Best Bakery For Sweets
Nadine's Pastry Shoppe
READERS' PICK: Last year we attended a friend's wedding and had one of the most incredible cake experiences of our lives. The four-tiered work of bakery art offered guests three distinct choices: chocolate cake with a raspberry filling, white cake with a lemon filling and white cake with a rich chocolate hazelnut filling. Not wishing to limit our samplings, we asked for a sliver of each. The resulting gustatory sensations were incredible and left us wanting to forego wedding reception etiquette and ask for seconds. The creator of this cake delight was none other than Nadine's, formerly on East Pima Street and recently relocated to Broadway near Columbus. The location might be more visible and the front awning facade a little classier than previously, but the goodies coming out of Nadine's kitchen remain as scrumptious and mouth-watering as ever. In addition to some awesome cakes, you can find several different kinds of breakfast pastries: Danishes, bear claws, cinnamon rolls and coffee cakes, to name just a few. A good selection of cookies is also available. Each bite at Nadine's is like visiting the grandmother with the European accent who always baked from scratch and used only the purest ingredients. Keep your cherished memories of Grandma but don't spend another minute missing those tasty treats. Just go to Nadine's and indulge.
4533 E. BroadwayREADERS' POLL RUNNER-UP: TIE--Grossman's Bake Shop, 3140 E. Fort Lowell Road and 6176 E. Speedway, and Trost's Bake Shop, 7039 E. Tanque Verde Road. Grossman's no-fat, no-sugar cakes and cookies are deceptive, because they are sooo good. Grossman's makes the stuff your grandmother would have made had she known how terrible cholesterol and too much sugar would be for your health. All she had to worry about was making you happy. And with sinfully delicious fat-free chocolate decadence muffins or the Russian muffins, sweet without sugar from fresh apples, nuts and honey, she would still be making you happy. Trost's is more elegant. These are the kind of cakes and cookies you'd find in elegant patisseries in France, or in the cafés of Vienna and Milan. They make some of the best cakes and cookies in the state. Bite into a buttery, rich cookie, any one of them, and you're lost. Forget about low-fat, no-fat, smo-fat. This stuff is good. Can't see yourself eating that gorgeous Black Forest cake? Or the tiny cannolis with the sweet-sour cream centers chock full of chocolate chips? Ok. Convince yourself that the scones, because they have raisins, are health food. Just have one, with butter. But god, what a scone, crispy crusted, dense, softer and sweet on the inside. Or if you really wanna to go to hell, get one of their donuts. Hey, get the one that's filled with vanilla pastry cream and raisins, yeah, raisins, they're healthy. Yeah, and it is sooo good.
STAFF PICK: We're torn between Stacia's, 3022 E. Broadway, and Reay's, with three (soon-to-be four) locations. We couldn't decide. We want it all. Eating sweets at Stacia's Bakery and Café is like going back in time to an old-fashioned kitchen--all sorts of fresh-baked goodies, like lemon bars and Russian tea cakes. Stacia's Cookie Incredible part of the business makes some scrumptious cookies and treats: some usual assortment, like chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin and fudge brownie; and then some unsual, like apricot thumbprints, chocolate chip pumpkin bread and shortbread logs. Don't fret about the chocolate nightmare brownies; they're more like a pleasant dream. If going to Stacia's is like going to the kitchen of one of the best grandma bakers in town, going to Reay's is to sample the wares of a highly trained pastry chef. Most of the time we just ogle, but recently we happened in on a day they had all of the new cakes available for tasting. We must recommend: the Chocolate Decadence: five (count 'em) layers of sour cream chocolate cake, two layers of chocolate buttercream, two layers of dark chocolate mousse, iced in chocolate buttercream and coated in rich chocolate ganache; the Tuxedo Torte: a checkerboard of chocolate cake, white chocolate buttercream and chocolate ganache; and the white chocolate cake with a jumble of thick ribbons of white chocolate atop. Joy Paul, a certified executive pastry chef, takes delight in filling Reay's glass cases with some of the best-tasting desserts in town. While her baking kitchen is in the new Reay's, at 7025 E. Tanque Verde Road, Paul's sweets make it into the cases at all of the Reay's locations, including the stores in Phoenix and Scottsdale. A fourth Tucson store is scheduled to open October 11, 7133 N. Oracle Road. But back to the desserts: The pastries, cookies and pies are tasty too; rugalach from Reay's is a staple at some holiday meals, and the Willcox cherry-apple (no sugar) pies are a traditional fall treat. Reay's is wonderful about putting out plates of free tastes to sweeten our shopping trip. But be warned: If you taste, you'll buy, even if cheesecake isn't on tonight's menu.
