Another One Bites The Dust Part 2

[gotlost]

Bake and Bite is no more. I stopped in at their restaurant on Chang Klan Road this morning for breakfast and was told that only coffee and pastries were available, I was shocked. Then I was told by a nice waiter that Bake & Bite had been bought out by Butter is Better All of their restaurants. Breakfast will be available starting Friday and full service starting Monday. The new owner was there but I did not get a chance to talk to him, he was laying out his to planes to a complete new staff. I was told that they plane on having the same menu but with improvements. I wish the old owners of Bake & Bite the best. IMHO you had by far the best American breakfast in Chiang Mai. I wish the new owners the best.

[Ulysses G.]

Bake and Bite moved to a new location. It is not out of business.

[Oneman]

.

This could get interesting -- especially at breakfast time.

B-is-B has a little web site here: http://butterisbetterbakery.com/index.html

-- Oneman

Chiangmai

.

[gotlost]

Bake and Bite moved to a new location. It is not out of business.

What is their new location?

[millwall_fan]

I think Bake 'n Bite has moved up Charoenrat rd, past the Good View, turn right and its somewhere up there, we drove pat it a few days ago.

[Ulysses G.]

I have not been yet, but everyone say that there is plenty of free parking and a much nicer atmosphere. Could one of the map people who has been to the new place post a map?

The old location off of Neimanheiman on soi 6 is still open.

Edited March 3, 2010 by Ulysses G.

[gotlost]

As I understand the two other location are not new as in yesterday. They have been active for a few months to a few years. In the restaurant on Chang Klan I was told they had bought all three restaurants. I guess we will have to wait for verification on this.

[Ulysses G.]

I am pretty positive that Better with Butter only bought the Chang Klan location. There were big signs inside and out side the restaurant announcing the move and promoting the new location and Neimanheiman.

[prism]

Bake And Bite moved to the end of Soi 3/2 Keaw Nawarat. It's near the Floral Condominium Tower. Turn off of Charoenrat rd towards the Condo tower and follow the Bake and Bite signs. Khun Gai sold the Chang Klan location so she can concentrate on the Keaw Nawarat location. It's already popular with the expats.

[Asmerom]

I have not been yet, but everyone say that there is plenty of free parking and a much nicer atmosphere. Could one of the map people who has been to the new place post a map?

The old location off of Neimanheiman on soi 6 is still open.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&amp...8.810037,99.005

I'm no map person and I'm not sure if Greenside's Map can be manipulated when sent in a post, but if it can, there should be no problem locating the "new" Bake and Bite across the River.Is that the one? Its been pretty well explored in previous posts which I failed to find. Surely there isn't another "new" one!

Well, the old "new" one is over Nawarat Bridge straight on down Kaeo Nawarat Road for maybe half a km to where all the yellow cabs congregate to rest. It's Kaeo Nawarat Soi 3. On the Right. It's signed. Then, about 200 metres along this Soi on the left is a small dead ended soi and Bake and Bit is located right at the end in a nice,large garden with small colourful pond ,the home of nymphs and mermaids who often delight diners with watery serenades ; sometimes accompanied by a nameless screeching animal on the far side of a high net screen, whee hel_l is located. It can be hazardous choosing to sit amidst the pastoral delights of the garden flora as your ears may suddenly be assaulted by "music" blaring from hideously distorting concealed speakers. I'm sure they'd turn it off, if asked-I cannot imagine anyone wanting it ; maybe the staff.

Its also well signed coming along the road running along the River from the previous bridge. Cross the bridge , turn left, along the River, then Right at the big Blue Petrol Station Sign. Lots of signs fom here on. Past the Flora Condos, and Hinlay Curry is on the corner of the Bake and Bite Soi.

It's infinitely superior to either of the other two sites. Very relaxing. Plenty of parking. Lots of pleasant girlie staff. No service charge added.

[Ulysses G.]

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&amp...8.810037,99.005

, there should be no problem locating the "new" Bake and Bite across the River.Is that the one?

Yes, it is, not too far from the Riverside from what I've been told.

[prism]

Hope I got the right Soi.

[Asmerom]

Hope I got the right Soi.

Yes, I'm sure that's right -- Kaeo Nawarat 3/2. Dead End. Just what was needed- a person who can put the blob on the map, in the right place. I can't.

