The aroma hit me as soon as I stepped inside the red double doors. The kind of waft that wraps you in a comforting blanket and makes your mouth water tells me I'm in the right place on a residential street in the heart of student land.
I have heard about Nottingham's Small Food Bakery, I've written about it, but I've never visited before. I was given the nudge I needed after the Good Food Guide listed it as one of Britain's top 50 bakeries this week. Tough Mary's Bakehouse, in Derby Road, which I know and love, also made the grade.
In my defence, I was going to try out the Small Food Bakery once before but arrived to find it closed as it's only open three days a week, from Thursday to Saturday. It's in an odd location - within a former primary school in Seely Road, which links Derby Road and Ilkeston Road. Parking outside the building is limited but there was plenty of space on Ilkeston Road, where you can leave your car for up to two hours for free.
Inside the bakery there was a lady in front of me and I struck up a conversation with her telling me how she's a frequent customer and just how good everything is. The counter was full of sweet and savoury bakes, making me all of a tizzy as it all looked so good. Behind the counter are the ovens where the magic happens, while out in the corridor are bags and bags of flour from Tuxford Windmill.
Apart from the sausage rolls (more on those later) and croissants, it was a cornucopia of tempting bakes with a difference. To start with I picked a cheese scone, but not any standard cheese scone. The young guy, who welcomed me to the bakery, told me it was a sourdough scone that used some different techniques. Sorry I didn't inquire exactly what that entailed but I was too keen to eat it.
While you can take your bakes away, you can also sit in with a coffee from Beam, another enterprise within the building, which is also home to a gallery and bookshop. After ordering an Americano, nicely presented on a small wooden tray with the milk in a pottery jug, I took a seat on a stool at a triangular table in a small room between the coffee counter and shop. There was no forgetting it used to be a school with the brick walls, old sash windows and pipework but the ghost of soggy cabbage and lumpy custard at school dinners within these walls had well and truly been exorcised.
The first bite of scone brought a vibrant hit of fresh, sweet leek, the next was the tang of Westcombe Cheddar, a Somerset cheese. No butter was needed as it was so beautifully moist. The shape might be flatter than a typical scone but it was exceeding good. How can something so lovingly crafted and delicious be only £2.55 and even cheaper if you take it away?
I wolfed it down, stopping only to sip the very good barista coffee (£3.80). After a quick wander around the gallery, over two floors, I returned to the bakery, which also sells fresh fruit and vegetables. When was the last time you bought a carrot as it should be, still covered in mud rather than the sanitised versions from a supermarket? Rhubarb, onions, cauliflowers, locally foraged wild garlic and even Nottingham grown limes are for sale.
I couldn't help but admire the bread. As well as porridge loaves, wholemeal sourdough, and rye, the top shelf was dedicated to super-supersized loaves. One was called the Radford Massive (love it!) and was sold by weight so you can buy anything from a slice to the whole loaf, which would probably feed the entire population of Radford and Lenton too. I tried one of the samples, slathered in butter, and made a mental note to buy some of that in the future.
This time I bought a rye sourdough for £3.50, which I'll be trying this weekend, but didn't stop there. By now my resolve to cut back on carbs had gone out the window. The sweet treats were quite something - different fruit and chocolate filled brioche, Benedict bars with pecans, jam and shortbread, torta di nocciole and chocolate souflett, which I spotted was gluten free.
A sausage roll came home with me. Packed with meat, the layers of lamination were superb on the buttery and crisp flaky pastry (£4.50). I also treated my family to a raspberry, blackberry and almond brioche (£3) and a slice of spelt crumble with blackcurrant, apple, raspberry and gooseberry (also £3).
Obviously for the sake of this review, I HAD to try them, and by now it came as no surprise that they were just as divine as the savouries, bursting with fruit and flavour. At a time when eating out can be expensive, this is one way of enjoying an affordable treat. The Small Food Bakery is big on flavour and friendliness and I urge you to try it.
