Sutter’s Bakery. Just say these two words to old New Yorkers and watch their happy faces as they rummage through delicious memories. The Manhattan location of Sutter’s Bakery was at Greenwich Avenue near Sixth Avenue. Next door was the later demolished Women’s House of Detention (Ladies of the night were locked up there and had animated conversations through the bars with their business agents gathered on the sidewalk below). Sutter’s had the best pecan ring, Danish pastries, cookies, croissants, brioche, etc. It was a big place with outstanding variety. (There were equally great Sutter’s on the Grand Concourse in The Bronx and Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn). HG and BSK recall many happy, Winter Sunday mornings during their early married days. The Sunday Times. Radical radio station WBAI broadcasting subversive joy. Sutter’s gently warmed croissants and brioche. Sweet butter. English marmalade. Steaming mugs of Droste’s cocoa. Snow might have been pelting down W. 67th Street and the wind might have been whistling a frigid tune. But, all was toasty joy in HG and BSK’s rent controlled paradise.
Do you remember the name of the bakery that was on 72nd street across from Eclairs?
Sorry. No. But, I bet it was splendid.
Edison Sutter was my grandfather and I spent many holidays and summers working at the bakery so it was wonderful to see your sweet article while I was doing some research. James Beard lived next door to the side door of the bakery and my grandfather would often have lunch with him. Grandpa was very proud of the quality of his ingredients…only 94 score butter, the best eggs and cream, and the finest flour went into everything they made.
Thanks for the memories, Gerald.
Lynn, there was quality, integrity and deliciousness in everything baked at Sutters. Alas, you can’t find many New Yorkers like Edison Sutter these days.
Hey, Lynn, I remember working with you (weekends), I think, at Sutters a long time ago (60s), especially behind the ice-cream and shakes counter. My uncle, Manny Pflaum, was the head baker at Sutters, and I worked with Al, Emiel, and Mario (managers) when I was in college (1963 – 68). My brothers, Marv and Milt, also worked there. Marv made the cookies, and Al, was always ticked off when my pound of cookies weighed 1 1/4 pounds. My friend, Kenny, used to come on Sunday nights to pick me up just so he could get some of the “free” left-over cakes that Sutters would never use again. I still can visualize their incredible cakes, danishes, pies (cherry/blueberry), eclairs (the custard), napoleons, baba rum cakes (the rum oozing over the paper wrapper), coffee rings, cheese cakes (cherry/pineapple), Boston creme pies, strawberry shortcakes, buttercream cakes, and fresh ice-cream. When Sutters expanded into the cafe many celebrities came by including James Garner. You never knew who would walk into Sutters. For me, in this part-time job, the day did not go slowly and there was always that delicious reward afterward.
Warmly, Jeffrey Pflaum
You’ve mentioned so many tasty morsels from grandpa’s bakery….and Manny was such a strong influence. Then there was Susie and Louise running the counter! That group knew how to get things done. Oh, yes, a pound of cookies was never weighed!!!!!! There was always room for just one more……….
Enjoy the memories! If only I could put my finger on tho old recipes….let me know if you have any from Manny.
Hello Lynn,
Whenever people talk about bakeries, I always bring up Sutters and tell them about this great bakery. They’re tired of me bringing it up, but they wouldn’t know because they never sampled the “goods.” It was sad when the landlord ended Sutters stay in the village. My Uncle Manny, only shortly after he had retired, died of a heart attack. He did enjoy a few years, though, and he remained friendly with Susie. I think, stashed away somewhere in a satchel, I have his notes/recipes for the various baked goods (not sure if everything is there). But they are in bulk, that is, if it’s a recipe for the strawberry shortcake, it would be for 10 such cakes. Good to reconnect after all those years.
Do you happen to have any of the old recipes? I’m thinking particularly of the banana cream pie and those crescent cookies! I’d so love to see them. As a student I lived a nice walk away from Sutters ?Thank you
I don’t know if Lynn will ever see this, but I lived next door to James Beard. I was a little girl and I remember Sutter’s Rum Chocolate cake like it was yesterday. I would give anything to know THAT recipe! I’ve looked for it over the years. And just seeing this post reminds me of those days! I grew up in Patchin Place. Wow. To this day I have not found a pastry or cake to rival Sutters. x
I remember the Sutter on Caton and Flatbush Aves in Bklyn in the 60’s when I was a kid. I especially remember one pastry that I dream of– Chocolate Rum Cake– it was a chocolate cake soaked in a sweet rum liquid and the small squarish cake was coated with a shiny hard chocolate coating and was completed with a maraschino cherry on the top. I’d say it was about 4″ high and 3″ wide and deep. What I would give for one of those right now!
