I quickly stopped in at Great Harvest Bread Company, an
independently owned franchise, on Old Meridian, in Carmel, to pick up some
bread. I like this location. It is bright and welcoming with plenty of
tables. There is also a coffee station
and lunch is available. Like the other locations I have been to, they have an
employee behind the counter eager to give you samples of the bread baked fresh
that day. These bakeries I notice tend to hire young and enthusiastic college
kids. Each day provides a different sampling of their specialty breads, often
made from whole grains, and sometimes there are cookies to try. Today, I tried
the Virginia Savory bread and the oatmeal chocolate cookie. The bread reeked of
garlic and other Italian herbs. Strangely, my six year old loved it. It had a
nice, soft texture with flavors reminiscent of a strongly flavored focaccia
bread. The oatmeal cookie was a perfect chew with large pieces of chocolate
throughout. We bought the pumpkin
chocolate chip bread which was nicely balanced with pumpkin flavor and
chocolate chips – and a hard feat for pumpkin bread – not too moist, sweet or
overly spiced. My favorite purchase,
though, was the almond cranberry scone which was almost equivalent to a lovely
dessert. It was studded with large cranberries, white chocolate and almonds,
with a confectioner’s sugar glaze. It was still quite good the next day and had
not dried out. So, Great Harvest Bread still gets my vote although some of the
breads can be a little heavy, salty and yeasty depending on the variety. The
cookies and scones are now some of my favorites. You have to love the company
motto which could be one’s life motto:
Be loose and have fun.
Bake phenomenal bread.
Run fast to help customers—and give generously to others.
Atmosphere – 9
Service – 9
Price – 5
Presentation - NA
Food quality - 8
Overall - 8
(Average score from
other reviewer sites – 4.5-5 stars)
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