A new place opened in the Village of East Davenport over a year ago called Baked Beer and Bread Co. For a number of reasons, we hadn't tried Baked yet. One time we went there and they were closed. Another time, we went in on a Saturday afternoon to get a sandwich and we were told they had brunch until 2 p.m. Finally, we were trying to figure out a place to go to for dinner on a recent date night and I said, "Well, hey! We've always said we wanted to try Baked!" My wife was in full agreement and we went there that evening.
Actually, we had been to Baked before when co-owner Stephanie Sellers had the bakery part of the business up and running in the fall of 2016. But we'd known about Stephanie and her fiancé/partner Bill Sheeder from both the Downtown Davenport Farmers Market - where Stephanie sold some of her pastries - and their ownership of a small coffee shop/cafe a couple blocks east of Baked in the East Village.
Bill's main vocation is running a commercial cleaning company, but he had a background in the restaurant industry working at - and managing - some local pizza places around the Quad Cities. Stephanie ran a small bakery - The Sweet Life - in nearby LeClaire, IA for four years. There was a good little coffee shop/beer and wine bar/pizza joint in the East Village by the name of Brew that my wife and I enjoyed very much. But, it closed up in 2013 when the owner moved out of state. It sat empty for some time, but one morning Bill Sheeder happened to be walking past the building with the owner standing out front. Sheeder and Sellers had been thinking about opening a little restaurant and Bill asked the owner about the spot. Much of the equipment - including a commercial-grade convection oven - was still in place in the restaurant. By that evening, they had worked out a deal for Sheeder and Sellers to take over the little restaurant.
Pictured at right - Bill Sheeder and Stephanie Sellers. Photo courtesy The Radish
When they finally opened Brew in 2014, the menu Sheeder and Sellers had to work with was limited because of the small kitchen area behind the bar and they always knew that they'd like to do something bigger with more room to try different things. It turned out that a building two blocks away that used to house an art gallery and store had been empty since 2012. One day in 2015, Sheeder inquired to the owner of the property if the building was still for sale. It turned out that it was and he took his fiancé down the alley a couple blocks to look at the building. She thought he was crazy at first, but after looking at the space through the windows she thought it would make a wonderful restaurant space.
They bought the building and gutted the insides. With the help of a friend of Sheeder's who was an artist/designer of rustic fixtures and furniture accessories, they were able to procure large quantities of barn board - many of which were over 100 years old - that were used for the walls and bar at the new space. Stephanie set up her baking kitchen in the spot and was selling pastries, breads and other baked goods out of the new building in November of 2016.
By January of last year, they were starting to host musical events in the space. The bar and brewpub opened in February of 2017 with local brewer Brian Traughber overseeing the on-site microbrewery, and on April 20 of last year the restaurant began to serve food with the kitchen headed by Midwestern-born chef Philip Winkler who focused on foods that were sourced locally. (In late 2016, Sheeder and Sellers sold Brew to local businessman Tim Chen and his wife, Jennifer who also own The Plaid Rabbit gift and stationery store in the East Village. Click here to go to Brew's web site.)
Baked Beer and Bread Co. is located on Mound Street just north of 11th St. in the East Village. (see map) The bakery is in the front part of the building opposite the nano-brewery. While they have 16 beers on tap at Baked, they only had a couple of their own beers on tap that evening.
The dining room is down some stairs with a small bar area toward the head of the room. We were seated at a table in front of the stage that had a large "BAKED" sign on the wall with light bulbs illuminating it. It was pretty loud in the place and it got increasingly loud as more people came in.
A friend of Bill Sheeder's who's a local artist specializing in rustic designs provided the barn boards that adorn the walls of Baked. Part of the wall features an American flag that was made with barn boards, stained and lacquered. Many of the barn boards inside Baked are said to be over 100 years old.
