The Bread House serves farm-to-table fresh cuisine

ALBANY — You know that feeling you get when you walk into a building and your eyes open wide and you have to stop yourself from saying “whoa” out loud?

If there is one place that can give you that whoa feeling at first sight, it’s The Bread House. This is the kind of restaurant where I could see myself going several times a week for a cup of coffee or a glass of kombucha, just to get to see it over and over again. Without even bringing the fresh, locally inspired food into the picture, The Bread House was clearly designed to make a statement.

I showed up after lunch, when everyone was already back at work, to sit down with Chef Reid Harrison and talk about food, culture, the economy and most importantly — kale. Harrison preaches kale like it’s a sermon close to his heart, but when you can get it fresh daily right from the farm, can you blame him? The Bread House is the only farm-to-table restaurant in the area. You can taste how close to home these ingredients are.

Because I arrived so regrettably late, most of the local favorites of the day were sold out, but considering there isn’t a single item on the menu that I’m not looking forward to trying in the future, I wasn’t going to complain. Without knowing what would show up at the table, I let Chef Reid be the guide.

The first dish was the soup of the day. Harrison is a big fan of soups and what you can do with them, so I was interested to see what he could do with something that I tend to make an afterthought. The fact that they do use fresh ingredients was stated here. The chicken, vegetable, kale and quinoa soup tasted like homemade Italian food. Now, this is not an Italian restaurant, but the flavors together made me feel like I was transported to Tuscany. There was plenty of texture and flavor to go around. This is not your average vegetable soup. It also came with a sesame coated cracker that was a nice break from saltines.

Before I knew it, the Pesto Chicken Pita Pizza was on the table. It has an ultra-thin, crispy crust topped with chicken, tomatoes, red onions, herbs and three different cheeses. The pizza is small enough to share as an appetizer without you and your friends stuffing yourselves, but take my advice and hoard it all for yourself because selfish people live longer (as noted by Nicki Minaj in the movie “The Other Woman” starring Cameron Diaz and Leslie Mann). If I was alone, I probably would have rolled it up like a taco, but no, one must express caution in public, no matter how good the food is.

The pizza had a really nice balance of flavors, and the slices didn’t flop over when I picked them up, which adds a whole 50 points in my opinion. The cheddar and mozzarella somehow were able to hold their ground and keep the chicken and vegetables from swan diving off of the slices while I unsuccessfully tried to capture a photo of that crucial moment when you pull back the first slice in slow motion and the melted cheese clings on to the rest of the pizza. Close your eyes and picture it. It’s great isn’t it? Sure would have been better if I could take photos with one hand.

Halfway through my pizza tasting, the star of the meal arrived.

“We added bacon and cheddar for you,” Harrison said.

For me? You shouldn’t have.

When you do decide to try The Bread House 50/50 Burger, make sure to remember to ask for cheddar and bacon. You can’t even imagine how excited I was to see cheddar cheese pouring off of the burger and clinging to the plate. If you think the cheesy pizza effect is great, you should really try it with a whole hamburger. I don’t know what kind of bacon they use, but it was incredible. I would willingly trade a portion of my arteries to have this bacon on every single dish I ever eat again. It was thick without being difficult to chew, juicy without being greasy and crispy without being overcooked.

Now on to the burger. There is a theme going on right now with toasting buns, and my coworker and I are living for it. Jada Haynes said if you’re not toasting your buns in 2018, what are you even doing, and she is right. Burger, sandwich or hotdog; it doesn’t matter. The bread deserves to be crispy. You deserve crispy bread. Thankfully, the 50/50 Burger is served on a toasted sourdough homemade potato bread bun. I would hate to have something to actually complain about for once, but The Bread House came through. I am a sucker for texture, and this bun had me at first bite.

One thing I liked a lot was that the burger isn’t just a giant pile of meat. This is where I’m going to lose people, but I feel like something about the burger gets lost when the beef is cooked in bulk. Either the patty dries out or it gets cooked unevenly. I don’t know. Food science is not in my wheelhouse yet. There was a perfect ratio for me of bun to meat to cheese to bacon to toppings where no ingredient was left behind.

I would like to take this moment to ask you all to stop removing your lettuce and tomatoes from your burgers … looking at you, mom. Burgers have layers just like onions have layers or cake or ogres, as mentioned in “Shrek,” a movie starring Cameron Diaz and Michael Myers. This is an excellent moment to take advantage of the fresh ingredients available by letting them highlight the taste of the quality blend of ground chuck and brisket.

Even though I had to take what I couldn’t physically eat back to work with me, this was a leftover-less meal. I even drank the soup right from the to-go container at my desk. The food at The Bread House is worth every penny. I only regret not buying any of the cookies. Oh well, there’s always next time.

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Gypsy Crow

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