There is often a difficult shoulder time between going to classes and going to work in the evenings. This time usually falls between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m., neither dinner or lunch time.
My favorite place to go to get my 'lunch/dinner' fix is Wild Mountain Bakery, located on High Street in downtown Morgantown, W.VA.
The owners of this fabulous establishment are Eran & Karen Guse. Eran is a professor in the economics department at West Virginia University and Karen is the mastermind behind all of the baking.
Karen was, and still is, known as 'The Bread Lady'. She started out baking out of her basement, selling her delectable baked goods at the farmers market.
The Morgantown Farmers Market is such a unique place, it transforms a parking lot in downtown Morgantown into a beautiful outdoor grocery store. However, instead of these items being shipped long distances, or sitting on shelves for a long time....these items are fresh, local and some of the best produce I have found.
I use to have to get up at 7:30 in the morning on a Saturday ( yes, I'm whining as I say this) to get my hands on Wild Mountain Bakery's bread and pepperoni rolls. Their would be a line during the opening hours of the farmers market, and Wild Mountain often sold out within a matter of hours.
To my delight, Karen was able to fulfill her dream of getting her bakery out of the basement and onto High Street in Morgantown. Now, not only does she get to sell her baked goods five days a week, but I don't have to get up early on a Saturday to go get them.
Needless to say, I am at Wild Mountain Bakery at least twice a week.
My favorite things to get at Wild Mountain are cinnamon rolls, pepperoni rolls, soup and coffee.
To elaborate, Wild Mountain's cinnamon rolls taste better than a Cinnabon cinnamon roll and I know they aren't made with 'junk' ingredients. Karen uses high quality flours as well as local eggs in her baked goods. On top of that, there is not a single part of the cinnamon roll that doesn't have cinnamon filling on it. I have found that this is a problem with many commercial cinnamon rolls, all the good stuff is in the middle....but none on the edges.
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| Wild Mountain Bakery's cinnamon rolls taste just as good as they look. (Photo borrowed from Wild Mountain Bakery's Facebook page.) |
Their pepperoni rolls are quite unique. As someone who use to pull the pepperoni out of the roll prior to eating the bread....this doesn't happen with Wild Mountain's pepperoni rolls. Their pepperoni rolls are made with a thin, crispy dough and ground up pepperoni. Both attributes I had never tasted or seen before. The thin dough makes it so there is more 'roll' to the pepperoni roll, by this I mean more swirly parts to the bread. The ground up pepperoni is the real kicker though. It is evenly distributed throughout the entire roll, not leaving one bite without pepperoni in it. Yum.
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| Wild Mountain's thin and crispy pepperoni roll. ( Photo borrowed from their Facebook page) |
Wild Mountain recently started making soups, which I was a little hesitant to try. I assumed that Karen's skills were in baking, and not soup making. WRONG. I have had four different types of soup this week from Wild Mountain, all were delicious. I had the privilege of trying a broccoli cheddar ( which makes Panera Bread's version taste like Mcdonald's). This is by far one of my favorite soups, and they did it justice. The creamy mushroom soup was to die for, while it doesn't sound so great I promise it was one of the best soups I have ever tried. Additionally, I had a loaded baked potato soup and a creamy tomato basil soup. All of which were delicious and unique in their own way. The fact that they were homemade and from Wild Mountain Bakery just made it all the better. I highly recommend trying their soups, they will often give you samples if you aren't sure you will like it.
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| (This was taken at my desk) My favorite broccoli cheddar soup with homemade croutons. |
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| Creamy tomato basil soup with a bag of Wild Mountain Bakery's homemade croutons ( made from their bread). |
Lastly, my favorite thing and my vice: coffee. I am what my co-worker calls a 'food snob,' and I take that as a compliment. I use to be a slave to Starbucks and to me Starbucks coffee tastes like battery acid compared to Wild Mountain Bakery's.
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| Wild Mountain Bakery's coffee ( I'm aware you cant see the contents). Its amazing, believe me. |
Wild Mountain Bakery's coffee is roasted in West Virginia, and freshly ground prior to brewing. The coffee has absolutely no bitter notes to it, which is indicative of a stale, over roasted coffee. The coffee has pleasant notes of chocolate, which means you aren't missing the flavored creamer you use at home. It is by far my favorite coffee, and believe me I have had many different kinds. On top of that, they have a variety of sweeteners including raw sugar, white sugar, Splenda and stevia ( my favorite). They recently started making espresso and espresso beverages, which I haven't had the chance to try. They have a variety of different syrups to make whatever kind of drink tickles your fancy, peanut butter cup latte anyone?
I like more coffee than milk in my drinks....and I am afraid that 6 oz. of espresso might be a little more than I can handle. Haha.
I look forward for what Karen has to offer in the future of her bakery, and wish her the best success with her business.
To conclude, Wild Mountain is easily accessible to WVU students walking from campus as well as drivers ( they have free parking next to the building). In addition, their items are all reasonably priced. My usual soup/coffee, pastry/coffee, pepperoni rolls/coffee usually falls around $5. It remains my favorite mid-day caffeine and food fix.
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| Did I mention how cute their cupcakes and cupcake containers were? This is a vanilla/vanilla cupcake with rainbow sprinkles. |
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