Martha's Country Bakery has been on my radar since the first time I stayed in Brooklyn (Williamsburg) for a month one summer a few years back. They had several locations within a few minutes walk of where I was staying, and, well, it is a bakery, and I love
baked goods, and seemed pretty busy, so of course I was interested. However,
I also discovered Mia's Brooklyn Bakery during that visit, and I became a repeat customer there instead, and thus, never branched out after the rave success of their lobster roll. So somehow, despite walking by it daily to get to the subway to/from the office, I never actually got anything (I did step inside to scope it out, and honestly, the vastness of their selections was another factor in me not getting anything, as I was overwhelmed every time).
Anyway, Martha's Country Bakery is a small chain of bakery-cafes in Brooklyn and Queens. 5 locations, none in Manhattan. They first opened in 1969. I still haven't actually gone there myself to order, but recently a friend did, and got a whole pie, so I finally got to try it.
Setting
Walking into Martha's is a bit ... overwhelming. Well, if you approach the display cases that is. You could choose to be seated and order from a menu, as they offer full table service. But you can also approach the display cases and order there, and ... well, let's just say, I've walked in a few times, and been met with total decision paralysis. The array of goodies is beyond massive. A glimpse:
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| Cupcakes. |
The lineup starts chill, with cupcakes (or, as chill as a lineup with 18 choices for cupcakes alone can be ....).
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| Bars / Pudding / Cake Pops / Slices. |
Then some bars, cake pops (3 kinds), puddings (5 kinds), and slices ...
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| Cookies. |
But don't forget to look on TOP of the cases, where there are cookies.
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| More cookies & slices. |
In fact, there are 18 different kinds of cookies too, some of which are vegan.
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| Cheesecakes. |
Then we get into the cheesecake slices, 14 kinds of those.
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| More Slices. |
And different styles of cake slices, a whopping 17 of those.
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| More Slices / Tarts. |
The slices continue, along with fruit tarts (3 kinds).
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| Slices / Bread Pudding. |
More and more slices, but don't forget to look down, where the bread puddings are hiding (with or without chocolate), and flan, and rice pudding.
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| Pie Slices. |
And then it is time for slices of pie.
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| More Pie Slices. |
12 kinds of pie, by the slice.
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| Pies. |
But of course you can get whole pies too.
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| Whole Pies. |
All are readily available whole too, no pre-orders required.
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| Cakes. |
Same with the whole cakes (7 or 8 inch, 30 kinds!!!!).
Pies
For pies, Martha's has quite the lineup: all the fruit pies (apple crumb, sour cream apple, old fashioned apple, or apple strudel, blueberry or triple berry, cherry), cream/custard pies (banana cream, pumpkin, key lime), nuts (pecan), and decadent chocolate (mississippi mud). Slices are available for $10.25 each, whole pies for $40-45 depending on the variety.
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| Cherry Pie. $41.50. |
This was my third cherry pie in as many weeks - the first was sour cherry from Bubby's (average, their crust isn't that great, 3/5), and then
another sour cherry from Petee's (much better crust, much better filling, didn't blow my mind, but very good classic cherry pie 4/5).
The Martha's version was crumb topped, not sour cherry pie, regular cherry. It came very generously covered (normally I'd say "dusted" but that doesn't seem appropriate for the quantity) with powdered sugar. It also had a trio of maraschino cherries perched on top that actually made it look kinda cheap (at least to me. Fresh cherries, cocktail cherries, those would look classier ...).
Under the abundance of powdered sugar was a thick crumble topping. It required force to cut into, almost like a cookie layer. It was sweet and crumbly, and I really liked it except ... it had a spicing to it that I didn't care for, perhaps nutmeg, that was fairly aggressive and really clashed with the cherry filling. I almost loved that topping, it's a shame on the spicing.
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| Cherry Pie: Inside. |
The pie crust base was good, thick, nice buttery flavor (although not super flaky).
And then, the cherry filling. To me, it tasted a bit cheap and was just fairly sweet (not cloying, but definitely just sweet). In short, it matched the vibe of those maraschino cherries perched on top. I definitely prefer either a sour cherry pie, or one that is made with fresh cherries, this one just felt kinda like pie-from-a-can (although less goopy that those can be).
I liked the pie considerably more once I warmed it up and served it with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream, but overall it was a letdown. Good crust, almost awesome topping, mediocre filling. Low 3/5.
