Near golf-loving Pinehurst, Aberdeen is home to an unlikely bakery/cafe that’s a big hit with customers in and out of the golf set. At The Bakehouse, Martin Brunner, an Austrian-born pastry chef in a tall, white chef’s hat, creates éclairs, truffles, chocolate Sacher Tortes with apricot preserves, and rounds of black forest cake topped with curls of dark Swiss chocolate. The foundation of everything in the bakery, Brunner says, is the custard-filled napoleon. “It’s the way to a woman’s heart.” Thanks to a glass window in the dining area, customers order from a menu that includes fresh-made soups, salads, and “Barcelona” burgers, while they watch Brunner and his staff assemble the pastries and cakes. The Bakehouse traces its beginnings to a family bakery opened in Austria in 1948 by Brunner’s grandfather. (Coincidentally, the Aberdeen store is now housed in a brick, North Poplar Street building that was built in 1948.) European influences at The Bakehouse also come from Brunner’s father, who is the bread maker, and from Brunner’s Spanish wife and mother-in-law, who both work in the cafe.
The Bakehouse
120 North Poplar Street, Aberdeen, N.C. 28315
(910) 944-9204
thebakehouse.biz
Visit the rest of the delectable independent, local bakeries in Our State‘s North Carolina dessert tour:
The Sisters McMullen
Mountain Pie Company
Jimmie’s Sweets
Rosebriar
Hayes Barton Café & Dessertery
Bread of Heaven Bakery
Cheesecakes by Alex
Paul’s Pastry Shop
Seaside Cheesecake Dessert Shoppe
Savannah Red
Bailey Café
Sugar on Front Street
In North Carolina, spring brings the scent of fresh-cut grass and memories of helping Dad mow the lawn.
Nostalgic burger joints are like time machines, delivering something extra special that keeps us coming back.
This tiny city block in downtown Greensboro once had a gigantic reputation. Not so much for its charbroiled beef patties — though they, too, were plentiful — but for its colorful characters and their wild shenanigans.
In the 1950s, as Americans hit freshly paved roads in shiny new cars during the postwar boom, a new kind of restaurant took shape: the drive-in. From those first thin patties to the elaborate gourmet hamburgers of today, North Carolina has spent the past 80 years making burger history.
