The Standard Baking Company
75 Commercial St., Portland, ME
A great place to retire
A 2008 US News listing of the healthiest places to retire put Portland, ME at the top of the heap. Perhaps they failed to visit downtown’s Standard Baking
Company.
I’m not saying you can’t make a healthy purchase at Standard Baking Co.. You could buy bread, a mini pizza for lunch, even their blueberry scones are
multi-grain. And it’s not like a person can’t enjoy the occasional moist and decadent chocolate cork (pictured) and still maintain a healthy lifestyle.
However I’d imagine my first day of retirement in Portland, ME would go like this:
9:00 am: I say to myself “Okay, it’s Monday, first day in Portland. I’m going to have a morning bun with breakfast and I’ll be good for the rest of the day.”
9:37 am: While moving boxes into our downtown apartment I discover what appears to be a glazed walnut stuck in a fold of my shirt. Assuming it is from the morning’s pastry I eat it. Not only is it not from the mornings pastry, it’s not even a nut. I don’t want to talk about it.
1:22 pm: While driving to pick up groceries I pass 75 Commercial St.. I am momentarily distracted and side swipe eleven parked cars.
4:49 pm: I look up from the box I am unloading and inexplicably find myself standing at the counter of Standard Baking. Confused I order an iced tea and walk out. I think my new apartment has a wormhole.
5:55 pm: Five minutes prior to closing I charge down Commercial St., burst into Standard Baking, and gasping for air ask, “Am I too late? You still have gingerbread right? Scones? Something, anything!”
6:01 pm: Sitting at a table just outside of Standard, now closed, I bite into the chewy edge of a chocolaty and almondy Financier (pictured) which I have just pulled out of a very large and very full box of pastry.
Oh yeah, I could retire here.