Amy's Bread

Hell's Kitchen
672 Ninth Ave.
between 46th/47th Sts.

P: 212.977.2670

Chelsea
Chelsea Market
75 Ninth Ave.
between W.15th/16th Sts.

P: 212.462.4338

West Village
250 Bleecker St.
between Carmine/Leroy Sts.

P: 212.675.7802

One of New York's premiere food merchants and certainly one of its best bread bakeries. Her breads are sold in many of the city's markets but for the biggest selection, visit one of the three storefronts.

What's great:

Whenever I bake a ham I make sure I also have a loaf of Amy's semolina with golden raisins and fennel, what she calls their "signature" bread. Having a ham sandwich made with a single slice of this bread is perfection. And I don't even like raisins! This golden, slightly sweet loaf sums up what's brilliant about Amy's artisanal selection of organic, whole grain and specialty loaves. There are other winning flavors, including black olive, organic whole wheat, and a rosemary round that when toasted is so fragrant it is profound.

What to avoid:

Eating too much of Amy's extraordinary breads.

What to know:

Like many New Yorkers, Amy Scherber originally comes from somewhere else -- Minnesota. After stints baking in places like Bouley, she started her New York business in 1992 with a storefront in Hell's Kitchen and the traffic jams from double-parked cars soon followed. She added a second location in the Chelsea Market in 1996 where you can watch the bakers making the artisanal loaves. In 2005 she added a third location in the West Village.

The storefronts also sell very good sweets and pastries, but the stars are the breads.