Breadhive Bakery

The Breadhive Bakery is delighted to be what it is — a worker-owned enterprise. I am delighted to eat what those workers create, including a roster of fresh breads and sandwiches made with those breads, as well as cakes, muffins, cookies, soft pretzels, and first-rate bagels.

Arrive early and the bagels still will be oven-warm with faintly crisp skin and dense, chewy insides. Fresh ones like these do not want to be toasted. They are just right as-is, simply spread with cream cheese (flavored varieties are available) or as the foundation of a sandwich. The Britney is a beaut, a Jewish-breakfast classic: layers of velvety pink lox (that’s smoked salmon) with dilled cream cheese, plus red onion and cucumber. On an everything bagel, it’s a dreamy combo.

Another great sandwich, not on the regular menu but well worth getting when available, is called the Deana. That’s crisp-cooked pancetta with strawberry-gin jam, a schmear of First Light chevre (from Batavia, NY), and plenty of peppery arugula. What an inspired chord of savory/sweet/dairy/veggie harmony!

While much business is take-out of whole loaves and bags of bagels and pretzels, the eat-in menu is an inviting one, featuring lunch sandwiches on sourdough, seeded sourdough, or deli rye, as well as a few breakfast sandwiches with eggs, plus a vegan one made with scrambled tofu and tempeh bacon, roasted vegetables, and turmeric. The bread schedule is oh-so-tempting: Sunday pickle rye with barrel & brine dill pickle brine, Tuesday cinnamon fig, Wednesday deli rye and seeded sourdough, etc.

The dining area is bright and cheerful — a comfy place to eat comfy food, as well as to drink outstanding coffee that Breadhive gets from the local Public Espresso roasters.