Dear Dale
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Dear Dale,
I am looking for a bakery, which may or may not still be in Austin. They were in Northwest Austin and served the most amazing, buttery sweet rolls (huge). By the time a box got to the office the box was covered in grease spots and, likely, half gone. People made special trips to pick up these delights. I now live in Georgia and I'm looking to have a box sent out.
Do you think the Upper Crust Bakery could be the same place?
Thanks in advance,
Mary Andreyka
Mary,
No, I don't think Upper Crust is the place you're looking for. Their sugary cinnamon rolls are among my favorites in the city, but your description better fits the Kitchen Door, another place whose cinnamon rolls I adore.
The Kitchen Door (2504 Lake Austin Blvd., 236-9200; 3742 Far West Blvd., 794-0032) produces large, buttery, iced cinnamon rolls. That Far West location, the original Kitchen Door, has been in Northwest Hills for 32 years.
The bakery and sandwich shop has shipped orders to Dallas and New York City and would be happy to send some along to Georgia. They're $24 a dozen, with shipping an estimated $20.
"We have to ship overnight," says co-owner Joel Baldazo. "They're made one day and you'd want them immediately."
The rolls are boxed and wrapped in plastic to maintain their freshness. "Warm them in the oven for five minutes with butter on top and they'll be as good as new," Baldazo says.
Although the ownership of the delis has changed Christopher Breed, the son of founder Janie Breed, and his partner, Baldazo, have taken over the food hasn't.
Besides the sweet rolls, the Kitchen Door remains a great place for a meatloaf sandwich
HOME: JULY 8, 2005: FOOD: THE KITCHEN DOOR
BY RACHEL FEIT
3742 Far West Blvd., 794-1100
Monday-Friday, 7am-7pm; Saturday, 8am-7pm
2504 Lake Austin Blvd, 236-9200
Monday-Friday, 8am-7pm; Saturday, 8am-6pm
Almost 50% of American food dollars are spent on meals prepared outside the home. And not just restaurants, but takeout places, as well, are popping out of every neighborhood to take advantage of our increasingly busy, and increasingly service-oriented lifestyles. Just about everything from injera to risotto cakes can now be purchased to go. But there's one takeout place that has been doing it longer than just about everyone else in Austin. Since 1975, the Kitchen Door has been selling hearty home-cooked American comfort food to go, and despite its longevity, it shows few signs of aging.
Anyone who has ever ordered food from the Kitchen Door knows there are two things that can't be skipped: the chicken salad and the meatloaf sandwich.
Let's start with the Meatloaf Sandwich ($8.50). The sandwich is a huge slab of spiced, tomatoey meatloaf, grilled on a flat top, with onions and spicy mustard, then pressed between two equally colossal slices of soft homemade bread. It is massive, meaty, comforting, and ridiculously delicious. Though I admit, the last time I ordered one, a new cook made the sandwich for me, and not only forgot to ask whether I wanted tomato and grilled onions on it (I did), she also forgot the essential mustard and underheated the meatloaf, leaving it cold inside. For complex sandwiches such as this one, a well-trained short-order staff is critical.
The Kitchen Door's Chicken Salad ($5.50 on a sandwich, or $13 per pound), on the other hand, is always perfect. The staff guards the recipe more vigilantly than classified military intelligence, and for good reason. Impossibly creamy, made from shredded chicken accented by an occasional slice of onion, a streak of pimento or celery, the stuff is pure nirvana. I am convinced it is singularly bad for you, and I suspect the magic ingredient that makes it so uniquely velvety is cream cheese. Whatever it is, I am hooked, and I have decided that this is one of those recipes that perhaps should remain a state secret.
Beyond chicken salad and meatloaf, the Kitchen Door prepares a customizable selection of other sandwiches, soups, salads, and baked goods. Their two locations the original location at Far West Boulevard, and a second location on Lake Austin Boulevard offer slightly different takeout options. The Far West location sells daily hot lunch specials, such as King Ranch chicken ($6.95), Baked Lasagna ($6.95), and Homemade Soups ($2.50/small, $5/large). The Lake Austin location prepares hot sandwiches, such as the meatloaf and hot grilled roast beef sandwiches. Made from thick-sliced beef, melted cheese, and accented by tangy jezebel sauce a blend of spicy mustard and fruit preserves the hot roast beef ($6.50) on toasted wheat bread gives the meatloaf a close run. Cold sandwiches with ham, turkey, roast beef, tuna salad, egg salad, and sigh that divine chicken salad are available at both locations.
Oh, and don't forget to save room for one of the Kitchen Door's legendary Iced Cinnamon Rolls ($1.75), their buttery Pound Cake ($2), or nutty Sand Tarts ($1.50). Made with plenty of butter and packed with flavor, baked goods at the Kitchen Door epitomize old-fashioned cooking. Their Texas spice cakeΚis moist and gooey, the Cream Cheese Brownies ($3.25) are dense and fudgie, with a thin chocolate crust along the outer edges and a barely detectable smidgen of almond flavoring laced into the creamy top. My only disappointment there was a white cake with buttercream coconut icing. The cake itself was flavorful but a little dry.
Though the menu has hardly changed in 30 years of business, customers keep returning for founder Janie Breed's enduring recipes. Venerable and beloved, the Kitchen Door is an Austin institution whose flavors never seem to go out of fashion.
Copyright © 2005 Austin Chronicle Corporation. All rights reserved.