Courtesy of Curtis Hoffman
Curtis Hoffman
Staff Writer
The story of the Spring Garden Bakery began in the ‘80s when a group of bakers sought to open a natural foods bakery near UNCG’s campus. It was originally called Our Daily Bread, and after many years expanding and changing through multiple owners it became the Spring Garden Bakery and Coffeehouse.
Spring Garden Bakery, currently owned by Pepper Moon Catering, is a gem down Spring Garden Street whose baked goods you’ve probably already sampled at the coffee shops on Tate Street. They are also widely available in Earth Fare, Deep Roots Market, First Carolina Deli, Lox Stock and Bagel and more. Not only do they make delicious traditional treats, they are also known for their vegan fare. Most of their traditional flavors of muffins can be and are made vegan fresh every day. Their muffins are for everyone, and they’re seemingly everywhere.
They have a series of flavors that are guaranteed to be available every day until they sell out, and a group of flavors available occasionally, depending on ingredient availability. A personal favorite is their variety of pumpkin based muffins. Nearly as moist as a slice of pumpkin pie, these muffins run the gamut from pumpkin chocolate chip, pumpkin cream cheese, pumpkin nut and more. They also have the classics like blueberry, bran, banana nut and blackberry.
The blueberry muffins dissolve in your mouth and go well with their signature blends of organic coffee. Their morning muffin, chock full of nuts, raisins and carrots, were a bit dry but extremely filling. Banana nut also suffered from a degree of dryness but the overall flavor is delicious, especially with the huge walnuts baked right in. Lemon poppy muffins are a classic recipe presented and executed perfectly here, moist and delicious. The pumpkin cream cheese is my absolute favorite muffin option: the moistness of cream cheese and the pumpkin base blend together excellently. The vegan versions of these flavors are made with unrefined organic sugar and are completely honey free. This leaves them totally devoid of animal products that vegans tend to avoid.
The bakery is also fully equipped to take special orders for bars, brownies, bread, cakes, cookies, cupcakes, granola, pies, truffles, wedding cakes and more specific fancy pastries. Multiple Yelp reviews praise the delicious danishes made fresh daily. I myself was vegan for five years and know from experience they make a delicious vegan carrot cake.
The bakery is designed to be large and fast enough to so that multiple heavy catering orders are done at a reasonable pace and has been in business for many years; this lets you know that anything you could order here will be completed on time and the quality will be to a high standard. And if you’re feeling hungry while you’re there but aren’t looking for sweets, they also sell excellent sandwiches. Everything is competitively priced and won’t leave your wallet feeling empty at the end of your stay.
Spring Garden Bakery and Coffee House is currently using the coffee bean brands: Bald Guy Brew, Carolina Coffee Roasting Company and Counter Culture Coffee beans. They offer a moderate array of barista style drinks and teas and feature a lovely sitting area both inside and outside of the building filled with local art and an entertaining paint job.
No coffee house would be complete without free Wi-Fi service and Spring Garden Bakery and Coffee House has you covered. The bakery immediately adjacent from the sitting area isn’t too loud through the separating wall to keep you from talking with friends or getting some work done. Ample parking behind the building means you won’t have to deal with what so many businesses on Spring Garden Street suffer from, terrible parking far away from your destination.
Spring Garden Bakery is located at 1932 Spring Garden Street, between Der Wagen Haus and Adelaide’s, and has been serving the UNCG campus and Lindley Park area since its origins as The Daily Bread in the early ‘80s.
THE CAROLINIAN 
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