Oktoberfest Special: German Soft Pretzels at Clear Flour Bread

Celebrate Oktoberfest with this Brookline bakery's German soft pretzels, available every day during the last week of October.

oktoberfest special at clear flour bread

Photo by David Arky

The plum clafouti, Gruyère croissants, and crusty baguettes lining the shelves at Brookline’s Clear Flour Bread scream France, but head baker (and co-owner) Christy Timon is actually of German descent, which means you’ll also find plenty of flaxseed Leinsamenbrot, dense rye Vollkornbrot, and soft white Brötchen rolls in her shop’s weekly rotation. But it’s the chewy, salt-flecked German soft pretzels, sold only on Saturday and Sunday mornings, that get us up early on weekends (just 50 or so are made each day—and they go fast). In honor of Oktoberfest, however, the shop will offer the pretzels, along with apple strudel, Linzer cookies, and other regional specialties, every day during the last week of October. We’ll be enjoying ours the way Timon does: sliced in half horizontally, spread with a mixture of Dijon mustard and sweet butter, and topped with a few slices of hard salami.

178 Thorndike St., Brookline, 617-739-0060, clearflourbread.com.