Mirabelle Fine Pastries

Last Saturday I visited the kitchen at Mirabelle in downtown Urbana. It was 7:30 a.m. and already many loaves of bread were out of the oven and many more were being readied for baking. The bakers were preparing baguettes when I entered the dark back room where the enormous ovens are. Carmel, Matt, and Jack were loading tall carts with fragrant loaves of honey-walnut, pecan-raisin, New York rye, and nine-grain bread and wheeling them away to make room for the loaves coming out of the oven.

The bakers at Mirabelle make around 160 baguettes a day on the weekend, and they generally sell out. These babies are popular! And with good reason—they're the best baguettes this side of Paris (that would be Paris, France, not Paris, Illinois). According to Wikipedia, "the baguette is a descendant of the bread developed in Vienna in the mid-19th century when steam ovens were first brought into use, helping to make possible the crisp crust and the white crumb pitted with holes that still distinguish the modern baguette."

The baguettes were resting comfortably next to each other on large pieces of canvas at the start of my observation period. The bakers lifted each one gently onto a wooden palette and transferred it to a kind of breadshop gurney that held 20 or more loaves. The bakers then made several gashes in each loaf (this is called scoring) before depositing them into the oven.

Retrieving the larger, heavier loaves from the enormous multishelved oven is no mean feat. The baker takes a flat, broad wooden paddle (with about a 10-foot long handle!) and gently but firmly slides it under the loaves, then lifts them out and over onto the waiting rack. This is no job for a weakling. But I guess it has its perks— no need to lift weights in the gym when you're a bread baker.

In the next room, the pastry chef is finishing up. She's come in at 4 a.m. to prepare a huge variety of beautiful cakes, tarts, Danishes, cookies, cheesecakes, chocolate mousse, and more. These pastries really are works of art. I succumbed to the luscious apricot tarts (the chef made both full- and individual-sized versions), and bought several (I only ate one small tart!).

Ah, the finished products crowd the shelves and cases in the front of the store. On a Saturday, you have to go early to ensure success. The tide of customers ebbs and flows throughout the morning, but the later it gets, the more chance you have of encountering a long line of people anxious to procure their favorite breads and pastries.

If you want a cake for a special occasion, call a couple of days in advance and they'll have it ready for you, beautifully packaged (I've bought the dense, rich, flourless chocolate cake several times; it rested on a gold foil-covered serving "plate" and was encircled with a pretty ribbon and dusted with powdered sugar). Mirabelle has a few sidewalk tables shaded by umbrellas, and they sell coffee, too, so you can relax outside with a coffee and a pastry on a summer morning—life is good. Many thanks to the entire talented staff of Mirabelle for allowing me to visit on a busy morning and take a look at the inner workings of the twin cities' best bakery.

Mirabelle Fine Pastries
124 West Main Street
Urbana, IL 61801
217-384-6460
Hours: Tuesday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.; Saturday 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.