So, I usually don’t mention local restaurants and I really don’t want to get into the habit of doing so for a number of reasons.  However, I want to mention the bread from Biagio’s Ristorante as I think it’s very, very good.  I hadn’t tried it before and I’d never been there but had heard good things about it.  That said, a couple of weeks ago, Tara and I had a holiday party at our home and I was planning on cooking lots of things, including bread.  I love making bread and make it quite often…at least a couple times a week if we are home.  At any rate, as I mentioned in a previous post, I burned my hand pretty badly and I ended up having to change the menu for our party as I just couldn’t handle food in my usual manner.  I definitely couldn’t handle kneading bread so bread making was out of the picture.  However, we did need several loaves of bread as we were serving various main dishes and appetizers that required it.  So, I asked Tara to get some bread while she was out and she suggested going to Biagio’s as she was going to be in that general area.  I thought it was a great idea as I had heard they had a good product and I was hopeful that it would exceed the quality of supermarket loaves.

When Tara arrived home, I was knee deep in cooking so I didn’t really do anything with the bread except look at it (and it looked great).  Tara said it had just come out of the oven and it smelled great.  She also said the two people who helped her at Biagio’s were very nice and very helpful, taking time to help her despite being crazy busy due to the rush of the holidays.  Later in the day, I got to the point where I needed to deal with the bread.  I started cutting it and noticed that it had a nice crispy crust and an airy soft interior.  I tasted it and I was very surprised that I liked it as much as I did.  I don’t know the ingredients of their loaves, but I would guess there aren’t a whole lot…which is to say that it’s fresh and quality ingredients are used.  That’s a high compliment for me because if you are into bread, then you know that you really only need four ingredients for a basic loaf.  Usually the farther away you stray from that number, the worse the bread generally tastes and generally the worse it is for you from a health standpoint.  I know, there are exceptions but for a basic loaf of French or Italian bread, four is a good number for ingredients.

I still plan to make my own bread here at home as I love it.  However, if we ever need to purchase bread again, I am absolutely sure that we will go back.  In fact, I’m not sure I’d bother buying it anywhere else.  So if you are local to Berkeley Heights and the surrounding areas, a trip to Biagio’s is definitely worth it!

As an aside, I still have not been to Biagio’s (I plan to go sometime soon) and I have no affiliation with them.  I just think the quality of their bread is worth a little space on the blog.  Enjoy!