After a September break from her Yarmouth outpost for chef/baker/owner Krista Desjarlais to tend to her Bresca and the Honey Bee shack on Outlet Beach, she’s back at her Purple House Bakery in full swing. It opened on October 4th and the same hours remain, Thursday to Sunday, serving her signature Montreal style bagels, inventive lunch menu and special dinners throughout the year.
Trays of mixed bagels; the new bialy in process–some just with onions and others mixed with cheese
Few, if any, of our restaurants in the Portland area could be called precious. But then walk into The Purple House in North Yarmouth and the Zeitgeist of this culinary Zen den dazzles discreetly. You ponder, Am I in a place where I’ll have a spot of coffee, bagel, pastry or a sit-down meal in this exquisite little spot with its communal harvest table and open kitchen with aromas that tantalize?
The Purple House and the wood for the oven that gives the bagels their distinctive crispiness
From early morning until 11:00 AM you’ll literally join a crowd who are already jamming this charming café for the Montreal style bagels that owner/chef Krista Kerns Desjarlais has hand-rolled and baked in the brick wood oven, which imparts a very particular patina to America’s favorite breakfast bread. (And, for now, don’t be surprised to see another star chef, Jason Williams, of The Well at Jordan’s Farm, giving a helping hand in the kitchen.)
