Great Harvest Bread Company

I miss this place. Where can I get a good bread spot like this in NYC?
Everything is fresh, and all so yummy! I miss the raisin bread :)

I am not sure what happened to this bread shop that once held my attention to the point I would arrive early Saturday to be sure my breads of choice were still available. It has been years since I was in a Great Harvest. Recently while traveling in Colorado Springs I found myself in a Great Harvest Bread Company store and enjoyed the friendly service with great bread samples. We walked away with two loaves. Fast forward to a month later when i searched for a location near me only to be reminded why I stopped going to the Minnesota locations. Service is blah at best. Grumpy at worst. Its a bread shop, not a mortuary. Lets see some enthusiasm. I felt like I was disturbing the person serving bread samples. The first sample was too doughy. I declined any more bread and left the place. I drove a few blocks to Wuollets Bakery and found what I needed. I am not going back to Great Harvest Bread Company.

I love this place. I buy ALL of my breads and baked goods here. A wonderful selection — everything is fresh and delicious. Plenty of free parking. Decent prices. Highly recommended. You can also get their breads at Mississippi Markets.

I stopped in today around 4:30 PM to grab a snack before a meeting. Soup is only served over lunch. I ended up with a cinnamon bun (no nuts or raisins) and it was really hard on the outside. Only the center was moist. Basically, I suspect it was old and the taste was «meh».

12 dollars for a loaf of mediocre «special mothers day» bread. Twelve Dollars. Twelve. Did I mention it was 12 dollars? Did I mention it was mediocre?
Did I mention it made my mom sad? Isn’t that sad? Yes, sad all around. Sadness.
The bread in question was called «Italian Almond bread», which is a take on Columba Pasquale, an easter bread which, unfortunately for Great Harvest, I know well enough to know what to expect.
But it had ALMOST NO ALMOND, which as something called «Almond Bread» you’d think it might. Especially after the woman at the counter extolled it’s sweet, almondy wonder.
Why no Almond? Probably because almond paste, and almonds — are expensive. Which, at 12 dollars a loaf, might cut into the worlds fattest bread profit margin.
Instead it was a bland, mildly sweet, boring boring boring loaf of ordinary bread that tasted like something you’d get at a convenience store. No first rate ingredients, no artisanry (as you’d expect from a store that presents itself as an artisan bakery), and, well – no love.
One call to the store asking if this was bread that they mistakenly forgot to put almonds in, but my question was treated rather poorly. Clearly customer service isn’t so important here…
Well, I might have been a regular if they had talked to me about this experience – but I suspect these guys are not in baking for love – but totally for money.
So many more caring, genuine bakeries out there. Skip this tarted-​up Wonderbread outlet.

I emailed Great Harvest very late on a Thursday to request a loaf of the Finnish Pulla bread on Saturday. The Pulla was listed on Great Harvest’s bread calendar only for Tuesdays, so I thought it was a long shot. I received a response back almost immediately saying they were making a big batch on Friday, and would hold one for me to pick up! I was very glad they could accommodate the request and were so responsive.

Based on someone’s recent review, yesterday I purchased Panettone from Great Harvest Bread Company. I called ahead, they said they had 2 left, and if they were from a dated batch that was not disclosed. It was wrapped with a decorative tag, no where did it disclose the bake/​packaging date.
Cons:
Caveat I am new to MSP and had to pick a place to get the New Year Eve and New Year morning tradition treat of panettone.
1) It was packaged with two separate layers of plastic and film so I couldn’t view the product and no visible ones were on display.
2) The bread tasted like a biscuit that had the right fruit additions in it.
3) Bread was not sweet or airy at all.
3) Heavy texture.
4) Rather than being a lovely high shape it looked like a rustic loaf of bread.
5) Totally ruined the tradition of enjoying panettone on New Year’s Eve night and breakfast the next morning.
6) Great Harvest selling me the only bad $ 11.99 panettone I’ve ever had.
Pros:
1) Staff was nice on the phone when I called ahead, asked about the fruits they included in the panettone (so I could verify it was the real thing, hah, hah), and requested they set aside one for me.
2) The tasting of some fruit bread I had at the till was good — but the butter was not.
I had envisioned driving to the shop and dropping the rest of the loaf off to prove it’s clearly a bad product. However, no need to have a pal on the new year by pretending that staff would care or feel a professional indebtedness to send me home with something else to enjoy — something that can be taste tested from the bread board at the till ahead of time.

I drive past several bakeries to get here. Always great and I like the constant variety. Plus it’s a great neighborhood.

It’s true: I’m a bread-​aholic.
I love the bread at Great Harvest and try to stop by whenever I’m in the neighborhood. The quality of the bread is fantastic and I like the opportunity to spend some time checking out the available varieties. I particularly love the Pepperoni Roll that’s available on Saturdays — it’s greasy, spicy and just a perfect weekend treat — and the Oregon herb. The white bread makes great toast that’s ready for a slathering of peanut butter.
They also have great cookies (Oatmeal Chocolate Chip!) and always have samples available.
TIP: Save the paper inserts in the bread bags and trade them in for a free loaf after you collect 12 of them.

I really want to like this bakery. It is in my neighborhood. I’ve had some very good things from there, the scruffins are my favorite. The big cookies are good too.
But, the last 2 times I’ve purchased from there, it has been very disappointing.
I bought a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. It was awful. The crust was raw and
the pumpkin was tasteless. Today I bought the Panettone for a social gathering.
It was dry and bland. No one liked it.
The service seems to be the same. Some of the staff are friendly, some seem
unhappy and crabby.

