Tasty Travels -- Leavenworth's Shops And Orchards Offer Treasures Of German-Flavored Pastry And Fresh, Home-Grown Fruit
Orange cinnamon rolls and blackberry pie.
Cold Icicle Ale and warm sourdough rye.
Almond-filled pastries shaped into rings.
These are a few of my favorite things - about Leavenworth.
This gingerbread Bavarian village, over Stevens Pass and through the woods, looks good enough to eat. And it is.
Speaking of gingerbread, there's no better place to begin our summertime trek in search of good food than at The Gingerbread Factory. Inhale the aroma of spices, let your eyes polka around the display cases, and you'll decide that you don't have to drive all the way to Florida to discover the Fountain of Youth.
Owner Carol Ann Stolmeier, who began this career by selling her gingerbread houses on street corners in West Seattle during the holidays, has come a long way. Since moving to Leavenworth in 1988 she has developed a full-time retail business and expanded a wholesale business, making thousands of gingerbread houses for holiday mail-order catalogs. Her contracts include REI, Made in Washington and Balducci's, the New York specialty food store.
Researching old cookbooks, Stolmeier developed a gingerbread recipe sweetened with brown sugar and honey instead of the more traditional molasses. She chose Leavenworth because it's ``a Christmas town all year,'' but she diversifies with the seasons. On display at the factory is an edible creation labeled ``the first passive solar gingerbread house.'' In another case are neat rows of ``gingerbread on vacation'' - men and women in sunglasses and brightly colored swimwear, trunks for the men and bikinis for the women, created with multicolored frostings and sprinkles.
The shop, a former home where you can nibble cookies and sip espresso at tables on the porch and in the yard, also has cookie cutters, kitchen equipment and handmade Christmas ornaments for sale.
Stolmeier paid for her education at the University of
Washington's School of Graphic Design by working as a bakery cake decorator. Now she enjoys teaching cooking classes for local schoolchildren, passing along the joys of gingerbread.
``These cookies were baked to make you happy,'' is the motto at the factory.
For lunch, Walter and Ivalyn Wilmoth welcome you to the Terrace Bistro. It's a bit hard to find, down an alleyway and up a steep staircase, but well worth the search. This is a pleasant place to relax and enjoy a meal, either inside formal dining rooms or on the outdoor terrace decorated with banners and planter boxes of flowers and herbs. The menu is a blend of European specialties, with accents of Italian, Swiss, French and German favorites. Try the Roulade - rolled beef stuffed with carrot, pickle and bacon, blanketed with a rich brown gravy. And one of the rich desserts made by Ivalyn. Her signature Taffy Apple Pie is a memorable medley of fresh apples, caramel and walnuts. The bistro also is noted for its wine list.
After lunch, a drive along Icicle Road leads to a very special bakery. Birds are singing as you walk past the front porch of Theresa and Richard D-Litzenberger's 65-year-old log home and along a flower-bordered path to the door of their Homefires Bakery.
The couple can bake 50 loaves at a time in the German-style, wood-fired masonry oven, the centerpiece of their 10-year-old business. Energy efficient, the oven uses only half a cord of wood a week to produce 22 varieties of breads (about seven each day) including Bavarian farmers, English muffin, German sourdough and orange raisin wheat, plus pies, cookies, muffins, cinnamon rolls, cheesecakes and streusel coffeecakes.
The D-Litzenbergers work hard, beginning early in the morning, but their labors are made more pleasant by the large windows in the bakery kitchen that provide comforting views of their sloping grassy yard dotted with trees and flowers.
Hunger is an unlisted word in the dictionaries of most Leavenworth visitors, so I was grateful that our dinner choice was up another steep flight of stairs, enough to spur a glimmer of an appetite. Reiner's Gasthaus serves traditional Bavarian food in a setting of wood-paneled walls decorated with banners and German mementos. Owner Kathy Reiner is Hungarian, and you'd do well to order the Hungarian Goulash served with spaetzle, the traditional German egg noodles. Chef Juergen Girardin is from Karlsruhe, near the Black Forest. He came to Leavenworth more than five years ago to prepare his old-country recipes for visitors. He makes his own spaetzle and bread dumplings. A strolling organ grinder playing Bavarian favorites helped make the meal an occasion. So did the moist and rich Black Forest cake.
