Wednesday, January 17, 2001

The staff of life

By F.C. FOODIE
Food Critic

As winter contains to maintain its icy grip on the area, many of us are turning to comfort foods to help us get through these dreary days.

Pots of chili and soup are simmering on the stove and many of us are baking corn bread and biscuits by the pan full to warm our stomachs.

It's the bread that I want to focus on this month. I have always been a huge fan of freshly baked bread, although I don't eat quite as much as I used to. I haven't quite gone to the extreme of the bread Nazis of Dr. Atkins diet lovers, but I'm simply choosier when I decide to eat bread.

The question is, though, where do you get good bread?

I'm not talking about the pasty, white, tasteless stuff that many of us make sandwiches out of every day. I'm talking about bread more in the European tradition: hearty, crunchy and filled with flavor.

In the last few years, good bakeries have become one of the niche markets in the food industry. In major cities, including Atlanta, bakeries are popping up on every street corner and offering their interpretation of focaccia and baguettes.

We're not quite that fortunate here in the hinterlands, but I do have some recommendations:

Break of Day bakery on Ga. Highway 74 in Peachtree City.

This is the only genuine bakery in the area. Walk in the shop and the aroma of fresh-baked bread overwhelms you. The bakery offers several varieties of bread baked that day, along with a good selection of sandwiches and desserts.

Publix - many locations. This grocery store has the best bread of any of the grocery chains. Where else can you get Cuban bread on the south side?

The sandwiches at the Atlanta Bread Company - Fayette Pavilion. Not only does this establishment offer healthy choices for lunch, but the breads and muffins are some of the best anywhere.

That's about it. With nearly 200,000 people in Fayette and Coweta counties, I think we're severely underserved in the bread department. C'mon, entrepreneurs... give us our daily bread.

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