The Tuesday Taste: COBS Bread

 

 

A rumour has it that

it's getting late

Time marches on

just can't wait

The clock keeps turning

why hesitate? 

 

Another Tuesday... another Taste! It's an unusual one this week, what with this not being something one would consider a restaurant. It's COBS Bread! Yep, for reasons even I don't understand... we're reviewing a bakery.

Hey, it is a chain of bakeries though. COBS (which may or may not stand for "Canada's Own Bread Store, there seems little proof of this beyond rumours) actually has its roots far down and across the Pacific Ocean. They're essentially a parallel business of an Australian bakery chain named Baker's Delight, a venture of Roger and Leslie Gillespie in 1980 (the Gillespie family has a long tradition of bakers, according to COBS website) that has since grown into hundreds of outlets around the world... of which Canada features a significant portion of (at least 1/5) under the COBS Bread moniker. 

COBS isn't merely an off-shoot of the operation, either. Their own website explains that many products they offer are also exact recipes Baker's Delight feature in all of their locations. It's kind of the opposite of the A&W Canada situation, where in that case the name is the same (damn rhyme) but the Canadian company is instead completely unconnected and independent from the American entity. 

One day I'll have to try American A&W and compare it... but for now lets get into COBS bakery. First off, I have to be honest and say I'm not one who frequents bakeries, um basically ever... so we're off to a good start. As somebody who works nights almost exclusively, being outside in those sunbeam moments of early morning might as well be Jupiter to me.

Problem is, the best time to visit a bakery are during those same sunrise hours... that's when the bread is coming out of the ovens at its absolute freshest and the smells of such waft invitingly through the bright empty streets. Aside from playing hardball games or a potential hot date, it's incredibly hard to get me to travel anywhere at 6am... and so here comes my COBS disclaimer: obviously you want to judge something upon its merits at its potential peak, but with a bakery you might get something that's been sitting on the rack for a few hours... obviously diminishing its quality and/or enjoyment. It's a roll of the dice what the state of your order is going to be in. Arriving first thing in the morning could've prevented this, but... again what I wrote in the previous paragraph. Hell it's 3:30 AM as I type this right now. Early mornings are pretty and not for people such as I.

Disclaimer aside... I rode down to the COBS location in the Beaches here in Toronto, right across on Queen from where the great Salty Dog bar used to be. It was 1:30 in the afternoon, well past the ideal bakery visiting hours we just established, so I wasn't sure how this would turn out. Backup plans were being formulated. Fortunately, their racks of baked offerings were well stocked and they even had multiple varieties of what I really came for: their mini pizzas.

Come now, me wanting to review a pizza? Is anybody even remotely surprised anymore...

They all looked a little dry (little did I know) but I stuck to it and ordered one of the spinach/mushroom/garlic concoction and another of the Hawaiian. COBS isn't a pizza joint (obviously) and I remembered this in the moment: I was going to get these mini rectangular pizzas as is, instead of getting them tossed back into an oven for a quick reheat. My doubts about the fairness of this endeavor led me to want a third item, which is when my eyes turned slightly to the left and saw a trio of shelves with croissants. I ordered one (spinach and feta again... I must've become Popeye for a moment there) and the man behind the counter was instantly delighted. "Those just came out of the oven a moment ago! I always love when a customer comes in and happens to order something we just made!" to paraphrase what he said quite joyfully. Indeed, he was not fibbing... it was still warm even five minutes later when I sat down to eat it... but we'll get to that later. 

 

 

Starting with the two pizza things... it's incredibly difficult for me to judge these as I normally would a pizza, because the pizza elements in here are so secondary to what this really is. This is closer in spirit to a fancy supermarket "pizza bun" than something even a Pizza Pizza or Wing Machine would barf (I mean serve) from their ovens. To comment upon it would require separating the pizza here from the bakery aspect, so I will! The bread is quite tasty but the pizza aspect is extremely underwhelming. 

