Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Restaurants Alpha Bakery Can Do Everything
Posted by Nicki Wood on Tue, May 26, 2009 at 7:34 AM
Bellevue. The Burbank of Nashville. But wait -- something changed.
Bellevue was the whitebread commuter suburb as recently as 1998, when food writer Kay West said that very thing in print. But something happened and now Bellevue is a veritable rainbow of ethnicity, with culinary beachheads established here and there.
Take Alpha Bakery, for instance. It's been open since 1998, and has possibly the most interesting history of any bakery in town. Owner T.T. Chen was a Chinese political reporter based in Japan for 20-odd years. He loved to bake, finding refuge from the political storm in the kitchen. He was the last person to interview the Dalai Lama. His articles swayed Chinese political opinion.
So naturally, he moved to Nashville to open a bakery in Bellevue. (Well sure he did! Who doesn't, I ask you?) Bakeries have wafer-thin profit margins, so the fact that his bakery is 10 years old means he's doing something right.
And that would be .... everything. Sunday lunch yielded one delicacy after another. A chocolate croissant at the pinnacle of flakiness, every bite a shower of buttery shards. A pineapple poppyseed muffin whose unexpected flavor profile is the kind of thing you might put together by accident, then grow to love. A chicken salad with a rich chicken flavor from a balanced mixture of light and dark meat. And a still-warm cream cheese claw that oozed warm, sugary cream cheese filling from a soft shell of sweet dough.
From strength to strength, that's been my experience at Alpha. Even after I spent $32 on baked goods, there were still so many things I didn't try, and now I can hardly wait to go back.
Comments (11)
Showing 1-11 of 11
like
dislike
I see you followed my lead, good job.
Alpha is this towns best kept secret. I've been saying this for years. Their bread is unparalleled, along with their pastries and baked goods. Best challah there is.
Nikki, you might like to know that TT has been out of the country for about five years, and Sue has been running the business. TT is a classically trained pastry chef also. He did not pick up baking as a side line. He has businesses in China as well.
Let Me Not Oppose Praise! Really quite super, thanks!
@cheffy -- I hadn't been to Alpha in at least 7 years until Sunday, when we happened to be in Bellevue for something else. Then I read your comment on Lee's post yesterday. Well, I nearly fell over, as Southerners say. Thanks for the clarifications, too.
Nikki,
I wish more people would support Alpha. Thanks for getting the word out in their behalf. TiTi and Su have a special place in my heart. We had both opened fledgling businesses about the same time, me in 96, TiTi and Su in 97. We were all "foreigners" and not totally "acquainted" with the ways of southerners, so we could easily share stories. We supported each others business and built a very warm friendship. I have the utmost respect for TiTi and Su, for the way they run their business, and for the consistent, high quality product they have delivered over and over again for all of these years.
If they would only start making Guk Char Siu Bau along with the ham and cheese bun and curry pan.
I just made grilled peanut butter-chocolate-and-marshmallow sandwiches on raisin challah from Alpha for lunch today. My children think I am a goddess.
...and they would be right. Please do not tell my child that people eat that kind of thing for lunch. Was it incredible? Did you get the chicken salad?
@Shanghai Czech: char siu would be a fantastic addition. It does seem like an oversight, now you mention.
