Eau Claire eats
Liege waffles, betty bars and coffee oh my
When Riverview Cafe doesn’t sound appealing, Midwest Meals prides itself on being a healthy alternative.
Are you eager to satisfy your sweet-tooth cravings, while supporting local businesses? Look no further to these Eau Claire spots with great pastries to try.
SHIFT Cyclery and Coffee Bar (615 Graham Ave, Eau Claire):
This coffee bar has gained community praise for its locally sourced coffee roasts and all of your biking resource needs — not to mention, its delicious house-made pastry items.
SHIFT has a baked goods section offering items such as cookies, scones, brownies and their famous street waffles.
They have three different types of street waffles: a vegan liege waffle, liege waffles by the dozen and a plain liege waffle.
The waffle is named after a town in eastern Belgium. They are made from dough that is similar to bread dough and is thick and sticky. Inside of the dough are balls of pearl sugar that caramelize during the baking process, which gives the waffle a crunchy coating.
The waffle is about the size of your hand and is wrapped in checkered paper. The waffle is coated in a sugary glaze that covers every inch of the waffle — inside and out.
“The waffle was the perfect bite-size snack, the perfect amount of sugar without making it too sweet,” Dominic Draghicchio, a fourth-year information systems student, said.
The Acoustic Café (505 South Barstow St., Eau Claire):
Unlike SHIFT, the Acoustic Café is open for dine-in.
Their baked goods include scones, muffins, cinnamon rolls, krispy treats, cookies and
Betty bars. The café also has a section of day-old baked goods that are only $1.
“The Betty bars are the perfect mixture of chocolate and peanut butter” Sarah Garibaldi, a third-year elementary education student, said.
The Betty bars are a chocolate, peanut butter, marshmallow and rice krispy combination. The bar squares are cut into huge pieces, for both sharing and non-sharing purposes.
“If you are looking for some good baked goods at a reasonable price try the liege waffles from SHIFT and the Betty Bars from Acoustic Café. You won’t be disappointed,” Draghicchio and Garibaldi said.
For more baked goods, you can also go to Sue’s Deluxe Bake Shop, The Goat House or if you are a baker yourself, head on over to Pinterest.
Geiger can be reached at [email protected].
Sami Geiger is a fourth-year journalism and multimedia communications student. This is her third semester on The Spectator team. When she is not going to class, doing homework or reporting she enjoys getting lost in a good book, being with family/friends and watching movies.