Mazurek’s Bakery

I love, love, love, love, love Mazurek’s. In my review on their main store on South Park Avenue, I extolled at length the virtues of their rye bread (briefly, as good as the best I had in New York City) and their doughnuts. I love the fact that Ty and. co have opened a satellite location in the Market Arcade building, a building that deserves love if ever a building in this city did.
As a satellite location, one could never expect it to boast the breadth and variety of the main store, but a phenomenal disservice has been done thus far in its lifespan wherein the business seems to underestimate the value of its own chief, product, its bread.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve made the trek to Mazurek’s in Market Arcade only to discover that the rye bread had already sold out… by 9:30 AM, by 10:15 AM, by 9:15 AM, or similar. Such a situation speaks of the popularity of the product, of its quality. But such a situation also speaks to a ridiculously short supply. The prospect of returning to my flat empty handed is enough to now make me give up on heading there if I know I can’t get there before 9:00 AM, else makes me say, «Well, let’s go down and get something from Guercio’s.» Bread inventory MUST be expanded.
If I could reliably buy my bread here, I’d be happier, but I’d be yet happier if this location wasn’t set up to sell only pre-​sliced loaves. I know many people appreciate the convenience of having their bread sliced for them a la Wonder or Pepperidge Farm, but this absolutely dries out the bread faster and looses the flavors and the aromas that inflect it. At the main store, the loaves are all cut on order via a cutting machine. I can’t see any reason why this option isn’t available at the satellite.
Sweets are just as good (if not available in quite as many varieties) as the South Park Avenue store, which is fine.
Two stars for now. If they can improve inventory, this goes straight up to four/​five.

I haven’t actually been inside, but my boss has been purchasing from Mazurek’s to help this new location. First, he bought a loaf of Polish sweet bread. It was incredibly dry and fell to crumbs. He brought home a bread for his parents and they felt the same way. Later in the week, my boss bought me a cupcake and it was also dry. It tasted like a boxed cupcake that was baked too long and the frosting was way too sweet. I will eat almost anything, especially if it has frosting on it, but I couldn’t finish and I felt like I had a brick in my stomach for an hour afterwards.
Perhaps if this dryness problem could be fixed, but until then… bleck.