Baking Power

To find the reason—or, perhaps, six of them—why Sharon and Richard Sutter launched the A-Frame Bakery (in an actual A-frame structure located where Routes 2 and 7 intersect) in Williamstown, Massachusetts, last October, look no further than the half-dozen children the couple has produced, a baker’s half-dozen if you will, now ages four to fifteen. Starting a family is what got Sharon, a classically trained chef and caterer who worked for years in Manhattan, out of the city and into the country.

The decision to renovate the old O’Neill’s Café building last year and turn it into a first-class bakery seems to have paid off: from the day the A-Frame opened, “it’s been steady,” Sharon says. And that first day, she recalls, “there was a line out the door at six a.m. of people waiting to come in” for a variety of baked goods, including such popular items as pear-almond tarts; chocolate babka, and apple and blueberry muffins, as well as forty or so other freshly baked offerings. While mornings start quite early—Sharon says she wakes up anywhere from two to four a.m. to begin the day’s baking—the shop’s loyal clientele has been gratifying.

“We just caught the tail-end of the leaf peeping season last fall,” says Sharon, “but we’re looking forward to seeing some more lines out the door come summer.” [MAR/APR 2010]

THE GOODS

A-Frame Bakery
Tue-Fri 6:30-4
Sat 12-4; Sun 10-4
1194 Cold Spring Rd./Route 7
Williamstown, Mass.
413.458.3600