It”™s a sunny Sunday morning and the Red Barn Bakery, located across the parking lot less than 100 yards from Irvington”™s Metro-North station, is jumping. “We just love coming here,” I hear an elderly couple telling a young server, as she helps to shoehorn them in to a table. They”™ve done well to nab these two seats, because although this column is called “Table Talk,” the truth is there are not too many tables to talk about at this organic bakery-cum-café, located in a former auto garage, which punches well above its weight but where seating, for eating in, is at something of a premium.
Perhaps, though, that is part of its charm, I muse, as I join a line of wholesome Sunday-morning folk ”“ couples, elderly aunts, singles, dads with kids ”“ all either waiting for a table or to buy goodies to take out. As for me, waiting to meet with the bakery”™s founder and owner, Randell Dodge, I”™m about to jump right to the head of the line. Well, they do say it”™s not what you know, but whom you know, right?
Dressed in jeans and a black top and somehow incongruously slender for a baker, Dodge is not only spry but remarkably calm for a proprietor whose line of eagerly waiting customers is at this point snaking out the door. “Where shall we sit?” she asks me, doubtless a rhetorical question, more easily asked than answered given the space, although we do find two seats at the communal table in the bakery”™s upper section, at right-angles to the counter.
She has had a classic Americana life ”“ growing up on the North Fork of Long Island, where her parents had a farm, surrounded by peach and apple orchards and blueberry and strawberry fields; learning from her mother how to make jam and pies and how to preserve and pickle. She started baking at the age of 12, using the freshest products, the best ingredients. “Farm to table,” she observes, “was what we did, before it was called ”˜farm to table”™.”
Her route to baking professionally, though, was indirect. She studied painting and ceramic sculpture at Bennington College in Vermont before embarking on a career in fashion, designing handbags for stores like Barney”™s and Neiman Marcus and establishing a cashmere business in Nepal. Soon she was taking in $2 million annually, traveling to China and South Korea every two months.
Then came 9/11 ”“ she was living on Chambers Street in Lower Manhattan at the time ”“ and everything changed. Moving to Westchester County soon after, she was struck by how there were no organic bakeries, only supermarkets, with perfectly turned out, decorated cakes or fancy French patisseries. Baking was suddenly calling. Renting a cottage on Byram Lake Road in Armonk, Dodge asked the landlord if she could put a commercial oven in the red barn on the property. He agreed and a business (and name) were born.
Initially, she produced only baked goods. But within a year, in 2007, Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills asked her if she would be the outside resource for its farmers”™ market, where three days a week she would sell out in just a couple of hours. A request soon after from Joe DiMauro at Mount Kisco Seafood had her branching out into pies. (“He ordered 250 pies the Tuesday before Thanksgiving,” recalls Dodge, “then called me up at 5 a.m. the following day and asked me if I could get him another 400 by noon.”) When, early on, Martha Stewart”™s producer Greta Anthony called to ask her if she would bake her breakfast cookies on the show, she thought it was a prank call. Increasingly well-known, Dodge moved to her present location, a former auto garage, in 2010.
A passionate believer in organic produce who follows an “organic” and “nutritious” lifestyle herself, Dodge says “”¦stick to the source and you will pay fewer medical bills later.”
Back in the moment, at the bakery counter, the line has shortened a little and Dodge walks me over to the selection. There are savory dishes, omelets, frittatas, bowls and salads, while soups like cauliflower and lentil are big sellers. (Eileen Fisher had been in the previous day for lunch with a friend and bought 10 soups to take out. “I said, ”˜What are you going to do with this?”™ And she”™s like, ”˜We can”™t run out of it.”™”) The bakery”™s olive oil muffin and its cheddar, jalapeño and kale savory scone are also superb savory snacks, the deliciousness of both to which I can personally attest.
As for baked goods, which are perhaps the core of the business, they include the famed breakfast cookies, wonderfully crisp and fresh almond biscotti, apple pie roll-ups, perfectly moist rugelach (a revelation, this) and superb gluten-free cheese cake with a raspberry glaze. Add to this choice fruit pies, fudge pie, savory tarts, flourless chocolate cake, cupcakes and macarons, and you get an idea of the bakery”™s scope.
With the holiday season nearly upon us, Red Barn”™s Thanksgiving menu is also now available, featuring treats like fig and leek savory tart and black bottom fig cheesecake. Pumpkin, apple crumb and apple salted-caramel crumb desserts are among the most popular items. All are gluten-free.
Speaking of future plans, Dodge says she”™s constantly asked about opening new branches or franchising the business. Only the previous day she had been approached about opening in Brooklyn and Greenwich, but beyond a broad plan to rework her brand and expand the wholesale part of the business, she has resisted any temptation to launch elsewhere.
“You know, more is not always better,” she says thoughtfully. “I find that sometimes when you expand, the quality diminishes. And I”™m really emphatic about the quality,” she adds, almost redundantly.
Because, looking around the bakery, seeing the delight on people”™s faces, the general good humor of the place and, of course, the empty plates, it”™s a fact that is completely self-evident.
For more, visit redbarn-bakery.com.