[ricklev]

For one brief shining moment in history Butter is Better sold a great chocolate chip cookie, then there was confusion and a series of mistatements regarding the availability of the delicious cookie at Rimping, which left me sad and confused, and then finally a deliberate downgrade to a lesser cookie followed by explanations of cost and demand which fell upon deaf and disinterested ears......

That cookieman betrayed me, but I guess I wish him well in his new location.

Edited March 3, 2010 by ricklev

[gotlost]

For one brief shining moment in history Butter is Better sold a great chocolate chip cookie, then there was confusion and a series of mistatements regarding the availability of the delicious cookie at Rimping, which left me sad and confused, and then finally a deliberate downgrade to a lesser cookie followed by explanations of cost and demand which fell upon deaf and disinterested ears......

That cookieman betrayed me, but I guess I wish him well in his new location.

I thought that at a time he had a good product at Rimping but that his price structure was over the top. We will just to wait and see at his new location.

[butterisbetter]

I'm the husband of the owner of Butter is Better. We did not buy out Bake and Bite. I wish we had access to the kind of cash that would take.But if we did we would probably just pursue baking as an extravagant hobby. Gai just wanted to focus on her new larger restaurant. Butter is Better is now occupying Bake and Bite's old site.

Neither Dao nor I have ever claimed that we were going to improve on what Gai has done. We have our own take on American home style food but it would be presumptuous for us to claim to do it better. Gai makes some really wonderful food. I spent a lot of time at her restaurant trying to analyze what she does in order to steal...er..pay tribute to her cuisine.

As for our chocolate chip cookies..

.I don't know what midstatements are being referred to about their availability. For a while Dao had an outpost at Rim Ping Nim City and after she left, she did try for a while to keep stocking some items there and at Rim Ping Narawat. But honestly, it was a lot of work to keep the store stocked with fresh stuff. Also, once you start selling packaged goods you have to contend with the Thai equivalent of the FDA. These requirement can be quite onerous if you are working on a small scale. Many business routinely violate them and risk major fines. but Dao chose not to. It's a lot easier and more profitable to run the shop at Rim Ping Mee Chok.

As for the recipe of the chocolate chip cookies. it's the same as it's always been. Dao did cut the size down but cut the price proportionately as well. One problem she does have is with the staff occasionally leaving the cookies too long in the oven. Usually she catches it and gives the cookies away. Occasionally a batch slips by her. When that happens they are not chewy. She does have a publicly posted policy that if anyone has a problem with anything she makes, they can get their money back no questions asked. A return of the item in question is not even required. She really is grateful when people tell her that something has gone wrong with production.

As for the cost. If you use good unsalted butter instead of margarine. top quality unbleached flour instead of bleached flour, imported bittersweet couverture chocolate from top european producers instead of the domestic stuff that looks like chocolate and kind of tastes like chocolate, your costs are going to be a lot lot higher.

[getgoin]

Yes, good luck. How about a real bakery where we can go in the early morning to get some great fresh baked breads and pastries?

On the few days that I have gotten out early on a Saturday morning and wanted to treat my kids to some nice freshly baked Danishes, cinnamon buns and croissants I have found only stale day old product. I would love to find some apple strudel, baklava and the type of rolls that the German Bakery was producing near the Dara Devi, now closed.

I have fond memories of my father going to the bakery either Saturday or Sunday morning to get the freshest bakery items. Do this and you will have a successful business. It will not be a hobby but it might be a labor of love.

Give us fresh breads of all types, whole grain, sour and French.

Give us pastries that we can have that are savory or sweet. The restaurant should be secondary to the bakery.

A bakery is always a lot of hard work. Here you will be working more.

Please don't give us decent cakes and cookies. Anyone can find a good cookie. Please give yourself a real chance.

[millwall_fan]

Good luck with your venture!

[gotlost]

Hope your new venue succeeds and you can keep the same quality as the previous owner. Good luck.

[ricklev]

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Good-Cookie-...l&hl=cookie

Good to hear your still making the cookie and best wishes to you in your new location!

Edited March 3, 2010 by ricklev

[Ulysses G.]

