Visit Carondelet Bakery!

This is the second small business spotlight; the first can be found here.

Business: Carondelet Bakery
Category: Bakery/Desserts
Neighborhood: The Patch [In the "Ivory Triangle"]
Location: 7726 Virginia Ave., St. Louis, MO 63111
Contact: 314-638-3519
Hours: ???
Amenable to: sweet tooths, brides- and grooms-to-be, other celebrations
Prices: Contact the bakery to get prices!

At 22, with most of my friends at least a little bit older than that, it's prime time to begin the lifelong journey of marital bliss. June is the "wedding-est" month of the year, after all, and it's almost upon us. Several friends will be getting married soon.


I beseech them, and you, to try out the Carondelet Bakery for wedding cake needs. The small storefront is one of St. Louis's oldest commercial establishments, opened in 1875--when the city of St. Louis was still part of St. Louis County. I'm not saying longevity equals quality, but think of Crown Candy. There is a reason these businesses have weathered downturns and "chain-ification" in their respective markets.

Sure, its siding-clad frontage was probably not a feature of the nineteenth century structure. Even so, the rarity of neighborhood bakeries these days renders this business historic and important to St. Louis and Carondelet/The Patch alike.

I have ordered a de-lish coconut cake from the bakery that was probably the best cake I've ever had in my life. The recipient of the cake echoed my sentiments.

Plus, if you're in the neighborhood and don't want or need a whole cake, there is a variety of other baked goods, including cookies, that you can get on the quick and on the cheap.

Another great thing: it's in a quaint business district (called the Ivory Triangle) that's definitely up and coming. The newly refurbished Ivory Theater in the antebellum St. Boniface Catholic Church's old digs is an architectural gem and it's a block away. The recently opened Ivory Coast Bistro is right across the street.

I recommend walking the streets of the historic and once independent town of Carondelet, now called the Patch, for its delightful hodgepodge of housing (including some 1850s German row houses on Stein, not far from cutesy 1960s bungaloid infill). When you do, stop by the Carondelet Bakery to step in the past and to support local--even if it's just a cookie!