Transylvania Bakery Shop

I stopped eating cupcakes when I was ten years old. I understand why grooms are photographed shoving wedding cake in the bride’s face. Grocery store bakeries are adequate for those who grew up with McDonald’s «milkshakes.» The recent trendy bakeries arrange each little olé thing on a doily with flourishes and charge prices only a low-​taxed-​high-​income Republican can afford.
Some of us want tradition over trend and skill over hype. We can patronize one of several Old World small bakeries. For me none compare to the Hungarian and our town has more than most places. I have reviewed Tommy’s and Lucy’s and now add Transylvania. In any Hungarian American home the counter has beigli (nut and poppy seed rolls) and kifle (kolache cookies.) They both are laborious and require finesse that was abundant among our grandmothers but did not seem to pass down thru the generations. We go to Farkas, Tommy’s or Lucy’s to keep our counters happy.
I have had many baked goods from Transylvania as its goods appear at local fairs and festivals. Coffee houses and restaurants sell its pastries without identifying the origin. Today I made a special trip to the bakery. Lately I stopped frequenting that area. Thanks to the unscrupulous mortgage lending Fleet has rapidly deteriorated closing the many Polish butchers, bakeries and cafes. Until low cost housing requires a clean crime record as well as a low income such programs will fail to accomplish their goal. I recently signed up as a volunteer to assist in the Cleveland Public Schools and there were no excuses made for requiring me to submit to a criminal background search. Senseless those who give service are background checked. Those who take services are not subjected to such checks.
This is a neighborhood those with suburban roots have always insulted and a bakery where the same will see one fly and act as if no fly has ever landed on a sandwich in their own kitchens. Transylvania is a small commercial traditional Hungarian bakery where the baker is not a tattooed hipster combining ingredients that even Nature never placed together in the wildest jungle. I walked down the side of the building and thru the screen door where I was immediately next to a woman shaping kalacs (kolach) or Hungarian sweet braided egg bread. I suspect the Jews copied kalacs to make Challah but use oil rather than the richer butter as required by their dietary laws. You have to ask what is available and the gregarious older baker will check his cupboards or you can look thru a book to place an order. I left with a walnut torte that is all a cake can hope to be and my counter top poppy seed roll regretting that the kalacs had a few hours till done.

I can not believe there are no reviews written about this place yet!
Being Hungarian and knowing the owner and his family, I guess I may be a little biased. However, this is truely one of my favorite bakeries!
I highly recommend the traditional pogacs, pasteries and of course, the bread!