Both of these reached me likely hours after emerging from an oven, but even enhanced freshness isn't going to save very mediocre (quality-wise) toppings. The spinach-mushroom offering is substantially better and more flavourful at least, with a decent blend of bitter and garlicy saltiness to keep the taste buds engaged. This Hawaiian though... extremely sad. Both slices suffered greatly from dried out toppings (prolonged time in open warm air I'd wager) but the spinach at least still had some moisture to it. Opposite that, you've got deflated pineapple that's lost all its juicy firmness, shrunken bits of bacon that exist only as chewy stings of salt, while the cheese and sauce hardly pops up in any bite (and when it does it comes across as run-of-the-mill generic fare). There just isn't enough "pizza" in here either... the Hawaiian one especially resembles something closer to an overcooked strudel than any pizza I've ever had. 

The bread somewhat redeems it. At least the spinach one (that Hawaiian is just a mess). It's a good crunchy crust that grows on you, not overtly buttery or wheaty but just finding the perfectly simple taste of soft fresh bread within. Even on a slow pan reheat many hours later (after getting home at midnight from a shift) the smell and softness is still marvelous beyond the semi-dry exterior. This isn't a good pizza, at all... but as a simple baked good I can comprehend a certain appeal because the bread is so good. Heck, the best parts of either item you see above is when there's a crispy cheese or sauce spot baked into the crust and it comes through on the bite. 

 

 

Onto the croissant! This may have been my first fresh croissant directly from a bakery in a decade (I know I know, I haven't been living). Back in my early 20s, when I would work even later into the next morning oftentimes, I'd be stopping at 24 hour spots to grab snacks on my way home quite frequently. Sometimes a place like a Rabba's or G's Fine Foods in the Annex would be putting out their freshly baked croissants for the new day just as I was arriving for junk food to finish my yesterday. The buttery smell of those hot croissants was such a treasure to me, the hunger equivalent of striking gold via right place at the right time. They had to still be hot out of the oven otherwise there was no point... you wanted it to be steaming, soft, and for each bite to melt in your mouth, instead of the edges being dry and the oily flakiness coating your fingers.

While I was fortunate to strike gold timing-wise at COBS here, this is a very high-quality croissant regardless. Any excessive flakiness one might find from something of lower quality is entirely absent: this here maintains a delicate and tasty balance of firm texture with soft feel on each bite. Extremely enjoyable from start to finish. Even the taste of butter doesn't impose, existing more within the composition of the bread and allowing the fillings inside to dictate the additional flavours. My only complaint (aside from wishing it were bigger) is how once again the taste of the spinach or cheese is somewhat of an afterthought. It's more forgivable here than with the pizzas, but I definitely found myself wanting just a bit more of what was going on inside. Quite nice when you get a good helping of it, just that those bites were the exception.

--

Overall! Would I recommend COBS Bread? Um.... sorta? It's a bakery, like I said... all of their products seem to have one particular strength and I imagine baking would be an ideal one to have for a bakery. If we're looking at the most complex items offered, their pizza options didn't impress me at all in quality or execution... meanwhile the croissant was very good and probably the only thing reviewed here I'd potentially go back for one day. At the core of it I do think they make a high quality baked bread, only that the additional elements in certain items don't match that singular positive. 

Their hot dog buns though... truly wonderful. Sadly they get snapped up pretty quickly and I'm never anywhere near there early enough. 

 

Burnt Ends -- Still planning a bonus review sometime soon, it's just been difficult during this current stretch of working ten straight days and all. One of the reasons I did COBS this week was because there's one reasonably close to my house, so I could try them and go back home before going to work. Something else new will be forthcoming in the 'somewhat soon' future, though.

 

She Blinded Me With (Beer) Science! -- Another blind taste test video from that British beer expert fella. Although, this time instead of trying various American macro breweries, he blindly tastes the exact same beer stored in different conditions of coldness and exposure to light. Nerdy stuff perhaps, but interesting stuff. If it's up your beer alley as well, the video is below: 

 

 

Tuesday Tune -- This is without question one of my favourite basslines of all time, played of course by the late great Bernard Edwards. It's also one simply impossible not to groove to. They're playing a show with Duran Duran (of all bands) in about a weeks time and I'll be in the house on the clock... very curious to hear how they still sound (I've heard good things).

 

 

That's it for me this week! Next time I'll review a proper, you know... actual restaurant-type place... probably. Until then, enjoy these twilight days of summer, stay safe, don't swallow any bees (unless you truly deserve it) and don't spill that mustard.