Grand Central Baking Company

I find myself disappointed at most sandwich places, especially when they get delivered for a work event. But that’s how I first ran across the Veggie Grinder which is by far one of my all time favorite sandwiches. To that add the friendly staff, the good coffee and delicious pastries (latte dunker!). Absolutely love this place and don’t mind standing in line knowing the reward at the end of the line ;)

I LOVE their croissants (not so much their breads though… too tough of an exterior but I guess that’s just personal preference)
The folks at the counter were friendly and offered to cut my Edison bread (which was just ok).
But their croissants! Super crispy and flaky and quite large. I’ve tried many croissants around town in all the hip bakeries (and even a few in nearby Seattle and Paris) and they have one of the best croissants. (the almond croissant is pretty good too. Not overly sweet like some places who go overboard with the marzipan) The rest of the pastry/​desserts are quite nice too.

We went there this morning for breakfast and had THE WORST experience we’ve ever had in Portland at a food spot. The line was about 15+ minutes then when we were 1 person away form ordering the POS machine stopped working so they told us we can wait or stay sorry for the inconvenience. One employee joked that the wait across the street was a 2 hour wait for brunch. Guess what? thats why we went to grand central for quickness and being efficient. WHY wouldn’t you let us order and come back to pay later or offer us a complimentary pastry at least!!! Customers were storming out in outrage. My stomach, appetite and above all patience was definitely tested. Was SOOO disappointed buy the way this was handled!!! make it up to us grand central!!!

A wonderful brunch Saturday at Grand Central on Hawthorne. I came in wanting a biscuit egg/​cheddar breakfast sandwich. They had just run out of biscuits for 20 minutes. I settled for a second choice. As I was waiting, the cashier found me and let me know there was one more biscuit left & asked if I would like to change back to my original order. I said yes. Right away she told the woman making my brunch order to change it to my original desire. Both the cashier and the one making the food were joyous to be able to offer me what I wanted. It made my day that these two women took the extra step to offer great service and fine food. Thank You! Than You! See you soon!

When I moved to Portland this was the first restaurant I went to. It was highly recommended by the family friends and it happens to be right across the street from my apartment. We ordered four different sandwiches and everyone was pleased. We also got the monkey bread which was tasty.
I’ll be back.
+ clean & bright atmosphere
+ tasty sandwiches
+ friendly staff
— pricey

Breakfast sandwich to die for. :) Coffee a bit stale and bitter, but you’re not there for the brew; you’re there for the fresh, fresh bread and delicious sammiches. Go get some.

I love Grand Central. Their pastries are wonderful. When I moved to this country this is what I imagined good American bakeries would be like. Love their baked goods and Como bread. Delicious alternative for Sunday morning breakfast.

Good food, but waits are TOO LONG! It might be the new computers, or new hires, or that laid back Portland attitude that was charming once but now ain’t cute anymore!

I mean, it’s a nice place, the baked goods look amazing and the staff is friendly enough, but seriously… why you gotta run out of my favorite item all the time?
The sausage and egg biscuit is spectacular. A bit pricey but it’s huge and delicious. The biscuit is one of the best parts of the item and everything is incredibly flavorful. I add cheese on it too just to top it off. But the problem is, I’ve been there three times since that experience… and they’ve been out of biscuits every time. At 8:30am, 10am and noon over a two-​week span. I’ve come in every time only to hear «we’re still 86’d on biscuits!»
It’s a damn shame. I understand if it’s a popular item, but at 8 or 10am? Come on, man. They offered to make it with a different type of bread, but I just don’t feel like paying full price for something that isn’t as advertised. It’s really good though. Hopefully I’ll have it again sometime, I want to try one of the pastries to pair up with it too. We’ll see.

This place is awesome. I stumbled upon it on a bike ride and highly recommend. I had a daily soup, which was corn and tomato bisque and vegetarian and a grilled cheese sandwich. Both were delicious and had subtle touches – I can’t tell you what they were, but they were good. The people are really nice. Great outdoor seating, but I sat in the equally great inside.

We ordered 3 items to go.
Cinnamon Roll:
I wasnt looking for a sugar bomb but I was craving cinnamon, so I was very very disappointed in this cinnamon roll. Because it was not very cinnamony at all! And it was rather doughy. There were only 2 tiny currants that came from the bottom of the pan syrup and were not in or on the roll itself. The roll had very little sweetness, and no ooey-​gooey sticky goodness in or on it. In the sales display the rolls sit on a thin amount of simple syrup on a heating tray so the rolls are served warm. But there is no icing, glaze or syrup in or on the roll itself. FYI their cinnamon rolls are whole wheat.
It was a major fail for us.
Donut Muffin:
It is a muffin of a heavier cake with a crumb texture and weight of a cake type donut. It is covered in cinnamon sugar. It had the strong flavor of cinnamon, sugar and butter. We liked it but we both noted it tasted a bit ‘oily’ after each bite and agreed we would not buy it again.
Monkey Bread Muffin:
Here was a winner on taste, but not on price. Basic monkey pull-​apart bread with a generous amount of pecans and sticky honey on top. It was good, nothing extraordinary but delicious after the first two failures. We felt $ 2.50 or $ 2.75 (we could not remember which) for a monkey bread muffin was steep.
— Highly overpriced ($ 8+) for rather mediocre baked goods.
+ Lady server greeted with a smile, was clean, was attentive, she answered my questions patiently, and earned a tip.
+ Store was clean inside and out in late afternoon.
— Very small parking lot, with some street parking nearby.
Aug. 6, 2015

Since recently moving into the area, this was the first place I stopped by to use the wifi and enjoy a coffee. I was very pleased with the friendly service and the coffee had me jacked up to 11, good fuel for job hunting. I had to leave early, though. The bacon smelled so good and I didn’t want to end my 21 years of being a vegetarian. Worth checking out for a drink and some relaxation.

