You know what I’d like to see in Monroe…? #1
…A great local bakery downtown.
There are a few great bakeries where you can get pasteries and cakes. Baker Boy on Dunbar Road is my personal favorite for its donuts, specifically the gigantic apple fritters they sell at a really good price! I recommend it over Tim Horton’s any day!
No, the kind of place I’m dreaming of would be a nice little storefront bakery that makes fresh crusty artisan type breads. The kind you tear off in chunks and would never dream of buttering! They could even sell their bread to the local restaurants and cafes downtown.
I have a friend in Boston who is a baker. His wife is originally from Monroe. He works at a place called Hi-rise Bread Company in Cambridge. One of the best things about Hi-Rise is that you can watch the bakers work the dough as you sit and eat. My favorite is an olive bread that they make. They also have the best sandwiches! Granted, they are a little pricey. But it’s in Cambridge Massachuestts so I suppose people there are willing to pay a little more and I know I’m willing to splurge a little more when I’m on vacation. They also make their own granola and jam and sell beer brewed at a local microbrewery in Nantucket call Cisco Brewing Company.
I know there’ve been a few local bakeries in Monroe at different points in time. I remember there being a River Raisin Patisserie downtown when I was in highschool. There was also Liparato’s bakery in Detroit Beach for a long time, but I think it’s gone now.
I wonder why these places never seemed to pan (or shoud I say pain?) out? Any ideas? Maybe I can convince my friends to move back to Monroe and open up a bakery. I know her mom would thank me! Then I could have olive bread any day of the week and she’d get to see her grandchild more often! Okay, now I’m really dreaming 
February 1st, 2007 at 1:05 pm
Your ideas intrigue me, and I would like to subsribe to your newsletter.
February 2nd, 2007 at 7:20 am
I should know this, after having lived in Monroe for several years. But I don’t. Is there a local bakery that sells homemade paczki? It just seems odd to pick up my family’s box of paczki treats from a chain store on Fat Tuesday, when I used to buy them from a bakery in Ohio that made their treats on site.
February 2nd, 2007 at 12:18 pm
I would imagine that Baker Boy (on Dunbar road near Bobby’s Kitchen) makes their own paczkis. I would check there.
February 5th, 2007 at 3:30 am
Sadly, Liparto’s has been gone for some time. I don’t think Baker Boy does paczkis - but, I maybe wrong. Toledo does them - although, just going to that “All American City” makes my skin crawl.
March 5th, 2007 at 11:08 am
I agree with you 100%. I would like to see a bakery, a ‘Danny’s Downtown,’ (that is my title for a nice meat counter), and an artisinal cheese shop (with wine of course!) Am I dreaming?