough to eat here too.

Out of five Crimson, (the nickname of the 41 sports teams of Harvard), five being best to zero being worst, Mr. Bartley's Burger Cottage gets 3.5 Crimson.

For more information on Mr. Bartley's Burger Cottage, click here:https://www.mrbartley.com/

Warning, Icy Conditions Ahead!

Christina's Homemade Ice Cream

1255 Cambridge St. 

Cambridge, MA 02139

Sometimes you just get lucky. Like when you are running out of gas, and they just happen to be a gas station where you can fill up. Or maybe you are late for class, and when you get there you find out that the class was canceled anyways. Finding Christina's Ice Cream was just like these examples. After eating at the All-Star Sandwich Bar next door, we really needed something to cool down our taste buds, and lucky for us we were steered right to Christina's.  

Christina's has been around since 1983. We arrived at 9 on a Tuesday night and were met by a line that almost reached the door. Thankfully this gave us enough time to decide on what flavors we were going to get. The list of flavors was almost as long as the line. They feature fifty flavors at a time. Take that Baskin-Robbins! Flavors range from the mundane Chocolate and Vanilla to the crazy, Avocado, Lavender, or Liquorice. Not wanting to get that crazy, this is what we got when it was our turn in line.

Katie tried the Malted Chocolate and the Butter Almond. She called the malted chocolate, "delicious and very creamy". The butter almond was not as rich as she expected, and she was also happy they did not overload the ice cream with almonds. The ice cream should really be the star of the show, and the extra bits supporting players. That was the case here. 

I did not get really crazy with my picks either. Peanut Butter Chocolate and Carrot Cake. My favorite flavor of ice cream is peanut butter and chocolate, and this one was good, but it was missing something, hunks of peanut butter. I definitely got the peanut butter flavor, but it was too subtle for me. The carrot cake ice cream, on the other hand, was fantastic. Both Katie and I felt this was the best of the bunch. The flavor was dead on, all it needed was some cream cheese icing and it would have been exactly like a carrot cake. Good stuff.

Christina's is a good ice cream spot. They rotate flavors in and out, so you could never get bored. The line, even though it was long, went really quick. The guys working behind the counter got to everyone real fast. While eating our ice cream here, we noticed that they have a local artist wall. I imagine this place getting packed in the summer, especially since they only have four tables. It was lucky we stumbled upon this place, but we felt even luckier after eating here. 

Out of five squares, (because the city of Cambridge has lots of intersections called squares, and not because the people there are boring), five being best to zero being worst, Christina's Homemade Ice Cream gets 3 squares.  

For more information on Christina's, click here: http://christinasicecream.com/

All Star Striking Out Looking or a Home Run?

All Star Sandwich Bar

1245 Cambridge St.

Cambridge, MA 02139

We finally made it to Boston! After our six-hour flight, lugging our bags on the T, and settling into our hotel, we did not want to go far for our first meal. Luckily, we were staying in Cambridge, and a restaurant that was on my list happened to be within walking distance of our hotel. So we set down our bags and walked a short fifteen minutes to All Star Sandwich Bar.

All Star Sandwich Bar has been operating since 2006, and if you are looking for a wrap here, keep on walking. They proudly state that they are a wrap free restaurant. I knew I was in the right place after seeing that. Opened by two brothers, All-Star strives to bring you back to your childhood by creating great comfort food sandwiches.

We arrived at eight on a Tuesday night. The restaurant has bright colored walls, featuring local art for sale. The vibe here is definitely a collegiate hip one. The staff was all young, and the indie music over the speakers was a variety of everything. A constant stream of customers filtered in throughout our stay, so I had a feeling the sandwiches would be good. Let's find out if that was the case.

A suggestion from our waiter started us off with the Deluxe Mac and Cheese. This came out steaming hot. Not really sure why this was called deluxe mac and cheese. It had too mellow of a taste for me. It would have been better if they added some bacon here. Not a bad dish, but not anything I would get again. I did enjoy the bread crumbs that topped this.

The mac and cheese put my taste buds to sleep, but the Rings of Fire woke them up in a hurry. This mountain of onion rings was served with All Star's own creation, the Inner Beauty Hot Sauce. This stuff was scorching and addictive. The rings themselves were fried crisp, and I liked that they were not oversized rings. It made these very manageable. We got a side of blue cheese to dip these in, just to cut the heat down a bit.

I was a little surprised by Katie's choice for a sandwich, the Beef on Weck. This Buffalo, New York-based sandwich consists of house-made roast beef, extra hot horseradish, and au jus, all served on a Kimmelweck bun. The bun is salted and has caraway seeds on top. Very unusual bun, but it works here. The sandwich itself is very simple, but all of the ingredients together made this a solid sandwich. Katie liked the juiciness of the meat but found the horseradish a bit overpowering in some bites.

Coming into All-Star I knew what I was going to get. The other sandwiches on the menu almost tempted me to switch, but I did not stray from the Atomic Meatloaf Meltdown. Grilled meatloaf, red onion jam, jack cheese, and the Inner Beauty hot sauce made up this killer sandwich. This sandwich was a flavor explosion. The sauce was hot in spots, but also mellowed a little because of the cheese and meatloaf. The meatloaf was very moist, almost to the point of becoming liquid. The bread is also worth noting here. It really held the sandwich together, without being too hard.

I would say that the brothers that opened this sandwich shop have met their objective of creating great comfort food sandwiches. The service was very good, and the prices were very fair. All sandwiches are in the $7 to $9 range, well worth the price. The variety of sandwiches would keep me coming back for more if I lived in this area. The Cubano, Texas Reuben, and Monte Cristo all looked so good on the menu, I might have to fly back to Boston for a sandwich.

Out of five rockets, (because Roger Clemens was an all-star for the Red Sox five times, and his nickname was the Rocket), five being best to zero being worst, All Star Sandwich Bar gets 3.5 rockets.

For more information on All Star Sandwich Bar, click here: https://allstarsandwichbar.com/