Okay, let’s first talk about the smell—-as I was nearing the bakery, I could smell the scent of bread from the inside of my car! Seriously—the smell alone must be their secret weapon! I’m training in Nanuet, NY this week, and I stopped by Rockland Bakery this afternoon, because I was told that it was something that I just had to see, experience, and taste.
It was a good tip!
The bakery has a sweets shop, a deli, and the customer is allowed to go straight into the production area of the bakery to hand-select the bread that they want to purchase. My head felt like it was on swivel-mode as I looked around at the Willy Wonkaesque scene that unfolded around me. Conveyer belts moved breads and bagels across the room, on twisted tracks, some running overhead. It was fascinating to watch the workers, and equally as interesting to watch the customers walking around with gloved hands plucking what they wanted from trays stacked high with huge varieties of rolls, breads, and bagels.
As I waited in line to have a sandwich made at the deli, I began to chat with a woman who was standing next. She was there with her young daughter who was clutching two long loaves of Italian bread. The woman told me that she stops at Rockland twice a week to get fresh bread, and that coming to the bakery has been a biweekly family tradition since she was a young girl.
She said that she remembered coming in and being allowed to pick a roll, and being able to eat it before she even got back out to the car. As she told her story, I glanced down at her daughter who was nibbling at the end of one of the baguettes that she was holding. I laughed and unfortunately tipped off her mother, who abruptly halted her daughter’s mid-afternoon snack.
I guess it was a case of, ‘do what I say, not what I do!’ LOL!
If you find yourself in the neighborhood—stop in! They’re open until 10:00 p.m. every day of the week!