When the pandemic hit, it seemed like the entire world simultaneously got into baking. People who hadn’t so much as picked up a whisk in their previous lives suddenly became conversant in starters, proofing times, hydration ratios. Group chats filled up with gratuitous crumb shots.
Five years on, sanity, at least as it relates to baking, has gradually returned. These days, most of us would probably rather grab a loaf on the way home than organize a day around kneading and rising times.
Yet just because we no longer have the time nor the inclination to spend our days baking doesn’t mean we don’t remember what good bread tastes like. And that makes it hard to settle for something mediocre. O cursed knowledge! With the awareness that good bread is possible, and the acknowledgement that we’re probably not going to bake it ourselves, comes the obvious question: Where can I get it?
Natalie Jahanbani, proprietor of Palo Verde Bakery (which closed shop while Jahanbani was pregnant in 2024, and is planning a return some time in the near future as part of a café/bar concept), suggests checking your local bakeries first before you grab a loaf from a supermarket deli.
“Bakeries are typically making items from scratch,” Jahanbani says, “and I’d take a scratch made item over a supermarket item, which is more likely to be mass produced.”
“Fresh baked” indeed can be a tricky term, encompassing both dough made entirely from scratch on the premises, and the kind trucked in from somewhere else and baked in-house. Which is to say, “fresh baked” doesn’t necessarily mean “freshly shaped.”
In our experience, supermarket loaves ain’t bad (and vary by location), but the bakery product does seem to be a step up. There is, of course, also the convenience factor. You can pick up a supermarket loaf while you’re buying eggs and veggies, while most other kinds require a special trip.
At the other end of the spectrum is Jahanbani’s favorite, Breadroom, a one-woman operation run out of a house in the Fresno High neighborhood. Operated by Alison LeClair, you can sign up for Breadroom’s limited loaf releases (we just invented that term) and pay through an app called Hotplate, then pick up your fresh loaf from a rack on LeClair’s front porch. Breadroom’s ad hoc, DIY spirit, and its quality of good-things-for-people-in-the-know seems like Fresno in a nutshell.
As for what she looks for in a baguette, Jahanbani says “I look for a thin, crisp exterior and an airy interior.”
“Baguette shaping can be tricky and shaping can affect the baking process. Also the fermenting/proofing can really throw off how baguettes bake. I also think there’s something to be said about the quirks of items made by hand and getting to know someone through their style of baking.”
For our purposes, we did our best to evaluate for taste, smell, texture, stretch, chew, and general tastiness. These were the best of what we found.
1. Breadroom Bakery
The Place
The heading is a bit of a misnomer here, as “Breadroom” is really just a rack on the front steps of Alison LeClair’s house, though she did choose the house, she says, partly with the bread business in mind. She’s been running it since 2020, after moving to Fresno from San Jose. She says her bread obsession began a few years earlier, after a slight pivot from the fancy cakes she learned in culinary school. These days, Breadroom offers two “bread pickups” per week, on Wednesdays and Fridays, with Fridays generally encompassing baguettes, challah, cookies, and sometimes non-fancy pastries.
“While there are many variations even among the French varieties of baguettes,” LeClair says, “I aim for a particular look and taste – mildly creamy flavor, rich, bold bake, a crispy exterior with light-as-air crumb, full enough body to be sandwich-able, and real pointy tips. I make them as long as the decks in my oven allow (about 16 inches), though I’d love to make them 20-24 inches one day.”
Tasting Notes
The exterior is darker than all the others, with medium brown, fading almost to black in spots. It’s on the shorter side, with pointy ends, but forearm-thick in the middle. The exterior is crisp and crunchy, though not excessively crumby, with very light flour dusting. The smell is very roasty and mildly sweet. The exterior is hearty enough to take some pull, but the crispness makes it easy to break off with your hands. The interior is where it really shines though: spongey, with a wide open crumb, though also moist to the point that it almost has an eggy, custardy quality (though the ingredients are only flour, water, salt and leaven – both bakers yeast and sourdough culture). Mostly it’s just addictive. It’s virtually impossible, with any baguette, not to break off a piece on the way home, but with Breadroom it was a struggle not to eat the whole thing. 10/10
Verdict
It’s almost unfair to compare this to the others, since they’re almost different products entirely. It’s probably cheating in some way to compare a freshly-baked loaf like this one to the others, which weren’t old but weren’t fresh out of the oven either. But that’s also “baked in” (har) to Breadroom’s business model. At $5, a Breadroom baguette is more than double the price of some of the other options, and smaller than most, but five bucks seems more than fair for something this good. It felt a little predictable to just agree with our insider tip, but if the insider tips are this accurate, keep ‘em coming.
