Fleur-de-Bakeries

In 2020, the census of Pleasant Gap was 3,208.

By 2021, the population bumped up by at least one–me. 

And since I moved in, THREE bakeries have opened.

I have a theory about that. Hint: It has nothing to do with my sweet tooth.

First, we have to go to State College. The main drag, College Avenue, separates Penn State campus from downtown State College with rows of parking meters. Sometime during my youth (or so) College Avenue became one-way—the wrong way, for this example. So, at The Corner Room, 100 West College Avenue, we’ll hop on a magical stadium blanket to fly above and against traffic. As we cross Allen Street, we’re on East College Avenue. 

Old Main is on our left. On the right, parking garage signs and high rises and cranes and more high rises. As we leave town, we find ourselves above a four-lane highway. If we were flying high enough, up over the hill on the left you’d see Beaver Stadium.  As we continue on East College, more high rises on the right, Hickey’s Beer Distributor on the left, and two turns on the right to enter the lovely Village of Lemont from either direction. But no detours on this trip.

Chugging along, we’ll come to a Y in the road and we take a right at the Nittany Mall, still on East College. Macy’s, if you haven’t been for a while, is empty and may become a casino. No reason to stop. As we keep traveling on the now two-lane road, the behemoth SCI at Rockview looms on the left. Definitely no reason to stop. 

A sign welcomes us to the Village of PERU, as in Penitentiary Employee Residential Units, or so I’ve been told.  As we fly a little further, we are now on West College Avenue, Pleasant Gap. On the right is PennDOT’s drivers license center, where I flunked my test not once, but two times, at 16.  Then, about 8 miles into our journey, we come to the first of two traffic lights in Pleasant Gap. As we proceed through the signal, West College becomes East College and we pull into the unmetered parking lot at 113 E. College Avenue, our first stop: The Cakeshop by Tati.

Alfajores & Croissant

Tati and her husband Derek opened up the Cakeshop about the same time I bought my house in Pleasant Gap. Tatiana, a native of Lima, Peru, and Derek, who grew up in State College, met at The Culinary Institute of America.  They married and went to NYC to hone their culinary skills.  When the pandemic hit, they came to Centre County.

As I became a semi-regular at their bakery, I learned of our connections. Derek took a high school cooking class with my nephew Nick. Later, Derek staged in the same restaurant In Lima, Mayta, that Nick’s brother Wille, aka my chef-phew, interned. The parents of Pesaque (the chef at Mayta) are friends of my sister Patty and her husband Lalo, who also live in Peru. This past September, Wille and his fiancé Natali (also from Lima), went to the reopening of Mayta. 

I love the shop for its almond croissants (best this side of the Eiffel Tower) and enjoy looking at the special occasion cakes beautifully decorated and on display in the cooler. The bakery also has Peruvian specialties, such as alfajores (a classic Peruvian sugar cookie sandwich filled with dulce de leche) and chicha morada, a traditional Peruvian sweet drink made of purple corn and spices, as well as traditional coffees, teas, and pastries.  In their spare time, Tati and Derek are personal chefs and hold pop-up Peruvian dinners.

Now, if we turn our magic blanket around and head back to the traffic light, you’ll see a 2 1/2-story red brick building called the Red Horse Tavern, a local landmark since forever, at the corner of Main and College Avenue. What used to be the RHT’s bottle shop has been converted into the Tiny Tavern Café. This is Pleasant Gap’s most recent bakery/coffee shop addition.

When I visited, they featured specialty coffees and teas, as well as pretzel bread egg sandwiches, avocado toast and apple pie overnight oats. But it was the beignets that drew my tastebuds.

The golden pastry pillows were served warm in a brown paper bag and heavily dusted (think major snow squall) with confectioner’s sugar. They are best eaten on a park bench wearing light-colored clothing and accompanied by your four-legged, finger-licking friend. Memories of New Orleans and Mardi Gras.

Unfortunately, the TTC website says the shop is temporarily closed due to staffing shortages.

So, we’ll now coast down Main Street to 214 North Main Street, Café Luna.

The woman at the counter’s name is Marina, so how can I resist being a regular?  Pastries and breads, both sweet and savory, originate from eastern Europe and central Asia, as do the array of soups.  Originally from Kazakhstan, Marina and her family use home recipes and most items are made from scratch. The only exception is specialty cakes imported from Italy.

One day Richard and I tried the adjaruli khachapuri, also known as a cheese boat. It looks like a bread canoe with a wider center filled with a sunny-side-up egg and cheese. We just stared—until Marina came to the table and explained we should break off a piece of the bread and use it to stir the egg yolk into the piping hot cheese. Those were the last instructions we needed—yum!

One refrigerated case holds desserts—apricot tarts, baklava, pistachio cake, blueberry scones, tiramisu, and a honey cake with close to a dozen layers. Another, flakey börek bites with spinach and cheese, potatoes or mushrooms, and other meat and bread combos.

They also serve coffee and fruit juices, including Georgian lemonade, from the country, not the state.  Soups change often for lunch—pelmeni (filled dumplings in a broth spiked with assorted vegetables and teeny cubed potatoes, borscht (beets, other vegetables and beef), or kharcho (spicy meat and vegetables). Café Luna has opened a whole new culinary world to me.

Ok, so my theory on why we have three bakeries in this tiny town? 

Affordable rent. Parking, free and plentiful. Not a parking garage or meter in sight. And maybe they heard Pleasant Gap residents (and those driving or flying through) are looking for a foodie adventure. Laurie Lynch