(REVIEW): Bear’s Cup Bakehouse’s sweet debut
Now that things have settled a bit, are the lines worth it?
SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY — Saratoga Springs is an excitable place full of passionate foodies and lovers of novelty. So when a new restaurant or bar opens, as Bear’s Cup Bakehouse did Dec. 18, expect a crowd. But the lines at this new Broadway hotspot — snaking outside, in the winter — have been nothing short of impressive, even by Spa City standards.
“The overwhelming excitement around it has been insane,” says owner Danielle DeSantis. “I knew it would be busy, but the demand has been bigger than we anticipated.”
Danielle and fellow-owner and husband Louis DeSantis are as thrilled to be here (the couple also have a seasonal, popular location in Bolton Landing) as we are to have them.
And they appear more equipped than the average bear to contend with the onslaught of moms, dads, tweens, teens, toddlers, retirees and gaggles of roving college students who gather at their cavernous space for bagels and cream cheese (four and seven types, respectively), pro-level baked goods (I can check my hair in the lamination on that croissant), and imaginative sandwiches (come for the bacon, egg, and cheese on a plump-but-not-bloated toasted everything; stay for the open-faced New Yorker with cream cheese, smoked salmon and all the expected accoutrements on a toasted sesame).
“Great pastries, great coffee, great bagels and great service don’t happen without top-notch quality and great training,” Danielle tells me, explaining that she works the day shift back-of-house training staff and making sure all of the from-scratch baked goods are up to snuff, while her husband oversees the baking overnight. “Pastries and bagels have always been our bread and butter — no pun intended — but I’ve been surprised by how popular pastries [in Saratoga] are versus bagels, which sold out consistently in Bolton.”
I visited a few times recently, once with a friend and our daughters and once with girlfriends, and in each case, the lines were long but the staff was incredibly efficient, warm and welcoming.
My 13-year-old daughter, Emily, whose hobbies include critiquing other people’s baked goods while enthusiastically consuming them, was notably smitten with Bear’s Cup’s blueberry muffins.
“Usually when I buy a muffin and bite into it, I think, ‘This over-processed monster is going to give me cancer in 20 years,’” she says. “But this one was magnificent. I can’t believe how many blueberries they got in there, and yet the texture was light and fluffy, with a perfect crumble on top. Like, seriously, it has literally dozens of blueberries.”
Like, seriously, and literally, people, I concur.
And don’t skip the coffee. There are the classics, of course—espressos, flat whites, cortados et al — but Bear’s Cup also serves up creative cold options from taps, including cold brew, nitro cold brew and vanilla oat matcha.
“We’re building something sustainable — not something that feels fast, rushed or throw-away,” Danielle says. “It’s an in-person experience. We care; we care a lot.”
Visit Bear’s Cup at 543 Broadway, open 8 a.m. Tues-Sun.
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