Review of Olly Makes Bakery

This place is fantastic! My wife has a gluten allergy, I don't. Let me start off by saying we're not even going to qualify by using the phrase "for a gluten-free bakery..." because I'd put this bakery up against ANY bakery for the quality of the baked goods, and it's got a whole lot going for it in addition to the delicious items.

I had read some great reviews, and it's right across from the (fabulous) 21c hotel so it was easy for us to stop by. We encountered Olly's mom (boy, she looks young, and I actually assumed she was Olly because she was wearing an Olly t-shirt and I hadn't been here before) coming out of the place after closing and we had a really pleasant conversation with her, and stopped by the next morning.

We had a wonderful time there. First of all, yes, it's all true about the chocolate zucchini bread, it's excellent. Moist, delicious, not too sweet but just the right amount of chocolate flavor. Excellent. May even be better the next day. Secondly, while I was sure I was going to get the blueberry muffin everyone raves about, the coffee cake caught my eye. It was also outstanding. Sometimes coffee cake can be too sweet, or too dry. This one hit the mark on several counts. First, it was the right combination of underlying coffee cake base and sweet topping. Second, oh that topping! I was tasting walnut, and a little chocolate, and a little espresso, what an awesome combination. And again, just the right amount of sweetness. Just wow. That would go well with some...you guessed it...coffee.

We also had a savory item, some kind of Parmesan corn muffin, I don't remember exactly what all the ingredients were, but it was excellent! We thought we were going to take it back to the hotel room but it was so good we just ate it there. It was moist (how does she do it? Ok I will break down and finally say "for gluten-free, because they are sometimes just heavy and like cardboard or flavorless") and just delicious.

Now, she doesn't have an entire fru-fru set of coffee drinks, but the coffee she does serve is excellent. And it's hot and it stays hot in the paper cups somehow.

And the house is charming and relaxing and it's fun to hang out, they have wi-fi, and the seating is comfortable.

So stop by, grab yourself some bakery treats and coffee, and hang out for a while, you'll have a great time. We did. In fact, we're going back for that blueberry muffin and to see what else she's got.

All I know is you need to come here, gluten-free or not. It was such a memorable, pleasant experience for us.