2. Eddie’s Bakery Cafe
The Place
Eddie’s, established in 1939, per their website, is a combination restaurant, coffee shop, and bakery in northeast Fresno offering sandwiches, sweets, cakes made to order, and various other sweets. Unlike many of Fresno’s other bakeries, Eddie’s also bakes fresh bread, both loaf and sandwich (though only on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday).
Tasting Notes
Long, golden brown, wrist-thick loaf with rounded ends and a shiny, almost lacquered exterior. No bubbles, flour, or fracturing on the outside. The crumb is small but very airy. Smells sweet and roasty inside, not much yeast or sourness. It feels light and fresh, more on the delicate side, not as stretchy or as heavy as some, with much less flaking (which is to say, less messy, less crunchy). Seems airy inside without being dry, a nice open crumb. It seems to strike a good balance between chew and flake. It’s definitely less sturdy than some of the others, and the crust is thinner and lighter, landing somewhere between a true “baguette” and a thicker French loaf. You might miss some crackery crunch on this exterior, and it might not hold up as well in a stew, but it’s moist, light, and tasty, with a light sweetness. 8.5/10
Verdict
Eddie’s offers a solid baguette. It’s much more delicate and less hearty than some of the other options, so if something very crusty and chewy is your bag, this probably isn’t for you. Though for this reviewer, that light, airiness was a benefit, not a drawback. Great for a homemade sandwich.
3. La Boulangerie
The Place
La Boulangerie, a “French-inspired” bakery and cafe, has been open in the same Fig Garden location since 1985, retaining, it seems, many of the original clientele. Which is nice. Nothing about La Boulangerie feels hipstery. It’s your typical-for-Fresno suburban strip mall setting, but manages to feel sleepy, neighborhood-y, and bustling all at the same time. It’s one of the few places in town where you can get croissants and morning pastries, cakes, various sweet treats, and multiple varieties of bread (sandwich, roll, and loaf), all at the same spot. We sampled the “French baguette,” though they also have a rustique baguette as well as a sourdough baguette.
Tasting Notes
Excellent crackly crust, easily the flakiest of the bunch, with fractures everywhere on the exterior. Very lightly sour on the nose. Nice and soft on the inside. Pleasant taste, though fairly one-note, and leans slightly dry. Great with olive oil. Very messy! 8/10
Verdict
If you like a flaky, crunchy crust, this is probably the baguette for you. For us, the crunch wasn’t really enough to justify the relative dryness, compared to the others, but it would probably go great with a soup or stew. It had a croissant quality to it. Still very good bread, just not our favorite.
4. Whole Foods
The Place
The house that Bezos bought. Whole Foods, more like WHOLE PAYCHECK, right? (*rimshot*) Actually, for certain specialty products, like Kerrygold Butter, say, Whole Foods is actually cheaper than most of the competitor supermarkets. For our purposes, they do have a very nice deli and bakery for a supermarket, with lots of interesting sourdough, seedy, and wheat loaves. Of course, those do skew towards the higher $6-7 range.
Tasting Notes
Nice golden-to-amber-brown exterior with diagonal slits and light dusting of flour. Smells sweet/roasty, no real sour/yeast smell. Decently moist interior with a nice airy crumb. The interior is light, the crust more chewy than crackery, though it does have a decent crispness to it – a little crumby but not overly messy. Tastes sweet and fresh. Overall very solid, though the crust could stand to be a little thinner. 7.5/10
Verdict
It’s fine! A slight tick better than the other supermarket baguettes, though not as good as most of the ones from a real bakery. Makes for a great pick up if you’re already getting stuff for dinner at Whole Foods.
