|
Run, run as fast as
you can...to the Yum Yum Shop in Wolfeboro, N.H.
 Article and photo by Eric H.
Somewhere along the line, the
sugar-sweet nice old ladies working in those old fashioned bakeries
were replaced by a sugar-free version of employee, steeped in
passivity, apathy, incorrect syntax and bad body piercings.
In some bakeries, this paradigm
shift was enough to make one want to give up moon pies, gingerbread
men and cake and switch to kelp, flax seed and pomegranate juice
(there are some pretty nice people working in those health food
stores). Half the fun of going to the bakery was having a grandmotherly
type give you free samples, say a kind word or two, and then
head to the back kitchen to make 15 cakes in a hour with no complaining
-- while another nice grandmotherly type, who just made 15 cakes
in an hour with no complaining, took over the counter and obliviously
gave you more free samples.
It was always nice being called
"honey," 50 times within a five minute visit. It was
even nicer eating something fresh with sugar -- without the name
Dolly Madison, Drake's or Hostess on it.
After searching the entire
universe from suburban Boston to Wolfeboro, N.H., we found the
perfect bakery memory still alive and well today. The Yum Yum
Shop in scenic Wolfeboro, N.H., offered us free samples immediately
upon entering the sunny bakery with an elongated bakery counter,
apparently containing every known baked good in the world. Everyone
smiled at us, some with kind words during our stay and a sincere
wish for us to have a nice day when leaving. They were unfailingly
polite, old and young employees alike, seemingly from another
generation.
The Yum Yum Shop Web Site states
its offerings are "Just like...Grandma used to make!"
Nothing could be more accurate, as a quick scan across the room
makes one realize that several trips back to this landmark establishment
are in order -- the cookies, puff pastries, cakes, donuts, muffins,
danishes, turnovers, breads, whoopie pies and more incredible
baked goods have that profound effect.
With hours of 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.
during the tourist season, the Yum Yum Shop offers plenty of
opportunity to sample truly fresh and tasty gingerbread man cookies
and other baked goods that are mixed and made on the premises
-- and with no preservatives. If you think all gingerbread cookies
taste the same, the Yum Yum Shop will refute that theory -- the
fresh, spicy, cookies are, as the Beatles once said, "way
beyond compare" (it's unlikely, however Sir Paul McCartney
was singing about gingerbread cookies in "I Saw Her Standing
There.")
The Yum Yum Shop dining room
is full of personality with its gingerbread man designed seats
and tables. Upon entering this delightful room overlooking the
serene eastern shores of Lake Winnipesaukee, countless gingerbread
men chairs wave at you (in a inanimate way, of course), enhanced
by New England village green wall art and some pretty stained
glass. There's a captain's ship wheel for the kids to play with
and a very tall gingerbread man the size of former National Basketball
Association oddity Manute Bol, but they'll probably be too busy
concentrating on one of the myriad sugar concoctions.
The Yum Yum Shop has been pleasing
baked good aficionados since 1948 in Wolfeboro, a great little
New England vacation destination with plenty of neat, little
independent shops, recreational opportunities on the lake, and
a pace that forces one to relax. The Yum Yum Shop is certainly
one of Wolfeboro's culinary attractions, sure to raise your blood
sugar, spirits and happiness in one of New England's true trips
back in time -- a real bakery with real nice people and really,
really great baked goods.
The
Yum Yum Shop,
Main St., Wolfeboro, N.H. Tel. (603) 569-1919
Related article: Wolfeboro,
N.H., offers rest and relaxation in America's oldest resort community
|
|
|
The
New England Marketplace |
|
Shop New England style online
VermontTeddyBear
Stonewall Kitchen
is best known for their award-winning
Specialty Foods, also offers a wide variety of gourmet foods
and gifts, kitchen and cookware, home decor and garden accessories,
recipes and their classic Product of the Month, always 10% off.
|
|