bakery series:: Spyhouse

Spyhouse has been on my radar for awhile.  Photos of the Minnesota mug have been showing up on my Instagram for the longest time and, once I figured out where they were from, I have been wanting to order a drink in one forever.

I finally got the chance.  Nathan and I went to the Northeast location before I went home for my sister's confirmation.  The coffee was delicious (as was every single one of their iced teas!), as were their pastries.  Here's the secret to their amazing pastries - they order them from Patisserie 46!  I got the almond croissant this time and I was not disappointed.  The coffee cake Nathan picked out was absolutely HUGE.  Again, we did computer work (me) and read the WSJ (Nathan).

The atmosphere was FANTASTIC.  Rustic, cozy, plenty of space.  Not too much outdoor seating, but the giant picture windows make up for it.  Probably my favorite of bakeries for atmosphere alone.  You will not be disappointed if you head here on a sunny, rainy, or snowy day.

bakery series:: Patisserie 46

For Easter, Nathan and I received a gift card to Patisserie 46.  What a treat!  So many great pastry options, and the coffee was delicious!  Nathan chose an almond croissant, while I was in a rare muffin mood and opted for banana chocolate chip.  Neither of us regretted our choices.

It was such a lovely atmosphere, and had so much table space.  I was able to set out my laptop and get some work done and Nathan enjoyed his WSJ.  There was a little patio out front, maybe three or four tables, though I thought it was too breezy to work outside.

This is a short review - because there's nothing bad to say about it!  As Nathan says, "a nice little gem in the neighborhood".  For being small and not incredibly well-known, I bet you'd be surprised to find their pastries and breads in places you wouldn't expect!  Can't wait to go back and hit that patio!

bakery series:: Taraccino

It's absolutely awful, I know.  I've been working my way through the drafts I started, but never finished because of school or whatever else I had on my plate at the moment.  I want to go back to Taraccino just to keep working on everything.

An adorable little cafe in NE, it's connected to Breuggers.  I always passed it on the bus on my way to the internship I had downtown this last semester, and I'd been wanting to try it for awhile.  Nathan and I went on a cloudy morning around brunch-time, and were quite surprised.  They don't have a huge bakery selection (they are connected to Breuggers), but they have ahhhh-mazing waffles.  If you buy a specialty waffle, it comes with drip coffee, which is a fantastic deal.  Beautiful brick work and art, it's an easy place to go and just drink coffee and look around.  There isn't a ton of seating, but I would definitely go there with friends for waffles and coffee!  (I was looking at the pictures again and my mouth started watering for waffles...SO GOOD!)

bakery series:: Turtle Bread Co.

I mentioned last week that I was visiting another bakery...  Here it is!  Turtle Bread Company on Chicago is where Nathan I planted ourselves for a few hours to do work (and read Design Darling, apparently).  When we walked in, I was surprised by the number of tables that were sitting around empty - there were so many!  Only a handful of people were there when we got our pastries and coffee (almond croissant for me, cinnamon pecan sticky bun for him, both delicious), and we settled down in the back by one of the few outlets to work.

When Nathan went to get the first round of coffee refills, he came back with round eyes because the place was packed.  I had to check for myself, but he was right - packed.  It had gotten so busy in less than an hour!  There were couples and groups and people enjoying coffee on their own, it was so fun to see the different types of people.  Turtle Bread also serves hot breakfast and a lot of these newcomers were feasting on that.

The buffet table of breads and pastries were so enticing, I had such a difficult time choosing what to have.  The only thing I didn't love was there was a severe lack of outlets.  But that isn't totally a bad thing!  If you want to hunker down and get a lot of computer work done, getting your coffee and pastry to go would be best, but if you're looking for a place to grab brunch with friends, I would definitely recommend Turtle Bread Company!

bakery series:: butter

I'm happy to introduce a new, ongoing series of bakeries and coffee shops.  Most of them will be in the Minneapolis area, but I may throw one or two in that I run into outside of the metro.

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Nathan and I went to Butter a few weeks ago on Nicollet and 37th.  We didn't plan it as a work date, just morning coffee and a pastry.  It was an adorable little cafe and we stayed longer than planned, doing the crossword, reading the paper and just catching up with each other.

I had the banana ginger scone, while Nathan had the mocha scone.  His was tasty, but I'm biased towards how delicious mine was.  Coffee was good, pastries were good, the whole place was good.  It was pretty full, so we were lucky to get seats at the bar next to each other - some of the only seats left in the place.  That's what we get for going at 10:30 on a Saturday morning I guess!  Other than our own mistake of getting there later, the layout is a little weird by the coffee refill station.  Coffee refills are free, but not self serve.  I have no problem going up to the counter to get a refill, but because of the weird layout, the employees have a tough time seeing if someone is waiting there.  Oh, and they had these adorable homemade dog biscuits for sale by the register.  One of my favorite parts of Minneapolis is how pet friendly it is; I wanted a dog at that moment just so I could buy it a biscuit!

Overall, we had a wonderful time, and contemplated going this morning, but we chose another place that I'll tell you about next week.  I can't wait to go again - earlier though, so I can get a table!