These are the fun ones to find. A terrific bakery that’s small, little known, hard to find, and on an island off the coast of South Carolina. Everyone looking for great bakeries is plying the streets of San Francisco and the avenues of New York. No one’s looking here.
Hilton Head Social Bakery is Philippe Feret’s bakery on the marina in Shelter Cove Harbour (I don’t get the British spelling) on Hilton Head Island. Philippe is French. He’s originally from Normandy and grew up in his parents’ bakery. He once held the title of pastry chef at Taillevent, the decorated Parisian restaurant. His journey in the U.S. took him through these New York City institutions: Windows on the World, Tavern on the Green, and The Regency Hotel, the original home of the power breakfast and the source of a great story Kim has about eavesdropping on Henry Kissinger one morning while having breakfast there. Philippe’s last New York stop before going south to Hilton Head Island was his own restaurant on the Upper West Side.
Opening a bakery was in a sense taking his professional life full circle, or returning to where he began as a boy. “My dad taught me all sugar — pulling sugar, stretching sugar, all the decoration. . . . I was lucky he took the time to teach me.”
Hilton Head Social Bakery is a classic French bakery as demonstrated in “the authenticity of the bread and pastries of the old days” made and sold there. Philippe is doing the baking there in the shop — not at some distant industrial facility — making his treats on the premises from scratch each day.
Social Bakery’s space is nicely done with reclaimed wood and a number of special decorative touches. It has a contemporary yet comfortable feel. But there’s no place indoors to sit and enjoy your pastry and a coffee. It’s way too small. There are tables outside overlooking the boats in the Shelter Cove marina which are an inviting place to sit in the right weather. But keeping with its Frenchness, Social Bakery’s tables are as small as those of a sidewalk café in Paris making it difficult to spread out and read The Island Packet while you dine.
But who cares? You’re there for the pastries — pastries which tell you all you need to know about this special kind of joy.
