Mel The Bakery — Restaurant in City of Hudson

Carbs & coffee - 2 legally addictive substances are available here at Mel in a variety of forms. There's been a lot of hype surrounding this 2024 James Beard award semi-finalist (bakery category). I finally made it here and doubted it could live up to the hype. Oh ye of little faith. One bite of their ham and cheese croissant was all it took to make me a member of the cult. It's hard to explain but I think our palates understand when someone crafts our food. Their cultivated knowledge and skill is in the food. Back to the croissant. The initial crunch of puff pasty giving way to an airy middle layer then the substantive salt of the ham intermingled with bits of caramelized cheese, it's good stuff. Now imagine it still slightly warm from the oven. Yeah, you get me. I'm not proud of this but I know I devoured that croissant in less than a minute in the relative privacy of my car. The same can be said of the sourdough baguette. Simple yet so satisfying; the differing textures of crunch and chew and the tang of the dough are worth savoring. The place, as one could imagine, was busy. Word gets around. Their staff, however, has a system in place to bring order to what could otherwise be a chaotic space. It's clean in there, some merch available (aprons, t-shirts, bagged coffee) in front, a display of baked goods near the rear of the store, and a menu of coffee/espresso drinks above the display. It's efficient with an industrial chic feel. I don't live near Hudson but I would make the drive there for a special treat. Thanks for moving up to Hudson to share your gifts with us, Mel. Mel, by the way, is derived from mjöl, the Danish...

Mel is definitely a hidden gem with its humble exterior and small signage even though it’s located in the center of Chinatown. They only open from Wed to Sun with limited time until everything runs out.

We were there around 9am on a Saturday morning and there was a line but the wait wasn’t too bad. However, when we circled back at 10am, the line was much longer.

Everything looks super appetizing and the price is reasonable. We got a total of 4 pastries, Ginger Molasses Cookie, Cinnamon Roll, Pistachio Almond Croissant and Kouign Amann. It was overall amazingly delicious, especially the Croissant, the filling was rich and satisfying with crispy texture.

The way they packed our cinnamon roll with cookie was the only thing we would like to complain. We didn’t know until we were home. We would make it clear next time to separate our packing since the cream on the cinnamon roll was mixed with the cookie and they did not...

I hate coming here but they absolutely have the best bread (standard country loaf). The best. The GOAT. Better than Breadfolks. And unlike a lot of artisan bread, it keeps quite well - which is good because it’s a huge loaf and not cheap. However, it is full of hipster folks milling about indecisively, who think cow milk is poisonous and are full of themselves. They probably Instagram daily. I can barely stand to run in and run out, but the bread is worth it, unless there is a line of more than 10. I have had better pastries, but they are still quite good. Staff are very good. The joy and pain of living in a town like Hudson in the age of the internet. World class bread, but ya gotta run a gamut of visiting doofuses to get it. And only open weekends til 3. Wish they had a vending machine like the old...