Carriage House Cafe and Bakery Brings a Piece of the North End to Bedford

Dana Strayton bought the Carriage House Cafe and Bakery a year and a half ago. Since then, the only thing that hasn't changed about the restaurant and bakery is its name-for now. 

When Strayton bought the restaurant, she found that most of the food the old owners were serving was not made fresh everyday. Today, nothing could be further from the truth concerning the menu at the Carriage House. 

"We search out the most flavorful, fresh ingredients," Strayton said. "We're not cost conscious with respect to the quality of our ingredients. We'll buy what is best because that is what we've felt is important from the beginning."

Strayton said her goal when she bought Carriage House was to provide Bedford residents with something they weren't being offered. 

"We are the only full blown bakery in town," Strayton said. "I wanted to bring a bakery and an Italian inspired trattoria with good food and deliver it to the people of Bedford."

Along with her husband Rob, who makes most of the savory items on the Carriage House menu, Strayton makes fresh sandwiches on homemade bread every day as well as an endless amount of pastries, cookies and other bakery items, most of which are her from her grandfather's recipes.

"These recipes are all of my grandfather's," Strayton said. "They are all third generation."

Strayton comes from a long line of restaurateurs, with her father, grandfather and great grandfather all having owned restaurants in Boston's North End dating back to 1929. 

Strayton's grandfather, John Plescia, opened the Prince Cafe on Prince Street in the North End in 1930. Over 80 years later, her grandfather's influence is evident not only in the recipe's for her pastries, but also in Strayton's plans to rename the Carriage House Cafe and Bakery.

"We are going to change the name to the Prince Street Cafe and Bakery," Strayton said. "Hopefully that change will come by December."

Upon taking over the restaurant a year and a half ago, Strayton thought about changing the name, but decided it was best to keep it for her fledgling months with the restaurant and bakery.

"I'm glad I didn't change the name in the beginning because I really did build it organically and it was a good process for me," Strayton said. 

Eventually Strayton realized the old name might have been counteractive to the the emphasis on food made with the freshest ingredients she was trying to establish at her incarnation of the Carriage House.

"We're building a good following now, but the name sort of doesn't allow us to go after a new market, so that's why we've decided to change it," Strayton said.

This month Carriage House Cafe and Bakery is offering customers pink cupcakes and whoopie pies with proceeds being donated to breast cancer awareness.

Rob said he believes the quality of the food at Carriage House is able to offer is what sets the restaurant and bakery aside from most others in the area.

"Even the bakeries in the North End don't make the stuff that we're making," Rob said. "Honestly I think our biggest differentiator is that everything is made from scratch, from top quality ingredients and I just don't think that any place in the area is using the quality of the ingredients or the freshness of the ingredients that we are."

For first time customers to the Carriage House Cafe and Bakery, soon to the Prince Street Cafe and Bakery, Dana and Rob each have their own suggestion on what to order:

Rob: "I would suggest whatever the special of the day is. It's something fresh every day."

Dana: "Look at our menu. While you decide what you want to order I would suggest having a slice of our Sicilian Pizza. We make the dough fresh every day."

Check out the full menu for Carriage House Cafe and Bakery, including the list of specialty sandwiches, which rotates daily.