We were given menus as we sat down and we were soon greeted by our server, Alleyah, a very nice young lady who asked what we'd like to drink. I got the Chester Copperpot pale ale brewed at Baked. It was smooth with a bit of a hoppy bite, but sort of flat in taste. My wife opted for the Pure Happiness Double IPA from the Alpine Beer Co. in California. It was very hoppy, but my wife likes hoppy beers. Still, it was probably a little too intense for her taste.
Looking through the menu, the offerings at Baked ranged from some interesting starter items such as smoked pulled pork sliders and jalapeño popper donuts to tacos, sandwiches, burgers, and an array of salads. The blackened salmon tacos caught my eye, as did the pan-seared meatloaf with skin-on mashed potatoes. The reuben made with in-house smoked corned beef topped with cole slaw, apple butter, a Green Goddess spread and a housemade Thousand Island Dressing was also tantalizing.
Alleyah came back to tell us about a couple of specials that evening and to answer some questions my wife had about the menu. But, quite honestly, it got to be so loud in there that I had to have her stop and repeat what she was saying three times. My hearing isn't what it used to be after being exposed to live and recorded music played loud on big systems over the years, but it was just downright impossible to make out exactly what she was saying.
I ended up going with the Bakin' Burger - a 1/2 pound, locally-raised beef patty that was chargrilled and topped with a mild cheddar and bacon strips on a grilled brioche bun. I got my choice of a side with the burger and I had a choice of about a dozen different items such as maple-glazed cornbread, chorizo/sweet potato mash, parmesan cauliflower, or smoked baked beans. I ended up getting the beer mac 'n cheese for my side.
My wife went with the Knuckle Sandwich - in-house smoked brisket topped with a housemade aioli and creamy cole slaw. She got a couple sides for an upcharge - the braised kale and the sidewinder potato fries. I was quite surprised that she didn't get the pan-fried Brussels sprouts as she had been on a kick of having them at home.
I had asked for my burger to be cooked medium, but it came out woefully overcooked. When Alleyah came back to see how things were, she asked me how the burger was. "Overcooked," I told her. She offered to get me another one, but I had already eaten about half of this burger. I told her that I was fine with what I had. She offered again, but I said it wasn't necessary.
When Alleyah asked my wife how her sandwich was, she didn't pull any punches. "I see why they call it a knuckle sandwich," my wife said. "It's as hard as knuckles!" She had told me this before our server had come back to check on us and she gave me a chunk of brisket to try. It was tough to chew and didn't have much flavor. Alleyah offered, once again, to replace her sandwich, but my wife refused - even though there were parts of the brisket that were literally inedible. She concentrated more on her braised kale salad than anything else on her plate.
While my wife liked the braised kale, I have to say that my beer mac 'n cheese was pretty drab in taste and completely underwhelming. I dug into the mac 'n cheese and half of the dish of macaroni noodles came up with the fork. They were all stuck together with the cheese coagulating with the mac noodles. But we both liked the sidewinder potatoes that my wife got. I normally don't get fries that much any longer, but the sidewinder fries were cooked to a golden brown outside and were light and flaky on the inside.
As my wife and I went to leave after paying the bill, we were surprised by the number of people in the bakery area that were waiting for seating to open up in the dining room. It was a weeknight when we were there, so we were quite amazed that it was as packed as it was.
For our first experience at Baked Beer & Bread Co., we were highly disappointed. My burger was completely overcooked, my wife's brisket sandwich was inedible in some places, and my mac 'n cheese side was very underwhelming. However, my wife thought her kale salad was very good, as were the sidewinder potatoes that she ordered and we shared. While it was extremely loud in the place mainly because of the wooden floors and barn board walls, we couldn't complain about the service we received from Alleyah that evening. I think she felt bad that we didn't care for the burger and brisket that we had respectively, and she was pretty quick in giving us our bill when we were done with our meal knowing that we wanted to get out of there sooner than later. We really wanted to like Baked since it is close to our house. And while we probably will go back to try something else at some point, it's going to take a lot to wash away our disappointment with our first visit.
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