As for the cost. If you use good unsalted butter instead of margarine. top quality unbleached flour instead of bleached flour, imported bittersweet couverture chocolate from top european producers instead of the domestic stuff that looks like chocolate and kind of tastes like chocolate, your costs are going to be a lot lot higher.

Well said. I, for one, am most willing to pay a higher price for premium quality baked goods. I am looking forward to trying your new location as well as checking out Bake and Bite's new place. Are you open for breakfast and lunch yet?

[Loaded]

I've been a regular at Bake and Bite for years and I've also bought quite a few cakes and cookies from Butter is Better. I think both offer high-quality food items at reasonable prices; I've always been happy with their products and service. My only 'complaint' is that the cookies are so delicious, I always eat far more than I should.

[Asmerom]

I've been a regular at Bake and Bite for years and I've also bought quite a few cakes and cookies from Butter is Better. My only 'complaint' is that the cookies are so delicious, I always eat far more than I should.

It's all very well praising beautiful cookies to the skies but think of how this affects the humble, plain looking, scone. It must be feeling rather left-out and I want to redress the balance. Bake and Bite's scones really are the genuine English article but they strangely call them 'biscuits". Sitting in their garden scoffing warm scones with cream and jam is just like being in Cornwall having a delicious cream tea. They also freeze well but must be warmed up in the oven not the micowave. Makes a pleasant change from the unbeatable Boston Cream Cake. I love scones ; they must be round, light and well risen ; not triangular.

[elektrified]

As the others have posted, Bake and Bite is not out of business. The 'newest' location is the nicest and most comfortable. They will also be closing the Nimmanhaeman location. Others have posted good directions because it is a little tricky to locate. But recently I noticed that they put up at least 5 different signs with arrows to help customers find the place.

[Ulysses G.]

It's all very well praising beautiful cookies to the skies but think of how this affects the humble, plain looking, scone. It must be feeling rather left-out and I want to redress the balance. Bake and Bite's scones really are the genuine English article but they strangely call them 'biscuits".

Forgive me if I am wrong. I know next to nothing about scones, but aren't they mildly sweet? Biscuits are not sweet. They are meant to have a slight sourdough type taste that is amplified with butter and sets off sweet tastes like honey or strawberry jam very nicely.

I like Bake and Bite's buttermilk biscuits, but to be at their best, you have to get them on the day that they are made.

[chiang mai]

It's all very well praising beautiful cookies to the skies but think of how this affects the humble, plain looking, scone. It must be feeling rather left-out and I want to redress the balance. Bake and Bite's scones really are the genuine English article but they strangely call them 'biscuits".

Forgive me if I am wrong. I know next to nothing about scones, but aren't they mildly sweet? Biscuits are not sweet. They are meant to have a slight sourdough type taste that is amplified with butter and sets off sweet tastes like honey or strawberry jam very nicely.

I like Bake and Bite's buttermilk biscuits, but to be at their best, you have to get them on the day that they are made.

Some confusion perhaps regarding the American word "biscuit", aka not a cookie and the British word "biscuit" which is a cookie?

[butterisbetter]

Yes, good luck. How about a real bakery where we can go in the early morning to get some great fresh baked breads and pastries?

On the few days that I have gotten out early on a Saturday morning and wanted to treat my kids to some nice freshly baked Danishes, cinnamon buns and croissants I have found only stale day old product. I would love to find some apple strudel, baklava and the type of rolls that the German Bakery was producing near the Dara Devi, now closed.

I have fond memories of my father going to the bakery either Saturday or Sunday morning to get the freshest bakery items. Do this and you will have a successful business. It will not be a hobby but it might be a labor of love.

Give us fresh breads of all types, whole grain, sour and French.

Give us pastries that we can have that are savory or sweet. The restaurant should be secondary to the bakery.

A bakery is always a lot of hard work. Here you will be working more.

Please don't give us decent cakes and cookies. Anyone can find a good cookie. Please give yourself a real chance.

Of course, you're right that a bakery should be ready to go early in the morning. Dao is kind of reluctant to face the necessity of getting up at 3 in the morning. Posts like this might help to nudge her in that direction. I am working on it. And our kids will get to experience a kind of virtual orphanhood. Which is so cool. Anyway, we already are a successful business at Rim Ping but following your advice would surely make us a more successful business.

