Who Knew One of America's Best Bakeries Was in Columbus, Ohio?
Ruining my diet in flyover country.
In all of my travels there’s an absolute given: I will find carbs. I will wake up early to invade your little cafe for some brioche. I will travel to the outskirts of your quaint European city in pursuit of sourdough. I will force my wife to drive me in my mother-in-law’s Honda Accord to a nondescript bakery near her hometown because I saw something interesting on Instagram.
The latest incident happened over the weekend on my sojourn to America’s heartland. I stayed in the bucolic suburb of Columbus, Ohio called Dublin (A city where they have building codes to make things look more Irish, there’s an Irish festival every year, and the high school mascot is The Shamrocks. They’re all in). I convinced Mary on a Saturday morning to steal the family car and head to Dan the Baker’s shop that’s open on three days a week. Inside a black corrugated metal building, that also includes Sbarro’s “Culinary Innovation Center” Dan Riesenberger is putting out some of the best baked goods in America.
What especially impressed me was that he consistently nailed two totally different types of dough. First, his bread was chewy, yet tender, exhibited a really nice open crumb, and had just the right amount of sourness, whether you ate his oat porridge boule or his einkorn wheat loaf. Then he also excelled at laminated doughs. The picture above is his cruffin, with vanilla cream and raspberry preserves. And his classic croissant was as flaky and buttery as you’d want. It was exciting to see the gospel of bread and carbs has so pervaded America, and there are people committed to their craft everywhere.
The Best Food Stories I Read
This week, Brett Martin over at GQ put out his big Best New Restaurants package, and it included some of my favorites from this year, specifically Nightshade, Georgia James, and JJ at the Henry.
Wildair/Contra/Una Pizza’s dessert maestro Fabian von Hauske, shares his five favorite places for sweet treats in New York City.
Down in Nashville, the NFL Draft is happening this weekend, much to the chagrin of drunken bachelorette party goers who want the bars and restaurants they swarm to be free of traveling Massholes in Gronk jerseys and wandering Philly fans booing them for no reason. “We come here to listen to country music, not hang out with football boys,” bride Cara said. You can do both, Cara. You can do both.
If you find a better way to keep vampires outta there, I’m all ears.
Video Interlude
The fire inside the world’s oldest restaurant has been burning for 293 years.
The Non-Food Thing I Couldn’t Stop Thinking About
There may not be a writer who has influenced me more than Michael Lewis. As I look around my living room right now, there are two of his books—Moneyball and Boomerang—on my coffee table, and up on my bookshelf I can see five more. The latest from Lewis isn’t a book though. He’s created a narrative podcast called Against the Rules where he explores the decline of referees in American life, from the NBA to the financial industry. It’s the tale of what happens when we disempower, disregard, or corrupt the people who are supposed to be objective third parties, regulating disputes among us. The episode on student loans is especially gutting, where you meet a woman who is a school teacher with kids. Her debt causes so much anxiety that she grinds her teeth to the point that they’ve fallen out. But with the debt, she can’t afford to get them fixed.
The Food Photo of the Week
Why not just give you another picture from Dan the Baker, this time of the einkorn wheat bread.