Bakery Review: Homage Bakery

Homage Bakery - visited January 5, 2019

At the end of 2018, I moved to a new home. I'm not talking I packed my stuff in shopping bags and drove it over down the block or to the next town. No, I moved. After more than 4 decades in California, I packed up my whole house, scheduled honest-to-goodness professional movers and moved out of state. I landed in Reno, NV to hopefully soon-to-start my "semi-retirement". I say "semi" because I actually am still working, both remote and commuting back to the Bay Area. At least for a few more months.

The adjustment has been easier than I expected, maybe because I have family and friends here and have already been to Reno multiple times. It also doesn't hurt that one of the ways I familiarize myself with a new area (mostly when I travel) is I check out the local foodie scene. Actually, let's not kid ourselves. I google "top bakeries in (insert wherever I am)" and armed with the GPS on my phone and loose pants, I set off.

I have to give credit to my friend, Mary, though, as the first person to tell me about Homage Bakery. They did appear in the "top" list so it was an easy choice to go there on my first exploratory bakery run.

And I have to say, Homage did not disappoint. It's housed in what appears to be a former actual house, as I'm finding many places in Reno are. You go up a set of stairs to enter the "house". There are eating areas on both sides of the entrance and the counter and coffee bar are further in.

My greedy eyes drank in all of the baked goods and it was hard to narrow my choices. Past experience has taught me I can't eat all the things, no matter how greedy my eyes are. I was disappointed to find a sign for "kouign amann" and it's corresponding shelf was empty. Empty, I tell you. My hopeful query to the lady behind the counter brought the confirmation that yes, indeed, they were out of my favorite pastry.

At first I consoled myself with getting a "chocolate bombe" and a croissant bread pudding to go. I thought the bread pudding might be a somewhat-substitute for my erstwhile kouign amann. As I was paying for my pastries, I noticed the flyer at the counter announcing that one of the breakfast specials for the day was "Banana Bread French Toast". Whoa, unnotch that belt buckle, I'll have one of those.

Banana Bread French Toast

I've never had banana bread French toast. Thankfully I came to my senses and rectified that lack in my life. It was delicious. Freaking delicious. Worth every minute of the hour I spent in the gym later that day. It literally was slices of very delicious banana bread (and remember I am a snob about banana bread) made into French toast, topped with slices of fresh banana, drizzled with caramel and sprinkled with nuts.

I applaud Homage further for making a straight-up banana bread. No raisins, no nuts inside the bread, nothing but bananas and all the goodness required to make drool-worthy banana bread. Never mind that I was near-sick by the time I finished it. Because finish it I did. It was too delicious to leave a crumb on my plate, diet be damned. Oh wait, I forgot I was on a diet at this point. Never mind. It was worth it.

Hot Chocolate

Croissant Bread Pudding

And in case you're keeping track, I wasn't on a diet when I ate the bread pudding drizzled with caramel sauce either. So there.

with caramel sauce

The bread pudding was good, although a little wet on the bottom by the time I was not-full enough to eat it. I did warm it up in my little toaster oven at home before I drizzled the caramel over it and it was good but it wasn't a kouign amann. Still, it was good.

But, let's talk about the chocolate bombe. Holy chocolate gods, thank you. This was amazing. The chocolate wasn't too overpowering or so rich that you could only eat a mouthful. As I proved with every forkful that made its way to my mouth.

Chocolate Bombe

It was the texture of the cake underneath the dome that lured me. Perfect fudginess. More dense than a typical cake, not quite as dense as a brownie or fudge. In other words, let me say "perfect" again.

The best "homage" (get it?) I can pay to anything I try from a bakery is a desire to make my own. Sure enough, as soon as I finished this bad boy, I was on amazon searching for those dome-shaped silicone molds so I can try this at home. Yup, I'm willing to temper chocolate, brush the inside of these dome molds, fill them with (I need to find) an amazing cake and decorate/garnish it. Or go back to Homage at the first opportunity (and after I log another 20 hours at the gym) so I can have another chocolate bombe.

This was a great first introduction to Reno's bakeries.