Niedlov’s Bakery & Cafe | Chattanooga’s Reborn Southside

Destination Bakery on the Southside

I am jealous of Chattanooga. It’s got a bakery that produces exemplary baguettes and sourdough loaves. It makes glossy-skinned, chewy bagels the likes of which I cannot find within 100 miles of where I live. If Chattanooga’s reborn Southside wasn’t so far away, I’d be here every morning for coffee an’.

Pastry Paradise

Consider Niedlov’s pastries: muffins and scones and cruffins (high-rise muffins made with buttery croissant dough) filled with chocolate espresso cream. They’re beautiful as well as delicious. This masterful atelier offers baked goods that earn its status as one of the city’s culinary bright lights.

Croissants alone inspire return visits. Niedlov’s menu advises that the dough is a “scratch process, layered and folded with European butter.” These croissants flake at first touch. They taste more buttery than butter itself. The chefs here make their own curd for lemon curd Danishes.

Sit Down For Breakfast…

Niedlov’s isn’t only an opportunity to procure breadstuffs for home. It is a sweet place to eat breakfast or lunch in the heart of Chattanooga’s reborn Southside. Choose a windowside counter seat or table inside. Better yet, find your place on a cheery patio that sports a firepit for when the East Tennessee morning air is cool.

In addition to pastries, the sunrise menu offers brioche French toast, sausage & egg biscuits, bagels & lox, quiche, eggs Benedict, and a full inventory of espresso drinks. Have your breakfast sandwich on 6-grain 4-seed toast, a biscuit, or an English muffin. All breads, of course, come from Niedlov’s ovens.

…Or Lunch

Naturally, sandwiches are a big deal at lunch. Have yours on sourdough, a baguette, marbled rye, or a ciabatta. The one that earns my devotion is fried chicken with honeyed hot sauce on a seeded bun. Saturday brunch features the likes of mushroom tartine, chicken biscuits, and a Reuben sandwich or a “Mushreuben” that substitutes oyster mushrooms for corned beef. Lox on a gorgeous, oven-fresh bagel includes lemon dill cream cheese, heirloom tomato, and herbed cucumber and caper salad.

Who could resist Niedlov’s watchwords? They say, “We love to knead, we knead to love.”