Sometimes I wonder what in the world we did before Bailey’s Bakery and Café opened in Nahcotta.  And then I remember.  It’s more what we didn’t do.

We didn’t decide on the spur of the moment to go out to lunch.  We didn’t nip out on an early Sunday morning to get scones for a breakfast treat or drop by to pick up a loaf of bread.  We didn’t recommend that visitors stop there on their way out of town.  And we didn’t have any realization of what we were missing!

Bailey’s has become a staple in our lives.  It is close by and offers food we love.  My favorite – in fact, my “usual” – is the grilled cheese sandwich.  It’s made with tomatoes and avocados and is hands-down the messiest sandwich on the planet, at least when I eat it.  (It’s the kind of sandwich you don’t want to eat on a first date!)

Nyel likes the grilled ham and cheese, “not grilled.” Granted, he is more experimental than I and sometimes has soup or a different kind of sandwich.  That’s a good thing because he used to have a “usual” too – the Italian, but it’s not been on the menu for awhile.

We go back a long way with Proprietor/Chef Jayne and her husband, Bob.  I can’t remember how or when we met, but it might have been in the early ‘80s at Sharon and Carlos Welsh’s.  (Sharon wrote an oyster cookbook; Carlos had a jazz program on KMUN and started Jazz and Oysters.)   Or at some other north end party that was all about food and fun.  They are definitely our kind of people!

Over the years, we’ve enjoyed Jayne’s food from various vantage points – at dinners and parties she has catered, at venues she managed in Ocean Park and Long Beach, and for a period of time when she made a soup-of-the week that you picked up and paid for on the honor system.

We’ve loved it all but couldn’t be more pleased that Jayne’s place is now right nearby in Nahcotta.  We go there often to savor not only the food, but the ambience – and to visit with Jayne if she’s not too busy.