To whet your appetite for The Pitch's annual Best of Kansas City issue in
October, we're celebrating our favorite 50 dishes from restaurants,
bakeries, coffeehouses, bars, drugstores, saloons, and other metro
joints. Until October 7, we'll feature one outstanding dish or beverage
each weekday. Agree with us or make your own suggestions -- just don't
come between us and these fantastic things to eat or drink.
Your eyes will first go to the cinnamon rolls on the left of the brightly lit pastry case at the Clock Tower Bakery & Cafe (7911 Santa Fe Drive) in downtown Overland Park. You'll think that's what you want because cinnamon rolls are a dime a baker's dozen in this town.
Buy a cinnamon roll if you must, but make sure it's resting next to an orange roll inside the plain brown cardboard bakery box on your passenger seat. In fact, a cinnamon roll just might be the distraction you need to avoid eating the entire orange roll on the drive home.
A rich drizzle of white icing makes this pastry impossible to resist. The icing is made with lots of butter, confectioner's sugar, double-strength vanilla and kosher salt, providing a creamy baseline that helps to highlight the tart and sweet orange.
Bright flakes of orange zest dot the top and inside of the roll, meaning some bites give your tongue little zings of citrus. And the roll itself is not a throw-away. While a lot of cinnamon rolls force you to suffer through a dry cake in order to get at the icing and soft interior, this roll is as buttery and light as the icing.
The Clock Tower Bakery & Cafe opened last November. Orange rolls were one of the first items in the pastry case. And thanks to owners Lee Jones and Eileen Usovicz, the cinnamon roll is no longer the star of the show.
The Clock Tower Bakery & Cafe is open from 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday to Saturday.
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I have visited this bakery several times, and I am constantly impressed by their ability to produce the highest quality of fresh, flavorful baked goods on a DAILY basis. This is a rarity among bakeries in town (as the majority of bakeries in town (and out)) unfortunately accept convenience over quality and choose to use a slew of artificial ingredients as well as freeze their items for days upon days until they meet demand). Everything here is made fresh everyday, and whatever (if anything) is left over at the end of the day is donated to those in need. The staff at Clock Tower has been absolutely wonderful to me and has treated all those I know with the utmost warmth, respect and consideration. And to you RealFoodist, let's be real for a moment. Little-kid hostile is a negative, eye-catching comment. It's also a completely thoughtless, self-indulgent bullshit remark.
Really? For their orange roll to be a dream, it really should be much bigger. These are small and dry. Don't get me wrong.. the orange zest is really nice. But I don't think this is a Top 50. (FYI, Clock Tower is decidedly little-kid-hostile.)
Oh, Lordy, your 50 are seriously conjuring up mouth watering memories. The cherry almond scones here are killer. I've been wanting to try a cherry tart but I can't get free of the hold that the scones have on me!!!
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