The staff was awesome. We went close to closing time so there was inly a few things to choose from with the baked good, we tried the coffee berty cake and it was good.
we came here like the «Grimm» nerds we are and tracked down the place they are always drinking in the show. very cute little store. i was dissapointed they only served hot drinks and had no blended or ice coffees.

Amazing ham and Swiss sandwich. Fantastic breads! Super yummy! The oatmeal raisin cookies were moist and good as well!

I went to Grand Central around 2:30. They didn’t have much left in the window, but I did order a donut muffin to go.
Holy cow. It was perfect.

Simply delicious foods with terrific service. Clean potty, too. Bonus.
I had the classic breakfast sandwich with crispy bacon, cheddar and a scrambled egg on a ciabatta roll. It was incredible! Then we split a bread pudding muffin which I wanted to marry. So, so, so good!!!

Hearty good fare and such friendly staff who are willing to make any substitution you like. I enjoyed the white bean fennel soup and a roasted tofu and swiss biscuit, along with an artfully swirled mocha. Continuing my love affair with all that is food in Portland!

There’s a lot of great stuff going on here. Grand Central is located conveniently on the 2200 block of SE Hawthorne and makes for a great place to grab a quick, yummy breakfast or lunch. It is also an acceptable place to hang out at for awhile with free WiFi.
The menu is fairly extensive with quality options for both vegetarians and carnivores. Seasonal soup and sandwich specials are frequently changing. For a solid year-​round option, I’m all about the Vegetarian Grinder (avocado, provolone, sweet onion, pickled peppers, lettuce).
They call themselves a baking company (as opposed to café), and it shows in the quality of bread. I definitely recommend taking a loaf or some other baked goods home with you. You also probably need a cookie. Or three.
My only slight turn-​off here is the bathroom situation. I’m a little less inclined to sit here with my laptop and work for several hours because of its inconvenience. Patrons need to ask the person at the register for a key. You then leave through the front door, walk around the block, go through a chain link fence, and enter the bathroom area in the back of the building. Again, it’s only a slight turn off and won’t discourage me from coming back to enjoy the food… but it does make me less likely to want to stick around for longer periods of time.

I LOVE THIS PLACE!
It’s often super busy but totally worth the wait. I love their bread and their menu items but I am especially partial to the Tuna Melt — crunchy rbead, melty cheese and the perfect chunky tuna salad.
A definite lunch ‘go-​to’

Came to Portland for the long weekend and we were looking for a quick snack before lunch. I read the Unilocal reviews and opted for the jammer. I was hesitating at first because the Scones and Crossiant hybrids looked great. Honestly I was a little bit disappointed with the jammer, when I think of a buttermilk biscuit, I think fluffy and layers. Theirs is a dense biscuit so I was a little bit disappointed.
Pros
Fairly solid sausage egg biscuit
Great friendly service
Good coffee
Cons
Jammer wasn’t the best
Protip
Checkin to receive a free coffee with pastry purchase
If I come back I will try some of the other tasty looking pastries, but I recommend skipping the jammer. But for now I’ll leave Grand Central with 3 stars for the nice atmosphere.

Two words: Latte Dunkers.
When a croissant just isn’t enough of a morning calorie bomb, the fine folks at Grand Central have lovingly caramelized layers of croissant dough for enjoying with (wait for it…) your morning latte. It is a pretty damned perfect combo if you’re having one of those mornings where you didn’t manage to cook your organic chia seed almond milk oatmeal before flying out the front door without walking your dog or kissing your significant other. I know it’s not an every day breakfast, but every now and again we all have an «ah, screw it» morning. For those mornings, there are latte dunkers. Rejoice, Portland.

Pastry review…
Cheese Danish — like no other I’ve had. Crispy on the outside, light and tender on the inside, topped with the most delightful cream cheese filling.
Jammer — a biscuit generously topped with jam… that’s been baked onto the top! Sweet stuff, if that’s what you’re craving.
Almond Croissant — picked this one because of some of the reviews I read. Super crispy on the outside, the almond cream filling was light and not too sweet.

Fresh bread. Fresh pastries. What more could you need? Yeah they got coffee too, which the cups have been shown on NBC’s Grimm. (I’m a fan of the show) They also have a card that if you buy 12 loaves of bread (inc. rolls) you get any loaf for free. I believe they do it with the coffee as well.
You just gotta love the smell of fresh bread. How can one not? Well, if you are the gluten-​free type of person, I guess you may not really want to be here… but besides them… I didn’t have too long of a wait and the counterman with green coif was very helpful and informative and basically told me he’d see me back in a couple of days. He most likely will be right.
The only ding was for the prices. The bread wasn’t too bad, but some of the pastries were the same price as whole loaves of bread. A bit spendy, as my brother likes to say.
Overall, I’ll be back for more bread because the loaf of Como bread I just bought will be gone very quickly.
Enjoy.