Bakery By The Lake At Parkside

Surely the best sticky buns in the world are made here. The coffee is also superb, indeed the best in town. They also make the best pizza in town on Fridays and Saturdays. I also like their unapologetic declarations that their bread contains gluten (then again, I tend to like anything that flouts today's bovine herd mentality, pitiful fragility, and shameless race to the bottom.) This place is popular with locals, but because it's a bit off the main tourist area, it's less known by tourists. A great thing: not once did I ever wear a mask here during 2020. I saw few others doing so either. This establishment was assuredly against the mass madness of the time. Bravo! On this basis alone they won my business. The one area for improvement concerns certain of their young employees, who are a bit surly and barely look one in the eye. I've been coming here for years, but with barely an acknowledgement from these types. Such behavior, of course, reflects the degenerate race to the bottom across all sectors of today's "culture," so I don't strongly hold this against the owners. And of course being surly is virtually de rigueur for a barrista. I should know; I used to be one of them.

I heard about their bearclaws...they we OK but now the overfilled nutty bearclaw I had hoped for😥. I guess my expectations were over built. The place is cute and had a few gluten free options for those that are looking for them. The atmosphere is homey but not the overstuffed chair sit by the fire and enjoy your Cocoa type of place.