Wild Oat Bakery, Cafe & Farm

The bread is the argument. Wild Oat bakes its loaves from organic flour and stands behind them enough that a plain grilled cheese — aged cheddar pressed between two fresh-baked slices — becomes a reason to make the trip. It runs as a bakery, a café, and a working farm at once, on Bank Street where Centretown edges into the Glebe, open every day from seven in the morning. Regulars use it three ways: a pastry and a coffee on the way in, a soup-and-sandwich at midday, a bakery box carried home for later.

The pastry case is where most first visits start. Butter and chocolate croissants hold the classic end; the rosemary goat cheese croissant is the one that announces a kitchen with its own ideas, flaky layers carrying a savoury, herb-flecked filling. The breads rotate daily through organic-flour loaves — a sourdough boule and baguette, a seeded multigrain, a herb-and-olive shot through with kalamata, spelt and kamut — and the boule is the one most people reach for. The cakes are built for occasions that don't need one: a dense chocolate cake made with fair-trade Cocoa Camino, and a carrot cake under real cream-cheese icing with orange zest and raisins.