Continental Pastries & Deli
928 Columbia Avenue Well…it’s been a while but I’m finally writing a blog about a place in Southwest Michigan again.
I was in Battle Creek earlier this week and had some time to kill. I was kind of driving around aimlessly looking for some place to eat….wondering if there was some place that I keep driving by or keep missing.
Nothing was coming to mind until I started driving down Columbia Avenue heading towards the airport. I remembered there’s a pastry shop that’s kind of hard to spot when you’re driving and not looking off to the side.
Continental Pastries & Deli is on Columbia Avenue near Woodrow Avenue just outside of the Lakeview Neighborhood on Battle Creek’s west side. The building is kind of long, narrow building. There is signage and parking on the Columbia Street side but there’s a lot more parking and a lot more building once you get in to the parking lot to the west.
The place is huge once you get inside. If you come off the parking lot entrance, you’re in the deli side of the building. There is a large dining room and during the some, this is where the ice cream part of the business resides.
If you come in the front door, you find another large dining area and pastry cases of full of amazing sweets.
I stopped in the deli side first to put in a sandwich order. They have a pretty small menu consisting of sandwiches, salads, quiche, and soups. Ordering is done at the counter then you pick up at the kitchen window which is more in to the pastry section. My order was for the Bavarian Ham sandwich which comes with a bag of chips and a pickle slice. The cost was a little over $8.
I had some time to kill so I should have just ate inside but I got my order to go then went to sit in the car to eat.
I unwrapped the sandwich right away. The Bavarian Ham is made with house made Shepards Bread, ham, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, honey mustard and mayo. The dominant flavor is mayo which is a bummer. There is a huge pile of thinly sliced ham but mayo on both sides of the bread drowns out any of the other flavors. I wasn’t even sure there was honey mustard on the sandwich until I looked then I got a bit of a tanginess from that. The sandwich was really good…I’m just not a big mayo guy. I’ve gotten to the point where I can appreciate it as a background note but don’t love it as the dominant flavor. A light spread is good. It was a big hearty sandwich and a great deal of a meal at $8.
When I finished the sandwich, I opened the chips. They had options from Great Lakes Potato Chip Company. I stuck to the original because I’m boring and I really like this kettle chips.
I unwrapped the pickle slices left and felt like I got a bonus when I found two pickles spears. I always like ending my meal from a deli with a pickle and here I got two.
I couldn’t leave without trying a pastry, right?
I grabbed two cannoli’s before I left. I got one for myself and brought one home to J. They were amazing. The fried pastry dough shell was flaky and fall apart delicious. The creamy ricotta filling was smooth and tasty. There were a lot of chocolate chips on each end of the tube to tack on that sweet chocolate flavor. When I got two, my intention was to bring one home to J. I did that but man was it hard not to eat the second one.
Continental Pastries & Deli is a great little shop. The deli side has tasty sandwiches..next time I’ll just ask for no mayo…and the pastries are amazing.
I’ve driven by this shop so many times as I drive up and down Columbia Avenue. It’s another one of those places where I kept saying to myself, “I’ll get there eventually.” Eventually took a while but it’s definitely a place I won’t be driving by anymore.
SW Michigan Dining 