Corner Bakery Butters Up With Bread and Ambience

The Corner Bakery restaurant chain is rising faster than an olive focaccia. With five locations in Orange County, the company--owned by the international firm that also has Chili’s Grill & Bar, Romano’s Macaroni Grill, On the Border Mexican Cafe and Maggiano’s Little Italy--is betting on bread. And lots of it.

Corner Bakery is a cafeteria-style shrine to home-style baking. Company literature says it picks specially blended and milled wheat from America’s heartland to prepare 31 kinds of loaves daily. It’s the kind of place that appeals to yuppies used to ordering tall lattes, low-fat, no foam.

But does the general public really want loaves of ricotta polenta, fig anise, garlic thyme and chocolate cherry?

The answer is yes, judging from the bakery’s weekday crowd, with the young and the restless elbowing each other for a fast gourmet lunch or breakfast.

Sunday morning is a better time to taste the bakery’s vast selection of tarts, muffins, pies, breads and cookies. The weekday morning offerings are available and the place attracts a quieter, more reverent crowd.

Morning choices include homemade granola with slivered almonds, raisins and brown sugar, potato egg pies and stratas, assorted bagels with smoked salmon and various cream cheeses, scrambled eggs with herbs and cheese in a croissant, French toast custard and other brunch items.

Bakery items include small, rustic berry pies, pecan rolls, luscious raisin walnut crisps, a variety of muffins, lemon bars and cookies.

A hot item, bakery item and drink costs about $12; egg dishes are $4-$5.

Nearly everything tastes fresh and homemade, and many of the baked goods are exceptional. The muffins taste as if they are made with a buttery almond paste and the rustic fruit tarts feature the real deal: raspberries, blueberries, cherries.

Also recommended are the fresh fruit salad--a combination of citrus, currants and melons on the day we visited--the egg mushroom pie (offered only on Sundays), and bacon: thick, crisp and fragrant.

The French toast custard is a tasty, eggy concoction with dark, rich syrup. And you can’t go wrong with toasted specialty breads and buttery croissants.

One of the problems of brunching at this bakery is that by the time you reach your table, some of the hot items have grown cold. The scrambled eggs that look so delicious when you choose them lose their appeal as they cool down.

Home fries--with blackened onions and herbs--are flavorful but also tend to lose their warmth on the trip to the table. As many times as I have eaten here, I’ve never enjoyed an entirely hot breakfast.

Another problem is balancing a meal on a tray through a line and paying a cashier. And imagine your bewildered grandpa, who wants only white toast and coffee, musing over 31 varieties of bread and 12 specialty coffees. “Tomato goat cheese with basil, please.” I don’t think so.

Small groups gather in the country-decorated dining room, but with its collection of newspapers and limitless coffee, the Corner Bakery is a great spot to eat alone.

Whether breakfasting with a group or flying solo, you’ll find the outdoor terrace, under attractive awnings, or at inside tables, with red-checked gingham linens, inviting places to break bread.

*

Corner Bakery, 3333 Bristol St. Costa Mesa. (714) 546-1555. Sunday breakfast is served from 8-11:30 a.m. Other locations are inside South Coast Plaza; in the Irvine Marketplace on Jamboree; at the Block in Orange; and on Harvard and Main in Irvine.