By Lori Bosworth
Lunch with a friend brought me to my old stomping grounds, Bloor West Village. Because we both were familiar with Bread and Roses, the long-standing bakery on Bloor Street just west of Runnymede, we decided to drop in for a bite. Bread and Roses is extremely popular among the locals and, arriving at 12:30 p.m. mid-week, meant we might be right in the thick of the crowd.
This bakery/cafe is known for its homemade soups, fresh bread and other baked goods. It’s take-out style so you order your food at the counter and seat yourself among the 12 or so tables at the back of the café or at seats at the counter.
A quick look around the seating area revealed that many customers had ordered the soup of the day. My friend took the hint and ordered Lentil Soup ($3.30 regular/$3.90 large) from a friendly server. After a few spoonfuls, she proclaimed it “delicious” and “hearty.” The soup was filled with various vegetables including carrots, celery and herbs. The other soup this Wednesday was Tomato Rice.
We were also eager to try their freshly-made sandwiches so I ordered the roast beef sandwich ($5.99) with mayo, tomato, lettuce, cucumber and no mustard while my friend ordered the turkey sandwich with similar fillings ($5.99). Both were served with dill pickles.
My sandwich ended up containing mustard instead of mayonnaise. Not being a big fan of mustard, I returned the sandwich at the counter and was advised by the server that she had made an error and would bring my new sandwich to our table shortly. Within about four minutes, our server delivered my sandwich as promised.
We both opted to have our sandwiches served on multi-grain bread, which was thick and incredibly fresh. The crusts were lined with sunflower seeds. This is definitely a bread you would want to take home from Bread and Roses.
Dessert was calling our names so we splurged and ordered a custard square ($3.99) and a piece of carrot cake ($3.99). The carrot cake looked wonderful, but unfortunately, it was quite dry, which was a disappointment.
The custard square faired better as a result of the not-too-sweet and creamy custard, fresh strawberries and crispy wafer on top. Delicious!
All in all, our lunch was pretty satisfying. Drop by Bread and Roses next time you are in Bloor West Village.
