There's a New Blue Duck in Riverhead

For years The Blue Duck Bakery Cafe has been serving delicious baked goods and breads to the residents of Southampton and Southold. Now The Blue Duck has opened a third location on Main Street in Riverhead. This hotspot offers The Blue Duck’s baked goods, plus soups, salads and sandwiches.

When you first walk in, you can smell all of the goodies The Blue Duck has to offer. The aroma of fresh baked bread envelopes you. One of the owners, Nancy Kouris, greeted us as my boyfriend and me approached the counter to look at her offerings for lunch. We both ordered a panino and a soup from the specials board and after receiving our tray we sat at one of the quaint tables in front.

First we dug into our soups, which were piping hot. I ordered the butternut squash soup, which had bits of apple running through it. It was creamy and luscious, and the apple gave it a boost of flavor. My boyfriend had the chicken noodle soup, which tasted just as if Grandma had made it. The noodles weren’t soggy and the chunks of chicken were sizeable.

Next we tried our sandwiches, all gooey and warm from the panini press. I had mushroom with Parmesan cheese, caramelized, onions and pesto on mine. The mushrooms were tender and the Parmesan gave the grilled sandwich a great salty flavor. My boyfriend tried a chicken, roasted bell pepper, fresh mozzarella and pesto panino on rosemary focaccia. The rosemary was baked into the focaccia, instead of just sprinkled on top, which really infused the bread with great herbaceous flavor.

For dessert we split one of The Blue Duck’s giant rainbow cookies and a red velvet cupcake. The rainbow cookie had a thick chocolate layer on top that crunched when we bit into it, and the raspberry jelly in the middle was fantastic. The red velvet cupcake wasn’t as red as you would expect it to be, and it had more cocoa, but it was delicious and moist with a light, fluffy buttercream on top. After we had finished our lovely lunch and thanked Nancy, she insisted that we take some bread home to try. We selected the cranberry walnut, as well as the chocolate bread.

Once we got home, we just had to taste a slice of each. It was incredible how the chocolate bread smelled like dark, bitter chocolate, and tasted like it too, with its massive chunks of baked-in chocolate. The cranberry walnut bread was also mouthwatering with the sweetness from the cranberries and the crunch from the walnuts.

The Blue Duck Bakery Cafe has so many great baked goods, and these are just a few. Their éclairs are gigantic and so are the turnovers!

Next time you’re in Riverhead stop by The Blue Duck and pick up a sweet or savory treat.

The Blue Duck Bakery Cafe, is located at 309 Main Street in Riverhead. Call 631-591-2711 or visit www.blueduckbakerycafe.com for more info. Also try their other locations at 30 Hampton Road in Southampton, 631-204-1701, and 56275 Route 25 in Southold, 631-629-4123.