The Essence of Waterbury: Remember These Bakeries?

There's nothing like tearing into a fresh loaf of Militie's bread.

You know what I'm talking about, that hard crust, the soft, spongy heart of the bread. You know that you're going to be wearing a bib of crumbs in three bites, but you don't care. We're very spoiled in Waterbury when it comes to great breads. A long lineage of dough men and women have walked these streets.

I belong to a group on Facebook called "You know you're from Waterbury when..." Recently, a member posted about the great bakeries of the past. The post generated a lot of responses, most of them mentioned Helen's Bakery, Sunbeam, and Raymond's.

Sadly, most of the great ones are long gone. But, as Waterbury has proven, once a location has been established, people try to carry on the tradition.

My family's go-to was always Como on Fairfield Ave. I was very sad when they shut their doors.

But my Grandmothers both used to scream for the Brooklyn Bakery Rye and their dark Pumpernickle. It was a must at Easter. Unfortunately, Brooklyn Bakery has also shut it's doors.

As I stated before, once an idea works in our city, people try to resurrect the idea. Case in point, on East Main Street where Helen's used to be, we now have the Bread From Heaven Bakery.

And, thankfully, Militie's is still cranking out the good stuff on that hidden road behind BJ's and Texas Roadhouse

My friend's along the shoreline all bow down to Arthur Avenue bread, which is definitely great stuff. I'm still going to think of my fresh loaf of Como's.

BONUS VIDEO: TWO Lou Milano's? Oh, it happened.