No bakery does brown bread like Breads Unlimited. Whole Foods' brown loaves taste packed with unnecessary sugar. Firehook's are extremely dense. Heidelberg Bakery's brown bread is excellent - if you want a German or Northern European loaf. If you just want a gooey, chewy bread that makes about the best toast in town, head to Breads Unlimited.

It's in the Bradley Shopping Center on Arlington Road in Bethesda. The strip may look unprepossessing, but it's home to two of the Washington area's best treasures: Bruce Variety and Strosneider's.

Breads Unlimited began on Georgia Ave in 1949 when George Raab bought The New York Bakery, a subtitle the company still uses. His son Steve joined in 1965, moving the expanded business to Bethesda in 1981.

It sells award-winning challah bread, kosher bread, bread stuffed with raisins, or walnuts. It bakes pumpernickel, French boules and much much more bread, as well as a range of terrific rolls and bagels. But my favorite is the oatmeal six-grain, followed by the sesame six-grain. They have a gooey dampness to the crumb that suggests a malt in there somewhere. But I wouldn't dare second-guess them...

The family has been baking preservative-free bread for five generations, so it's had plenty of practice. You'll also find donuts, cookies, ruggelach, coffee cakes and other temptations.

Breads Unlimited, 6914 Arlington Rd, Bethesda, 301 656 2340.

Related Information...