The idea of a neighbourhood bakery feels like something that would turn you into a morning person – grabbing fresh baked goodies in the morning, warm loaves of bread for breakfast, muffins for tea time, cold cuts for lunches and dinners, some pastries to satisfy that sweet tooth, and of course, if you’re making your way to work in the mornings, breakfast to go. In our case, today, it’d be the breakfast bagel.

The Old Madras Baking Company, a one of a kind bake shop with fresh breads and cold cuts, opened up in Chennai, promising to offer all that’s fresh to the locals of the city. The bakery houses some of the city’s finest and freshest breads and it’s not just your regular loaves. Flavoured loaves like the raisin and orange are our favourites, besides the focaccia, brioche, and more. A display filled with pastries and muffins are tempting and certainly can’t be missed. Enjoy it for yourself or sneak it into a hamper for a friend – this bakery will let you do either. What’s special about the bread here is that they are “baked fresh everyday and can even be bought and consumed the next day. But what’s on display is made fresh everyday,” says Chef Prasad of the baking company, and “no chemicals are used to bake the breads,” he adds. The recipes for breads are original recipes designed by Chef Prasad and Sandesh, of Sandy’s in Chennai. So how is there fresh bread available first thing in the morning? The men baking the bread work a nightshift in the kitchens to assure that there is a good supply in the mornings.

The store also retails products that are specific to the theme of the store. One can walk in and expect to find fresh boxes of cream cheese, organic pickles and sauces, imported peanut butters, vanilla extracts, jams and more. What we learnt is that these products are chosen carefully to go with their bread, and also complement their bread, as niche products that are specially handpicked for the store. The store also retails meats and cheeses, and even encourages their customers to stop by for a bite, with their cozy table set up at the Alwarpet branch. The menu offers a few delightful sandwiches and bagel sandwiches so keep an eye out for the black board that lists the specials.

Popular favourites at the Old Madras Baking Company:

Danish Custard

Croissants

Oatmeal and Raisin Cookie

Chocolate Cookies

Focaccia

Bagels

Nutella Brioche

Baguettes

What we had:

Cream Cheese Bagel Sandwich

We’re huge lovers of cream cheese and we’d put it on almost everything. On a bagel? Yes, please! A fresh bagel was stuffed with a large dollop of cream cheese and served to us as the best breakfast ever. The taste still lingers and has us wishing we could wake up to something like this for breakfast. Of course, bagels and cream cheese are sold here too if you’d like to do some DIY at home. If you’re up for grabbing breakfast on the go – you need to grab this one.

Three Cheese Sandwich

This glorious three cheese sandwich came packed with cheese, and the bread layered with pickle inside. The flavours went so well together, we would never have thought of having an Indian styled pickle in our cheese sandwich, but after this, we were convinced this was the real deal. The store retails the pickle and the cheeses used to make this sandwich, and of course you can find the bread here too. Pick these up and you can be making your own at home, all day, everyday!