The only way to cleanse our palette after watching Miley Cyrus’ performance on the VMA’s was to write this blog about our incredible experience with Trattoria Stella’s bread basket. The winner of our Roll Poll was a real winner indeed, taking the bread basket to artisan heights. These people not only know their bread, but clearly understand how a bread basket can make or break a dining experience.
LOCATION
Trattoria Stella
Traverse City, MI
BREAD
- Two types of bread: ciabatta and focaccia.
- As much as we love the soft yet chewy ciabatta, the clear winner here is the focaccia.
- The memory foam mattress of the bread world. If we had to sleep on bread it would be this spongey delight.
- So much more rich and dense than your run of the mill focaccia, it’s like pound cake had a bread baby. Lumping it in with what some other people call focaccia is borderline offensive.
- Incredible herb coating topping a perfectly golden crust.
- Classy basket, classy napkin keeping the bread warm.
- Bread made fresh daily onsite. We’ve never been to Italy, but if this is at all an indication of the bread quality there, consider our flight booked.
BUTTER/OILS/SPREADS
- Imported from Italy: Aceto Balsamico (Balsamic Vinegar for you laymen) and Leone Olive Oil. Delizioso!
- Vinegar and oil are in bottles on the table so you can control your mix (and have fun trying to make designs, too!). We went heavy on the balsamic.
- While typically we prefer butter to oil, the tangy balsamic elevates the dip and the bread was perfect for sopping up all that flavor.
LIKELINESS FOR REFILLS
Our waitress was fabulous. She not only brought us two refills in a very prompt manner, but also noticed our propensity toward the focaccia. From then on out we were treated to focaccia only baskets.
RATING (out of five)
