Carl Bakery
Review! Charlotte, North Carolina // bread & pastry pop-up // lots of potential
the ELEVATOR PITCH
If you haven’t picked up yet, I have a weak spot for all things croissants and cheering on small businesses that are working day and night to carve a place for themselves in this harrowing world of capitalism.
So having been following Carl Bakery since early Fall 2023, I was ecstatic at the opportunity to try owner Lizzy’s naturally leavened creations in the form of a limited time 2023 holiday season pastry bundle! (and yes, this review is a little late, but better late than never)
The experience ended up being a little mixed for me… After trying the pastry bundle and a couple of other products, I realized that walking the walk is so different from talking the talk. Up until that point, I had been completely won over by marketing:
The aesthetic of the site—beautiful theme & font, informative photos, and a logical navigation flow; truly a chef’s kiss of a website!
The intentions of the brand—
All of the grains are cold milled, in-house, for highest nutrient content and flavor preservation (grains like einkorn, red fife, marquis, etc.)
All ingredients are sourced locally and are of the highest quality (partners such as Wild Hope Farm, Anson Mills, Riverbend Creamery, more on site)
All of her products are naturally leavened using a very old starter with a fermentation window of 24-72 hours to increase digestibility
(can you empathize? How could you not be excited to try her bread and pastries after reading that?!)
But after getting to experience Carl Bakery as a customer, I realized the marketing had me wearing rose-tinted glasses (sending kudos for phenomenal marketing):
The morning of our pastry bundle pick up, Lizzy had to reschedule us for the following week because her oven failed to perform and the pastries fell flat. While I understand this could be a one-off situation, and I’m glad she saved us a trip, it was still inconvenient to have planned our day around this just to have it rescheduled 30 minutes prior. (although, she’s very responsive via text!)
The rescheduled date and time for our pastry bundle ended up being the same as one of her bagel pop-ups, which was advertised the day before as starting at 9:00 AM. We arrived at 9:15 AM to find she was running late. She ended up arriving closer to 9:25 AM. Again, I understand that mishaps can happen, but there was no communication on Carl Bakery’s Instagram about the lateness nor any consumer experience solace offerings.
The croissant photos on Instagram and Carl Bakery’s website oozed “authentic French bakery vibes,” which led me to expect light, airy, buttery flakiness, but then I was met with a whole wheat, dinner roll experience. (But, Carl Bakery’s bagel and cookie were delicious!)
All that said, I’m optimistic about where Carl Bakery is headed and understand that the entrepreneurial path is tough in the early years (behind every great brand, is a period of time needed to work out the kinks; grace is given).
So as a reader, please don’t be deterred from trying Carl Bakery yourself, just go in with the right expectations: classic bagels and cookies, denser pastries (though the knowledge you’re ingesting great ingredients and won’t be as bloated almost makes up for it), and leave some wiggle room when you’re planning a pick-up!
Reviews on the munchies pictured above:
Almond Croissant: LOVED the almond filling in this, no almond extract taste at all, with a lot of almond incorporated. Overall, checked all of the almond croissant buckets, just would’ve preferred a flakier croissant body. (rating: 7/10)
All other pastries: very bready, and the flaky layers weren’t obvious. All of these would make for great dinner rolls! (laminated-dough-frame-of-mind rating: 3.5/10; dinner-roll-frame-of-mind rating: 9/10)
Oatmeal Raisin Cookie: a chewy cookie with crispy edges, about what you would expect! I would’ve enjoyed a little more raisin action. (rating: 7/10)
Everything Bagel: chewy exterior and fluffy interior, flavor was delicious and delivered on the bagel promise. Comes with complimentary cream cheese, which was super convenient (rating: 9/10)
the RÉSUMÉ
address // pick-up location varies, make sure to check her Instagram and site.
operations // she does pre-orders and pop-ups; again, check her IG/site for details
menu //
sweets ($4.25 - $15.00): cookies, pastries (croissants + cousins)
⭐ bundles are in the $30.00 - $40.00’s range
savories ($3.50 - $18.00): bagels! sourdough loaves
recs //
definitely order the bagels, not sure I’d recommend anything else at this point in time unless you’re into bready croissants!
if you do order croissants, reheat the croissants at 325F for 10 minutes, it makes them sooo flaky. But even then, the croissants have a whole-wheat flavor and a “heavy” bread roll texture. They still won’t be the light, airy, buttery vibes you’d expect when biting and enjoying a croissant, but they are tastier than room temp!
site // Carl Bakery & IG: @carlbakeryclt
reel //
~ cath!!
the DE-struction 😱