Glaze Ending This Chapter; Closing on September 4

Like the exquisite, twenty-layered baum cakes that have been spinning inside its imported rotisserie oven – affectionately dubbed the Red Dragon — the past few years, Glaze is a restaurant with many strata. It opened as a bakery, became a joint sushi bar-bakery for a brief period, then earlier this...

By Gretchen Kurtz

September 3, 2015

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Like the exquisite, twenty-layered baum cakes that have been spinning inside its imported rotisserie oven – affectionately dubbed the Red Dragon — the past few years, Glaze is a restaurant with many strata. It opened as a bakery, became a joint sushi bar-bakery for a brief period, then earlier this year morphed into a bakery with a Japanese-inspired lunch and dinner menu courtesy of chef Kris Padalino.

But on Friday the eatery will add a not-so-sweet layer to its story: Glaze, the Baum Cake Shoppe will be closing for good at 6 p.m. Owner Heather Alcott declined to comment, but according to a front-of-house employee, the restaurant side of the operation has already wrapped up. Bakers, however, “are doing a ton of baking so we have a decent inventory,” she added.

I hope that means plenty of citrus Mont Baum, a cake with higher peaks and a sweeter batter than the traditional white baum cake. When I reviewed Glaze last fall — during its Glaze by Sasa era, with food under the direction of Sushi Sasa owner Wayne Conwell – that cake wowed me. And I was also wowed by the restaurant itself, which earned a spot on our list of the 15 Best New Restaurants of 2014. But then the Glaze/Sushi Sasa alliance came apart, and now the place is closing altogether.

But maybe Glaze will have a sweet ending, after all. A posting on the restaurant’s website suggests as much: “Although we’re sad that this chapter is ending, we are excited for the new challenges to come. We hope that you will join us on that journey.”

Gretchen Kurtz has worked as a writer for 25 years; during that time she's stomped grapes in Napa, eaten b'stilla in Fez, and baked with Buddy Valastro, aka the Cake Boss. Her work has appeared in publications including Boulevard (Paris), Diversion, the New York Times and Westword. Our restaurant critic since 2012, she loves helping you decide where to eat and drink tonight.

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