March 3, 2007
Cuisine: Bakery
Rittenhouse Square
262 S. 19th Street
Phone: 215-545-6655
Website: http://www.metropolitanbakery.com/
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Rosemary Foccacia ($1.50)
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I know I’m not from Boston, but the only way to properly describe The Astronomer’s metabolism is “wicked.” He consumes roughly 4000 calories daily and weighs a mere 140 pounds. Impressive? I think so. In order to maintain his body weight, The Astronomer must constantly snack. We stopped by the Metropolitan Bakery while strolling in Rittenhouse Square to pick up some calories for the bottomless pit.
After perusing the gorgeous baked goods, The Astronomer settled on the Rosemary Foccacia. The foccacia was not shaped like traditional foccacia–it was round and bulbous rather than flat and square. Also, the outter texture was much tougher than standard faccaia. The bread reminded me of the pizza crust from Pizza Hut (in sort of a sort good way) and not the least bit rosemary flavored. The foccacia tasted decent enough, but not at all what we were reasonably expecting.
Revisited: March 25, 2007
Chocolate Cherry Roll – dark and rich chewy loaf made with sundried sour cherries and imported bittersweet chocolate ($1.25)
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I decided to give the Metropolitan Bakery another go after a mediocre foccacia experience. At the suggestion of a few readers, I tried their signature Chocolate Cherry Bread. Although I wanted to love the bread very much, it just didn’t suit me well. The tart cherries combined with the sweet chocolate was too extreme for my tastebuds. On a positive note, the bread was moist and the chocolate and cherries were plentiful.
With so many bakeries around, I may be ready to give up on the Metropolitan Bakery.
I know that what my fiancee Farofa & I go to Metropolitan for is their DIVINE Chocolate Cherry bread – which, with whipped butter, is a match for even the most robust of metabolisms. If you find yourself heading back there despite your disappointing foccacia experience, I would highly recommend the Chocolate Cherry.
I also recommend the Chocolate Cherry bread. It is my dance teacher’s favorite contribution to post-dance potluck tea.
I also recently tried part of a ginger scone from the stand in RTM — it had lots of tiny pieces of ginger, plus large ones! Yum.
You are now officially linked on thegourmetpig.com .
Go Philly!
Ah well, sorry to hear the Chocolate Cherry Bread didn’t quite work for you. I do agree that the abundance of chocolate & cherries is a good thing…
If you have other bakery recommendations (particularly for pastry, since the beloved Petit 4 is no longer), I’d be interested! 🙂
You’ve replicated our experience here. Fact is all of Metropolitan’s items are just mediocre. Unfortunately, there is no great baker here in Philadelphia. Some of the products at Fork, Etc. come close (moreso when they first opened), but they are very inconsistent. It’s time someone stepped up and opened a new place, but I imagine it would be tough to operate when (1) Metropolitan’s products are everywhere and (2) most people seem satisfied with what’s currently available.