The smell of fresh-baked bread wafting through the air is enticing enough to create a line down any block. Once upon a time, it did just that at the Crossroads Bake Shop in Doylestown, forcing owners Marcia Durgin and Paul Rizzo to expand into the burgeoning business they have today.
Since opening in1991, Crossroads Bake Shop has married both American and European-style baking to create a perfect menu of fresh out-of-the-oven pies, pastries and artisan breads. “The difference is in the fermentation,” Durgin explains, on what makes European-style bread so distinctive and superior. European bread-making involves slower rising times and uses cold water and little yeast, all of which are the antithesis of American bread-making methods. “Controlling the fermentation is how you get the flavor into the bread,” she adds. “It yields a better texture and taste.”
And in attempting to yield better taste, Durgin and Rizzo have worked long and hard to perfect their craft. Durgin took a second job shaping croissants at a bakery in Boston when her day job in the environmental field began to feel a little stale. She bounced from bakeshop to bake shop, working nights in order to help pay the bills while also learning the ins and outs of the craft that was quickly becoming her passion. “I still wasn’t thinking that this was what I was going to do full time,” says Durgin.
Still, perhaps realizing that opening a bakery of their own was looking more like a reality, Rizzo left his job to acquaint himself with the bake shop environment as well. “He knew that if we were going to open a bakery, he had to get some experience,” Durgin says. Rizzo worked at a bake shop that focused primarily on bread-making, where he learned the European style that they specialize in today.
Their initial foray into the baking world began at the Doylestown Farmers’ Market. Soon outgrowing their humble beginnings, they moved to a small converted garage behind the Cross Keys Diner on Route 313, where their reputation grew quickly. “The amount of bread we were selling was unbelievable,” Durgin says. Nine months later, they’d already outgrown the space and had to move again.
Which brings them to where they are today - sort of. “We wanted to be small, and we were hesitant to take the full space that was offered to us,” Durgin says, on their decision to expand at their current location at 812 North Easton Rd. “But our original space was really tiny.” However, the consistent lines proved to be enough inspiration to force their decision.
Today, Crossroads features a varying menu of breads and pastries on different days alongside their staple bakery offerings. Everything is made on-site; and Durgin and Rizzo try to buy as many local, organic ingredients as possible. Their coffee comes from Small World Café in Princeton. The eggs are delivered from Rick’s Egg Farm in Kintnersville, where the chickens are grain-fed and hormone free.
And even beyond their wares, supporting the community is a priority for Durgin and Rizzo. The shop hosts local artists, whose work on the walls is always for sale. They even carry products from local farms like Solebury Orchards and the Carousal Lavender Farm located outside New Hope.
“The community has really embraced us,” Durgin says. “People like to come in and take their time, which is a nice surprise these days.”
Go Online at www.crossroadsbakeshop.com