Physically, it's possible to do Leavenworth - 118 miles east of downtown Seattle - in a day, but mentally you'll soak up the relaxed spirit of the place if you don't rush, making it an overnight trip.
The Chamber of Commerce, P.O. Box 327, Leavenworth, WA 98826, (509) 548-5807, can provide a brochure listing lodging possibilities, including hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts and RV parks.
One pleasant possibility is Run of the River, a bed and breakfast along the Wenatchee River. It's only 1 1/2 miles from downtown Leavenworth, but the setting, next to a bird refuge, gives it a special serenity. After restorative sleep in a hand-crafted log bed, hosts Monty and Karen Turner serve you a family-style breakfast in their dining room overlooking the river. A recent meal included apple juice, peach yogurt with blueberries, a platter of sliced apples and oranges, cinnamon rolls, a spinach souffle, home-fried potatoes and plenty of coffee.
Another possibility, if the four rooms at Run of the River are filled, is the Enzian Motor Inn. An 11-foot-long alpenhorn is used to signal guests that the complimentary buffet-style breakfast is ready. It includes juice, fresh fruit, croissants, bran muffins, sweet breads, meats, omelets, pastries and more.
Shopping the main streets of Leavenworth, you will find plenty of edible treats, ranging from sausages to sandwiches, from taffy to tortes, from cheeses to cheesecake.
A popular spot to rest your feet and quench your thirst is Gustav's at Front Street and Highway 2. The rough-hewn log beams and paneling create the atmosphere of a ski lodge, and it's a good place to rest while you sip a glass of Icicle Ale or perhaps a tall cool glass of Sleeping Maiden Porter or Enchantment Ale, all custom-brewed for Gustav's by Hale's Ales microbrewery. Gustav's also makes world-class French fries. One order is ample for two people.
Now. It's time to start gathering edible souvenirs to take home.
When you step into Hoelgaard's Danish Bakery, the semidarkness is surprising, but then you realize that the spotlights are where they belong - in the display cases, illuminating rich treats such as peach squares, chocolate-dipped cookies, loaves of cinnamon bread and almond-filled kringle, the pastry that symbolizes the good life in Denmark that's served at holidays and special occasions there, but is available every day in Leavenworth.
Owner Benny Jensen was born in Denmark into a baking family. His father was one of 11 children. Ten went into bakery businesses. And many of his cousins are bakers, providing a rich pool of traditional family recipes.
The Jolly Bear Fruit Stand & Gift Shop, on the east side of the Leavenworth Fruit Co., has cold-storage apples at bargain prices, plus gift items from T-shirts to stationary, as souvenirs of the fact that you've been to apple country.
About 1 1/2 miles east of Leavenworth is Prey's Fruit Barn, where you can purchase locally grown fruit and enjoy a snack at one of the picnic tables within view of Rudy and Antje Prey's apple orchard. Apricots are available now, to be followed by peaches, apples, Bartlett pears and the 11 varieties of Asian pears the Preys grow.
Your drive back west will be more pleasant if your vehicle groans with enough of these favorite things.
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When in Leavenworth . . .
The area code for all the Leavenworth telephone numbers listed is 509.
Enzian Motor Inn, 590 Highway 2 (548-5269).
The Gingerbread Factory, 828 Commercial St., 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. (548-6592).
Gustav's, 617 Highway 2, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily, 11 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday (548-4509).
Hoelgaard's Danish Bakery, 731 Front St., 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. (548-7514).
Homefires Bakery, 13013 Bayne Rd., 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Monday. Closed Tuesday and Wednesday (548-7362).
Jolly Bear Fruit Stand & Gift Shop, 1038 Highway 2, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (548-6636).
Prey's Fruit Barn, Highway 2, Peshastin, 1 1/2 miles east of Leavenworth, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. (548-5771).
Reiner's Gasthaus, 829 Front St., 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday (548-5111).
Run of the River bed & breakfast, 9308 E. Leavenworth Rd. (548-7171).
Terrace Bistro, 200 Eighth St., 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. (548-4193).
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Food trip to Leavenworth
1. Homefires Bakery
2. Enzian Motor Inn
3. Gustav's
4. Hoelgaard's Danish Bakery
5. Terrace Bistro
6. Rainier's Gasthaus
7. The Gingerbread Factory
8. Run of the River Bed and Breakfast
9. Jolly Bear Fruit Stand and Gift Shop
10. Prey's Fruit Barn