Hidden in Kalyani Nagar's leafy by-lane, The Flour Works is a bakery gem
Pune finally has a contemporary European bakery and patisserie that we can be proud of. With a name that perfectly describes it, the café displays wheat thistles in vases. With simple wooden tables and chairs and a chandelier on its high roof, this two-tiered café is a visual delight.
ADVERTISEMENT
Walk in and you could have walked into any café in Europe. Feast your eyes on the desserts, muffins, puffs and breads on display and you know that The Flour Works are upto something warm and nice. They open for breakfast at 7 am making it a Pune novelty. Apart from their delicious egg preparations, this all-day café has kept its menu simple.
On offer is a soup of the day, salads, sandwiches and pizzas. There are also a variety of teas, coffees and desserts. Since we had just come from the sweltering outdoors, we opted for their Assam Orange Iced Tea (Rs 115). This is home-brewed tea infused with orange juice with a wedge of a fresh orange. Quiteu00a0refreshing.
By this time, our Classic Cuban (Rs 275) sandwich arrived. Served on a crisp, fresh baguette, with a sprinkling of fries, the bread turned to be the star of the dish. It is snugly layered with slivers of roast pork, slices of ham and pickles and is quite a bite. Unfortunately, they seem to have forgotten the cheese mentioned in the description which would have raised the slightly dry preparation to a perfectly juicy one.
But our pizza arrived and all the misses got dissolved in the first heavenly bite. The 4 Cheese and Burnt Garlic pizza (Rs 375) was a 10-inch melting white wonderland. The thin-crust lovingly held the mélange of cheese, with the aphrodisiacal strength of the Brie wafting up to our nostrils even before the slice reached our lips. The combination with roasted garlic (with the skin on) makes this one of Pune’s best pizzas.
The citrus summer fruit seems to have captured our imagination for the day, for we even opted for a Chocolate Orange Cake (Rs 185). The huge square came with a lovely thick layer of high-quality chocolate. It was filled with a juicy sponge infused with orange zest. Though the flavour of the fruit could have been more pronounced, this one was a subtle dessert.
We opted to take a loaf of their Onion and Walnut Bread (Rs120) home and to their credit, it stayed perfectly fine until the next morning. Slice it, give it a light toast and feel the goodness of whole grains and nuts nourishing you. They have a range of specialty breads that we shall be back for soon.
Through we can’t mention one more marriage of chocolate and orange we can’t resist mentioning the Chocolate Orange Hot Chocolate, which was divine.
The Flour Works is Pune’s answer to Mumbai’s premiere delis. If you need to go somewhere to gather your thoughts, relax with a book, enjoy a simple meal with superior ingredients or simply pick up a loaf of unusual bread, you know where to head.
At North Avenue, Spencer’s Lane, Kalyani Nagar. call 26680474u00a0