Lunch, Anyone? Flour Bakery and Café

Walk into the South End’s Flour Bakery & Café, and you’re greeted by the heady aroma of coffee, butter, chocolate, and fresh-baked bread.

Pastry chef and owner Joanne Chang opened Flour’s first location here back in 2000. The café, featuring breakfast pastries, breads, cakes, cookies, and tarts, as well as sandwiches, soups, and salads, was so successful that Chang went on to open two more locations, one in the Fort Point Channel area, the other adjacent to the MIT campus in Cambridge.

Arriving for lunch on a recent Friday, we decided to heed the restaurant’s motto: “Make life sweeter…eat dessert first!” In fact, we went one better: our meal was nothing but baked goods. And what an array it was. We ordered the banana bread ($2.25), moist and full of ripe bananas and walnuts, the apple snacking spice cake ($2.95), which will leave your fingers sticky with gooey goodness, and a blueberry bread pudding ($3.95). The trio proved a satisfying combination, with a cup of loose-leaf jasmine tea ($1.25) to clear our palette between each savory bite. We also indulged in a fresh fruit tart ($4.95), which was studded with blueberries and blackberries and had mango, kiwi, and pomegranate bits topping a vanilla cream that was neither too sweet nor too heavy. To complement all that, we treated ourselves to a decadent fiery hot chocolate ($2.50), which had a deep chocolate flavor with a cinnamon spice kick, the perfect thing for a cold winter’s day.

Sadly, we arrived too late to grab any of the café’s famous sticky buns ($2.95), which were featured recently on an episode of the Food Network’s Throwdown with Bobby Flay. (For the record, Chang’s won over Flay’s.) The Flour staff recommends coming in the morning if you want the buns, which have generated much buzz and long lines seven days a week at each of the café’s locations.

After eating our smorgasbord of baked goods, it was easy to see why Flour has been named “Best of Boston’s Neighborhood Sweets” five times. But we should note that the café also offers a wide variety of sandwiches, soups, and salads, ranging from $5 to $8. Regulars rave about the applewood-smoked bacon sandwich ($7.95). Another crowd pleaser is the breakfast egg sandwich with ham or bacon and cheddar ($6.50).

The café’s ambiance alone would be enough to lure visitors. Patrons are greeted by a huge chalkboard wall next to the cash register covered in colorfully handwritten menus, along with a quote-of-the-week and the day’s weather. As for the staff, they are a friendly and tight-knit group.

The hip, inviting café and bakery has something to offer everyone, students, families, professionals, and tourists, satisfaction guaranteed.

Flour Bakery & Café has three locations: 12 Farnsworth St., Boston, open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday; 1595 Washington St., Boston, open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday; 190 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. All major credit cards are accepted. More information can be found here.

This is part of a weekly series featuring Boston lunch spots of interest to the BU community. If you have any suggestions for places we should feature, leave them in the comments section below. Check out our list of lunchtime tips on Foursquare.

Grace Ko can be reached at graceko@bu.edu.

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