Rockland Bakery — Restaurant in Town of Clarkstown

Apparently everyone knows about this place except me. That ended today when I visited the Rockland Bakery. It's a large commercial bakery with a storefront where you can walk near where they are baking bread and select bread from racks. It's really a sight to see and I don't remember anything like this in recent memory. The breads include loaves, rolls, baguettes, bagels, pretzels and large rounds of bread in all different varieties like olive, sourdough, wheat, white, raisin, Irish soda bread etc. Various sizes of paper bags are available along with a thin plastic glove to use as you pull your bread from the racks. There is also a more traditional bakery as you walk in which is quite large and also a deli where you can order cold cuts or sandwiches. They also had some prepared foods like chicken wings, eggplant parm, lasagna, cole slaw and a lot more. All the food looked FANTASTIC! My only issue (which is not really an issue) but in their deli they don't have a selection of recommended sandwiches like you might find at a sub shop. So, whatever you want, you can order. My wife commented on my particular difficulty with ordering a sandwich but I explained to her I don't like complexity - I want to order a 'number one' or a 'new york style hoagie' or something like that. She encouraged me to order something as it all looked so good. Unfortunately I reached back into my Jersey roots - and told her before hand I knew there would be a problem in this New York bakery - and orders a 'Ham Joe'. Now, I know a good ham joe and have ordered it since my youth. I added a more descriptive version of a 'ham joe' and told the gent behind the counter I'd like to order a 'Hame Sloppy Joe'. He looked at me with that look and said, sloppy, sloppy? He had no idea what I was talking about and honestly, I don't even know all the ingredients in a proper ham sloppy joe so I just told him I'd like ham, topped with cole slaw on rye bread. I think I left off a slice or two of swiss cheese but, this is one of the best sandwiches I have had in a long time. The bread of course is outstanding and really elevates anything you put on it. This is definitely a place I would drive an hour to visit periodically. I thought prices were very reasonable for fresh loaves of bread and hope to...

Where do you even start with a place like this... I have listened to my parents talk about going to the Rockland Bakery when they were growing up for the last 30+ years. I was in White Plains for work and decided to take a quick little trip across the Tappan Zee Bridge. I was following the gps but let me tell you... no gps is needed once you get close. You can smell it from afar.

I was very much a deer in headlights when I walked in. I didn't even know what I was supposed to do first.

I took a few minutes to just walk around the storefront with all of the amazing looking and desserts, walked into the deli, and then into the bakery. A very kind woman working there could clearly see that I had no clue what I was doing. She gave me very clear instructions telling me to grab some food safe plastic gloves, a paper bag (or more) and have at it. Fresh breads of all kinds all around you. Bagels flowing right off of the line out of the ovens. It was like carb heaven in there.

Being that I was on a work trip, I tried to control myself a little bit. I ended up with bagels for my hotel room, I bought a few loaves of rye and challah to ship home, and of course had to get some black & whites to send home to my parents as well.

Wonderful place. I can imagine it can be hard to find a place to park or to even get in depending on the time of day. I was there probably around 2 pm and while I didn't have any issue parking or getting around in the bakery, it was definitely busy. But they keep everyone moving smoothly.

Next trip to White Plains, this is my first...

I've tried the leftovers on two separate occasions after my relatives bought things from here and I did not like them at all. They bought two kinds of large chocolate cookies- one with Oreo topping, the other chocolate frosting with sprinkles. Yet despite it looking good, just as dark as any other chocolate cookie, there was literally NO chocolate flavor anywhere in the cookie nor frosting. It only tasted like sugar. Was the chocolate extremely expired? It's dumbfounding. Also the Napolean was very overly sweet, but maybe it's supposed to be that way since I've never had it before.

I already wasn't a fan of the food but in addition, my mother came in a few months ago after receiving devastating medical news and was treated rudely by staff just because she had a few questions about what was available. An older woman ostentatiously rolled her eyes at each question because she was annoyed another younger employee who was probably new didn't know the answers and she had to keep coming back over (nothing against her.) Of course they didn't know what had happened to my mom before but she came here hoping to cheer up and was made to feel a burden. If you don't want to answer questions about your product, which is the whole point of customer service, then buy a self-checkout machine. If you're too busy, hire more people. Somehow this place seems very busy and well-liked so you should have the...