Ottawa Foodies

I have always been delighted to have leftover, too-old-to-serve restaurant loaves of Art-is-in bread brought home to me by my husband...any flavour. That being said, I certainly don't balk at the idea of purchasing my own loaves as well. Easily my favourite bread in the city, so much so that it was to remain an occasional treat, lest I balloon to massive carb-induced proportions.

Personally, my faves are the Fennel Multigrain and the Jalapeno Cheddar, but I would never turn down a slice of another kind. ;)

I don't use Art-is-in bread for sandwiches, and I don't add anything to them...they're perfect to just eat as-is.

Best bread in the city - buy one loaf for home, and another for the drive home. The potato-dill bread is a delight!

I get this bread at the piggy market and the bagel shop. Not sure where else to get it. It's out of this world delicious! Neatest texture, you would expect it to be crunchy but it's soft and porous and kind of moist even. Potato dill is my favorite.

I usually try to pick up a loaf from the Piggy Market when I do my groceries each week. Can always count on the freshness. The olive loaf is perfect with sundried tomato bread dip!

They've got a few new items this year that I've seen at the Landsdowne market, including very large sourdoughs and very large italian wedges. I haven't tried the sourdough yet but imagine it's similar to their smaller verison. The italian was amazing - dark brown dusted crust and light interior. Was perfect for bruschetta.

I believe they rent out the space below the Ottawa Bagelshop for their bakery. You can walk by on the side street and see them, although no store front.

I simply know that the bread over at the Bagelshop has high turnover and it could literally be walked up from AIIB so I would assume that it is fresher then the bread shipped to a depanneur in Quebec for instance. I had simply been mentioning the fact that the bakery is part of the same physical buisness, below the Bagelshop.

Jagash, I suspect that the variance is freshness is marginal, unless you're buying first thing in the morning. Also, I don't believe that AII shares Bagelshop's space (downstairs)...can anyone confirm this?

As for the flour on top of the bread, it's been my experience (when I worked at La Bottega and we got their breads in) that when the bread was not well floured (one or two times) the oil from the bread went everywhere. It's a matter of *how* one wants to be messy.

The best place to acquire Art-is-in Bakery bread is the Ottawa Bagelshop normally, as the bread is baked downstairs and thus you have a large selection which is the freshest.

The Landsdowne farmers market is the other excellent location as Stephanie and Kevin bring a huge selection over there.

I picked up a baguette while checking out the Piggy Market yesterday. They seemed to carry a fair variety of Art is in breads.

The price of the baguette was $3 which isn't far from the price of an ACE bakery baguette.

Texture of the bread was great- my only (minor) beef was that the exterior was heavily floured, which I got all over the place.

I'm excited to try more and happy that a place not to far from me carries it.

At a weekend BBQ, I snapped up a piece of baguette for my dinner plate. I took one bite and... deliciousness...*swoon* :)

I asked the hostess and low and behold it was an Art-Is-In baguette.

A different fermentation process is used for the recipe, yielding a slightly salty, moist, rich flavour. And amazing texture!

Initially I thought that they used parmesan cheese in the bread, but no; it was simply a mature pre-ferment process.

I second Fresh Foodie's sentiments, incredible!

We picked up a small Art-is-in baguette from Thyme & Again (Thyme And Again) on Saturday, and we were not disappointed! This bread lived up to all our expectations and then some. I had planned to enjoy some good salami with it but ended up eating it as is. Definitely the tastiest baguette in Ottawa!

The crust is thin and crispy with a delicious salty sheen to it, as though it had been brushed or sprayed with brine during the baking. (Good breads are usually cooked in a steam-injection oven to develop a great crust. Maybe they use salt water here??)

The crumb is just incredible! Wonderfully chewy, with a perfect balance of airiness and moisture, and a rich, almost buttery, flavour.

I should warn you that this is not a normal baguette! It has certain characteristics in common with focaccia and croissants -- it doesn't need any toppings (not even butter). Superior though it is, I would choose a less rich tasting baguette (like Première Moisson or ACE) if I were making sandwiches.

For me, good bread is the ultimate comfort food. I'm thrilled to have a new source for it!

Art-is-in makes the best baguettes in the region (Fresh Foodie's description is bang on) and the quality/taste is worth the sore jaw. It does make a great sandwich with the right ingredients (try roast beef, sweet pepper jelly, lettuce, and abit of mayo/butter). The distant runner-up is Ace Bakery, which is pretty good considering it arrives in Ottawa in a frozen state.

As Jagash mentioned, The Piggy Market is now the exclusive distributor of Art-is-in's Beau's Sourdough bread.

The loaves are 12 inches in diameter, and use 1 liter of Beau's per loaf. It's pretty crazy. We picked a quarter loaf (selling for $7.50!) at The Piggy Market on Saturday, and enjoyed it with raclette.

It's airier than most sourdoughs, and wasn't really conducive to sandwiches or much other than dipping into oil, or eating as an open faced sandwich with a knife and fork.

However, it had a very rich flavour to it. If I could eat that much bread without the help of nine friends, I'd buy it more often.

hehe... I know Chimichimi can take it because I have nothing but respect for his knowledge! :-)

We had the scone vs. scawn debate here: ottawafoodies.com/forum/646

psst... it's "scawn" ;-)

FF that was a righteous burn on chimi, but I'll have to admit I had NO IDEA that a scone and biscuit were considered one in the same.

A quick google for recipes does yield results indicating that scones have baking soda added, but boy was I surprised to see those wikis!

Here's a better debate - is it "s'cone" or "scawn"?

Foodie: I think the major difference is that a scone contains a baking soda/powder combo, where biscuits (to me, anyway) just contain baking powder. This results in a different taste and texture. Minor differences are that scones are sweet or savoury, where biscuits are typically plain or savoury.

Martha: I definitely agree that these are probably the best commercially available scones in Ottawa, along with Scone-witch. I just would have preferred some more berry in my scone! :( I think I got a bad one, since my raspberry scone was packed with berries

Well I am by no means a scones connoisseur so my review is not very legit! These are probably the first scones i've had in a few years! Nonetheless I was very pleased with them! Chimichimi, after reading your review, thinking back they definitely weren't buttery but I was told that art-is-in bakes their stuff with a lot of oil and less butter. I guess it's just a matter of taste? Anyways, this isn't really a review but I just wanted to comment back. What makes a scone a good scone? What a weird name.

Chimichimi, to help me understand your comments can you tell me what do you consider to be the difference between scones (en.wikipedia.org) and biscuits (en.wikipedia.org)? Thanks. :-)

I had some scones from Art-is-in as well, and it's really hard to judge since my partner makes the best scones... ever. While I found the scones to be good, they were maybe a little heavy on the baking powder/soda, and not as flaky/fluffy/buttery as I like them to be. Also, the berries weren't plentiful enough in the blueberry scone I had. Overall though, very good and I'd say better than Scone-witch scones (I almost find their scones to be like a biscuit?! Am I nuts? Still good, nonetheless)

I bought the blueberry scones today from the farmers market at Lansdowne. They are to DIE for!

I purchased some Hot Cross Buns from Art-Is-In Bakery on Easter Monday and was less impressed then usual. While they matched the definition of the baked good, I found them a touch denser then my preference and lacking in the icing department. Good, but not to the high standards of which I hold Art-Is-In-Bakery to.