My uncle, Manny, was the head baker at the Flatbush & Caton Avenue Sutters and then moved on to the store in the village. I went to Erasmus so I’m familiar with the Brooklyn store. I remember their ba-ba rum, which if memory serves me correctly, was cylindrical in shape, about 4 – 5 inches long, oozing and dripping with rum in the white cup-like container that held it. Yeah, those days are gone, that is, the great stuff that Sutters made with all the best ingredients. Too expensive.
Jeffrey: You brought tears to my eyes. Best dessert in the world was your uncle’s Baba au Rhum. Took it home. Smothered it with whipped cream.Drank a snifter of Jamaica black rum. Heaven.
Hi Gerry,
The minute you write ‘Baba au Rhum,” I see the picture, especially the liquid in its paper container. But Gerry, the way you finished it off with the whipped cream and some rum, man, that’s heaven…
When the danishes came out of the oven, and seriously hot, and still soft, they truly would melt in your mouth: imagine the taste of the cheese and even the crumb danish right out of the oven. Sutters sent their baked goods to places like Max’s Kansas City.
And now I’m seeing their chocolate cream pies, with rich chocolate cream, and, this is the key, fresh home-made whipped cream. But that’s not all of the pie list: their banana cream pies, with super rich, yes, that’s right, banana cream, and again, real whipped cream, and if my memory serves me correctly, there were slices of banana around the pie. How about that?
Jeffrey: You have made me mad with Baba and pastry Sutter lust. Alas. I cannot return to my youth and the culinary pleasures of yesteryear New York ad.
Me Too OMG it was great.
I remember every single yummy treat that they made down to the tiny petit-fours! And, yes, Manny was the mainstay for the bakers! He and Susie and Louise…a triumvirate of organization that kept the bakery humming everyday. Fond, fond memories.
Thanks for the memories……..
Do you remember the coffee buttercream cake with apricot jam dusted with almonds
it was my annual birthday cake
want to recreate it for husbands 95th
can you describe it to me
thank you
sandy
Hi Sandy,
The coffee buttercream cake was a small square-like cake with coffee buttercream on the outside with almonds. Not 100% sure, but there were layers of apricot jam inside, and the cake was “white.” Key was the combination of the buttercream–all real ingredients–with the apricot jam. As far as I remember, there were 3 or 4 layers of apricot jam. I don’t think you can miss with this cake. If this info is not enough, I can ask my older brother who also worked in Sutters like myself and younger brother. He might know more.
Don’t like butter cream. Never ate the cake. Sorry.
I remember the Mocha Buttercream Cake. Like you, Sandy, we had it for all our birthdays. It was wonderful! I still think of those cakes. The apricot jam with it’s bit of tang was the perfect foil to the rest of the cake and the (I believe) toasted almonds around the cake were a nice touch that added a bit of crunch to the dessert. If I had the recipe, I would make that cake for my family’s birthdays. I was never in the shop, but my father would stop there (in Bklyn) and bring the cake home. I never had any other kind of pastry from there, but if that cake was anything to go on, the rest must have been delicious!
Of course it goes without saying more than that the loss of Sutter Bakery was heartbreaking. What wonderful recollections I still have, the remarkable treats which I pretty much accepted as the norm (what an illusion). To me, the little rainbow layer cookies were and are the standard to which I still hold… and generous on the rasberry jam. Paradise lost methinks.
Sutter was the ultimate. Some 59 years ago, my wonderful lover (female) would break fast on Sutter croissants (with Jam or honey). Lots of coffee and the Times and Herald=Tribune. Joy. Married in 1963. Decades of bliss.
I’ve been reading these comments with such enjoyment. If only the relative who said he had the recipes somewhere, on another thread, another site, could see these and agree to share them! But memory is delicious. We were lucky to be able to experience such a fine bakery in its heyday. My parents used to get things there in the fifties when we lived in the village. I was only really focused on the cheesecake until you all reminded me of the baba au rhum.
hey, Lauri, tell me about your parents. I think I knew them.