Alessi bakeries, What is your fav bakery ? (Tampa, Palm Harbor: bankruptcy, restaurant)

[planedition]

Gigis cupcakes have WAY too much frosting. It's gross. Plus their cupcakes don't taste like what your grandma would make. They taste like chain food.

Everyone I know swears by Wright's Deli cakes. Especially the chocolate peppermint cake at the holidays.

[newguy101]

food, it's all a matter of a persons taste we are all different. no one place will please everyone that being said most restaurants or bakeries in any given area are on the most part average

[planedition]

That's true, but some places are more well-liked than others, by more people, which makes them, in fact, better.

Like Wright's.

[gypsychic]

Originally Posted by DUNNDFRNT

I second that, Alessi is average, i find them no better than Publix, which considering Publix may bnot be a bad thing. I dont like Wrights cupcakes, I think Gigi's is much better even thought they are a chain. I also(aside from Wrights) dont get the fascination that people have with La Segunda's cuban bread, to me is very meh.

Well, for such an "average" bakery, they have been here 100 years - how many others can say that? Maybe others don't find them so "average." That said, I never liked everything from Alessi. My parents bought many cookies, etc. that I found kind of tasteless, but they were true Italian cookies, and I just didn't care for those. Some of those regional things are an acquired taste. But you just can't beat some of their other goodies, like I said the SCACHATTA!!! And a few other things. They must be doing something right.

[DUNNDFRNT]

Originally Posted by planedition

That's true, but some places are more well-liked than others, by more people, which makes them, in fact, better.

Like Wright's.

To me wright is just decent cake with decent frosting, nothing groundbreaking, they dont try new flavor profiles, or different textures, like i say meh.

[floridagirl777]

Originally Posted by planedition

Gigis cupcakes have WAY too much frosting. It's gross. Plus their cupcakes don't taste like what your grandma would make. They taste like chain food.

Everyone I know swears by Wright's Deli cakes. Especially the chocolate peppermint cake at the holidays.

OK - where is Wright's? The chocolate peppermint cake sounds GREAT!

[Keeper]

Wrights Gourmet Cafe

I like Alessi's although I never understood the cold pizza, just not my thing. They have a lot of different food including sandwiches .

[tinalimey]

The only thing I bought regularly from Alessi's was the breadsticks.

I make my own chocolate peppermint brownies.

[algia]

The reasons none of us can find any REAL croissants here is because BAKERS are:
1. NOT following the recipe
2. Dumping way too much flower, making them cakes rather than croissants
3. That stupidity about shelf life! In Paris, (and the rest of Europe) they don't make croissants for the SHELVES, they make them for the PEOPLE to eat them right away: light, fluffy, warm, and delicious! Here it seems like everything has to have a shelf life for some reason! That BTW is VERY wasteful!
4. Too stubborn for their own good! Closed minded and DUMB! In 10 years here I have NOT found 1 real pastry unless I made it myself! (Non chef who followed a simple recipe!) don't even get me started on the Pillsbury ones!

I don't like Alessi's at all. I ordered a cake there once at that location in South Tampa...and I was not impressed....now I am STILL looking for another bakery. The rest of the "baked goods" all had that horrendous white icing all over, that is so disgusting I can't even look at it...and some other very uninteresting stuff.

The quality of the flour has nothing to do with croissants and pastries; it is the AMOUNT of IT that COUNTS! When they'll learn that, then we'll finally have real pastries around here. IF they'll be willing to learn. Not to mention they'll save some money too not dumping all the flour in them at once!

Originally Posted by sinatras

Alessi baked goods are terrible (they taste artificial and mass-produced like Publix stuff), but I appreciate the fact that the place has been there 100 years (approx.) and that it's a Tampa institution. Many cities larger than Tampa do not even have an Alessi-type bakery anymore. Tampa has lots of bakeries still operating and for that I am grateful, even if most of them suck. I hope they never close. It is very hard to make a profit with a bakery nowadays, especially if you use quality flours, real butter, etc.

As a serial baker and consumer of baked goods and sweets, I have found that there is no ONE good bakery in this region. You basically have to go to a series of places to get a specific item. For example, I go to Wrights Deli for cakes/cupcakes. None of the area cupcake places make better cupcakes than Wrights. I go to Pane Rustica for breads. I go to Cassis Brasserie in St. Pete for French pastry. Real French croissants like the ones in Paris are impossible to find here. I go to Florida bakery only for Cuban bread. I go to La Caridad bakery for guava pastries/Cuban sweets. I have yet to find good pie. Mike's Pies is horrible. I have heard that JJ Gandy's Pies in Palm Harbor has the best pies in the area, but I have not tried it. That is next on my list.

This is how it goes around here.

[Irishiis49]

Been here 15yrs have yet to find a good italian bakery.