Foxtail Bakeshop & Kitchen

Past the line to the “cake order pickup” section, I wait for my food and take in the adorable Foxtail Bakeshop & Kitchen. The space is small and cozy, with a retractable garage door, local art on the walls, and cases of freshly made goodies. 

The cornerstone of much of Foxtail’s food and cakes is Italian-style buttercream, made with egg whites, local organic sweet cream, Tahitian vanilla beans, and homemade fruit jams. This can be seen in the blueberry vanilla buttermilk muffin, which is almost too pretty to eat, its gorgeous purple (buttercream) frosting made with marionberries. Inside the dense muffin is a blueberry compote center. It’s almost cornbread-like in texture, but sweet and marionberry-y.

In the Aubergine Goddess Rice Bowl, we’ve got organic roasted sweet potatoes tossed with black rice, grilled salty halloumi cheese, pickled curry cauliflower, arugula from Boundless Farmstead, Gorilla Greens microgreens, and sides of tzatziki sauce and baharat-roasted eggplant mash that has a tinge of nutmeg. It’s hearty and feels healthy and nourishing. Unfortunately, my to-go order was missing its naan, but everything else was so good I barely missed it. 

The Mistress Croque is a favorite: The croissant is huge, an ample platform for slices of smoked ham and melty Swiss cheese, covered with dijon béchamel and sided by cornichon pickles. Each layer of the croissant soaks up the filling. It is endlessly decadent and rich.

Tiramisu pancakes are like silver-dollar churro-cakes. There are three, and they’re topped with espresso mascarpone and dipped in maple syrup. It tastes like dessert. It is dessert.

Chef and co-owner Nickol Hayden-Cady has been in the restaurant business over 20 years, and the experience shows. Her dishes are delicious, inventive, and thoughtful. Everything is created in small batches and from such ingredients as freshly-milled flour, farm eggs and buttermilk. She supports local farmers and recently started “Foxtail: Reimagined” to support the bakery during Covid-19, selling one-of-a-kind, local artist-made rolling pins. 

Things I wanted that we did not get for fear of busting our buttons: the apple- and ginger-filled pop tart; “The Crisp” (a black sesame lemon zest rice crispy treat dipped in Valrhona yuzu inspiration chocolate); a vanilla blondie with pecans, white chocolate and toffee crunch; and the Unicorn Doodle cookie (rainbow sprinkles are involved). Oh, and the butter-poached potatoes with citrus truffle aioli and a breakfast burrito with house-made mole-coated pulled pork and house queso.

If I lived in Bend, I would try them all, and order a cake (or two or three) every week.