Cake and Bread

Yes, Grants Bakery. A bastion of fine baked goods and – one day a week – a New England tradition.

It’s official. Tomorrow, the 22nd, is the first day of fall.

Which makes today the last day of summer.

I think I might cry.

We, at b, spent the summer sampling ice cream and gelato, frozen custard, fried fish and grilled burgers.

All of which sound a little less appealing when you’re starting to think pumpkins, Halloween costumes and those apple cider donuts a certain Auburn family sells every fall at their orchard.

Which is is precisely why now is such a good time for a jaunt over to Grant’s Bakery on a Saturday afternoon for some yummy baked beans.

Grant’s is, apparently, famous for them.

A little odd for a bakery that, most days of the week, specializes in artistically frosted wedding and birthday cakes, cookies, roasted nuts and other goodies.

But on Saturdays, Grant’s doubles as a veritable bastion of New England – or Franco – culinary tradition, serving up several kinds of baked beans, hot dogs and slaw along with fat chunks of birthday cake or fruit turnovers.

I went in last weekend to pick up some lunch.

And to tell you the truth, my first reaction was neither pleasure nor dismay. I was surprised – not only by the large number of patrons (For a bakery? On a weekend?), but by the dizzying number of bean options to choose from.

I don’t even remember them all.

There were baked beans made with pea beans, yellow eye beans and kidney beans, as well as cholesterol-free baked beans. You could get them with pork and onions or without.

If you’re from Maine, you probably know what all that means.

Me? I’d only ever had “Boston baked.”

The kind with so much molasses it makes your head spin.

And speaking of Boston and molasses – well, you probably don’t want to hear about the 21 people who were killed by a sea of the stuff in the Molasses Tragedy of 1919, do you? At least, not while reading about food.

Back to the beans.

I asked the woman in line behind me what she usually ordered, and she suggested the pea – adding that her husband is partial to the kidney beans, but she doesn’t touch ‘em.

So I got the pea, with hot dogs, coleslaw and bread, for somewhere around $5.50.

They threw in a small slab of cake for 75 cents.

The beans smelled nice in my car. Less sweet, more savory, than any baked beans I’ve had in the past.

I quickly cooked up the dogs when I got home (they come cold, wrapped for transport), and set down to try the meal.

The hot dogs were wonderful. Light and delicious. As was the bread. The beans were warm and earthy, with a mild sweetness and just the right amount of tang. I could see, trying Grant’s version, why they had become so popular over the years. I could eat them every day. And the coleslaw rounded the meal out perfectly. It was much better than most. The cabbage was sliced thin, the dressing just the right consistency – not so thin as to run off, leaving you with a pile of wilted cabbage, but not so thick that it tasted like mayonnaise, either. I’m not even a coleslaw person, and I ate it by the forkful, pairing well with the beans and the hot dogs, and adding a certain lightness and freshness to an otherwise very heavy meal.

Delicious.

I won’t even go into the cake. It was just heavenly – but you’d expect that from a bakery now, wouldn’t you? Grant’s also sells chicken pies, salmon pies and macaroni and cheese weekly: chicken on Thursday, salmon and macaroni on Friday. I highly recommend making the trip next time you’re in the mood for some comfort food.
Tasty tidbits

What: Grant’s Bakery

Where: 525 Sabattus St., Lewiston

When: 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday-Saturday

Why: Delicious cakes and, on Saturdays, franks and several kinds of beans.

Atmosphere: Low-key bakery. No seating.

Price: Moderate. Two franks and a baked bean meal set me back around $5.50

Call: 783-2226 or www.grantsbakery.com

Source: http://www.sunjournal.com/story/283849-3/bsection/Eats_Grants_Bakery/

Tags: bakery