Harrison Bakery Love
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Nov 24, 2012
I can’t believe I’ve never written about Harrison Bakery before. This is my favorite bakery in the Syracuse area, located at 1306 West Genesee Street, an area of town that’s suffered some losses in business lately and has some long term road construction going on; at least I think it’s road construction, since an entire strip of road has been closed for awhile, making me detour my way around to get there. I’m telling you, if I’m inconvenienced and yet still finding my way there, the goods have to be great.
Like most people, I have my favorite things when I go there. I’m mad for their halfmoon cookies, especially the vanilla ones. I’m not sure why I’m not crazy about the chocolate based cookies but for whatever reason they don’t taste the same. My other favorite is the yellow cupcake with chocolate frosting; oh my goodness! And what I wouldn’t do for one of their cakes; my goodness!
I’m also known for going to Harrison Bakery whenever I’m thinking about taking cake to a party, even my own parties. While I do love Wegmans Ultimate Chocolate Cake, I have found that some people think the frosting on that cake is a bit intense for them (wusses lol). Yet a Harrison cake seems to fit the palates just fine, as it’s basically a butter creme frosting, even their chocolate frosting, and not as thick. Truthfully, the proof that Harrison Bakery cakes are fantastic is that I don’t care whether it’s a vanilla, chocolate, yellow or mixed cake, and I don’t care if it’s vanilla or chocolate frosting, I love their cakes. They also make specialty cakes, but that’s where I draw the line since I’m a cake traditionalist (lol), because of my last visit (okay, earlier today) they were featuring pumpkin cake with pumpkin frosting; not me.
And that’s not all. They have all sorts of cookies, eclairs, buns and the like. When I visit many people are buying their breads; as a matter of fact, every time I go, if there’s someone else in there, that person is buying bread. Since I didn’t grow up with a bakery nearby I’ve never gotten into the fresh baked bread routine, but I bet it’s fantastic. On this last visit I decided to buy a sampler of other things which included a cinnamon bun, a chocolate eclair and a headlight. No, I’m not eating it all at once; I do have at least that much control. 🙂
Of course I’m sure there will be a few people who might want to debate me on this one but they’ll lose. They’ve been doing it right for nearly 65 years, and I’ve yet to meet the person that has a bad thing to say about them. But I know that others will have their local favorites that they’re used to. Still, I’ll be a happy guy as long as Harrison Bakery is around. By the way, the eclair was outstanding!
I do love their halfmoons.
Great job sir.
Thanks Chuck. Seems most people associate it with halfmoons.
Harrison Bakery LOVE is the right title for this post! My memories of the bakery are tied to two pastries–and two different women: My mother and my grandmother-in-law. Both have since passed on, but just walking in the doors of the bakery brings back precious memories. My mother was partial to the poppy seed strudel–she would drive out of her way to pick some up! For a few years, there was a Harrison bakery in Dewitt and as a result our eastern suburban home was strudelized more often.
After I was married, my wife would take her Babcia to the Polish language mass on Sundays at Sacred Heart. If you notice the monument honoring Polish war veterans from Syracuse, you will notice that the front steps of the church lead to the monument in the median between Park and W. Genesee, which leads to the bakery across the street. I believe that Catholic teaching at the Basilica requires all parishioners to make that pilgrimage across the street after services.
I’m not Catholic and I do not speak much Polish–but I was in those pews because I wanted to make sure that Babcia got her favorite eclair and I also paid my respects to my late mother with the poppy seed strudel.
Thanks for a great post Mitch!
Thanks Phil. You know, I forget that there are these ethnic neighborhoods all over Syracuse and that area is considered the Polish/Russian area. I can’t even remember how I got introduced to Harrison Bakery but I’m very glad I was.