Thing 101: Baked & Wired

I strolled through Georgetown yesterday afternoon to do a little shopping, and hopeful for the first time in months that Spring might actually be nearby. I strolled up M street to Jinx Proof, then back down towards home, window shopping and popping into clothing stores. The walk had made me hungry, and the afternoon just begged to be a long and lazy one.

Many thanks to my friend Tim, who long ago had urged me to check out Baked & Wired, a bakery and cafe near his office that he frequents. I turned off M Street and onto Thomas Jefferson, leaving the Sunday crowds behind me and sought out the tiny shop for an afternoon pick-me-up.

The shop consists of a handful of tiny rooms -- a counter in one room that sells savories and coffee, an counter in the other room with sweets and a cashier, a tiny room with a handful of seats and some crazy looking local art on the wall, and a copy shop, Zap, in the very back of the store. The decor is spare, with a lot of unfinished surfaces, silver and black, and dark wood coffee tables. As the name implies, the store offers free wireless to patrons, and for those of us a bit more low tech, free newspapers and magazines to leaf through.


I was hungry for lunch when I arrived. Baked & Wired naturally excels at baked goods, but they do have a couple of savory options. I went for the 'manly quiche' which had sausage, bacon and leeks (the femme version was a vegetarian spinach/tomato deal). The egg custard was so soft and silky, with big, manly hunks of sausage and salty-sweet bacon. The crust, clearly homemade, was buttery and flaky. I was off to a good start.

I ate in the small seating area -- there's not much room to sit, just a spare room with a couple black leather easy chairs and an angular leather couch, along with a small, skinny bar along wall where you can perch and eat. I ate my quiche, and read a couple chapters of my book. And then, like a good little girl who had eaten her vegetables (or at least, sausage and egg), it was time for DESSERT.


The woman who owns Baked & Wired, a woman named Teresa Velasquez who owns the shop with her husband, makes all the sweets from scratch, just like her grandmother used to make. In fact, anything named after Karen is named for Teresa's grandmother, using the good old fashioned recipe. Beautiful, simple cupcakes, pies, cookies and fruit bars sit under glass cake tops, row after row of them, on the counter. They all look so beautiful it's hard choose, but eventually I settled on the "Karen's Birthday Cake" cupcake. Named after Grandma, it's a chocolate cupcake with a vanilla butter cream frosting and a small sprinkle of bright pink, pig shaped sprinkles just to liven it up. I order a cup of coffee to go with it, return to me seat, and sink my teeth through the thick white frosting, into a dense, chocolaty cake. This is one hell of a cupcake, the frosting sweet and flavorful without hurting my teeth, the cake moist and rich while still maintaining cake status and not veering into brownie territory. The strong, slightly bitter coffee rounds out the sweetness, and what a perfect mid-afternoon snack.

Unlike Georgetown Cupcake, which had a line around the corner when I walked past, this sweet spot in Georgetown is friendly, accessible, and still under the radar. Don't tell anyone.

One year ago: Wizards' Game!