We are working on Danish pastries and croissants right now. My mother was with us for 2 months and helped us along. We are about 80% satisfied with the Danishes and hope in a few weeks to be offering them for sale. The butter here is not the same as in America and it's harder to turn out a satisfactory danish with them. Croissants should follow right behind the dough is virtually except with less sugar.

We do offer lots of kinds of bread including 99% whole wheat bread (can't call it 100% because of the addition of a teaspoon of wheat gluten), challah, brioche, light rye bread, real slow rise french baguete and italian bread & rolls.. Also real Focaccia. We will also be offering again real dark german style rye sourdough bread, the kind you have to start a few days before to brew the sourdough mash. The bread is so heavy that you can build a pyramid with it or at least a Reichstag. I loved it and the few german people who tried it said that it reminded them of the bread their grandmother's made. Maybe that was the grandmother who flogged them and locked them in the closet for days. We couldn't sell enough of it to justify the effort. Maybe the problem is that we don't slice it. The blades of ordinary commercial bread slicers just bounce off the loaf as though it were wrapped in a Kevlar vest. But we will try again. We also make halfway authentic bagels. Certainly closer to what a bagel should be than any that I have found in Thailand. And . for that matter in the USA except for a few isolated outposts in New York City. We did used to make the real old fashioned bagels using high gluten flour and barley malt but they were too dense, too chewy for most people who accustomed to eating soft bagels. The only thing inauthentic about them was we didn't use put lye in the water. You'd be surprised how hard it is to find food grade lye in Thailand. Love that food grade lye. So we used sodium bicarbonate instead. And still use it for boiling our current bagels. Maybe we'll try for the real thing again but I'm not hopeful about the outcome.

As for our cakes and cookies. I may be prejudiced but we have a huge following for our cakes. I think they're indecently good.

Actually, if I had my way the restaurant would be tertiary to the bakery. Or better yet, nonexistent, The bakery business is hard enough alone. But Dao used to run a restaurant that catered to us farangs and misses it. Anyway, my mother taught her how to make blintzes and she has a missionary zeal to share them and her potato knishes with the world.

Anyway, thanks for your suggestions They are much appreciated

[Asmerom]

Forgive me if I am wrong. I know next to nothing about scones, but aren't they mildly sweet? Biscuits are not sweet. They are meant to have a slight sourdough type taste that is amplified with butter and sets off sweet tastes like honey or strawberry jam very nicely.

I like Bake and Bite's buttermilk biscuits, but to be at their best, you have to get them on the day that they are made.

In England biscuits are mostly very sweet, flat, and round. Scones ,as you say, are mildly sweet. But they're a totally different shape. Biscuits are flat; scones up to about 6cms thick/high.

http://www.joyofbaking.com/SconesIntroduction.html Pictures of SCONES.

As has been noted, our common language is still as confusing as ever.But now you will never again be shamefully forced to confess that you know next to nothing about scones and I'm sure you'll be a better man for it.

[Ulysses G.]

I'm glad that you also like our style of biscuit. Fresh ones are really out of this world. The best scones that I have ever had was at that "ancient" English restaurant in Chiang Mai a few years ago with homemade jam and clotted cream. I miss that place!

Edited March 4, 2010 by Ulysses G.

[ChiangMai2]

Forgive me if I am wrong. I know next to nothing about scones, but aren't they mildly sweet? Biscuits are not sweet. They are meant to have a slight sourdough type taste that is amplified with butter and sets off sweet tastes like honey or strawberry jam very nicely.

I like Bake and Bite's buttermilk biscuits, but to be at their best, you have to get them on the day that they are made.

In England biscuits are mostly very sweet, flat, and round. Scones ,as you say, are mildly sweet. But they're a totally different shape. Biscuits are flat; scones up to about 6cms thick/high.

http://www.joyofbaking.com/SconesIntroduction.html Pictures of SCONES.

As has been noted, our common language is still as confusing as ever.But now you will never again be shamefully forced to confess that you know next to nothing about scones and I'm sure you'll be a better man for it.

Agreed, the same language but totally foreign I'm still trying to work out what the sausage bit in a " breakfast sausage patty " is?!? They just look like a burger made of pork to me!

Incidentally a good cream tea with jolly nice scones can be found at the Mandarin oriental bakery.