Eric Wolitzky Heads Up The Bakery at Cakes & Ale
Decatur Metro | March 20, 2012 | 2:55 pm
From Kristin at Cakes & Ale…
We are thrilled to report the Bakery has a new Pastry Chef at its helm!
Eric Wolitzky comes to us from Baked in Brooklyn and is already putting his touch on the Bakery goodies. Several items already finding a happy home on our menu are the salt & pepper cookies, hazelnut cream filled puff pastries, brioche cinnamon rolls, banana s’more nut bars, and marble citrus cake with chocolate pudding & chocolate ganache frosting. Eric’s recipes have been featured in Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, O Magazine and Daily Candy. He has presented desserts at many food & wine shows including the New York Chocolate Show and Martha Stewart’s Milk and Cookies. Most recently Eric, the “Zen Baker” appeared on Bravo’s reality show Top Chef Just Desserts (Fall 2010), competing in 8 out of 10 episodes.
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I love Eric. I am now going to go to Cakes & Ale everyday until he agrees to be my best friend. He was adorable on Top Chef.
Yay! How about some gluten-free options? Decatur lacks excellent ready to eat GF baked goods.
Well that’s very interesting. So, wasn’t David Sweeney heading up the bakery and is he now gone?
I don’t think what the new pastry chef is doing has any impact on what David Sweeney has been doing. David is not a pastry chef – his role has been doing the lunch menu at the Bakery. Both are going to be great fit!
Good. I hope that’s the case, but when Wong left it was announced that Sweeney would “head the bakery” and now I’m guessing that meant “Until a pastry chef” could be found.
Cakes & Ale Bakery=heaven
When did the word bakery become just another name for a sandwich shop?
Are you implying that the CAB is simply a sandwich shop??? This couldn’t be farther from the truth. In fact the lunch menu had only two sandwhices on it. They do a ton of great baked goods including breads, cookies, pastries and cakes.
Mea culpa if this was a general question and not directed at CAB but they definitely are a real bakery.
EmersonJ’s question may not be so much about sandwiches but about whether the establishment is primarily about sitting down and eating baked goods or about providing a large volume of baked goods that can be purchased to be consumed at home. So far, the Cakes and Ale bakery seems more of the first type of establishment, kind of a cafe with baked goods, but I have wondered if it is going to evolve to have a wider scope and volume of baked goods for takeout. Alon’s or all the Italian bakeries of my youth are more of the second type.
I see your point, but for a place that his been open less than a year, with space limitations, I think they do a pretty good job of filing both niches. Do they have the variety of an Alon’s? No, but they just brought in a national talent, and what they are doing now is pretty darn solid. I give them credit for filling a void in the Decatur food scene. But I admit to be being biased, as I’ve been a big fan of Cakes and Ale since day one in the old space.
I’m happy to have them here, and look forward to their continued development.
I’m a fan of both Cakes and Ale and Alon’s and want both to expand and thrive as much as possible, budget bedarned.
Both are points well taken. I have to admit that my hopes were high, then dashed, when CA Bakery was indeed more of a Cafe. I long for a bakery that 1) primarily bakes, 2) has shelves and cases of premise-baked goods for sale.
When I lived in West LA, there was a zero ambiance, hole-in-the-wall, sweat-stained bagel shop that did one thing only: boil and bake amazing bagels all day long. And don’t get me going about the tram-stop bakery I frequented in Zurich — bread and bakery wonders stacked in all directions served by rosy-cheeked buxom lasses.
I wonder if, unlike SF’s legendary sourdough, our pollen is an unpredictable ingredient.
I forgot to mention another bakery that functions more like a retail store than a cafe–the German bakery on Lawrenceville Highway near Home Depot. Just like with Alon’s, I cannot walk out of there without at least 10 different items, even though I only went in there intending to buy a couple of items. The difference between the two is style (Alon’s is more French patisserie/NY delicatessen oriented and German bakery is, understandably, more German) and price (German bakery is about 1/4 the price but still excellent). You can sit down and eat at both of these establishments but the majority of customers do not.
Cakes and Ale is a great place to sit down and savor a superb European croissant or bread or dessert with an excellent cappuccino. But I cannot fulfill a lot of my grocery list there as I did the other day at Alon’s: sliced bread, croutons, some take out dinner items, party-level cheese, Swiss yogurt, Irish butter, cheese straws, Easter candy items, party napkins, cake for family party, gruyere crackers. Usually I would also get some croissants and poppy-seed and hazel-nut raisin danish but the previous items broke my budget.
I like CA. I was just commenting on what I perceive to be a general misuse of the word bakery, not just by CA, but by many places. I do remember when a bakery was different than a café or a sandwich shop, as At Home in Decatur described. I’m not lamenting the past, because traditional bakeries still exist, just commenting on the changing definition of the word.
Why would you leave NYC to come to Decatur?
The schools, opportunity for a craftsman cottage, and the walkability……of course!
Big question is whether or not he brings little Wolitzkies with him….it may affect the tipping point of whether Westchester is re-opened, FAVE expanded, transportation costs pass the 1.5 million mark, and a Bell Schedule Option 3 is created!
Because NYC is a drag, man.
Because just about every person I know from NYC is on anti-anxiety meds and longs to live anywhere but there. And I’m from NYC.
I love Eric and Baked!! Baked cookbooks are always off my shelves and on my countertops. So glad to hear you are in town and cannot wait to stop by for dessert!
In the name of all things holy-keep the Nutters. Best “cookie” on earth!