GrEat Bakery

This place has changed again! They’ve added pizza, moved the six tables to the front, and… frankly, I can’t keep up anymore. I guess they’re going to keep trying different things ’til something sticks. I wish them luck.

What is the deal with this place? There’s a giant oven in the back, but one look at the food there makes it clear that NOTHING is made on premises. All the baked goods look like they just got in a van, went down the street to costco, and loaded it up. The coffee may be made from Illy beans, but it’s pretty weak. The only saving grace is the gelato, which is halfway decent, but it’s Ciao Bella so really you’re paying an extra $ 3 to have someone scoop it out rather than just going to the grocery store.

This review has to be 3 of 5… unfortunately I tried their cheesecake because if I hadn’t it would have gotten a much higher rating. I’ll start with the bad — I came home from work one evening and wanted to surprise my wife with cheesecake so I was walking along Steinway and thought I would try a piece of cheesecake from GrEat Bakery. Wow, that was the worst cheesecake I’ve ever had — frozen cheesecake from a grocery store is better. It was dense, tasteless, and may have been spoiled. It tasted like they used spoiled brie cheese to make it.
OK, the good part now — the coffee is excellent and as someone else said much cheaper than Starbucks. The coffee saves the place and whenever I’ve tried the free samples of their non-​cheesecake desserts they have been extremely good.
Overall, I like the place better than it’s predecessor Cream which was horribly expensive and not as good but at all costs stay away from their cheesecake and spend an extra 50 cents to get cheesecake at Omonia Café and Bakery a few blocks away.

This bakery has the best Illy Coffee, not only does it taste better then Starbucks, but it is cheaper and their cappucino’s foam lasts a lot longer and doesn’t turn to water like Starbucks. I have tried their vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting and their chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting, to me these cupcakes were to die for. They were not sweet at all. The prices are excellent and well worth it. They seem to expand every day, I just wish they would stay open later on Fri. and Sat. they close at 9. Awesome place to check out, they have healthy snacks, sliced fruit, healthy drinks, great pastries, gelato, coffee, small bread rolls, and even bite size pastries a must to try. Go in for the cappucino it’s definately worth it. The people who work there are very friendly and always willing to help you.

GrEat Bakery took over Cream Bakery’s place and opened without much fanfare. I don’t know what it is about that space, but both Cream and GrEat suffer from a lack of a strong identity. Is it a bakery where people just pop in for a baked treat? Is it a café where people hang out? Is it a small restaurant that’s readily available for lunch?
I walked in because I sorely needed some caffeine. Although it looks a little different from Cream, there wasn’t enough of a difference for me to be sure if GrEat had new owners and was a new concept. The cashier assured me that it was totally different.
They sell a variety of baked goods (cupcakes, cakes, breads, etc), coffee, and sandwiches for lunch. In the late afternoon, most of the sandwiches were gone.
The latte was made from Illy, which I approve of, and it was a very nice latte.
Let’s see how long GrEat lasts.