Misstropolis

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

A New Flour is Growing

by Andrea Pyenson

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When Joanne Chang opened her first Flour Bakery + Café on Washington Street in the South End seven years ago, customers had to pick their way around construction rubble to get to the front door. It’s like that again, at her second Flour, on Farnsworth Street in the burgeoning Fort Point Channel neighborhood – which to her was part of the appeal.

“There are new lofts, artists, people who travel, appreciate good food, and are looking for a neighborhood feel… a place to hang out,” Chang says. “I’d been hearing from people in the Fort Point area, ‘I’d love it if you’d come to my area.’”

One of those people was the developer of the building that houses the new Flour, and several other nearby buildings, who also happened to be a customer of the Washington Street Flour. Chang says other neighborhood anchors, like the Children’s Museum, the new Intercontinental Hotel, and the Institute for Contemporary Art were also draws for her. As was the fact that the area is on course to become a culinary mecca.

Several residential buildings have either recently been completed or are under construction. There are loft-condominium complexes and artists’ studios in various stages of completion on nearby Congress, Melcher, and Sleeper Streets. These are being targeted at “younger, hip, cool people,” Chang says. The bakery-café is also in the middle of an office complex that provides plenty of customers during weekdays; and Boston’s World Trade Center is just over the Congress Street bridge.

The Flour on Farnsworth, which opened in late January, is one and one-half times the size of its sister location. It has brick walls and high, beamed ceilings. Yet despite the open space, it feels welcoming and cozy. Chang’s goal was to replicate the feel of her original café, and with the help of her designer/builder/architect, another longtime Flour customer, she has succeeded.

The menu at the new Flour is exactly the same as the original. Glass cases display gorgeous breakfast pastries, cookies, tarts, and cakes, and blackboards list the day’s savory items. For those of us who never bought into that ridiculous no-carb thing, there is nothing better than starting the day with one of Flour’s sugar brioche buns ($2.50), muffin cakes ($1.95), sticky buns ($2.50), or scones ($1.95).

Starting at lunchtime, the café serves sandwiches like applewood-smoked bacon, L & T ($6.50); curried tuna salad, apples, carrots, and golden raisins($6.50); and grilled roast chicken, brie, arugula, peppers, and onions ($6.95); soups ($3.25 bowl, $4.25 pint, $8.50 quart); simple mixed green salad ($2.50 or $3.50); and pizza, quiche, and stuffed bread of-the-day (all $4.95).

For dessert, think cookies – oatmeal raisin or ginger molasses ($1.25), or Scharffenberger chocolate chip or double chocolate ($1.50). Chang’s granola bars, with oats, honey, walnuts, cranberry-apricot-apple jam, or raspberry crumb bars, with a buttery base, raspberry jam, and a streusel crumb topping ($2.50) would make a perfect mid-afternoon snack. The bakery also sells an assortment of whole cakes and tarts to bring home, back to the office, or just share among friends (you can get individual servings, too)…

Once again, Chang is a pioneer in an area of the city that is still looking a little ragged. But don’t wait until it’s all nice and pretty to get down there. It’s worth braving the detours, the bumps, the ruts, and the roadblocks to experience Flour in its second incarnation.