5. Sam’s Italian Deli & Market
The Place
Open since 1976, Sam’s is a Fresno institution. It’s the place you go when you need Italian products you can’t find anywhere else, like guanciale or capicola or a specific kind of pasta or sausage. They also make sandwiches and salads and pastas and do brisk lunch counter business.
Tasting Notes
Slightly sour nose. A little flour on the outside, not as flaky/crumby. Interior is airy, but also chewy and stretchy. Feels hearty and substantial, like it’d be good to dunk in a soup or stew. Lacks a little fluffiness though, and the exterior is a bit thick. Loaves also were not dated and seemed like they varied somewhat in freshness. 7/10
Verdict
Sam’s has a lot to recommend it, but baguettes probably aren’t their fastball. Certainly good enough to pick up if you’re already there grabbing important tomatoes or olive oil. They also have longer loaves with sesame seeds that are arguably better than the baguettes.
6. Save Mart
The Place
A supermarket that, for Fresno residents, probably needs no introduction. We all probably have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Save Mart, where we wish it could be better or cheaper in any number of ways, but at the same time… at least it’s not Vons.
Tasting Notes
Chewy crust, much less flaky than some. Some bubbles in the exterior. Soft, but more dense interior. Bigger crumb. Good, sweet flavor, with much more chew but less flake. Overall, the taste is great, but the texture much less airy and the exterior not at all crunchy or cracker-y. 6.5/10
Verdict
It’s fine! Like Sam’s, Save Mart has a different loaf that’s actually much better than their baguette – a thicker sweet French loaf. That one is a staple in this reviewer’s house, even if it’s not really make-a-special-trip-there kind of bread.
7. (Tie) YAVA Bakery
The Place
A new-ish Middle Eastern-inspired bakery and cafe, YAVA is easily one of our favorite places in Fresno, with an amazing selection of pastries, coffee drinks, and breakfasts, including some of the best pancakes in town. The Recovery 40, a concoction of bread, avocado, akkawi cheese and bastirma (Middle Eastern cured beef) is quite possibly this reviewer’s favorite breakfast in town.
Tasting Notes
Smaller and denser, with a very floury exterior and horizontal slits across the top. A more amber brown underneath the flour. Much more dense in the interior, feels more cakey than the other baguettes. No real flake to speak of. Seems less fresh? No yeast on the nose. Tastes sweeter on the inside, more like a pastry than a bread. Taste is very good, with lots more obvious sugars, which compensates for the lack of crackle a bit. This feels more like a long pastry or a sweet bread than “bread.” It’s tasty, just not exactly what we think of when we think of “bread.” 6/10
Verdict
In fairness, this was not advertised as “a baguette,” and it really isn’t one, so maybe it’s unfair to judge it on those terms. YAVA is a great place for breakfast, lunch, pastries, and coffee, but a baguette isn’t really their strong suit.
7. (tie) Paris Baguette
The Place
A multinational chain headquartered in South Korea, Paris Baguette opened their Fresno location to much (medium?) fanfare earlier this year. They offer a wide selection of “French-inspired baked goods” (pastries, cakes, sandwiches) and coffee, in a self-serve concept. As in, you grab your own from the well-lit, plexiglass display cases.
Tasting notes
Very floury exterior — flouriest of the bunch, in fact — and shorter and thinner than most of the others tested. Color is pale straw, and seems underbaked. Not only on the small side, but the shape is a little smushed, like it rose and then fell a little. Airier than you might imagine on the inside though and smells nice. Taste is good, but a little tough, chewy and not at all crackery/crunchy. It’s… fine. 6/10
Verdict
Oddly, for a place with “baguette” in the title, the baguettes aren’t displayed in the cases with all the other cakes and pastries. We didn’t notice them at first and had to ask the cashier, who directed us to the baguettes on top of the display cases, stacked together inside paper sleeves. It seemed almost like they were there more for decoration than for consumption. Kind of tasted that way too. They seemed in every way like an afterthought. The rest of the pastries did look delicious though.
Other baguettes tested
Vallarta, The Market, Vons, La Parisien.
Do you agree with our choices? Did we miss one of your favorite spots? Send your feedback to vince@fresnoland.org.
