When you think “bakery,” perching on a bar stool until
midnight isn’t what immediately comes to mind. But Caramel Bakery and Bar,
which opened on Park Avenue in October, is a cheerful, sweet-smelling
alternative to many of the city’s nighttime haunts. Wednesday through Saturday
it’s a great after-dinner spot for dessert and a nightcap or two, and its
Sunday brunch is providing a welcome option for those tired of the long wait
for a seat at the other Park Avenue eateries.
Haley Shuman
and Mark Mendola opened Caramel with a fall menu, but
they’ve shifted to a winter menu featuring seasonally-available fruits, such as
berries, sourced mainly from the Rochester Public Market. You can order items
like French macarons from the pastry case in the front of the shop, or take a
seat and linger over a decadent dessert and coffee, beer, wine, or a cocktail.
A Webster
native, Shuman attended Pennsylvania College of Technology for baking and
pastry arts. For a college project she designed a restaurant called Halo’s
Dessert Bar, which resembled what Caramel is today.
“We kind of
always had it on the back burner,” Shuman says. After college she moved back to
Rochester, where she was the assistant pastry chef at the Rochester Riverside
Convention Center and then the bakery manager at Hegedorn’s.
After a while she just wanted to work for herself, she says.
Mendola, who bartends and manages the front-of-house
operations, is a woodworker and created most of Caramel’s furniture, including
the bar top, shelving, tables, and bench seating. Between the handmade
furniture, the deep cerulean-painted walls, potted plants and fresh flowers,
the spot has an eclectic, cozy vibe to it. And though the raw wood and pipes
are there, the shop isn’t anything like the bare bones, industrial aesthetic
that has become so pervasive with cocktail bars and third-wave coffee shops.
Shuman says
she was inspired by the open-late, old-world bakeries she’s visited while on
vacation in other cities here and abroad, in Switzerland in particular. “There
was this beautiful little Swiss bakery that was open late that had coffee and
cocktails,” she says. She wanted to re-create that feeling of a late-night
community spot in her own shop.
“One of the
things that makes me so happy is when I come out and see people hanging out,
like after they’re eating, or playing one of the board games we have out
there,” Shuman says. “I just love that people are comfortable enough to come in
and just relax.”
Caramel’s
menu has limited gluten free options and includes vegan sweet potato chips and
vegan donut holes, which come with chocolate, raspberry, and caramel dipping
sauces. All of the desserts are $10, and Shuman and Mendola
have fun naming them (note the hat tip to Rihanna with the “Under my Nutella-ella-ella-eh”).
“I love
making plated desserts, that’s my favorite part of it,” Shuman says. “I love it
when we get to bring out a dessert and see people’s faces so excited that
there’s this extravagant dessert coming to them,” she says.
I tried the
Forbidden Forest, which is Caramel’s take on a Black Forest cake. It features a
thin layer of chocolate cake with a cherry cheesecake top, and is surprisingly
light for such a rich, dense-looking slice. There’s a pairing menu, with each
of the desserts matched with a craft beer (add $5), a wine (add $8), or a
cocktail (add $7). Per the pairing suggestion, I ordered the Winter Paloma, a
warming, fruity take on the tequila-based beverage featuring muddled
blackberries, and cranberry and pomegranate juices.
Shuman says
one of her favorite pairings is the refreshing Gin n’ Juice cocktail and the
Uh-Huh-Honey, which I’d definitely order again. It’s a warm and gooey
pomegranate, orange, and apple crisp over a perfect pie crust topped with honey
ice cream, which only gets better as the dollop melts into the crisp.
Much of the
brunch menu is “influenced by what Mark and I like to eat at diners,” Shuman
says. “And then we just upscaled it slightly.”
A popular
brunch item that Shuman says sells out almost every week is the Dola’s Delight ($8), which is influenced by Mendola’s love of combining Sriracha
and pesto. The dish features both those condiments with eggs and bacon over
cheesy, crispy hash browns that are cooked in a waffle iron.
Shuman and Mendola say they plan to add outdoor seating in the coming
summer, and they are considering adding Saturday brunch hours in the near
future.
This article appears in Jan 23-29, 2019.
