A Butcher, Then a Baker - 279 Elm Street

We are honestly unrivaled when it comes to top-shelf bakeries in Montpelier, and this is another that should be on your pastry pilgrimage through the city. The shoebox-shaped building doesn’t look particularly historic but it dates back to at least the 1950s when it operated as Joe’s Market.

As Montpelier continued to grow during the 20th century, an assortment of small, family-owned groceries set up shop in its expanding neighborhoods and residents were very loyal to their hyper-local markets and their very own meat butcher. Here in the Meadow, families shopped at the Meadow Mart, which is still in operation across the street, but they got their meat from Joe Canales here in this building, and other provisions as well.

An earlier bakery briefly operated here, and on opening day the baker had her sister pitching in to hand out the macaroons. That was kind of exciting for us because her sister is a movie star: Sandra Bullock. The Bullocks moved on quickly, though. The current owners Jennifer and John have decades of professional culinary experience between them, and Birchgrove Baking has it all – breakfast pastries, tarts, cookies and cheesecakes. I will be good and wait here on the sidewalk while you indulge.

From this point, if you continue up Elm Street, in about a mile you'll reach our spacious, oval-shaped municipal swimming pool and an adjacent Recreation Field where on evenings in June and July you can grab a seat in the grandstand and cheer on the Vermont Mountaineers, our hometown team in the New England Collegiate Baseball League. The complex was completed by the Works Progress Administration in 1939.