Montclair’s Simit House Bakery now closed
Simit House Bakery & Co. recently opened a corner café in the space vacated early this year by the Tory Janes shoe shop. The shop will serve simits–sesame studded circular loops of bread sold for centuries by street vendors in Turkey.
Although simits are sometimes called “Turkish bagels,” that’s a bit of a misnomer. They’re closer to a pretzel-bagel hybrid. Unlike bagels, simits aren’t boiled before baking. Instead, they’re dipped in a mix of molasses and water, then dredged in sesame seeds and baked. They taste nutty and bread-like, rather than rubbery and dense, and are infinitely easier to bite into. While it’s true that simits and bagels are both created from a ring of dough, so are doughnuts–and even cronuts (croissant-doughnuts). We in the New York metro area sure like our doughy hybrids.
Simits, while new to Montclair, have long been available in Middle Eastern grocery stores and bakeries in parts of Brooklyn and Queens. You can also get them at Paterson’s Taskin Bakery, and Simit & Smith of Cliffside, NJ, has several outposts in Manhattan.
The bakery is selling other Turkish foods as well, most notably pogaca (poo-WAH-chuh), which looks something like an empanada, and is stuffed with olive paste (my favorite), feta, chocolate, or raisin and walnuts. For those looking for a heartier fare, Simit House Bakery will soon be serving omelets, along with chicken, turkey, roast beef and vegetarian sandwiches.
Address:
2 Church Street, Montclair
Hours:
Mon-Thurs: 8 AM to 8 PM
Fri: 8 AM to 10 PM
Sat-Sun: 9 AM to 10-11 PM
I can’t wait to go, especially for the baklava and the coffee.
I wonder if he makes Ka’ak… I can only get those in Brooklyn…
I’ve stopped in a couple of times already for the simits. They can be addictive.
I had a simit last weekend-so tasty! Look forward to trying out the rest!
I’m fairly sure that the last thing anyone of Circassian, Kurdish or, especially, Armenian descent will ever want is “a taste of the former Ottoman Empire.”
Really, does anyone ever edit this gush before it appears on Baristanet?
It is great to have such a nice addition to Church Street. The Montclair we know and love will be really pleased with this baker’s delicacies.
cathar, your ignorance about others somehow gets the better of the good in you.
I’m waiting for Michelle Bachmann to descend on this bakery and accuse the owners of attempting to infiltrate Montclair with the infectious scourge of Sharia law.
Spiro, good one!
I hear that there’s a young lad named Pevensie who really wants to know exactly what sort of Turkish Delight is on offer.
Looking forward to tasting the simits and Turkish coffee; the Ottoman Empire notwithstanding.
I love dough: Both kind$
how are the prices? is this going to be another version of the 5$ cupcake shop?
I hope that turkish pastries are less pretentious and more affordable than the hipster crap we are used to
Prices are VERY low — a few dollars each. Baklava was the freshest and most tasty I’ve ever had, and they had a number of varieties. VERY good place!
Lovely, small shop. Mustafa explained each type of baked goods to me, and I chose two of each to take home. Price point fabulous. $1.60 coffee, $2 Turkish coffee. The best deal on Church Street. Reminds me of the goodies I used to buy on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. I wish the owner and staff much good luck and a long run!
I stopped by over the weekend. Turkish coffee and simits (sesame and almond) were delish . . . all for under $5.
Great location on corner of Church and Bloomfield, as it doesn’t “get lost” in middle of Church Street.
Lines at the counter this weekend all three times I passed by this weekend. The simits are $1.60, not very costly. And really tasty.