I have not actually visited a Great Harvest Bread store, but I make a stop at their Minneapolis Nicollet Mall framers market stand every Thursday morning! I can not resist the Rhubarb Apple Crunch bread. It is dense, chewy and has a great crunch topping. I think it is meant for one, but it is so large that I can eat half for breakfast and save the other half for an afternoon pick me up.
The staff is always cheerful and nice, even as the weather turns cold and rainy. I will be sad to see them pack up for the winter.

Recently, my hubby picked up a rhubarb coffee cake from the Great Harvest stand at the Nicollet Mall farmer’s market. Unfortunately, when we tried to eat the cake, the rhubarb was already fermented. Yuk.
He called Great Harvest, and they were more than willing to take the cake back and let us get something else. We stopped by the Great Harvest location on Selby to make our exchange. The staff was friendly, even though we came in 5 minutes before they closed. They never rushed me in making my decision or told me they were closed, which I appreciated.
They had lots of goodies that looked delicious, including a cherry cobbler cake and blueberry bread. In the end, we decided to get a half dozen cookies (a mix of oatmeal chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin) and one of their chai bars.
The chai bar was amazing. It was similar to a pumpkin bar with cream cheese icing. You could definitely taste the chai spices like nutmeg, cardamom and cinnamon in the cake. It was super moist and flavorful and I would definitely get this again.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have a big announcement.
I have found a Scone Shortcut.
Yes, that highly-​treasured, time-​efficient way to ensure Leah gets the carbs and sugars she needs, in scone form, on her way to work– I have found it. It is called Great Harvest on Selby.
Great Harvest, as a independently-​franchised company, makes the best goddamned scones on the planet. Whether you’re into savory or sweetness, their scones are substantial, non-​crumbly, tender confections of love and berries and (my favorite) cinnamon chips and most importantly– butter and cream. If I’m not getting 40% of my daily dairy with each bite, I’m not interested. That is not a problem here.
And only a $ 1.50. I mean, this is proof that god exists as far as I’m concerned.

It’s awesome when you can get what you want. I went in the fall to get pumpkin cookies — out. When again yesterday morning for their Breakfast Blast bread, which is great. It was 7:30 a.m., breakfast time. ;-) Nope, they hadn’t made any. Huh? The shelves were pretty bare. They also have very limited days and hours. We went the day after Christmas, nope, closed. Come on!

I have never ever been disappointed with Great Harvest! Their products are delicious, affordable and fresh! The staff is friendly, warm, and efficient and goes out of their way to help customers. The stores are always clean and well organized. All of their products are jam packed with flavor and leave me satisfied and wanting more!
The only possible thing I don’t like about Great Harvest is the fact that they are closed on Sundays!

Yum! I give this place a 5 star because it truly can not get any better! What place offers you a variety of different scones, muffins, etc, to sample while they bag up your order? That’s true customer service.
The cinnamon chip scone I tasted as my sample was divine… I had to get one for my daughter as she loves scones. I, typically do not like scones, but this place might change me! In my bag was a loaf of honey wheat bread and some pepperoni bread. Both loaves were still warm/​hot as I left and the lady was kind enough to throw in an extra bag and tie to put the bread in when I got home in case the first bag got moist from the heat. Again, who the heck thinks of all this for their customers???
SO SO glad I did a search for best bread in St Paul the other night, otherwise I would have never known of this place. Keep Unilocaling Unilocalers!!! Its so nice to do a search and come up with these fab places.
I can not wait to go back. Oh and by the way, our entire loaf of pepperoni bread is already gone…

I appreciate that Great Harvest knows what it does well, and does just that. If I want a loaf of good bread, I can walk in, find the bread, and leave. In addition to every day varieties of bread, they have some really good «special» breads, like the Potato garlic (Garlic Potato?) bread. It’s super dense and chewy, but really tasty.
I feel like many people assume that bread of this variety is much more expensive than what you get at the grocery store, but for the slight cost increase it totally kicks your home-​made lunch up a notch.
Also, samples. Yay!

I was house-​sitting in the neighborhood a few weeks ago and when I remembered that Great Harvest was right around the corner, this became my regular breakfast stop for the duration of my stay.
PLUS: Delicious, inventive breads like the bruschetta bread with tomatoes and pesto baked inside. The fabulous creation known as the «scruffin,» a half scone half muffin which is basically a softer, sweeter version of the traditional scone – so moist, no butter needed. Dunn Bros coffee for the taking.
MINUS: Sandwiches are a little over-​priced for what you get and the service could be a lot friendlier. When the owner serves you, she’s great, but some of the other employees are gruff and not very knowledgeable.
I became the «duchess» (according to the new Foursquare-​esque rankings used by Unilocal check-​ins) of Great Harvest in a matter of days, so I guess that’s a testament to it’s overall appeal.

Two words: MONKEY BREAD.
If I really want to be lazy on a Saturday morning, I skip kickboxing, run down to Great Harvest and pick up this little guilty pleasure. Which my roommate and I will devour while catching up on trashy reality television all morning.
Of course, everything else is fantastic, too. Cookies are devine, bread is dense and rich, and it’s all natural. So it can’t be that bad for you, right?

So pretty much all I have to say, is, spinach and feta bread.
I mean spinach and feta is really one of my all time favorite-​in-​the-​whole-​world combinations ever. Like ever. And then you go put it in a chewy on the outside-​gooey on the inside whole wheat loaf?
TO DIE FOR, seriously, the best bread ever. If you get it when it is freshly baked, man, I do not even know. I can eat like half the loaf.
Too bad they only make it on Fridays and Saturdays, but of course I went today hoping they had it. *sigh*
The end.
But other than that, their whole wheat is also amazing, and their white bread is the only white bread I will eat, because once again, it is the best ever.